For the last few weeks, I have been posting a series of videos where Andreas Köstenberger and I discuss our response to Walter Bauer’s thesis on heresy and orthodoxy in early Christianity.

These discussions are based on our book, The Heresy of Orthodoxy: How Contemporary Culture’s Fascination with Diversity Has Reshaped Our Understanding of Early Christianity (Crossway, 2010).

You can find the prior three installments here, here, and here.

In this next video below, Andreas and I discuss the earliest complete list of New Testament books.  For years, this was thought to be Athanasius’ Festal Letter of 367.

However, I have recently argued that a often-overlooked list exists nearly a century earlier (c.250) in Origen’s Homilies on Joshua (the painting above is Origen).

For more detail on this argument see my article: “Origen’s List of New Testament Books in Hom. Josh. 7.1: A Fresh Look,” in Chris Keith and Deiter T. Roth, eds., Mark, Manuscripts, and Monotheism: Essays in Honor of Larry W. Hurtado (T&T Clark, 2014), 99-117.

For a quick overview, here’s the video! [Read more…]