Canon as Rule and Guide

The fifty-two essays collected here span half a century of biblical scholarship. Together they provide a view into the history of Old Testament studies from the vantage of a scholar who worked to integrate his command of it with several cognate disciplines, including New Testament, Biblical Theology, and the history of interpretation. Canon is a rule and guide: this is a ubiquitous concern in the work of Brevard Childs. As he argues, scripture has been shaped with frameworks for interpretation, guidelines built into it through a complex editorial process that resulted in a multifaceted canon with two Testaments. Scripture is a canon and rule of faith that in turn shapes the church's confession and life of faith. This approach to scripture entails a holistic view that touches the Bible's composition and reception histories as well as its enduring claim on living communities of faith.

(1923-2007) 1947 BA and MA, University of Michigan; 1950 BD, Princeton Theological Seminary; 1955 ThD, University of Basel; 1958 teacher of Old Testament, Yale Divinity School; 1992 distinguished rank of Sterling Professor, Yale University; 1999 retirement.