If we are talking about the earliest Christian writings — the subject of my previous three posts — we naturally want to know when decisions were made about WHEN church father settled on our 27-book canon of the New Testament.  Many people — including tons of scholars — set a precise date: 367 CE, in the decision written by the famous theologian Athanasius of Alexandria.

Is that right?

My first academic publication addressed this question and answered: NO.  Here’s how I have talked about the issue and my attempt to overturn the widely held view, from long ago!

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My first semester in the PhD program at Princeton Theological Seminary I had a seminar on the “Canon of the New Testament” with Bruce Metzger.   This was a class that focused on the questions surrounding how we ended up with the twenty-seven books in the New Testament.  Who decided that it would be these twenty-seven books, and no others?  What was motivating these people?  What were the grounds for their decisions?  And when did they make them?

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