SOURCE: "Tertullian and the New Testament," in The Second Century: A Journal of Early Christian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4, Winter, 1982, pp. 191-207.

In the following essay, Jansen studies Tertullian's views on and interpretation of the New Testament.

Various aspects of Tertullian's use of the Bible have received scholarly attention. One excellent study has been devoted to Tertullian and the Old Testament.¹ The present essay² deals with Tertullian and the New Testament.

I

Tertullian and the Canon of the New Testament

By Tertullian's time the basic scope of the New Testament had taken shape in the West. Tertullian has citations or clear allusions to all of the New Testament books except James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John.³ However, citation as such does not necessarily answer the question of canon. We are still in a fluid period—witness the Muratorian Canon list. The word "canon" is not yet employed to designate a fixed...