traduz para mim Preface
T H I S book is designed as an introduction to a topic of theology
which, despite its importance and intrinsic interest, receives
comparatively little attention. In fact, few works in English
consider both the historical development of the New Testa
ment canon and the persistent problems that pertain to its
significance.
T h e word 'canon' is Greek; its use in connection with the
Bible belongs to Christian times; the idea of a canon of
Scripture originates in Judaism. Each of these statements will
be considered in the following pages, the early patristic period
receiving the greatest amount of attention.
T h e development of the canon was inextricably bound up
with the history of the ancient Church, both in its literary and
institutional aspects. For this reason it seemed necessary to
provide, particularly for readers who may have only a limited
acquaintance with the Church Fathers, something more than
mere lists of the names of those who in the early centuries made
use of the several documents that eventually came to be
regarded as canonical Scripture. Such biographical informa
tion gains in precision when placed in the chronological and
geographical framework within which the development took
place. Although, as NAME_1 once observed, 'There are no
periods in history, only in historians', one can detect stages in
the clarity with which, in various regions of the early Church, a
distinction came to be made between canonical and
apocryphal literature.
I wish to thank a number of persons and institutions that
have been involved, in one way or another, with the develop
ment of the contents of this book. O v e r the years a succession of
students at Princeton Theological Seminary participated in my
doctoral seminar on the canon, where we read and discussed
the chief Greek and Latin texts that bear on the history of the
New Testament canon. I am grateful to those universities and
seminaries in North America, Great Britain, Australia, and
South Africa that invited me to present lectures involving
material now contained in the following pages. NAME_2
