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Over the past four decades, many scholars have focused on the expanding collection of alleged "extra-canonical" documents that were deemed inspired by God in numerous early Jewish and Christian groups. Eventually, these texts ceased to have an authoritative role in Judaism and Christianity and were branded "extra-canonical." Now, these documents, once considered sacred, are recognized as fundamental in understanding antiquity, and the development of the canon. Many scholars are now according an authority to some of these texts This volume draws attention to these ancient religious texts, especially the so-called "non-canonical" texts, by focusing on how they were used or functioned in early societies. The contributors also warn us about the assumed barriers between "canon" and "extra-canon," "texts" and "traditions," and they suggest that we should be careful with labels such as "Jewish" and "Christian." The contributors also indicate, intermittently or implicitly, the importance of combining disciplines that had been isolated, especially the study of texts, the exploration of the canonical process, and the relevance of sociology in studying ancient groups.>
List of contents
Preface: James H. Charlesworth and Lee Martin McDonald Abbreviations
Introduction: 'What's Up Now? Renewal of an Important Investigation' James A. Sanders
1. What Do We Mean by Canon? Some Modern and Ancient Questions
Lee Martin McDonald
Response: Loren Johns
2. People of the Book and the Book of the People
James H. Charlesworth
Response: Andrei Orlov
3. Citation Formulae as Indices to Canonicity in Early Jewish and Early Christian Literature
Kenneth Penner
Response: Lee Martin McDonald
4. Rewriting the Sacred: Some Problems of Textual Authority in Light of the Rewritten Scriptures from Qumran
Casey Elledge
Response: Brent Strawn
5. Jude's Citation of 1 Enoch
Jeremy Hultin
Response: Leslie Walck
6. The Pseudepigrapha and the New Testament: The Case of the Acts of the Apostles
Craig A. Evans
Response: Brian D. Rhea
7. Apocrypha and Liturgy in the Fourth Century: The Case of the 'Six Books' Dormition Apocryphon
Stephen J. Shoemaker
Response: George Zervos
8. The Transfiguration Remembered, Reinterpreted, and Reenacted in Acts of Peter 20-21
Simon S. Lee
Response: Henry Rietz
Selected Bibliography: Canonical Criticism and the Use of Scriptures in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Indexes
About the author
James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary and director of the seminary s Dead Sea Scrolls Project. He is the author of The Beloved Disciple (Trinity) and co-editor of the Trinity Press Faith and Scholarship Colloquies (FSC) Series. Lee M. McDonald is President Emeritus and Professor of New Testament Studies Emeritus of Acadia Divinity School, Nova Scotia and Adjunct Professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. He serves as Scholar in Residence for the American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles and the American Baptist Congregations of the Southwest and Hawaii.
