Apologist Interview: Dr. Jefrey Breshears

Today’s interview is with Dr. Jefrey Breshears, Christian historian, apologist,  the president of "The Areopagus” and author of An Introduction to Bibliology. He talks about his background and interest in history and apologetics, the problem of anti-intellectualism in the church (and what can be done about it), the systematic study of the bible (bibliology), an overview of An Introduction to Bibliology, bad arguments for the Bible, good arguments for the Bible, defending the inspiration of scripture, how we got the books that are in the Bible (the canon), the transmission of the Biblical texts, the significance of textual variants, answering skeptics regarding apparent contradictions, the most misunderstood issues about the Bible, and more.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (37 min)

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Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

10 Basic Facts About the NT Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize

New Testament scholar Michael J. Kruger has been working through a blog series entitled 10 Basic Facts About the New Testament Canon that Every Christian Should Memorize. Check out his book Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books for more. Hear the interview with Michael Kruger here.

1. The New Testament Books are the Earliest Christian Writings We Possess
2. Apocryphal Writings Are All Written in the Second Century or Later
3. The New Testament Books Are Unique Because They Are Apostolic Books
4.   Some NT Writers Quote Other NT Writers as Scripture
5.   The Four Gospels are Well Established by the End of the Second Century
6.   At the End of the 2nd Century, the Muratorian Fragment lists 22 of 27 NT Books
7.   Early Christians Often Used Non-Canonical Writings
8.   The NT Canon Was Not Decided at Nicea—Nor Any Other Church Council
9.   Christians Did Disagree about the Canonicity of Some NT Books
10.   Early Christians Believed that Canonical Books Were Self-Authenticating

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Michael Kruger Interview on the Canon of Scripture

In this audio, Jonathan Morrow of ThinkChristianly interviews Michael J. Kruger on the canon of scripture. Kruger's most recent book is Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books. (Apologetics 315 interviewed Kruger here.) This is another helpful interview looking at the formation of the canon and why we have the books of the Bible that we do.

Interview Audio here. ThinkChristianly podcast here.
Michael Kruger's blog here.
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10 Misconceptions About the NT Canon by Michael Kruger

New Testament scholar Michael J. Kruger has been working through a blog series entitled 10 Misconceptions About the New Testament Canon. This series exams some common beliefs out there in the academic (and lay-level) communities that prove to be problematic upon closer examination. Here is the complete list of posts over at his blog Canon Fodder. Check out his book Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books for more. Hear the interview with Michael Kruger here.

1. The Term “Canon” Can Only Refer to a Fixed, Closed List of Books
2. Nothing in Early Christianity Dictated That There Would be a Canon
3. The New Testament Authors Did Not Think They Were Writing Scripture
4. New Testament Books Were Not Regarded as Scriptural Until Around 200 A.D.
5. Early Christians Disagreed Widely over the Books Which Made It into the Canon
6. In the Early Stages, Apocryphal Books Were as Popular as the Canonical Books
7. Christians Had No Basis to Distinguish Heresy from Orthodoxy Until the Fourth Century
8. Early Christianity was an Oral Religion and Therefore Would Have Resisted Writing Things Down
9. The Canonical Gospels Were Certainly Not Written by the Individuals Named in Their Titles
10. Athanasius’ Festal Letter (367 A.D.) is the First Complete List of New Testament Books

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Interview Transcript: Michael J. Kruger

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Michael J. Kruger. Original audio here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.

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BA: Hello, this is Brian Auten of Apologetics 315. Today's interview is with Professor of New Testament, Dr. Michael J. Kruger. Dr. Kruger teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. His area of expertise is in the development of the New Testament canon, the Gospels, and the development of early Christianity. His latest book is Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins, and Authority of the New Testament Books.

The purpose of today's interview is to learn more about the formation of the New Testament canon, the writing of the Gospels, and gain some insights from Dr. Kruger about understanding and defending the Gospel canon.

Well thanks for joining me for this interview, Dr. Kruger.

MK: Thanks, Brian. Good to be with you.

Apologist Interview: Michael J. Kruger

Today's interview is with Michael J. Kruger, Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. He talks about his background in New Testament studies, his new book on the canon, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books, the nature of the Bible, the meaning and formation of the canon, criteria of canonicity and attributes of canonicity, "other gospels," the apocrypha, how we can know what books belong in the Bible, advice for Christian apologists, and more. Dr. Kruger's blog is here.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (42 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

Lectures on the Canon by Michael J. Kruger

Michael J. Kruger, author of Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books, and professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC presents four lectures on the origins and development of the Canon. These are part of the Kistemaker Lecture Series, RTS-Orlando, March 2012.

• The Definition of ‘Canon’: Exclusive or Multi-Dimensional?
• The Origins of Canon: Was the Idea of a New Testament a Late Ecclesiastical Development?
• The Artifacts of Canon: Manuscripts as a Window into the Development of the New Testament
• The Messiness of the Canon: Do Disagreements Amongst Early Christians Pose a Threat to Our Belief in the New Testament?

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Book Review: Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books by Michael J. Kruger

Recent attempts to discuss biblical canon have been reserved to certain types of questions. For apologists, the discussions center around defending these books versus those books. Why Jude and not 1st Enoch? Why Esther and not Ben Sira? Unfortunately, in attempting to defend this position, the discussion quickly centers around sociological and historical issues external to the text itself. Thus, when asked why these books are in the canon, an apologist will often answer that we accept them because they were accepted by the early, orthodox church; because they were the most frequently transmitted books across spectrum of the ancient church; because the early church agreed that they were authentic witnesses of the apostolic teaching, etc. Whereas this may provide a sufficient historical and sociological answer to the question, it appeals to external authority to determine the nature of the canon, whether that authority by a community which received the text or historical criteria.

In the recent book, Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books, Michael J. Kruger approaches the question of canon through a different method than typically presented in recent evangelical work. He clarifies at the onset that he does not intend to “‘prove’ the truth of the canon to the skeptic,” nor “merely to explore how a Christian...comes to believe that the canon is from God.”1 Instead, he intends to discuss “whether the Christian religion provides sufficient grounds for thinking that Christians can know which books belong in the canon and which do not.”2 Notice the epistemological nature of this question.