Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 53:2 (Jun 2010)
Article: The Order Of The Books Of The New Testament
Author: Gregory Goswell

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JETS 53:2 (June 2010) p. 225

The Order Of The Books Of The New Testament

Greg Goswell

Greg Goswell is lecturer in biblical studies at Presbyterian Theological College, 684 Elgar Road, Box Hill North Vic 3129.

This article follows up two earlier articles on the order of the biblical books in the Hebrew and Greek arrangements of the OT canon.1 The assumption behind all three studies is that the placement or location of a biblical book relative to other books influences a reader’s view of the book. The present study deals with the location of the books of the NT, with “location” defined as physical propinquity in the anthology of Scripture.2 Readerly habit views enjambment as a clue that significant relations are to be discerned between a particular book and its neighbors in the library of canonical books. The reader presumes that material that is juxtaposed is related in some way in meaning, and this habit of readers forms the basis of the following analysis. The assumption is that a book is more closely related to books next to it or nearby, and less closely related to books placed far from it. This study is not a historical investigation into the formation of the canon of the NT,3 but an exploration of the hermeneutical implications of the order of biblical books, with book order viewed as an aspect of the paratext of Christian Scripture.

I. A Parallel Structure To The Old Testament?

The overriding principle of organization discerned within the NT canon is the ordering of the books according to an ancient perception of genre, so that they are grouped as Gospels, Acts, letters, and Revelation (apocalypse). The suggestion has been made that the familiar canonical order parallels that of the Greek OT (exemplified by Vaticanus),4 so that the Gospels correspond

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to the Pentateuch, Acts to the Historical Books, the letters to the Poetic Books, and Revelation to the Prophetic Books.5 The parallel between the Gospels and Pentateuch can be argued on the basis that the Gospels are composed as biographies of Jesus Christ6 and the Pentateuch as the biography of Moses.7 Just as the life of Jesus Christ is foundational for Christian revelation, so the revelation of God’s law framed by “the life of Moses” forms the foundation of the rest of the OT. God’s act of salvation in Christ has the same foundational sig...

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