Beyond the Book with Drs. Kellum and Quarles: “40 Questions About the Text and Canon of the New Testament”

In the following Q&A, Kellum and Quarles take the time to answer a few questions about their new book:

What is the book about, and what are some of the most pressing questions addressed in the book?

Kellum: “40 Questions About the Text and Canon of the New Testament” seeks to answer the question “What is the New Testament?” We cover this in terms of the words of the NT and the books of the NT. The former entails questions regarding the text of the NT. Dr. Quarles handled the issues about the field of textual criticism. The issue is that the NT survives in thousands of handwritten manuscripts. While the text is very stable, understandably no two manuscripts are identical. I cover questions concerning the canon of the NT. Here the question is not the text but the books. The pressing questions are “Is the canon closed?” “Who closed it?” and “When was it closed?”

Who is the target audience, and how do you hope they will benefit from the book?

Quarles: The book was written to address crucial questions for readers who are not highly-trained Bible scholars. I am encouraged that scholars report they also discovered helpful information in the volume. However, the book is aimed primarily at college students, Sunday school teachers, and any Christians who want to understand how Scripture was passed down to us over the last two thousand years and why our Bibles contain these specific twenty-seven New Testament books.

What motivated you to contribute to the book?

Kellum: I have been studying canon for many years now. Kregel offered me the opportunity to put all my thoughts in one place.

Quarles: For the last seven years, I have guided teams of students transcribing ancient manuscripts of Paul’s letters for the Greek Paul project. Also, in my research on the Greek text of Matthew, I have recognized the need for more thorough research on some of the passages in which the ancient manuscripts have different readings. These projects combined to stir my interest in this important field of study.

What are some common misconceptions — even in the Church — about the text and canon of the New Testament?

Kellum: Regarding the text, there has been a good bit of misinformation spread about the degree of variation and the degree of uncertainty. Many Christians discovering the phenomenon of textual variants in the manuscripts are disturbed and begin to question if the NT is the inerrant word of God. Dr. Quarles does a great job of navigating us through the phenomenon by showing that the question is not “is the NT inspired” but “what is the NT?”

Regarding the canon of Scripture, one of the greatest misconceptions is that a group of old grey-bearded men sitting in a circle had a stack of books that they elected as Scripture and another stack that they did not elect as Scripture. This is not what happened. Instead, the NT comes about due to the fulfillment of OT Scripture and the inauguration of the new covenant. What we see in Church history is that while we have no evidence of any sorting or sifting of books in the second century and essentially no discussion on the contents of the NT, by the end of that century, virtually all agree on the contours of the NT. If so, the claims of the NT should be closely investigated and embraced.

When some Christians learn about textual variants and text criticism for the first time, their confidence in the biblical text is shaken. How would you encourage them, and how does the book help to renew their confidence in the Bible?

Quarles: Although there are differences in our ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, these differences usually affect the meaning only of a phrase or a sentence. Differences normally relate to smaller details and do not affect the meaning of the text at the macro-level.  This is similar to the degree of difference we find if we compare any two good English translations today. We will find that some of the details differ but the overall message of the text remains the same. The essentials of our Christian faith are clear in all ancient manuscripts and we could preach the gospel from any of them. Not a single Greek manuscript denies Jesus’ virgin birth, his miracles, his sacrificial death, bodily resurrection, or glorious return. No manuscript denies the holy Trinity or insists that there are two or thirteen persons in the Godhead.

The differences, however, are important enough to inspire scholars to continue researching and debating the original wording of specific passages. But the differences give us no reason to doubt the claims of historical Christianity or the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy which affirms (1) “inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy,” (2) “copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original,” and (3) “We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs.”

Why is it important for contemporary Christians to understand and study the transmission, collection, and canonization of the New Testament?

Kellum: I see three substantial reasons. First, the study should give us confidence that the Bible we hold in our hands is exactly what God wanted us to have. Second, the study of the canon demonstrates a profound movement of God in the earliest periods of Christianity that led the early Church to recognize these books as the word of God. Third, we must be ready to give an informed response to those who would say the Bible is the product of fifth-century bishops and priests and has no authority over modern Christians.

How does the book equip readers to serve the Church and fulfill the Great Commission?

Quarles: The Bible is absolutely crucial to this mission. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 correctly says that Scripture “has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter.” The phrase “salvation for its end” shows that the goal of Scripture is the salvation of sinners. The Bible is the foundation for evangelism, church planting, the Church’s worship, and the edification of the saints. Nothing matters more. It is important to understand how the Scriptures came to us, why these twenty-seven books are contained in the Bible, and how we can restore the original reading of the New Testament in cases where the ancient manuscripts differ. This study will confirm and strengthen our confidence in the Bible and embolden us as we seek to fulfill this mission.