How We Got The New Testament
In Its Current Form?
Nabil Aziz, MD Th B
New Testament Authors
The Gospel of Matthew
The Apostle Matthew, son of Alphaeus.
The Gospel of Mark
Mark the Evangelist who wrote down the
recollections of the Apostle Simon Peter.
The Gospel of Luke
The Book of Acts
Luke a physician and companion of the
Apostle Paul.
The Gospel of John
1, 2, 3 Epistle of John
Revelations
The Apostle John, son of Zebedee
The 13 Pauline Epistles
The Apostle Paul
Epistle to the Hebrews
Unknown authorship
Epistle of James
James, brother of Jesus and Jude Thomas.
1, 2 Epistle of Peter
Apostle Simon called Peter.
Epistle of Jude
Jude Thomas, brother of Jesus and James
Order of composition (1)
I and II Thessalonians
I and II Corinthians
Galatians
Romans
~50 CE
54-56
~56
56-57
Colossians
~61
Philemon
~61
Philippians
~62
Gospel according to Mark
65-70
Gospel according to Matthew
80-85
Acts and Gospel according to Luke
85-90
Hebrews
85-90
Order of composition (2)
Gospel according to John
Revelation of John
Ephesians, James, and I Peter
90-100
~95
95-100
I, II, and III John
100-110
I and II Timothy and Titus
110-130
Jude, II Peter
130-150
The Material of the N.T.
•  The biography of Jesus
•  How the Jewish Scriptures relates to Jesus
•  Explanation of the significance of Jesus and
his work for the lives of believers
The Jewish Scriptures
The Jewish Scriptures
•  Written originally in Hebrew and widely used
in a Greek translation
•  Jesus accepted the Hebrew Scriptures as the
word of God being fulfilled in him
‘You diligently study the Scriptures because you
think that by them you possess eternal life. These
are the Scriptures that testify about me’
John 5:39
•  Jesus frequently argued from them in his
teaching
Early Christian Teachers Appeal
to the Jewish Scripture
‘The Scripture foresaw that God
would justify the Gentiles by faith,
and announced the gospel in advance
to Abraham: "All nations will be
blessed through you." Galatians 3:8
‘All Scripture is inspired by God and
is useful to teach us what is true and
to make us realize what is wrong in
our lives’
2 Timothy 3:16
The Words of Jesus
•  Significance: Jesus spoke with an authority
and placed his utterances side by side with
Scriptures by way of fulfilling or correcting
•  Remembering what Jesus said
‘But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, will teach
you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you’ John 14:26
Transmitting the Words of Jesus
•  Handing down `words of the Lord' in oral tradition
•  Jesus’ words in written form:
•  The ‘Sermon on the Mount’
•  The passion story (Mark 14-16)
•  Paul quotes Jesus
‘But for those who are married, I have a command
that comes not from me, but from the Lord. A wife
must not leave her husband’ 1 Corinthians 7:10
The Early Christian Biographers:
‘1Many
have undertaken to draw up an
account of the things that have been
fulfilled among us, 2just as they were
handed down to us by those who from the
first were eyewitnesses and servants of the
word. 3Therefore, since I myself have
carefully investigated everything from the
beginning, it seemed good also to me to
write an orderly account for you, most
excellent Theophilus’
Luke 1:1-3
The Early Christian Writings:
Creed
In < 20 years of Jesus ascension a statement of
faith is in circulation:
‘3For what I received I passed on to you as of first
importance: that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was
raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the
Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five
hundred of the brothers at the same time….’
1 Corinthians 15:3-6
The Apostolic Writings: Authoritative
•  Explained the significance of Jesus and his work
for the lives of believers
•  Authoritative: Paul regarded his instructions or
commands to be ‘of the Lord’
‘And we also thank God continually because,
when you received the word of God, which you
heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of
men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which
is at work in you who believe’ 1 Thessalonians 2: 13
The Christian Literature after the
Apostles
•  Apostolic fathers
•  End of 1st century Clement of Rome wrote an epistle to
the church at Corinth and Hermas wrote the ‘Sheppard’
•  Second century Ignatius dispatched six short epistles to
various churches and one to Polycarp of Smyrna
•  Writers incorporated ideas and familiar phrases of the
apostolic writers
•  Gnostic system of thoughts
•  Nag Hammadi Library
•  The lost Authority in the non-apostolic writings
The Need for a canon
•  A Biblical canon is a set of Biblical books
considered to be authoritative as scripture
•  Developed as a result of:
•  The creation of local collections of Gospels and
epistles and other local books
•  Early Christians recognised the superior
standing of apostolic writers
•  Marcion heresy
Marcion
•  The O.T. creator God is inferior to N.T. God
•  Jesus had come to liberate mankind from the
authority of the O.T. God and to reveal the superior
God the Father
•  Coined the term ‘Old Testament’ & N.T.
•  Established a canon of edited Gospel of Luke and
10 Pauline epistles and disregarded O.T.
•  Probably the 1st to collect the Pauline epistles
•  The apostolic fathers opposition stimulated the
orthodox canon
Compilation of the N.T.
•  Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form
by the end of the 1st century
•  A four gospel canon was asserted by Irenaeus of
lyon, c. 160
•  By the early 200's, Origen used the same 27 books
•  In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of
Alexandria, gave a list of exactly the same books
as what would become the 27-book NT canon, and
he used the word "canonized" in regards to them.
Athanasius (b.296)
Origen (b. 185)
Irenaeus (b. 130)
Marcion (b. 85)
Matthew
Matthew
Matthew
Mark
Mark
Mark
Luke
Luke
Luke
John
John
John
Acts
Acts
Acts
Romans
Romans
Romans
Romans
1, 2 Corinthians
1, 2 Corinthians
1, 2 Corinthians
1, 2 Corinthians
Galatians
Galatians
Galatians
Galatians
Ephesians
Ephesians
Ephesians
Ephesians
Philippians
Philippians
Philippians
Philippians
Colossians
Colossians
Colossians
Colossians
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Timothy
1, 2 Timothy
1, 2 Timothy
Titus
Titus
Titus
Philemon
Philemon
Philemon
Hebrews
Hebrews
Hebrews
James
James
James
1 Peter
1 Peter
1 Peter
2 Peter
2 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
1 John
1 John
2 John
2 John
2 John
3 John
3 John
3 John
Jude
Jude
Jude
Revelation**
Revelation
Revelation
Luke
Philemon
Why These 27 Books?
•  Written by the Apostles or their disciples giving
the best account of the life and teaching of Jesus
•  Consistent and authoritative
•  Other writings failed to measure up:
•
•
•
•
Distant from the historic events
Did not add any new attributes of Jesus
Discussed morality or the apostolic writings
Alien thoughts masking the image of Jesus
‘The church did not create the canon but came to
recognise, accept, affirm and confirm the selfauthenticating quality of certain document that
imposed themselves as such upon the church’
Closing the Canon
•  The North African Synod of Hippo, in 393,
approved the 27-book NT canon together with the
O.T. Septuagint books,
•  The decision was confirmed by Councils of
Carthage in 397 and 419.
•  These councils were under the authority of St.
Augustine, who regarded the canon as already
closed
•  Pope Damasus of Rom commissioned the Latin
Vulgate edition of the Bible, in 383, thus fixing the
canon in the West.
MASS production
•  331 AD: Emperor Constantine requested Eusebius, bishop
of Caesarea, to provide him with fifty copies of the O.T &
N.T.
•  500 AD: Scriptures have been Translated into Over 500
Languages
•  1384 AD: Wycliffe produced the 1st English manuscript of
the Complete Bible (Hand-written)
•  1455 AD: The first book printed in Europe was the Latin
Bible Vulgate
•  1535 AD: The First Complete Bible printed in the English
Language
•  1611 AD: The King James Bible Printed
•  2005 AD: the Bible has been translated into 2,400 of the
6,900 languages
The transmission
of the N.T.
#
Name
Date
Content
Institution
01
Sinaiticus
350
Gosp, Acts, Paul, Rev
British Library
02
Alexandrinus
450
Gosp, Acts, Paul, Rev
British Library
03
Vaticanus
350
Gosp, Acts, Paul
Vatican Library
Conclusions
•  The church’s early acceptance of the Hebrew Scriptures
•  The holy spirit reminds people of Jesus’ words
•  The oral and initial writings developed into the written
books of the N.T.
•  Marcion coined the terms O.T & N.T.
•  The church did not create the canon of 27 books but
came to recognise the self-authenticating quality of
these document that imposed themselves as such upon
the church