Late New Testament Scholar Bruce Metzger on the New Testament Canon

 

"[T]he canon is a list of authoritative books more than it is an authoritative list of books.  These documents didn't derive their authority from being selected; each one was authoritative before anyone gathered them together...For somebody now to say that the canon emerged only after councils and synods made these pronouncements would be like saying, 'Let's get several academics of musicians to make a pronouncement that the music of Bach and Beethoven is wonderful.'  I would say, 'Thank you for nothing!  We knew that before the pronouncement was made.'  We know it because of sensitivity to what is good music and what is not.  The same with the canon."1

Courage and Godspeed,
Chad

Footnote:
1. Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1998), 90, as quoted by Eric Johnson in Introducing Christianity to Mormons, p. 36.

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