A New New Testament

Posted on March 28, 2013 
Filed under History, Opinion

Bishop Paul Barnett“Hal Taussig and a team of eighteen scholars and religious leaders have chosen ten texts… to be published alongside the twenty-seven that comprise the New Testament and called it A New New Testament.

The ‘new’ texts are from the post-New Testament eras and are mostly ‘gnostic’ in character (an exception is the Acts of Paul and Thecla). In fact, these texts are not ‘new’ but go back almost to the era of the apostle and for the most part have been known for many years by historians. …

Hal Taussig and his colleagues say that the ‘canon’ of the New Testament was not really ‘closed’ until relatively modern times and that it is therefore valid to publish other texts with the twenty-seven of the biblical canon within the one book. This asserts that the canon is, in effect, elastic. It is an elastic canon, capable of the addition of new texts.

That was not the view, however, of church leaders in the 2nd and 3rd centuries…”

– Historian and New Testament scholar Bishop Paul Barnett responds to a new publication which is sure to get publicity. Read it before you get all those questions.

Related – some publicity: “A New New Testament” – ABC Radio National.