Canon and Culture: Realistic Possibilities for the Biblical Canon

Abstract

The biblical canon, upon which biblical theology is based, is necessarily tied in signification to its historical context. As scriptural canon for Christians and Jews, modern interpreters require care in distinguishing between the meanings its historical authors and audiences gave and received, and those developed over time through the dynamics of the Jewish and Christian traditions. The article reasons that a reading of the biblical texts as a complex of signified symbols enables modem interpreters to determine what those symbols stood for in their historical setting and to continue the longstanding practice of conscientiously resignifying that meaning for substantially different social contexts.