Scriptural Figures and the Fringes of the New Testament Canon by Kelsie G. Rodenbiker ISBN 9780197763292, 0197763294 instant download

Scriptural Figures and the Fringes of the New Testament Canon by Kelsie G. Rodenbiker ISBN 9780197763292, 0197763294 instant download

In the Catholic Epistles, canonicity and exemplarity are intertwined. Chapter 1 defines the concept of exemplarity as the use of a model-figure as representative of virtue or vice but argues that this can also be extended to the construction of tradition surrounding a pseudonym, concluding that the use of scriptural exempla from the Jewish and Christian scriptural past(s) as both illustrative exempla and authorial figures is compellingly unique. Chapters 2 and 3 address the fraught role of the Catholic Epistles in the formation of the New Testament, emphasizing that pseudonymity was the key factor influencing ancient hesitance around their canonical inclusion. Chapter 2 offers context antecedent to the shaping of a Catholic collection, while Chapter 3 highlights the decisive role of the Catholic Epistles in the dynamic shape of the New Testament well beyond the late fourth century, when it is commonly claimed that the canonical process was complete. Alongside the suspicion of their pseudepigraphal nature, another aspect of the Catholic Epistles that defies common conceptions of a closed Christian canon is the use of exempla from the Jewish scriptural past. Chapters 4 and 5 demonstrate how these exempla not only represent the composite accumulation of tradition in their characterization, but they also reveal links to both now-canonical and paracanonical material, beyond an intracanonical conception of “the New Testament use of the Old Testament.” In the Catholic Epistles, then, scriptural exempla serve as apostolic authorial figures as well as illustrative models, and these exempla contribute to a sense of canonical porousness that cannot be overcome by closure—even a fixed canonical boundary cannot seal off the permeability that results from the tethers between texts that become, for some, “canonical” and those that do not. Scripture