The Canon of Scripture

In this text, F.F. Bruce takes his reader through a historical summation of the Canon of Scripture. In other words, he looks at the various time frames - from the 2nd century church Fathers to the Reformation and on into the modern period (the age of printing) - and discusses the views of various thinkers, theologians, etc. and how they responded to certain assertions about the Canon of Scripture, etc. For instance, in the... Read Full Review

FF Bruce does a great job of explaining how the books of the Bible were canonized. I was surprised to learn how many people had different opinions on which books should be canonized. Many people had mized feelings about the book of Revelation because of it being a difficult book to understand. Others felt that James should not be included because it only mentions the name of Jesus twice. Similarly, the books of esther and... Read Full Review

This is the best single text that I've read dealing with the manner in which the Bible took its shape. So many Christians have the impression that our Bible floated down from the clouds. This book will open the eyes of many--the New Testament Canon wasn't firmly decided upon until nearly three hundred years after the death of Christ (!). This is an excellent piece of scholarship, doctrine, and church history. Not only... Read Full Review

Helpful, in-depth discussion of the issues surrounding the collection of the Old and New Testament canon.Technical note: He uses topic sentences (much easier to follow his reasoning with this method). This book uses footnotes instead of endnotes for easier reference. His documentation is amazingly broad (he does not pull from exclusively contemporary opinion, but source documents). He explains not only OT and NT canon,... Read Full Review

Dr. Bruce's monograph addresses both the Hebrew and Christian canon of Scripture, spanning from Moses through the Late Middle Ages. In the final chapters, he briefly addresses some modern issues, notably those regarding original texts used for translations. Readers without a basic understanding of the History of Christianity might find most of the concepts too difficult to grasp without additional study. While targeted... Read Full Review