The Spirit and the Letter

In this book -- which is derived from the prestigious Cambridge University Hulsean Lectures -- one of Britain's foremost biblical scholars examines the complex relationship between the canonical texts of the Old and the New Testaments. John Barton is interested particularly in historical questions -- in how it was that the biblical canon came about; in how it was that the church came to accept as authoritative a New Testament containing no more and no less than twenty-seven books; and in how it was that the church placed alongside these books the Hebrew Scriptures, now renamed the "Old Testament". In responding to such questions -- which are addressed in the lively style and with the acute analysis that one has come to expect from this author -- Barton draws a valuable distinction between the notion of "scripture" and that of "canon", which greatly clarifies our thinking about both the Old Testament and the New Testament. - Back cover.