Armin Baum on Inerrancy and Canon

Congrats to my friend Armin Baum (Freie Theologische Hochschule, Geissen) who has had a couple of decent articles come out in JETS and BBR which are worth checking out.

“Is New Testament Inerrancy a New Testament Concept? A Traditional and Therefore Open-Minded Answer,” JETS 57.2 (2014): 265-80.

A good piece on whether the NT teaches anything like “inerrancy.”  Baum thinks inerrancy is rooted in an inerrant God, an inerrant Jesus, and in the apostles who taught the truth. Though he carefully nuances it in a way many inerrantists would reject: ‘It must be recognized, however, that the Church Fathers did not define the inerrancy of the NT documents according to absolute standards of truth and error but were convinced that minor imprecision and slips of memory did not call into question the truth of the NT” (p. 280).

“Does the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53-8:11) Have Canonical Authority?” An Interconfessional Approach,” BBR 24.2 (2014): 163-78.

Baum provides a good defence of a “criteria” approach to canonicity (against ecclesial and pneumatic approaches). He argues that (1) the pericope is historically plausible and has not been disproved; (2) it is orthodoxy; (3) the pericope meets the criteria for canonicity; (4) it should be placed at the end of John’s Gospel as a kind of appendix; (5) Those who hesitate to accept the PA can remove it without fear of any serious loss.