Christian Literature, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 222.
Also, according to Josephus, “The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra, the Pharisees became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind” (Wars of the Jews, 1.5.2 in The Complete Works of Josephus, trans. by William Whiston [Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1960]).
To read more about binding and loosing, go to the Jerusalem Perspective website: www.jerusalemperspective.com.
16 Matthew 16:19; see also 18:18.
17 Acts 15:28–29.
18 Matthew 18:20.
19 I heard Anne Lamott say this at an event we were both speaking at.
20 Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26.
21 1 Corinthians 11:3–16.
22 1 Corinthians 16:22.
23 Matthew 19:21.
24 1 Timothy 2:8.
25 Ephesians 6:5.
26 Acts 15:28.
27 Genesis 3.
28 “There are seventy faces/facets to the Torah” (Numbers Rabbah 13:15).
29 John 11:39.
30 Once again, Marcus Borg does a great job of explaining this idea in The Heart of Christianity (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003).
31 The best thing I have ever read about the Bible is a transcript of a lecture given by the British scholar N. T. Wright called “How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?” published in Vox Evangelica 21 (April 1991): 7–32.
32 The tractate in the Mishnah, “Avot,” is very helpful in understanding what the debates were and what was forbidden and what was permitted in Jesus’s day.
33 And the answer is . . . Shammai. Which is interesting, because Jesus usually sides with Hillel.
34 For more on Artemis and her role in the city of Ephesus, check out Roland H. Worth Jr.’s The Seven Cities of the Apocalypse and Greco-Asian Culture (New York: Paulist Press, 1999).
35 Again, read the transcript by N. T. Wright, “How Can the Bible Be Authoritative?”
36 2 Peter 3:16.
37 I understand the need to ground all that we do and say in the Bible, which is my life’s work. It is the belief that creeps in sometimes that this book dropped out of the sky that is dangerous. The Bible has come to us out of actual communities of people, journeying in real time and space. Guided by a real Spirit.
38 As Stanley Gundry put it so well: The formation of the canon was a long, dynamic, and fluid process and one that was not ever settled once and for all by any one body of individuals voting on it and settling it for future generations of Christians (except that for Roman Catholics it was officially settled at the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, though even many Roman Catholics challenge its decisions!). Protestants accept the narrower Hebrew canon accepted by the Jews at the time of Christ (the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings). Books aspiring to be accepted as the uniquely Christian scriptures are to be subjected to the tests of authenticity and apostolicity. By contrast, the Roman Catholic tradition is that since the church wrote the Bible, the church also has the authority to determine which books belong in the Bible, and only the church can give an authoritative interpretation of the Bible.
The Protestant position has been that in general the people of God have come to accept certain books as God’s Word because through the centuries God’s children have heard the voice of their Father speaking in these books. So when we point to early lists of the canonical books, whether such lists come from individuals or church councils, these lists are not considered authoritative decisions binding on us today but only as evidence that a loose consensus was developing through time among the people of God.
Given this reality, it is not surprising that while there is general agreement on what belongs in the canon, there is no uniform agreement.
Remember, it’s living and active.
MOVEMENT THREE: TRUE
1 Isaiah 6:3.
2 Psalm 24:1.
3 Psalm 139:7.
4 Genesis 28:16.
5 Romans 2:14.
6 Titus 1:12–13.
7 Acts 17:28.
8 1 Corinthians 3:21, 23.
9 Colossians 1:17.
10 John 14:6.
11 Colossians 2:17.
12 Colossians 3:17.
13 1 Timothy 4:4.
