RUmike

I'm looking to buy a book on the formation of the NT canon, written by a reputable scholar of course. Does anyone have any recommendations? I couldn't find any book dedicated to that topic in the Recommended Books & Reference thread.

Thanks in advance,
Mike

Jeffrey Gibson

There's a ton of literature out there.

If you are a novice to the subjcet, have a look at The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text & Canon
by Arthur G. Patzia

Why is there a New Testament (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Joseph Kelly

The Formation of Christian Biblical Canon: Revised and Expanded Edition (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Lee Martin McDonald

The New Testament Canon: Its Making and Meaning (or via: amazon.co.uk) by Harry Y. Gamble

Each will have a bibliography that will lead you to further things.

More advanced is

The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance (or via: amazon.co.uk)by Bruce Metzger


The Canon Debate, (or via: amazon.co.uk) ed. by Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders

Constantine's Bible: Politics And the Making of the New Testament (or via: amazon.co.uk) by David L. Dungan

Hope this helps.

Jeffrey

robto

I'd especially recommend The Formation of Christian Biblical Canon, from Jeffrey's list.

Toto

Richard Carrier has an essay here which is an extended summary of Metzger's Formation of the New Testament Canon.

RUmike

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. I'll be sure to check some of those out.

-Jay-

Metzger's book is excellent. Not a fast read, by any means (at least not for me), but very well done.

regards,

NinJay

Roger Pearse

Metzger on the canon is the one that I would read; not for his opinions (which sometimes are curious), but because it contains mainly a large collection of all the raw data from which any opinion must be derived. Read the ancient sources, ignore the comments.