PREFACE
PREFACE
When I taught in the University of Manchester I lectured in alternate years on the Text and Canon of the Old Testament and the Text and Canon of the New Testament. My lectures on the text, I hope, served the needs of the students who listened to them, but they do not call for further publication. The subject-matter of my lectures on the canon, however, has continued to engage my attention, as regards both its historical aspect and its relevance today.
It will be plain in what follows that I am more concerned about the New Testament canon than about the Old Testament canon. The collapse of the century-old consensus on the Old Testament canon—namely, that the process of canonization is indicated by the traditional threefold division of books in the Hebrew Bible—has been underlined in two important works of recent date: Roger Beckwith’s The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and John Barton’s Oracles of God. Attacks have been made on the consensus on the New Testament canon—namely, that its main structure was substantially fixed by the end of the second century. It continues to stand, however, because it is supported by weighty evidence, as is shown in Bruce Metzger’s magnificent work on The Canon of the New Testament. When a consensus is attacked, it has to be carefully reassessed, and that is all to the good: there is no point in pretending that we know more than we do.
With works like those mentioned now available, it may be asked, what need is there for this book? Perhaps the author needs to get it out of his system, but it may justify its appearance as an attempt to communicate the present state of knowledge to a wider public.
I am most grateful to the University of London for permission to reproduce my Ethel M. Wood Lecture (1974) as Appendix 1, and to the Epworth Review and its editor, the Revd John Stacey, for permission to reproduce my A. S. Peake Memorial Lecture (1976) as Appendix 2.
My first introduction to this subject was effected through the original edition of The Text and Canon of the New Testament, by my revered teacher Alexander Souter, Regius Professor of Humanity in the University of Aberdeen. My indebtedness to him and to the Department over which he presided with high distinction, together with its sister Department of Greek, is acknowledged in the dedication.
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