Page History

Scanned PDF

Marxsen sometimes seems to reason that, for the ancient church that canonized the New Testament writings, "canon" originally had the meaning, simply, of "list," "inventory," "index." What was "canon" for that church in the further sense of "standard," "norm," "rule," or "authority" was neither this list of writings nor any of the writings on the list, but rather the original and originating and therefore constitutive witness of the apostles -- according to the principle, canonical = apostolic. Only after the church had determined, by howsoever questionable procedures, that a given writing was apostolic did it become "canonical" in the sense that it was placed on the "list"; and only then did it itself, together with the other writings on the list, become "canonical" in the further sense of "authoritative."

...