HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

Why are there only 27 books and how were they selected?

Were they the only books written?

We need to understand the context in which the NT was written.

These Christians did not see Jesus as a founder of a new religion, but the fulfillment of the old.

So early on, Christianity was considered nothing more than another Jewish sect.

As a side note both Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism sprang from the OT Judaism.

Neither required sacrifices after the temple was destroyed in 70AD.

Why do think Christianity was like immediately following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus?

Christians were mostly in Jerusalem and most converts were Jewish

Some came from outside Jerusalem and stayed there or went back home to Galilee and spread Christianity

The 11 disciples were THE authority on Jesus and told many stories to the people.

Disciples would go from village to village. Asked to tell stories about their times with Jesus and what Jesus said.

As Christianity began to spread, the disciples could not be everywhere so apostolic writings took the place of apostolic presence and thewritten word became a matter of great importance.

These were written in Greek because that was the universal language of the time

Each village had their own set of stories to read while the disciples were away.

Somewhere along the line, someone decided to create a collection of these stories so there would be a uniform source.

Most Jews rejected Jesus as the fulfillment of OT prophecy concerning the Messiah and they rejected the Christian message so the Christianshad to come up with their on authoritative writings to separate themselves from the Jews.

Who wrote the 4 Gospels?

Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were probably all compiled by anonymous well educated, Greek speaking Christians during the second half of the first century.

They got their names because sometime in the second century, the proto-orthodoxy group recognized the need for authoritative names so they attributed them to Matthew and John(two apostles), Mark (the secretary for Peter), and Luke (the traveling companion of Paul)

Some books were homonymously written which means that they were written by a person that had the same name as a person well knownin Christian circles.

The book of James gives no indication that he isJames the brother of Jesus or one of the disciples.

Some books were pseudononymous, a forgery written by someone claiming to be someone else.

They did this in order to get a hearing oftheir views. 2 Peter is an example. Although these books may not have actually been written by an apostle they were deemed OK because they contained apostolic teachings.

Christians at that time saw no need for a fixed number of books and a closed canon (a group of literary works that are generally accepted asrepresenting a field) so you see no books in 90AD

What does canon mean?

In classical Greek the world "canon" signifies properly, "a straight rod," or "a carpenter's rule." In the early ages of the Christian religion it generally denoted a standard of opinion and practice.

Events of the 2nd half of the 2nd century created a demand for a proto-othodoxy canonDifferent groups began to claim different authorities for the texts they used.

There were four main groups that sprang up with differing views of Jesus and his teachings.

Examine handout

The Ebionites were Jews and claimed the OT andMatthew but rejected all of Paul’s teachings and said one had to convert to Judaism before becoming a Christian.

The Marcianites (Docetists) rejected the OT altogether and took Paul’s writings and Luke’s.

The Gnostics depended on the secrets that were told only to special people.

Proto-orthodoxy took writings by all the apostles.

The Muratorian canon is the earliest know canon and was created around the end of thesecond century. It had 22 out of the 27 books we now have.

What kind of criteria were used to decide which books would be added and which books would be left out?

Here are the criteria that were used to determine if a book was acceptable or notAncient – had to have been written near the time of JesusApostolic – had to be written by an apostle or a companion of an apostleCatholic – had to be universally read among established churchesOrthodox – had to be theologically orthodox, the other three were secondaryto this one.

So a lot of the writings in the NT books were to combat heresies of the time.

A heresy is something that is not orthodox and the winners get to claim what isorthodox and what is not

A few of the shorter books had trouble getting in because they were not universally readSome of the problems were because the Roman Empire had been divided into an East (Greece and Turkey) and West (Rome).

Eusibius put together a list in the early 4th century that included the four groups,accepted books including the 4 gospels, Acts, 14 Pauline epistles (including Hebrews, 1 Peter, and 1 John, and if it really seems right, Revelation.

Disputed books include, James, Jude, 2 Peter and 2 and 3 John.

There were 6 forged or spurious books (ex. Acts of Paul), and five heretical books (ex. Gospel of Peter)

C. AD 51-125:The New Testament books are written, but during this same period other early Christian writings are produced.

For example, the Didache (c. AD 70), 1 Clement (c. 96), the Epistle of Barnabas (c. 100), and the 7 letters of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110).

C. AD 140:Marcion, a businessman in Rome, teaches that there were two Gods: Yahweh, the cruel God of the OT, and Abba, the kind father of the NT. So Marcion eliminates the Old Testament as scriptures and, since he is anti-Semitic, keeps from the NT only 10 letters of Paul and 2/3 of Luke's gospel (he deletes references to Jesus' Jewishness). Marcion's "New Testament"--the first to be compiled--forces the mainstream Church to decide on a core canon: the four gospels and letters of Paul.

C. AD 200:But the periphery of the canon is not yet determined. According to one list, compiled at Rome c. AD 200 (the Muratorian Canon), the NT consists of the 4 gospels; Acts; 13 letters of Paul (Hebrews is not included); 3 of the 7 General Epistles (1-2 John and Jude); and also the Apocalypse of Peter.

AD 367:The earliest extant list of the books of the NT, in exactly the number and order in which we presently have them, is written by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in his Easter letter of 367.

There were still some debates after this.Contrary to popular misconception, the New Testament canon was not summarily decided in large, bureaucratic Church council meetings, but rather developed very slowly over many centuries.

This is not to say that formal councils and declarations were not involved, however.

AD 904:Pope Damasus, in a letter to a French bishop, lists the New Testament books in their present number and order.

AD 1442:At the Council of Florence, the entire Church recognizes the 27 books, though does not declare them unalterable.

AD 1536:In his translation of the Bible from Greek into German, Luther removes 4 NT books (Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation) from their normal order and places them at the end, stating that they are less than canonical.

AD 1546:

At the Council of Trent in 1546, the Catholic Church reaffirms once and for all the full list of 27 books (by vote: 24 yea, 15 nay, 16 abstain).

The Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England.

The Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647for Calvinism.

The Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for Greek Orthodoxy .