Influence and Power: The Types of Authority in the Process of Scripturalization

Many scholars recognize the importance of authority in the process of scripturalization. The presence of words like “authority” and “authoritative” in definitions of the term “scripture” is ubiquitous. Many also identify authoritative status for a text as an important step on the way toward it becoming scripture. However, “authority” and the words that derived from it are ill-defined in most studies. Even when the term and its synonyms are defined, there is little empirical evidence for the type of reception described. Further, there is hardly any recognition of the various ways in which a text can be seen as authoritative (historically accurate, politically expedient, divinely inspired, etc.). This paper attempts to fill this gap in our knowledge by looking to ancient testimonies, which explicitly describe the reception of texts in order to discern the varieties of ways a text might be recognized as a notable source.