Kruger then turns to the implications of these clues on Paul’s own statements in relation to the new covenant, especially in 2 Corinthians 3:14 and argues that it would be natural to think that Paul had in mind a new set of written documents that testified to the terms of the covenantal arrangement in Christ. He draws on Jean Carmignac’s argument that ‘Paul must be aware of the existence of a ‘New Testament’ and suggests the possibility of Carmignac’s further argument that this ‘New Testament’ may have contained a number of books.
Kruger ultimately suggests that the clues in 2 Corinthians provide clues about the origins of a new canon of Scripture and suggests that Paul’s letter itself also held some sort of covenantal authority, as scholars have observed it to be a ‘covenant lawsuit’ against the Corinthians. His article thus contributes to the discussions around the development of the canon by noting the relevance of the New Testament itself and the implications of Paul’s statement on the formation of the New Testament canon.
Here is a brief excerpt from Kruger's Article:
Although most discussions about the development of the canon focus on the patristic period (second century and later), there is much canonical gold yet to mine from the pages of the New Testament itself. Unfortunately, this step is often skipped.There are a number of possible reasons for why it is skipped. But perhaps most people just assume that the whole idea of a “canon” is a late development anyway, and thus we wouldn’t expect to find anything about it in the New Testament books themselves.Aside from the fact that such a position already presupposes an entire canonical “worldview” known as the extrinsic model (for my critique of this mo...
You can read the full article here