JOS JOURNAL OF RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

This study examines the role of quotations in the canonisation of the New Testament to illuminate how biblical authority and meaning were formed, transmitted, and interpreted, especially within early Christianity. Focusing on the New Testament’s extensive use of Old Testament material (some 350 direct quotations), the work analyses varied quotation methods: Masoretic alignment, Septuagint reliance, formula quotations, typological readings, and adaptive composite citations to show how early Christian authors presented Hebrew Scripture as authoritative fulfilment in Christ. While canonisation is shown as a communal, historical process grounded in worship, apostolic reception, and teaching, textual criticism is framed as the scholarly practice required to evaluate manuscript variants and recover the most trustworthy text. The interaction of these fields reveals that Scripture’s authority rests on reception, citation, and careful scholarly assessment rather than instantaneous revelation. The work then explores implications for African Christianity: quotations model a dialogical, inculturation-friendly hermeneutic that resonates with African oral and ancestral traditions; they encourage contextual theology that creatively reinterprets inherited sources; and they demand critical discernment to distinguish culturally edifying practices from those at odds with the gospel. Overall, the combined study offers African theologians both validation for contextual engagement and methodological safeguards, showing how faithful interpretation integrates historical awareness, literary sensitivity, and communal responsibility in shaping doctrine and praxis.

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