Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament

Anglican Theological Review, Spring 2008 by Meditz, Robert E

Constantine's Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament. By David L. Dungan. Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 2006. xii 212 pp. $17.00 (paper).

This is a very engaging and informative book, and much can be learned from it. Whereas the role of Roman imperial politics in the first great ecumenical council of Nicea in 325 has received considerable attention, comparatively little has been written about the role of politics in the formation of the Christian canon of Scripture, which was formalized in the late fourth century. The core arguments are found in chapters 1 through 6, which are the most persuasive.

Chapter 1 surveys the major religions and concludes that a true canon of Scripture is a rare event, occurring only three times: in third-century rabbinic Judaism, fourth- and fifth-century Mediterranean Christianity, and seventh-century Islam. This peculiar phenomenon of canon is not any accumulation of sacred texts, but a legal concept that fixes the text, and is enforced by religious and/or governmental authorities.

Chapters 2 through 4 explore how the dominance of the Greek polis throughout the Greco-Roman world led to a demand for accuracy, precision, and mathematical certainty in politics, culture, and religion. The dominant metaphor was the carpenter's ruler, or kanon, which assumed various roles in both second-century Christianity and rabbinic Judaism, but had not yet become associated with a fixed selection of sacred writings. Chapter 4 explores the work of the third-century Greek historian Diogenes Laertius, who attempted to certify the authenticity of a philosophers writings, coining the designations of "genuine" and "true," "spurious" (rejected) and "disputed" (doubted). Dungan argues that this framework was later appropriated by Eusebius of Caesarea in the fifth century.

Chapter 5 presents a richly detailed analysis of key passages of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, as he sought to determine which Christian writings were to be authoritative. A monumental achievement in its day, Ecclesiastical History was an open-ended, public, and collaborative effort by churchmen to determine objectively whether a document was authored by a disciple of Christ. This chapter is especially commendable for its analytical framework and its lengthy footnotes citing the original Greek and alternate translations.

Chapter 6 rehearses the repeated intervention of the Emperor Constantine in the church's affairs, transforming Christianity from a persecuted, minority religion into a triumphalist extension of imperial Rome. This transformation resulted in a premature doctrinal uniformity at the Council of Nicea. In addition, the closing of the New Testament was hastened when Constantine drew upon the research of Eusebius to commission fifty new Bibles to be used in his new capital city, the pivotal political event in the formation of the New Testament. By emphasizing the unprecedented, overt political intervention by Constantine, the author seems not to appreciate that the Arian controversy raged on-intellectually as well as politically-at least until the Council of Constantinople in 381, and arguably into the fifth-century Christological controversies.

In the epilogue the author provides several provocative conclusions. First, Islam followed the lead of fourth- and fifth-century Christianity when it fixed the text of the Qur'an. Second, the Jewish religion never fixed a set of authoritative religious texts, something conventionally held to have occurred at the Council of Jamnia. And, third, there is an emerging consensus in Christianity that the idea of a fixed set of authoritative religious texts is obsolete. While the second conclusion possesses the strongest justification, the others should generate scrutiny among specialists.

I highly recommend this book for use at the undergraduate level, since it is written in an engaging style that may generate additional student interest in the field. It is also packed with interesting and helpful information, and has excellent footnotes and appendices useful at any level.

ROBERT E. MEDITZ

Wethersfield, Connecticut