Testimonies: Volume 1

This controversial work of 1916–20 sought to prove the existence of the earliest collection of Christian writings.

J. Rendel Harris (Author), Vacher Burch (Assisted by)

9781108039697, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 December 2011

150 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.9 cm, 0.2 kg

In this two-volume work, J. Rendel Harris (1852–1941) fundamentally shaped Biblical scholarship in the twentieth century, arguing for the existence of a 'first known treatise on Christian theology', antedating the New Testament. A palaeographer, Harris examined recurring textual corruptions of Old Testament passages in early Christian writers and surmised an underlying collection, which he called the 'Testimony Book'. The book, Harris believed, collected Biblical testimonia - passages prophesying Christ - in order to prove the legitimacy of the new Christian faith. These arguments against Judaic theology marked, in Harris's opinion, the beginnings of the Christian written tradition. Volume 1 (1916) lays the groundwork for Harris's argument by examining the use of testimonia in early Christian writers like Cyprian and Gregory of Nyssa. 'The starting point of the modern study of the use of the Old Testament in the New', this is a work of enduring importance to religion scholars.

Introduction
1. The use of testimonies in the early Christian Church
2. Further proofs of the antiquity of the Testimony Book
3. An emendation to I Peter ii.8
4. A further note on Testimonies in Barnabas
5. Testimonies against the Mohammedans
6. 'Spoken by Jeremy the Prophet'
7. Irenaeus and the Book of Testimonies
8. Lactantius and the Book of Testimonies
9. Athanasius and the Book of Testimonies
10. The altercation between Simon the Jew and Theophilus the Christian
11. The Didascalia Jacobi
12. Last traces of the Testimony Book
13. A further proof of the Matthaean origin of the Book of Testimonies
14. Professor Burkitt and the Testimonia
15. An anonymous writer on the Oracles of Papias
Index.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB]