THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES and CHURCHES OF CHRIST
Christian Military Fellowship
Fred's Facts 3 |
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THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES and CHURCHES OF CHRISTChristian Military Fellowship
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In Fred's Facts #2 we discussed how we came to have the 39 Old Testament books in today's Bibles. In Fred's Facts #3 we will trace the origin of the New Testament---how we came to have the 27 New Testament books in our modern Bibles. Fred's Facts includes Bible studies, Christian history studies, and hopefully provocative discussion of Bible-based subjects of interest to servicemen and women. This page also includes offers of free Bible study materials and will include many other features, as we develop them in the months ahead. Feedback on these studies from our readers is encouraged! Also, suggestions from readers on subjects to be included in these studies and discusssions are welcome. Messages should be sent to Fred at cmf@cncnet.com! Following is our third study: |
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The starting point for anyone seeking God is the Holy Bible. By observing God's universe, we can come to the realization that a powerful God created it, but we will not learn much beyond that. So we will come to have faith in God, for the most part, to the extent that we accept the Bible as God's inspired, infallible Word. But how can we know that the books in today's Bible are the books God placed there for us thousands of years ago? How can we be sure that men haven't tampered with it---subtracting books inspired by God or adding uninspired man-made books? The answer is that we can have confidence in the validity of our Bible's books to the extent that we can prove that these books were part of the Holy Bible at very early dates. The earlier we can determine that a book was part of the Holy Scriptures, the more confident we can be that it belongs there. |
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During the 1st century A.D., the books of the New Testament were written over a period of less than 50 years (about 48-95 A.D.) Each book was copied by hand again and again and circulated over time to churches (Col. 4:16) from throughout the Roman Empire. In the early years, not all churches had equal access to these 27 books. They would slowly be copied and circulated among the churches and it took many years for them to saturate the empire. So each book became known by a specific church one at a time or, at most, a few at a time as copies arrived at that church over a period of many years or even decades. Matthew, Mark and Luke were written between about 58 and 69 A.D., and scholars date John anywhere from 65 to 90 A.D. Paul's letters were all written between about 48 and 66 A.D. The other New Testament letters have been dated between about 48 and 95 A.D. The book of Acts was clearly written about 62 A.D., and Revelation has been dated about 95 A.D. Nearly all scholars today agree that the crucifixion of Christ took place in 30 A.D. As indicated above, three of the four gospels, Acts and all of Paul's letters (plus those of Peter and James) were undoubtably written prior to 70 A.D.---only 40 years after Jesus' death and at a time when some of the apostles, and many others who had known Jesus and the apostles, were still living. It is clear that a fraudulent book would not have been accepted by the Church at such an early date. Thus, we have reason for high confidence in the validity of the New Testament books! British scholar F.F. Bruce, an eminent authority on New Testament origins, wrote: "The time elapsing between the evangelic events and the writing of most of the New Testament books was, from the standpoint of historical reasearch, satisfactorily short. For in assessing the trustworthiness of ancient historical writings, one of the most important questions is: How soon after the events took place were they recorded?" Sir Frederic Kenyon, another authority, wrote: "The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed." |
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In the beginning, the account of Jesus' life on earth and his teachings were passed on to new Christians through a body of oral tradition taught by the apostles and their associates (Acts 2:42). They were given the Holy Spirit to help them recall all that Jesus had taught them (John 14:25-26; Luke 12:11-12). Then, for a time as the New Testament books were being written, the written witness existed side by side with the oral tradition. But during the 2nd century A.D., the written Word gradually replaced the oral tradition as the primary source of Christian teachings. The determination of which books were inspired New Testament Scriptures did not really take very long when you consider the political situation of those days and the slowness of transportation and communication. The church was persecuted by the Roman government for almost the first 300 years of its existence and transportation was by primitive sailing ships or by foot or horse. The church basically existed as widely separated congregations with only occasional contact with one another through letters or traveling evangelists. Because of communication limitations and the fact that the New Testament books were written over a period of about 50 years, individual churches only gradually assembled collections of these books. It would be normal, then, for some churches to be more familiar with some books than others. Though most of the Church was acquainted the majority of New Testament books from an early date, for a time churches in some areas questioned the books of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude and Revelation. Basically, churches in the western half of the empire were slow to recognize one group of books, while the churches in the eastern half had doubts about a different group of books. The church in Rome, for example, did not accept Hebrews until after 300 A.D. and some churches in the East did not accept Revelation for a similar period of time. There is evidence in the New Testament itself that some of its books were recognized by the apostles as Scripture at a very early date. In 1 Tim. 5:18 (written about 63 A.D.), Paul clearly shows he understood Luke 10:7 to be Scripture in the same sense that Deut. 25:4 is Scripture. It is also clear that Peter regarded some of Paul's letters as being Scripture (2 Pet. 3:15, written about 66 A.D.). There is also evidence that late 1st century and 2nd century church leaders understood our New Testament books to be Scripture. For example, Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, wrote to the Philippian church (about 110 A.D.) and reminded his readers who were "well versed in the sacred letters" that "it is said in these scriptures, 'Be angry and sin not' (Psalm 4:4 & Eph. 4:26) and 'Do not let the sun go down on your anger'" (Eph. 4:26). Thus Polycarp places Ephesians on an equal footing with the Old Testament books. |
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At an early date, collections of Paul's letters began to be put together and circulated. We noted above that Peter regarded Paul's letters as Scripture (2 Pet. 3:15) and he no doubt possessed a collection of them. Since Peter was martyred about 66 or 67 A.D., a consolidated collection of some of Paul's letters may have existed that early in some locations. But it is certain that from the early 2nd century onward Paul's letters circulated as a collection. The oldest surviving copy of the Pauline collection is the Chester Beatty codex P46, copied about 200 A.D., and discovered in Egypt. This codex did not have the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus), the last of the New Testament letters Paul wrote, but did contain the others, including Hebrews (which is missing in some other early collections). The evidence suggests the original edition of Paul's letters, put together BEFORE the Pastoral Epistles were written, had only 10 letters of today's 14. While collections of Paul's letters were circulating, a collection of the gospels was being put together. Early church leader Justin Martyr (died 165 A.D.) wrote his "Dialogue with Trypho" and two defenses of Christianity (Apologies) between 1144 and 160 A.D. In his "Dialogue" Justin speaks of the "memoirs" of Peter (possibly the gospel of Mark) and in his "First Apology," he refers to the "memoirs of the apostles." These memoirs, he says, are called "gospels," and they are read in church along with the "compositions of the prophets" (Old Testament). The manuscript P75 from the Bodmer collection, dated late 2nd or early 3rd century, is the oldest known manuscript to contain more than one of the gospels. It contains Luke and John, and probably included Matthew and Mark before it was damaged. The earliest surviving codex which still contains portions of all four gospels is P45 in the Chester Beatty collection and is from the early 200s A.D. It also included the book of Acts. Acts, however, was usually bound together with the "General Epistles" (those of James, Peter, John and Jude). Eventually, complete New Testaments were bound together, but we don't really know when this was first accomplished. Shortly after Emperor Constantine established the new capital of the Roman Empire at Constantinople in 330 A.D., he asked Eusebius to produce 50 copies of the Scriptures, containing both Old and New Testaments, in Greek for use in that city's churches. None of those copies have ever been discovered, but other Bible manuscripts about as old have been found. The oldest is the Codex Vaticanus (dated 325 A.D.), which has been in the Vatican Library since it was established in 1448. Part of the manuscript has been lost, but its New Testament is complete except for Heb. 9:15-13:25, 1 & 2 Tim., Titus, Philemon and Revelation. Next oldest is Codex Sinaiticus (350 A.D.), containing a complete New Testament, which was discovered in a monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in 1844 and placed in the British Museum. |
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The word "canon" refers to a list of books recognized as worthy to be included in the sacred writings of a religious community. In a Christian context, "canon" can be defined as the listing of writings acknowledged by the church as documents of divine revelation. The word "canon" comes from the Greek word "kanon," which originally meant "a straight rod used as a ruler," and later came to mean "a list." Eventually, church leaders began to provide lists of the books they regarded as inspired New Testament Scriptures. The earliest such list was, surprisingly, produced by the heretic Marcion about 140 A.D. His canon was drawn up to serve his own heretical views. Marcion rejected all New Testament books that he felt were tainted by Jewish influence. His list included only one gospel, Luke, and ten of Paul's letters (excluding 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Hebrews), and also excluded Acts and the letters of Peter, John, James and Jude. But his list did not represent the consensus of Christian leaders which was developing. Another early list was the Muratorian Fragment (written in the late 100s A.D.). It was probably a list of the books accepted by the church in Rome at that time. The list includes all the gospels, Acts, all of Paul's letters except Hebrews, two of John's letters and Revelation, and Jude---but not James or Peter's letters. The Old Syriac Version of the Bible, which dates from the mid-100s, included all the New Testament books except the letters of James, Peter and John, Jude and Revelation. The Old Latin Version, also from the mid-100s, omits Hebrews, James and 2 Peter. Then Origen (185-254 A.D.) provided a list which stated that the four gospels, Acts, 13 letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation were universally accepted. He added that Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, James and Jude were disputed by some. The formal acceptance of the 27 books of the New Testament was completed in the 4th century. About 332 B.C. Constantine ordered his religious advisor, the Christian historian Eusebius, to produce 50 Bibles for the churches of Constantinople. Eusebius conducted research to determine the general consensus of which books should be included in the New Testament. The New Testament he produced included exactly our 27 books. The content of the New Testament was further confirmed by a list produced by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367 A.D., containing the same 27 books. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of the New Tetament, completed in 384 A.D., contained all 27 books. Finally, at the Council of Hippo Regius in 393 A.D., the church as a whole formally accepted all 27 New Testament books. Please note that the New Testament Canon is not something which was decided 300 years after Christ's resurrection. It was rather an eventual formal recognition of an already existing common consensus! |
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The above information is hardly more than a quick overview of the evidence which exists for the authenticity of the New Testament. But it should suffice to convince the reader that there IS a very large amount of evidence in support of our New Testament books as the inspired, infallible word of God! Anyone wishing to explore this subject further will be able to find a mountain of information in the following books: "The Canon of Scripture," by F. F. Bruce, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL; "The New Testament Documents---Are they Reliable?," by F. F. Bruce, William B. Erdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI; "The Origin of the Bible," edited by Philip W. Comfort, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL; and "How We Got the Bible," by Neil Lightfoot, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI. The CMF also offers a FREE 40-page study, "The Origin and History of the Bible," which we would be happy to send you for the packaging and mailing fee of $2.00. Just mail a check in that amount to: CMF, PO Box 2408, Oroville, CA 95965. It is also available by free download on the Fred's Facts Index page of this web site. Fred also invites you to send him some feedback about this series of studies. Did you find them useful? Did they provide you information you didn't already possess? What additional information would you have liked to have seen included? Will you continue to read future studies? Comments and questions may be sent to Fred at the above PO box or E-mailed to cmf@cncnet.com. |