The Books of the New Testament
The earliest Christians had two wonderful and powerful sources as the rule for faith. During Christ’s life on earth, they had the direct teachings of the Master. After his death, resurrection and ascension to heaven, the living leadership of the apostles was the source of the message. This was the direct channel to the will of Jesus.
These important teachings and early traditions began to be documented. The first Gospels were not written until A.D. 60-70. Luke mentioned in his Gospel that many people had undertaken to document the events of Christ’s life.
Lk 1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, 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, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
We know that as time passed in the early church that there was a lot of writing. Much of this was in the form of letters.
Again we have an interesting question – how did we end up with the 27 books we have as our New Testament? We know this must have been complex, but there were actually some simple considerations that determined if a writing (book) became a part of the canon.
The books that are the Word of God have a very self-evidencing quality. They have a uniqueness that has always been recognized as powerful in the lives of people. In other words, they have an authenticity that didn’t draw debate.
Some of the books were known in the very early Christian worship. The authors, such as the apostle Paul, instructed that these Scriptures be read in the churches.
Col 4:16 After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
That doesn’t mean that everything read in the early churches became accepted as part of the New Testament.
The books that became a part of the New Testament had clear ties to the apostles.
Over time, these factors resulted in the canon of Christian writings that we have today in our New Testament. The list started to be formalized around A.D. 140 due to pressure created from individuals that were deviating from the teaching of the Scriptures. In response, the early church leaders were forced to formalize the decisions about the canon. The first complete list of books in the New Testament was published in an Easter letter from Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria in 367. We can see that this process played out over a few hundred years. Some formal councils of the Church later confirmed our New Testament canon.
- Council of Hippo in A.D. 393
- Council of Carthage in A.D. 397
We can see this as an important part of our church history. More important, we can see that our New Testament is connected directly to the teachings of the apostles, and they are the ones Christ charged with taking the Message to the world.
Next we will consider the evidence of the Bible’s authenticity – why we know it is true.
Blessings,
Larry
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