Quoting Before Canon: The Various Forms of Authority Attributed to the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Second and Third Century
The scriptural citations of early Christian theologians have often been enlisted in scholarly reconstructions concerning the development of the canon. The underlying assumption in many such reconstructions appears to have been that the frequent quotation of a writing indicates a corresponding level...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2022
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| In: |
Journal of the bible and its reception
Year: 2022, Volume: 9, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-51 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Hebrews
/ New Testament
/ Canon
/ Church fathers
|
| IxTheo Classification: | HC New Testament KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity |
| Further subjects: | B
Canon
B Epistle to the Hebrews B New Testament |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The scriptural citations of early Christian theologians have often been enlisted in scholarly reconstructions concerning the development of the canon. The underlying assumption in many such reconstructions appears to have been that the frequent quotation of a writing indicates a corresponding level of authority for that writing. More recent scholarship has challenged this assumption by drawing attention to the specific rhetorical contexts in which scriptural quotations are employed. The current work contributes to this trajectory of research and the field of reception history more generally by considering citations of the Epistle to the Hebrews among the second- and third-century Christian writers who utilize the epistle most frequently, namely, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen. The utilization of the Epistle to the Hebrews by these authors bears much greater resemblance, I argue, to the compositional and citational practices of their Greek predecessors than to the canon lists created by Christian theologians in the fourth century and beyond. The evaluation of these citations within the framework of later debates about canon, therefore, serves to flatten the diversity of approaches evident among the citations of Hebrews prior to the fourth century. Careful examination of citations from the Epistle to the Hebrews in the second and third centuries reveals that the various ways in which the document was quoted were frequently determined by the immediate rhetorical context in which those quotations were employed rather than by debates about the epistle’s authority. |
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| ISSN: | 2329-4434 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of the bible and its reception
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/jbr-2020-0015 |