Abstract
The aim of this review article is to participate in the current “canon debate” among biblical scholars. The collection of essays, The Canon Debate, edited by Lee Martin McDonald and James A Sanders and published in November 2002 serves as point of departure. The thirty-two essays in this volume provide a summary of the most recent research, and as such it provides the necessary background for meaningful participation in the current debate. “The Canon debate” by McDonald & Sanders is probably the most comprehensive collection of essays ever published on canon formation in Judaism and Christianity. This 662-page volume includes essays on both the First Testament and the Second Testament, as well as the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. The essays provide translations of most of the ancient primary sources, as well as meaningful summaries of scholarly debates, in addition to providing a useful guide to the extensive scholarly literature on the subject. The article argues that once you have discovered the canon, you can experience it anywhere, not only in canonical texts.
Highlights
During the past few years, a number of books and articles with the canon and canonicity as topic have seen the light (e g, Metzger 1987; Mack 1995; McDonald 1995; Funk 1996; Jenner & Wiegers 1998; Sæbo 1998; Van Aarde 2001, 2004)
The papers presented were published by E J Brill Publishing House as part of the series “Studies in the History of Religions” in 1998
What makes The Canon debate by editors Lee Martin McDonald and James A Sanders so recommendable is the fact that it is probably the most comprehensive collection of essays ever published on canon formation in Judaism and Christianity
Summary
My opinion is that the existence of a “canon” as such in the life of Christian communities is not an eternal phenomenon as many may think, but it is a phenomenon that came into existence because of certain historical situations. It fulfilled a certain function in a community and as time passes and new situations arrive on the scene, it might disappear again. ‘de-construction’) of that which once was considered to form a unity Such a process of decanonization can develop under the surface, almost accidentally, as a result of the. Against this background and viewpoint I read The Canon Debate by McDonald and Sanders (2002)
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