The history of the New Testament canon is even more colorful. During the first few hundred years of the early Christian era, there was no official canon that the entire Christian world recognized. The Eastern and Western church traditions each used a differing list of books as scripture. Before 200 a.d., the Church fathers did not even mention Philemon, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The status of these books was murky at best until after 400 a.d..
On the other hand, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, the Acts of Paul and the First Letter of Clement were considered by many Church fathers to be part of the early Christian scriptures.
Early Christian Works Sometimes Considered Canonical
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It consisted of the gospel of Luke (without the infancy narrative) and ten letters of Paul. He rejected the Old Testament, which he believed contained “immature ideas about God and [Jewish] nationalistic Messiahnism.” Marcion’s collection of Paul’s letters has been corroborated by non-Marcionite Syrian catalogs. It did not include the Pastoral letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus). The earliest surviving manuscript of the Pauline letters (at about 200 CE) does not include them either. This suggests that the Pastoral letters either did not exist or were not yet acknowledged as authentic by the churches of Marcion’s …show more content…
Irenaeus, reacting to Marcion, tried to establish his own canon. Since there were a number of gospels at that time, he decided that there should only be four "because there are only four winds and four corners of the earth." Other Church fathers who followed Irenaeus accepted his decision. Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339 a.d.) listed four categories of books.
1. The recognized books (the four gospels, Acts, fourteen letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John, Revelation [?]).
2. The disputed books (James, 2 Peter, 2, 3 John, and Jude). Paul’s authorship of Hebrews is questioned by many modern Biblical scholars, in spite the fact that Clement of Rome (quoted by Eusebius) said that “the epistle to the Hebrews is Paul’s.” Hebrews is theologically and conceptually connected with Paul while the same time, the grammar and vocabulary are quite different from Paul’s other books.
3. The spurious books (Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, Didache, Gospel of Hebrews, Revelation [?]).
4. The heretical forgeries.
Eusebius accepted 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and the letter to Hebrews. In fact, he was the first to declare Hebrews legitimate. There are two possible options that explain this historic
In the New Testament the books are divided into five categories, which are The Gospel, The Acts of the Apostles, Letter, The Catholic Epistles and The Book of Revelation. The Gospel is the teaching of Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles refer to the spread of Christianity. Letter refer to a document that is written for a particular event. The Catholic Epistles are a series of books in the form of letters in the New Testament. The Book of Revelation is the closing book of the New Testament.
Bruce makes it clear that this volume is dedicated to Christian students throughout the world. However, in the “Preface to the Fifth Edition,” he sets the tone by identifying the target audience for his work: “non-theological students” who are studying the New Testament documents, and who are more inclined to tolerate a source which has historical relevance as opposed to a source that does not (xiv). Thus, Bruce sets out with the goal of melding theology and history in an attempt at answering the question posed in the title, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Bruce uses 124 pages and 10 chapters in an attempt to prove that the New Testament documents are reliable. He provides ample
[1] With all these various locations, facts, perspectives, identities, and languages that compile the Christian biblical text how can Christians know that the 27 books are the right 27 books? Again, the question of the canon, therefore, is at the very center of how biblical authority is established. [2] Even though the Bible has been established and authenticated for several centuries, the Christian community continues to circulate debate on the New Testament canon. In the introduction of the book (pp 15-24) Kruger states there are various reasons why this conversation is still happening. First, modern critical scholarship has continued to raise doubts about the authorship and date of numerous New Testament books, attributing them to later, pseudonymous authors. Throughout the text many of the models date the completed canon to the fourth century. Second, the later century and a half have been filled with sensational discoveries of apocryphal materials that have raised new questions about which books should be included in the canon. The discoveries of apocryphal gospels such as the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Secret gospel of Mark, and most recently, the Gospels of Judas have raised questions about the state of
Inevitably, due to the nature of oral tradition, by the 3rd century (once greek manucripts had been in circulation), there were differing opinions, about what was considered scripture- infallible ‘word of God’. For example some rejected the OT or only read stories told by Jesus. Thus roman emperor Constantine (274-337) wanted to address this by providing a single canon that church leaders agreed upon. Using his educational advantage, he sort to authenticate manuscripts by collating and redacting writings to form a comprehensive book. Allegedly, he tried to fit the old and new testament in such a way that, that the old is validated in term of its prophetic nature, in relation to the new, to deal with problems sharing scripture with Judaism. This official canon list ‘word of God’ was effectively ‘voted’ upon, by bishops, in the Council of Nicaea ( 325 CE).
Throughout the years, these initial writings all came together, diligently being recorded on scrolls. As mentioned above, the New Testament is twenty-seven different books that contain different kinds of basic “genres” all in one book. “The first four books—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are called gospels” (Schenck, 2008). There are multiple letters in the New Testament and a book that reads more like a history book, called “Acts”. The final genre in the New Testament is the book of Revelation, which is considered an apocalypse or “revelation of hidden
Although this is the case, there have been many speculations to who the author could be. For 1200 years (400-1600 AD) Hebrews was referred to as ““The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews.” But as theologian discover there is no real reason to believe that Paul would be the author of Hebrews. The author never identifies himself as Paul and authority of the apostolic nature is no mention which is not typical of the other Pauline letters. The authors differ on the theological as well, while Paul highlighted the resurrection and the sanctifying feature Jesus Christ, the author focus more on the exaltation and the redemptive work of Christ, plus the high priesthood
Paul, wrote the second letter to the Corinthians. According to Harris (1976), some scholars argue that authorship of 2 Corinthians is indisputably Pauline, or that the current form of the text is original to Paul (Harris, 1975). It is unclear how this letter found its way into that canonical text that we have today (Oden,
The New Testament is known as the second major part of the Christian biblical cannon. The New Testament, unlike the Old Testament is responsible for spreading Christianity Theology to the world. The book was written by the disciples of Jesus. When one hear of the book, one’s mind think about the apostle Paul, since he is the one responsible for a large portion of the book and is one of the most studied out of the apostles. Paul has written: First Thessalonians, Galatians, Philemon, Romans and many more. However, with the dates of these gospels going back to million years ago; no one can truly attribute all the Pauline epistles to him. Titus, Ephesians, and First and Second Timothy are all in question of the authorship being Paul or one his followers which has been seen as a common theme in history. Paul’s main purpose for writing these letters was to educate the communities about how to obtain a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There were other letters that he wrote that were foreshadows of the apocalypse and destruction and one letter that he wrote on behalf of a slave (Letter to Philemon). Galatians is one of those letters were he is writing to the citizens of Galatia and trying to help the gentile Christians one again. Paul achieves this by recalling events of his past life, preaching the gospel that was giving him to by Jesus, and by being expressive and telling the citizens of Galatia that they have betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ by following the Jewish Laws.
Beginning with the Old Testament (“OT”), it is evident that there is no one answer to what is considered canon, as Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians have never agreed on the extent of the OT. Protestants have accepted the current 39 books of the OT as canon since the Reformation, but our ability to actually know the reasons the Jews accepted the 39 books of Hebrew Scripture as they are currently arranged is lost in antiquity (Klein, Blomberg, Hubbard, 2004).
Marcionism, much like Gnostic beliefs were also intertwined within the Church. However, Marcion’s depiction of Christianity was heavily anti-Jewish. Since the fundamental beliefs of Christianity rest on the creator God based on the Jewish teachings, this was a contradiction to fundamental points in Christian doctrine (Quispel 1998). Imperatively, Marcion’s threat to the church was substantially more than Gnostics because he created and actual Church (Quispel 1998). The challenge that Marcion brought to the Church was great and thusly required a retort. Once the church realized that these beliefs would question the core of the Christian faith, the process of the recognition of the canonical books started and it was a process that lasted until the implication of the New Testament as accepted today (Brueggeman 1978) .
The author for the book of Hebrews is unknown, as there is no ascription or introduction given by the author; therefore, scholars may only propose possible authors without confirming who it is. With that said, many scholars have pushed for Pauline because in earlier manuscripts Hebrews followed Romans which they thought warranted Pauline authorship. Some of the early church fathers believe that there is Pauline influence, however, not Pauline authorship simply for the reason that Hebrews seems to be written by a well-educated Greek with elaborate and complex language.
Within the twenty seven books of the New Testament, Paul supposedly wrote thirteen of them (Harris, 2014). However, upon historical examination, scholars believe that Paul did not write some of them. Scholars do not believe that someone else wrote the letters, they see the issue regarding their original writing and composition. Nevertheless there are seven authenticated and recognized letters of Paul. The letters consist of Romans, first and second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, first Thessalonians, and Philemon (Harris, 2014). According to scholars, Thessalonians and Colossians are debatable and few recognize Ephesians as a Pauline letter as well. It has also been noted that three other letters, Titus and first and second Timothy, were
The first five books of the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts are considered historical, (Tenney, 1961). These books tell the story of Jesus. The New Testament is a collection of writing by early Christians, believed to be mostly Jewish disciples of Christ, apart from Luke (Tenney, 1961). The New Testament is the records of Words, Works, and the Life of Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the record of the character and establishment of a new dealing of God with men through Christ (Tenney 1961). The contents of the New Testament are classified in three ways: by authors, periods, and literary character, (Tenney,
The Book of Hebrews is one of the most significant books in the whole New Testament. It boasts of the purest form of Greek in linguistic nature, and not just that, but also its formation and delivery of its logical arguments are some of the most well-thought-out and well coordinate of all literature. The epistle, however, has taken center stage in unending confrontations, and even sometimes violent debates over generations in regards to who the author of this incredible Book might be. Biblical scholars, having studied the Bible in great depths, seem not to agree on who is responsible. Unfortunately for them, the Book itself does not give any reference or indication to its mysterious writer. Some scholars suggest that Apollos is the writer of this Book given his background credentials, but a majority
The early church was using the four Gospels and the letters of many of the Apostles in their church teachings. The churches focused on the importance of the authors being in a first-hand relationship or direct correlation to a disciple such as Mark was to Peter and Luke was to Paul (). The Apostles took some time to write down their experiences because