The Paper Is Centered On The Discussion Of The New Testament

Longenecker, Bruce W. The New Testament. The Lost Letters of Pergamum. Orlinda, TN: PhD and Lecturer at the University of St. Andrews. 2002.

This essay will show contrasts in views on the Gospel of John regarding authorship,dates, and the relationship between John's Gospel and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. Some comparison of thought, concerning composition and life setting, will also be presented.

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)

Paul's letters to the church, also known as epistles, are considered some of the most important documents in the New Testament. Paul's writings continue to shape and forge church even today. His letters were written in some of the darkest, most intense moments of Paul's life, but they also celebrate the grace, love, and life changing power of Jesus. Paul's journey in faith is shown in raw, unapologetic honesty, and inspires Christians to maintain a forward momentum, and to run the race Paul speaks so passionately about in Hebrews 12:1. Paul is able to write with both confidence and humility as he writes about the Christian journey.

As we move further into the research of this paper, defining some terms under the viewpoints of the selected authors is necessary. Millard Erickson defines inspiration as “that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit upon the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God.” While inspiration primarily concerns the quality of the finished product rather than the process of that period of time in which the entirety of the Scriptures came into being, the divine-human authorship raises the tension as to how those Scriptures came into being. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy states: “We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking applies only to the autographic text of Scripture.” The leads to the question “What constitutes an autograph or the autographs?” In general, scholars use the term autographs to refer to the first or original copies of the biblical documents which is the material the author actually wrote himself. One customary definition of the term “autographa” in a theological discussion refers to the unchanging form of text whereby the original document is identical to the final canonical form of a given OT biblical book. Since canon involves the list of all books that belong in a bible or those reckoned as Holy Scriptures which

The juxtaposition of any two writings is a formidable task. The content of each, even if they seem alike, is a small part in determining similarities and differences. One must also look at the styles, authors, themes, supposed audiences and authorial intent. This front becomes even more difficult while exegeting and deciphering ancient texts because of how far removed the writings are from modern understanding and scholarship. It is also further complicated when one lacks the factual knowledge of which piece was written first and/or if both texts were using a third source at the time of their creation. These difficulties find their apex at the study of Christian history and all of its subsequent writings. In particular, the gospels according to Thomas and Luke, while they have similarities and at times identical phraseology are vastly different when one considers their theological understandings, themes, format and style.

The readers were informed by the author of 2 Thessalonians not to get too excited if they received letters that were falsely written using Paul’s name. There was an indication that the apostolic writers had begun a practice of circulating forged documents. The method of creating new letters (documents) in the name of someone else; for instance, not the person that have been identified as the author was known as pseudonymity and became a standard practice in both Hellenistic-Jewish and early Christianity.

The New Testament was canonized over a period of approximately four hundred years (Stotesberg). From AD 50-125, the books which in the end constitute the New Testament were written. Simultaneously, other books, which did not end up being included in the final canon, were produced. These books are the Epistle of Barnabas, the Didache, I Clement, the seven letters of Ignatius of Antioch, etc. (“Development of the Difficult Canon”). As more and more books were written, Christians realized that it was imperative that they gather and consolidate this material before it became lost. Sometime before AD 100, ten of Paul’s letters were gathered and combined into their own canon. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were combined to form another canon soon after the canonization of Paul’s letters. The Gospels and Paul’s letters became the main body of a new group of Scriptures that would soon become the New Testament. Soon Acts, I Peter, I John, and Revelation were inserted into this body of Scripture. Following this, the rest of the books were added to the New Testament (Barker).

Although artists identities are not known, decorated pages display unique elements that result in several different art styles, which contributes to the theory of several artists working on the manuscript. One of these artists stood out for his ex- ceptional detailed oriented skills. His designs displayed such elegance and quality it has been compared to the works of a goldsmith. The text was copied by four scribes. Al- though following a scriptorium form, they also display unique qualities reflecting individ- uals. For example, a scribe managing text often left the ornamentation of the letters found at the start of verses to an illuminator, but another scribe formed a habit of incor- porating bright colors for text and repeated versus in blank spaces. The question of identity between artists and scribes is one of the many mysteries surrounding the man- uscript.!

The Bible is made up of a collection of books.The New Testament includes several different genres of literature (Harris,2014). At least four genres consist of, the gospels,historical,letters,and apocalyptic. The gospels are the first genre which appears in the first four books of the bible. Matthew,Mark,Luke,and John gives the accounts of the life of Jesus Christ in different perspectives. The gospels are not like any other type of literature,it is defined by its subject matter,the life of Jesus (Harris,2014).The other books are considered historical texts. Additional books were letters of epistles. The letters by Paul were a major unit of the collection Revelations. There are twenty-seven documents in the New Testament which fits into one

As Paul maintained a Christ-centered faith during at least four years of suffering as a prisoner of the Roman government, first in Caesarea and then in Rome. During his imprisonment, Paul wrote four letters that survive in our New Testament. They are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon are among some of Pauls the most helpful and encouraging writings.. We, living almost 2,000 years later, are fortunate to have these letters to teach us the inspiring truths of God. We are the beneficiaries of Paul’s spiritual wisdom forged in the crucible of personal suffering.Philippians 4:12).

The Gospel of John stands out as one who has been appointed by God who testifies about the life and ministry of Jesus. The study of John allows one to see the Jesus as our entry way for salvation. The authorship of John allows one to understand Jesus by an actual and reliable witness to the origins of Jesus ministry, death and resurrection. This extraordinary piece of work is also reflected by the early church fathers. The attempt of this paper will assert that the evidence for authorship of John is more convincing that discrediting.

Gordon Fee, a well recognized New Testament textual critic and scholar, has provided a concise, yet valuable addition to the wide array of New Testament commentary series with his work in the Letter to the Philippians as part of the IVP New Commentary Series. Using his insight into the latest research of Greco-Roman friendship letter writing, Fee has provided a commentary that takes into account Paul’s original language and intent in writing to the Philippians and applies the theology and exhortation to the a wide audience. This paper summarizes the text briefly, provides some critique of the work, and provides some concluding remarks as to the value of the text for pastors today.

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.

The genre of Ephesians 2:1-10 is an Epistle. The Epistles were letters teaching specific churches or groups of people; often inspired by God. They are split into two categories: Pauline Epistles, written by Paul and traditionally Paul was the first word of the book in Greek, and General Epistles, often referred to as the Catholic epistles and were written to the universal Church. The Pauline Epistles consist of: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The General Epistles consist of: Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The interpretive principles of this genre are that it is meant to be read as a whole and in one sitting in order to get the main idea of the passage, one must view the paragraphs as the main unit of thought in the passage, one must know the structure to understand the letter, and one must do background reading to fully comprehend the main concept and the history and culture of the setting.