22. Scholars debate whether Irenaeus referenced the books of Hebrews and James.
23. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.25; 6.25. You can read Ecclesiastical History 6.25 at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm.
24. The “twenty-two books of the Hebrews” is the ancient Jewish way of counting the thirty-nine books of the Christian OT. Modern Jews count twenty-four books. The earliest mention of a fixed number of books of the HB comes from Josephus, who says that there are twenty-two books of the Hebrews: “It follows, I say, that we do not possess myriads of inconsistent books conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty, and contain the record of all time” (Against Apion 1.8 [1:38]). The discrepancy between twenty-four and twenty-two likely comes counting Ruth as part of Judges and Lamentations as part of Jeremiah in an artificial attempt to force the number of Hebrew books to match the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet (see The Philocalia of Origen 3; Jerome, Preface to the Books of Samuel and Kings).
25. Origen, Letter to Africanus 9.
26. Origen also quotes Sir. 21:18 as Scripture in Against Celsus 7.12.
27. The argument is that if the earliest copies of the NT do not possess these clauses and verses, then these disputed portions of the text must have been added at a later date, after the biblical books had initially been written. Examples of disputed texts that are in our Bibles today but are not present in Sinaiticus include the long ending of Mark’s Gospel (16:9–16), the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:3–11), the ascension of Jesus in Luke 24:51, the designation of Jesus Christ as the Son of God in Mark 1:1, and many more. Read Codex Sinaiticus for yourself online at http://codexsinaiticus.org.
28. Eusebius, The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine (Vita Constantini) 4:36.
29. Athanasius, Apologia ad Constantium 4.
30. See Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter.” There is a debate among scholars whether Athanasius’s canonical list was the basis for the official canon, or whether it was simply coincidence that his was the first to list what would eventually become the twenty-seven canonical New Testament books. Note also that Athanasius rejected Esther in a fashion similar to that of the Qumran sectarians, who also apparently did not preserve a copy of Esther, as it is the only canonical book of the Hebrew Bible not discovered at Qumran. You can read this portion of Athanasius’s 39th Festal Letter here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxv.iii.iii.xxv.html.
31. Jerome, Letter to Augustine 75.5 (19).
32. Jerome, Preface to Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. A portion of the preface reads: “As, then, the Church reads Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees, but does not admit them among the canonical Scriptures, so let it read these two volumes [Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon] for the edification of the people, not to give authority to doctrines of the Church.” The text is available online in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 6, at http://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06/Npnf2-06-21.htm#P7993_2595461.
33. Barber, “Loose Canons (Part 2).”
34. Jerome, Preface to Judith.
35. Jerome, Letter to Eustochium 21.
36. Perhaps what is most fascinating about this list is that most scholars consider it to be inauthentic, that is, it was added at a much later date by some editor wishing to make a list of authorized books of the Bible appear to be earlier that it actually was. Scholars believe this list to be inauthentic because several authors summarizing this same synod’s canons shortly after this time do not list Canon 60, instead ending their lists at Canon 59. The lists of Dionysius Exiguus, John of Antioch, and Bishop Martin of Braga do not include Canon 60. See “Council of Laodicea,” in Schaff and Wace, trans. and eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14, 159. Although the later authors could have omitted the Canon 60 because it left out the book of Revelation or because other known canon lists were in use—note that both reasons support the argument that by the late fourth century there still was no definitive list of canonical books—it is far more likely that it did not exist at the time of the Synod of Laodicea and was added at a later time.
37. See “The Canonical Epistle of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, to St. Letoïus, Bishop of Melitene,” in Schaff and Wace, trans. and eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14, 612.
38. The Code of Canons of the African Church, or “African Code,” is the name of the summary of the earlier church councils, as Carthage is in northern Africa (present-day Tunis, Tunisia). See “The Code of Canons of the African Church A.D. 419,” in Schaff and Wace, trans. and eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14, 437–510.
39. Translation in Westcott, General Survey of the History of the Canon, 436.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No book writes itself, and no author completes a work without the help of many others. I offer my thanks to my University of Iowa colleagues in the Departments of Classics and Religious Studies, especially my department chairs, Diana Cates and John Finamore, and to the late Carin Green, who hired and mentored me in my first years at Iowa. I miss you, Carin! Thank you also to my colleagues Paul Dilley, Sarah Bond, Jordan Smith, and Craig Gibson, whose feedback, advice, and humor were much appreciated. Thank you to Jon Winet and the Digital Studio for your support, and I am forever grateful to my Tel ‘Azeqah colleagues, Oded Lipschits and Yuval Gadot, at Tel Aviv University, and Manfred Öeming, at the University of Heidelberg, for the research and travel opportunities they have provided for my Iowa students and me.
I wrote this book while at the Obermann Institute for Advanced Studies in Iowa City while on a Spring 2015 Fellow-in-Residence fellowship. I am grateful to Obermann Director Teresa Mangum, to Chaden Djalali, Raúl Curto, and Joe Kearney at the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to Lynette Marshall at the University of Iowa Foundation, Dan Reed, Ann Ricketts, and to Provost Barry Butler for being supporters of my research at Iowa.
I could not have written this book without the help of my graduate assistant, Cale Staley, whose almost daily presence in my office provided a sounding board (and the coffee) necessary to develop many of the ideas in this book. Thank you to my UCLA Doktorvater Bill Schniedewind and my colleagues Jeremy Smoak, Matthew Suriano, Peter Lanfer, Roger Nam, Kyle Keimer, Eric Cline, and Mark Goodacre for reading drafts of this book and providing helpful suggestions.
This book would not exist without my literary agent at Foundry, Roger Freet, who championed the idea for this book early on, and my editor, Katy Hamilton, her assistant, Anna Paustenbach, and Lisa Zuniga, whose keen eyes and endless patience make my writing seem palatable. Thank you to Richie Kern for his advocacy on my behalf. And many thanks to everyone at HarperOne who made this process possible and pleasurable, especially to Claudia Boutote, Melinda Mullin, Adia Colar, Kim Dayman, and Ann Edwards. I offer special thanks to my colleague and friend Candida Moss, who was instrumental in the early development of this book. Special thanks also go to Amalyah Keshet and the Israel Museum, John F. Wilson, Christopher A. Rollston, and Stewart M. Perkins for assistance with photos and charts in this book.
I also want to offer a special word of thanks to Rabbi Jeff Portman and the Agudas Achim Congregation in Iowa City for inviting me regularly to speak and try out ideas for this book. Your feedback and encouragement meant the world to me. I also want to thank Rev. Dr. Sam Massey and the First Presbyterian Church in Iowa City for repeatedly inviting me to speak at the Finn Memorial Lecture series promoting Jewish-Christian interfaith dialogue. If only every congregation could be as wonderful as First Pres and Agudas Achim in Iowa City!
Thank you Mom and Dad, for raising me with an inquisitive mind and adventurous heart. And perhaps most important, I am thankful to my partner, Roslyn, who has made this process possible with her encouragement, love, and tender touches on stressful nights and for managing
our home and our litter of children. And to Tali, Mac, Quincy, Rory Kate, and Judah, this book is why Daddy had to go to the office every day over the summer of 2015. I love you and cannot wait to watch you grow and explore the world around you.
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