New Testament Writing

Unlike Mythology, narratives of the Bible are actual events that took place dating back to the beginning of time. The conception of The Holy Bible’s compilation started thousands of years ago in the land of Egypt. Initially, the Old Testament Scriptures were written in the Hebrew language, however, they were later translated to the Greek. At the onset of the New Testament writings, they were originally recorded in the Greek language. Forty men transcribed the voice of God, which resulted in sixty-six books of the Holy Bible. The Holy Scriptures explained the creations, formation of the world, God, God’s chosen people, sin, and the plan of salvation as well.

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

Bruce offers a solid explanation of the formation of the canon chronologically starting with the Hebrew scriptures (p. 21) until the 4th century where church councils started to present the first spoken finished canon (p. 97). Bruce shows the importance of the Old Testament scriptures, but writes most about the New Testament. He not only shows how the New Testament came to be a canon but offers a deep analysis of non-canonical scripture called the Apocrypha (pp. 48, 90-93).

How the Old Testament is known today, it was composed of works from the first-century B.C.E. However, on the other hand the books themselves date back to later dates close to the eleventh centuries or even maybe earlier. [Source]

In the Bible there are 4 different so called eye witness accounts of the life of Jesus Christ which are supposedly written by Matthew and John, two of Jesus’ disciples, Luke, a journalist and historian while Jesus was alive and Mark was a teenage Jew during the time that Jesus visited Jerusalem. Although many scholars do not agree with some of the specific episodes described in these texts, it is still believed that these documents present a fairly accurate portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ. One of the reasons that have to believe this was the time when these texts were written and how close this was to the death of Jesus Christ. It is generally believed that the gospel of Luke was written in the year 60 AD, the gospel of Mark in the year 70 AD and the gospels of Matthew and John within the years 70-100 AD. This is so significant because these books were all written within one generation of the life and death of Jesus Christ and it shows that the people writing these texts were really around to witness the events that they quoted in their texts. Another reason that historians have to believe that these texts are accurate accounts of the life of Jesus is the amount of copies of original manuscripts that still exist today. These images on the screen are just some of the ancient original texts of the bible, all of which were written before 300 AD and all of which still exist today. Although there are no original documents of any of the books of the Bible, there are several original copies by monks whose profession was to accurately copy texts so that they copies of these texts could be distributed amongst many

13) The Creation of the World; the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve; Original Sin; the Fall

The Old Testament books are written in many different literary styles such as historical, prophetic, or biographical. Between the Old and New Testaments there were four hundred years during which time books were not written. As the New Testament begins, it starts with four books commonly known as the Gospels. These gospels are a biography of the life and works of Jesus Christ himself. The remainder of the Bible contains mostly letters to various people and churches throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. These are letters of encouragement to the early churches of the world and many Christians who may have been imprisoned or in captivity in several countries. Still one question that plagues the minds of several modern day Christians is, how did the modern day Bible come to be? The Old Testament had been decided upon long ago. Elders in the Jewish church met and decided 39 different books in all. These books had been written over the span of several centuries and became what is today known as the Old Testament. The New Testament was somewhat similar. During the time shortly after Jesus, there was controversy over the books that were truly from God and those that were not. The early church hierarchy settled this dispute during the second, third and fourth centuries. During this time, councils, consisting of church elders, met periodically to determine which books had true divine inspiration and which were frauds. In the mid-fourth century, the New

Our source of knowledge of the apostolic work of Paul comes first from the Book of Acts. The epistles written by Paul serve to further our knowledge of his mission. These letters were written to churches that he had founded or churches that were known to him. Luke’s account of Paul introduces us to the basic facts about this important biblical figure. A more complete understanding of Paul’s journeys can be gleaned from his letters. These epistles were written almost at the time they occurred and they comprise some of the earliest works contained in the New Testament.

According to our text, the New Testament is comprised of four primary literary forms: Gospels, History, Letters and Apocalyptic (Harris, 2014). The Gospels was made up of four books written by four separate authors who tell of Jesus from four individual viewpoints based upon their understanding of who Jesus was, yet it does not cover the lifespan of Jesus, only certain accounts. Therefore, it is not considered historical or a biography but is defined as ‘sui generis’. The historical counts of the life of Christ is noted in the book of Acts. This book tells of the history of the early church but by all accounts doesn’t use traditional criteria most often noted in historical writings. The Epistles are known as letters. These letters were thought to be written by Paul and his followers. The letters were often written to the various churches rather than people or individuals. They were also written to address issues, concerns or to offer praise for specific acts or behaviors. Thus, letters or epistles addressing sin were more of the rebuking nature to bring correction and accountability in the effort to restore the parishioners to appropriate, God-fearing behaviors. Whereas, other letters may be to praise churches for exemplifying model behaviors that could be used for strong witnessing. The latter form is known as the apocalyptic writings. This form tends to deal with the End Times and was suspected to have been written during the time of church persecution. The book of Revelation in particular, was written around the 1st century when Christians were said to have been killed for their faith. It is during this time that the question was raised regarding God’s role and whether or not he would win. It was stated emphatically that God would win and would redeem his people.ReferenceHarris, S. L., (2014). The New Testament: A Student’s Introduction (8th ed.). Dubuque:McGraw-Hill Education.

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

Created by Johannes Gutenberg, The Gutenberg Bible was the first mass produced book through the use of a moveable printer. Known for its artistic Latin writing, the Bible only has forty-nine copies remaining, one residing at the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The Gutenberg Bible exhibits religious qualities from the message, directly from God, and the original purpose of the creation of the Bible.

The Christian Bible is made of two parts: the New Testament, and the Old Testament, a collection of Christian writings that includes biographies and journeys of Jesus Christ and the apostles, like the Apostle Paul, letters to new churches, and an apocalyptic work.

Christians see Jesus as continuous with the God of Judaism. A collection of Christian writings was added to the Jewish scriptures known as the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible. The Christian writings, called the New Testament, record the life and teachings of Jesus. They also describe the development of the early church and explain what faith in Jesus means. The Christian Bible includes both the Old and New Testaments. Some Christian groups also accept as part of the Bible a collection of writings called the Apocrypha.

By comparing the watermarks from The Gutenberg Bible with the 36-line Bible, which was long believed to be the oldest book made with moveable type, Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko was able to conclude that in fact, the Gutenberg Bible was the older of the two bibles (McCarthy). Each copy of The Gutenberg Bible required about 50,000 sheets of paper, with about 1286 of those sheets in each completed book. It took about three to five years to complete the printing, and it completed in 1454 or 1455. Figure 3 holds an example of what a spread from The Gutenberg Bible looks like. This particular photo is taken from the copy at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas ("The Gutenberg Bible").

The New Testament is a collection of books which contains the writings concerning the significant events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. These books appeared after the physical death of Jesus Christ. In this regard, Jesus had left no records concerning him, and all that is written about him depends wholly on what other people have written about him. The first four books of the New Testament are part of the several biographies of Jesus which were written by the end of the first century of the era of Christianity. Then before any of these biographies have been drafted, there were Christian communities which were being instructed through epistles on how to live like Jesus and how to solve their problem like Christians. A good number of these letters were written by a man called Paul. After Paul death, some other new leaders of the Christian movement continued to write letters to the churches to encourage and strengthen them. As Christians grew in number persecution arose, and some letters have been drafted to support them and also to counter the false doctrines. These letters are part of the New Testament. The twenty-seven books of the New Testament were selected from the list of writings in that period (Bruce, 1988)