Thursday, July 8, 2010

The Canon of Scripture - F. F. Bruce



The Canon of Scripture
by F. F. Bruce

InterVarsity Press

Rating: 6
Readability: 3
Impact: 8



Read it Again:
Maybe I'd refer to it again...
Recommend it: Sometimes it's a slog, but yes, it was a good slog.

What to Expect

A detailed history on the Old and New Testaments and life of the Bible as we know it.

My Squib

This was another book on my list for the Ligonier Acadamy course I'm taking.
I'm glad I read this book and that it was in the course. I would have never picked it up on my own but I can see how profitable it was.

F. F. Bruce gives very good, detailed history in the compiling and canonization of the Bible. When he stretches into interpretation or theology I couldn't really agree with him, but he mostly stuck to the history. He is certainly a smart guy!

Some of this book is a chore, but the Bible is the most important book of our lives. We should be able to defend it.

From the Book

"The inclusion of each scripture in the canon of all scripture helps one in the understanding of each scripture, but at the same time, since each scripture makes its contribution to all scripture, the understanding of all scripture is impossible without the understanding of each scripture."

5 comments:

Susannah said...

I'm glad you're done. :P

dura mater said...

Hmmm...the quote from the book helps me understand better why it took so long to read it.

David K said...

I agree - he isn't particularly easy to read, but I learned a ton from this book. It's really fascinating, how the pieces come together. I think more Christians should understand this topic, if for no other reason than to be able to defend the Canon to the likes of Dan Brown.

Bethany said...

Doug Wilson also has an amazing lecture that touches on this.
He focuses on how we can argue that the Bible is above the Church (most Catholics disagree with this).

I believe it's the first lecture in his "History of the Church". I thought his arguments were clear and concise.
They certainly gave me confidence that I could defend my belief.

Thanks for commenting all!
Miss Pickwickian

Johanna said...

Yeeeah. That quote looks difficult. :-P