Wayne in Maine wrote:Hierarchy may have been the wrong word, though absent the modern fundamentalist idea that the bible is a single book with a single author, the Anabaptists did seem to have a "canon within a canon", much as the Jews held the Law above the prophets.
I will say in answer to Neto that the consensus, or at least the common assumption of most scholars of Anabaptism I have read, is that the Anabaptists emphasized the New Testament, particularly the Sermon on the Mount and the sayings of Jesus. One writer, on making this observation, stated "Anabaptist New Testament Biblicism appears to have been shaped solely by an individual and collective desire to follow Christ."
John Oyer stated: "The Anabaptists always preferred the New Testament over the Old Testament..." and notes that in the 16th and 17th century scripture cited in preaching narrowed even further to the Gospels, particularly Matthew's gospel.
William Estep, in "The Anabaptist Story" calls attention to Anabaptist Christocentrism. They understood God's revelation to be progressive such that the New Testament alone was the rule of faith and practice for the Anabpatists. (William Estep, The Anabaptist Story 140-145)
I agree. According to Anabaptists (and I think that is pretty much without exception across all groups), the central idea of the Christian faith is one of discipleship.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.
Deurteronomy 18:18,19