what is the new testament?
The New Testament is the second half of the Christian Bible. Christians consider the Old Testament (or the Hebrew Bible/Jewish scriptures) and the New Testament to be the sacred canon of scripture. the old testament contains 39 books (24 in hebrew) that were more or less a fixed collection about a century after jesus lived. It is important for students to study the New Testament because it has come to the forefront of Western civilization and thus has affected all of us, whether we consider ourselves to be Christians or not.
the new testament: some basic factsthe new testament contains 27 books written in greek by 15 or 16 different authors between the years 50 a.d. and 120 AD can be divided into 4 groups: gospels, acts of the apostles, epistles and apocalypse. The New Testament contains 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books tell the stories about the life, ministry, and death of Jesus. The Gospels were written anonymously and came to be attributed to the disciples (Matthew and John) and associates of the Apostles (Mark and Luke) sometime in the second century. acts of the apostles, written by the author of the third gospel (“luke”), describes the expansion of the christian church from the death of jesus to the death of the apostle paul. the following acts are 21 epistles or letters. Most of these New Testament books are records of correspondence between a church leader and a Christian community; The New Testament Epistles address issues of Christian belief, practice, and ethics. Thirteen of these books claim to have been written by Paul (although, as we shall see, New Testament scholars doubt the reliability of some of these claims). the last book of the new testament is revelation, a christian apocalypse. The author of this book, Juan, describes the events that led to the destruction of this world and the appearance of the world to come.
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Other Early Christian WritingsThe 27 books of the New Testament are not the only writings of the early Christians. there are many other gospels, epistles, and apocalypses that are not included in the Christian canon. An important collection of non-canonical early Christian writings is called the Apostolic Fathers. These books, written by Christians in the early second century AD, were considered authoritative in some Christian communities. Some of these writings, in fact, were believed to be as authoritative as the Gospels or Paul’s letters. Another important collection of early Christian writings was found near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. these second century books were written in Coptic.
The Development of the Christian Canon Christians were not the only ones, or even the first, to develop a set of authoritative books. Although the Jewish canon was not firmly established until after Jesus’ death, parts of the canon were considered authoritative much earlier. In the late first century, some Christians considered Jesus’ words to be “scripture” (1 Tim 5:18). Some Christians also gave authority to Paul’s writings (2 Pe 3:16). The Christian canon grew out of debates between different Christian groups regarding the correct teachings. During the second, third, and fourth centuries, Christians continued to debate the acceptability of Christian writings. These discussions centered around three main themes: 1) Was the book old? 2) Was the book written by an apostle? 3) Was the book widely accepted among Christians? it was not until 367 C.E. that a Christian named the current 27 books as authoritative Christian scripture.
implications for our study the books of the new testament embody different points of view. The discussion of the development of the canon showed that there were diverse views among the early Christians, and therefore we should not be surprised to find some of this diversity within the New Testament itself.
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The New Testament: Another Set of Problems Early Christian communities not only had different books, they also had different versions of the same books. In ancient times, books were copied by hand, letter by letter. this allowed a number of opportunities for scribal errors, intentional or not, to find their way into the text. we do not have the originals of any book of the new testament; our copies were made much later. we know that changes were made as the books were broadcast because of the copies we have. Scholars have collected over 5,000 Greek copies of the New Testament and no two are exactly alike. in fact, there are more differences in the manuscripts than there are words in the new testament.
Excursus: Some Additional Thoughts: The Historian and the Believer This textbook uses a nondenominational, historical approach to the New Testament and other early Christian writings. It is important to understand the difference between these approaches because the New Testament is more than a Christian book. it is a cultural artifact, a collection of writings that has influenced Western civilization. reading these books as history makes sense because they were written within particular historical circumstances and continue to be read within particular historical circumstances.
Historians deal with past events that are matters of the public domain. they try to reconstruct what probably happened from data that can be examined and evaluated by any interested observer regardless of his or her religious beliefs. historians can describe similarities and differences between points of view, but they cannot judge the validity of the points of view because the judgment is not part of the public record. Thus, a historian can describe what the term “son of god” means, but cannot, as a historian, judge whether or not Jesus is the son of god. such judgment arises from one’s theology and not from the public record. history and faith are not mutually exclusive; but they do not have the same restrictions.
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