The writings of the Bible exist as historical artifacts and may therefore be read as historical artifacts. To properly interpret a text we must seek to understand it within its historical context. We need to know all sorts of things: we need to know who wrote it and why; we need to know its intended audience; we need to know the literary genre to which it belongs; we need to know about the society in which the author and audience lived; we need to know the cultural and literary conventions of the time; we need to know the worldview the text inhabits, etc. Contrary to those who think that the “plain meaning” of Scripture is easy to determine, it is no easy thing at all. Witness the vast scholarship that has been devoted to the Bible over the past two hundred years.
In his article “Can Genuine Christians Be…
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Eclectic Orthodoxy 
Father Kimel,
Really like the way you end your article. That is where the fight is going to be. In this day and age, while we do not deny the human element of the Scriptures, we need to be like the early church: first and foremost recognizing the Scriptures as God’s word – not the word of any man.
-Nathan
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Hermeneutics aside, is it problematic that different traditions hold to different canons?
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Good question. I tend to think not, as I do not believe that the relationship between Scripture and doctrine is straightforward and neat. But it might be fun to compare, say, the doctrines of the Byzantine Church with the doctrines of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The scriptural canon used by the Ethiopian Church is larger than that used by the Byzantine Church.
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Timothy Lim says that the Pharisees chose the books of the OT canon.
http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300164343
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Derek Rishmawy explains Henri Blocher explaining the coherence of scripture in the words of Jesus.
http://derekzrishmawy.com/2015/11/10/jesus-and-the-coherence-of-scripture/
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Derek Rishmawy describes *theological exegesis of scripture*.
http://derekzrishmawy.com/2015/10/26/theological-interpretation-of-scripture-three-dimensions/
http://derekzrishmawy.com/2015/11/07/five-practices-for-actually-doing-theological-exegesis/
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E.J. Hutchinson explains *tradition* in St Irenaeus as the *regula fidei*.
https://calvinistinternational.com/2015/11/23/tradition-in-irenaeus-demonstration/
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Edward Feser explains *papal (in)fallibility*.
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2015/11/papal-fallibility.html
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