History of the Bible Essay

The process by which Scripture has been preserved and compiled is one whose history is worth noting. The early church had many opportunities to share the Good News of Christ via word of mouth, but from the time of Christ’s resurrection until the mid-second century, there had not been a single culmination of writings considered to be essential for the purposes of

The New Testament was formed by combing oral tradition and several other written sources. Contrary to popular belief, the Canon was not formed at the Council at Nicea (at least I thought that). Instead, the Bible was put together over the centuries as new texts were slowly added. This sparked great debate about which books were ok to be added and who decided which books. Out of this period came the discovery of the Gnostic books or Gnostic gospels. These books were inaccurate and portrayed Christ in an incorrect way. So the responsibility of those deciding on which books to use as Canon was to somehow decide which books preached differing gospels. This obviously gave them great power over what books were in the Bible, but also what the overall

During the early church there were many controversies on how to determine the canon of the New Testament. How did some books make the “cut” to be determined to be put in the infallible, inherent Word of God? Why did the church accept some books and rejected the others? There were key events and movements that were influential in the recognition of the canonical books of the New Testament. The foundation of the Canon should be understood in a believer’s life. It is sad to say, but, there are many Christians that are avid readers and knows the scriptures probably could not explain how the canon came into existence. This should be a posing question to believers.

We know that the New Testament did not emerge as a single collection of texts immediately, but that different groups of early Christians had different collections of sacred books. For not only did different Christians communities have their own perspective collections, but they had different versions of the same books. Looking at the bible from a historical point of view, it has been translated over and

This is because I believe God knew the importance of his holy book, and I believe He would not leave it to be corrupted by humans. I believe His word is living and breathing, and His sovereign hand was over the process of the canonization. It is comforting to know that the people at the council took time to fast and pray to the Lord before just throwing together the documents. The early Churches did not even have all the scriptures, as many were being written at that time, but took a long time to collect and copy parts of the Gospel and Paul’s letters. Though it did a long time to complete I am glad that many fellow believers set a canonical standard. I also believe that this was a process foreshadowed in the ending passages of Revelation as it says that “And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll” (Revelation

Canonical books are books that are relating to or ordered by canon law. It has to appear in biblical canon. For a book to be considered canonical it has to meet seven principles. In no specific order the principles are the book must be dynamic, written by an authoritative writer and be authoritative itself. It has to be authentic, prophetic, and received. Lastly, people who knew of the events have to have been able to falsify them. The reason a canon of scripture became necessary, was because the prophets and apostles were no longer here. They were the living voice of this information. Canon was a way to preserve biblical writings from any corruption. A canon of the bible bridges the old and new Testaments. This was gradual. The formation of the New Testament canon is how the sacredness was preserved.

Some books weren’t included in the canon process. Gundry (2012), talks about the importance of apostolicity, “…which means authorship by an apostle or by an apostolic associate and thus also a date of writing within the apostolic period” (p. 104). To me, this shows how important God’s apostles were to Him and we shouldn’t have any doubts about the books in the New Testament. Gundry (2012) states this well, “The closing of the canon by limiting it to the apostolic books arose out of a recognition that God’s revelation in Christ needs no improvement” (p.

The Bible is made complete by the New Testament because many things that were prophesied in the Old Testament manifest in it. Some Bible scholars say that the Old Testament conceals the New Testament that then reveals the Old Testament. Out of 66 books that make up the entire Holy Bible, 27 are of the New Testament. The 27 books can be classified according to authorship, target group and time in history in the Christian calendar.

Most of the 4 gospels took place between the time period of 6-60 AD. The New Testament contains 27 books, although some of them are not quite books but long letters. Many of which were addressed to important leaders in that day. Numerous critics of the Bible claim there are too many errors for the New Testiment to be considered the reconstructed full document original and reliable. But over 80 percent of the mistakes

The traditional interpretation of the development and authority of the New Testament canon is often a topic of debate and scrutiny; however, Dr. Michael J. Kruger provided an excellent, well-written justification of how the New Testament canon came to be the 27 books known today. Kruger is President and the Samuel C. Patterson Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. Other publications include The Gospel of the Savior, The Question of Canon, The Heresy of Orthodoxy, Gospel Fragments, and A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. His written work has led him to be known as a scholar in the origins of the New Testament Canon, in particular writings related to the New Testament Canon.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary is a multivolume work, broken up into thirteen volumes. Each of the volumes cover a few books in the Bible, varying in exact amounts based on book sizes. This commentary has two main editors, Tremper Longman III and David Garland. In Volume 9, which consists of commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, three other people helped to contribute. D.A. Carson helped with the Matthew section while Walter W. Wessel and Mark L. Strauss helped with the Mark section.

When we talk about Scripture, we have to discuss the source of our revelation. In fact, without an understanding and personal standpoint/beliefs on the canon of Scripture, one is not able to build a solid foundation in other matters regarding Scripture, including the authority of Scripture, the inerrancy, the clarity, the necessity, and the sufficiency. Often the canon of Scripture is a prevalent topic in the Christian faith among believers as there is a debate which books of the Holy Bible are considered to be part of the canon. However, although there are other books that have been added (including the Deutro-Chronical Books in the Roman Catholic church), there are in fact only 66 books in the canon of Scripture. There are 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books that are included in the canon of Scripture. While some churches (including the Roman Catholic Church) believe that the church should determine what books are in the New Testament canon, God is responsible for the canon of Scripture. The Old Testament canon includes the Pentateuch Books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the Historical Books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester), the Poetical Books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon), and the Prophetical Books ( Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,

The first 39 books of the larger work called the Bible, is called the Old Testament. The Bible itself is arguably the best selling and most read book of all time, yet it’s well known to be quite challenging to read through and understand. The Old Testament portion of the Bible, notably the most difficult portion of the Bible for most to study and follow, yields 39 books from multiple authors, and spans over 4000 years of crucial world and church history. If that were not enough to take on, the Old Testament comes our way through multiple styles of authorship and formats, including but not limited to, books of history, law, proverbs, ethics,

John 14: 26 states but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (). This verse is an explanation from Christ about the role of the Holy Spirit in teaching and recalling events that took place during his time on earth. It is through the witness of the Spirit that man can determine the “wheat from the chaff.”() The early church had the writing of the Old Testament but did not have a formal set of canonized books regarding the Messiah to draw their inspiration from. Though they had letters from Apostles there were many heretical writings that were circulating throughout the lands that were teaching doctrine different from those who knew Christ personally. Josephus stated that no one had been bold enough to add, take away, or change the wording in the Old Testament scripture (), this was what the Church was looking for in forming a canon that related to the teaching of Christ; a type of written text that would be foundational therefore no one would want to take away or add to it.

What we know today as the New Testament was compiled over a period of many decades. It was first referenced as the “New Testament” by Clement of Alexandria. It is believed that the books that comprise what we know as the New Testament canon were in existence no later than the end of the first century. The included books varied by different sources until the fourth century when the Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasios, included them in a letter to his flock in AD 367. His list was approved by councils at Hippo in AD393 and Carthage in AD397. The process used to arrive at this list varied by time and source. There were many debates along the way and some continue to this day.