Introducing the New Testament

Joe Blair

• Publisher: B&H Academic
• Year: 1994
• ISBN:
  9781433674709
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Helps students understand the New Testament by introducing its contents and principles for its interpretation.

Part 1

Understanding the
New Testament

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1. The New Testament Canon

2. The Inspiration of Scripture

3. The Interpretation of the New Testament

1

The New Testament Canon

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The collection of books that we call the New Testament is the New Testament canon. The word canon comes from the Greek word for “reed.” In the development of the usage of the word, canon came to mean a standard of measurement. Then canon developed to mean an official standard by which other things are measured. In terms of the New Testament, the books of the New Testament are the standard list of books, those accepted as distinctive and authoritative by the church in relationship to other Christian writings. They are officially reserved as the revelation of God in and through Jesus Christ and His church. The development of the canon to official status may be considered in three major stages.

The First Stage: Oral Transmission and Literary Activity (A.D. 30–90)

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Basically, the written Scriptures for Christians of New Testament times were those of the Old Testament. The New Testament was in the process of being written. Until the writing down and collecting of the New Testament, the apostles’ teachings of and about Jesus were authoritative for the Way of Christ (Acts 9:2). Apostles, teachers, missionaries, and others passed these teachings along orally. This oral communication is often referred to as the oral transmission of the text. After a time, independent units of Jesus’ activity or teachings were written down and circulated.

The New Testament does not make direct reference to “oral transmission” as a term, but some statements indicate the reality and importance of the oral transmission of the gospel. Paul wrote of having received the oral gospel: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve” (1 Cor. 15:3–5).

Paul's farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, recorded in Acts, gives some insight into the oral gospel, also. In Acts 20:35 he encouraged his listeners to remember that Jesus said, “ ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” These words do not appear in the gospels, so it is likely that they came from a line of oral transmission which may have been written down eventually as part of a document we no longer have.

The literary activity which produced the New Testament began with Paul. Paul's earliest written work probably was 1 Thessalonians, penned around A.D. 49 or 50. Paul wrote many letters after that, and a number of different authors later wrote the Gospels and the rest of the books of the New Testament. By the end of the first century, however, some evidence indicates that individual writings were being collected into groups.

The Second Stage: Collection (A.D. 90–180)

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A collection of Paul's letters possibly was completed by the end of the first century . A quote from 2 Peter tells about Paul's letters: “He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (3:16).

This statement points to two probabilities. First, the reference “in all his letters” indicates that Paul's letters were known as a group. Second, the reference to people twisting the meaning of Paul's letters suggests that they abused them as a collected body of materials.

A witness outside the New Testament is Clement of Rome, who wrote to the Corinthian church around A.D. 95. He quoted the Old Testament as Scripture, revealed a knowledge of the teachings of Jesus, made mention of 1 Corinthians, and revealed that the book of Hebrews was known.¹ Again, such reference to various parts of the New Testament writings demonstrates that a group of materials was available for use. But it is impossible to tell how formal such a collection was. By the end of the first century, Christians depended upon a collection of Paul's letters and perhaps a greater collection of New Testament Scripture as they taught and lived the Way of Christ.

A papyrus manuscript of the Greek New Testament. The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri. Biblical Illustrator Photo/David Rogers/Kelsey Museum, Ann Arbor, Mich.

By the middle of the second century, collections of New Testament writings were vital to the church, as is evident in at least three collections. First, Marcion put together a collection of writings around A.D. 145, which became known, appropriately, as Marcion's Canon. Marcion rejected the Old Testament; he wanted to separate Christianity from Judaism, and he considered the God of the Old Testament to be evil. Marcion was an ardent follower of Paul, so his canon included about ten of Paul's letters. He rejected the Gospels, except for portions of Luke having no Old Testament references. The church at Rome, where Marcion was a member, excluded him from the church because of his rejection of the Old Testament and other Christian writings.

Second, the Muratorian Canon, used by the church at Rome by at least A.D. 170, may have been a response to Marcion's Canon. Included in the Muratorian Canon were the four Gospels, Acts, two and perhaps three letters of John, thirteen Epistles of Paul, Jude, and Revelation.

A third collection was of the Gospels, composed before A.D. 170. Tatian wove the four Gospels into one account called a Diatessaron, which refers to an “interweaving” of the Gospels.²

These various documents indicate a growing awareness on the part of Christian leaders that the church needed to separate those Christian writings uniquely authoritative and inspired from other writings which could have been considered on the same level. Other writings during the second and third century vied for a place in the New Testament canon. Christians in the Egyptian city of Alexandria accepted the Epistle of Barnabas, which discusses Christians and Jews in relationship to the Old Testament and teaches a way of light and a way of darkness. Those in Carthage used the Shepherd of Hermas, a document teaching that Christians have a second chance if they repent of their sins. The Apocalypse of Peter became important to Christians in Rome. It contains certain visions, including one of people in torment in the afterlife. These writings all date from the second century and were read in some Christian churches. Other churches refused to allow them to be read.³

The Third Stage: An Accepted Canon (A.D. 180–400)

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Quite early Christian leaders began to discuss what should and should not be considered as writings of divine revelation. Records are not available to trace every discussion or every stage of development, but enough extant evidence exists to give us a sufficient idea. For example, Irenaeus, toward the end of the second century, relates instruction he received from Polycarp, who considered the Gospels and other writings as of God. Polycarp's ministry occurred in the first part of the second century.⁴

Origen, in the middle of the third century, recognized that the New Testament canon had limits, and he revealed a knowledge of all the books presently in our New Testament.⁵ Around A.D. 325, Eusebius surveyed the prevailing views of the canon in his Ecclesiastical History.⁶ He listed books in three categories: those universally accepted as Scripture, those accepted by the majority, and those considered unacceptable.

A significant event occurred at Easter in A.D. 367. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, wrote an Easter letter to his parishioners in which he spelled out a canon, the first in a writing of an official nature. The list corresponded exactly with the twenty-seven books we have today as our New Testament canon. Although some debate would continue, the New Testament canon was set rather securely by A.D. 400.

Noteworthy to this discussion is the fact that Christians used the New Testament writings as authoritative and divinely inspired long before the completion of the process of canonization described above. Nevertheless, the process helped many Christians, who came after the eyewitnesses to Jesus were no longer present, to understand better the nature of divine revelation. The official collection of Scriptures enabled others to avoid giving authority to writings which may have been mistaken to have the same authority and inspiration of the New Testament canon. Also, the process of canonization is a witness to how God worked through the church to effect His will in the writing and collecting of the New Testament.

FOR STUDY AND REVIEW

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IDENTIFY:

Canon

Eusebius

Marcion

Athanasius

Muratorian Canon

Diatessaron

Tatian

QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION

1. What are the names, dates, and characteristics of the three stages in the development of the New Testament canon?

2. Did some Christian groups depend upon other works as authoritative Scripture? E...

Table of contents

• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• List of Maps
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1: Understanding the New Testament
• Part 2: Formative Influences on the Times of Christ
• Part 3: The Witness of the Gospels and Acts to Jesus Christ
• Part 4: The Witness of Paul to Jesus
• Part 5: Other Witnesses to Christ
• Glossary
• Index