NEW TESTAMENT

A very intelligent friend of mine noting that so many books in the New Testament are credited to Paul asked: “Were there other things written besides what we have?” My answer: yes, and a little bit no. Like most Biblical questions, it’s complicated and it depends. So here is a more detailed reply.

For the first generation of Christians, Scripture mean roughly what we call the Old Testament. There’s complications to that, but one problem at a time. There probably wasn’t anything written by Christians in the first 20 years after death and resurrection of Jesus (around AD 30), at least nothing that has survived. During this time stories about Jesus and his sayings were probably passed on by word of mouth. There is a strong likelihood that a collection of sayings of Jesus was written down around the year 50. We don’t have a copy of that collection, but a lot of the material was probably used in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

About 50 Paul wrote the first letter to the Thessalonians. This is the earliest piece of writing we have by a Christian. Paul wrote more letters between the years 50 to 64 of which we have ten (or maybe only seven or maybe thirteen, there is a debate) in what becomes the New Testament. Paul didn’t think he was writing Scripture. He was writing letters, most of them to people in churches he had started. Certainly Paul was a man of profound faith and we could say that he was inspired in writing these letters. His recipients must have thought so because they kept his letters and even circulated copies of them.  It’s possible that somewhere about the time Paul was writing, the books of James and 1 Peter were written and maybe Jude.  These are trickier to date since they aren’t addressed to anyone in particular and might not be letters at all.

Sometime between about 66 and 70 Mark writes his Gospel. I am convinced this is the first Gospel ever written. Matthew is probably written around 75-85 and Luke about 80-85 with the book of Acts shortly after. Matthew and Luke knew about Mark’s Gospel since they copied parts of it, but they don’t seem to have known each other’s books. John’s Gospel is from about 90-100 with the letters 1, 2, 3 John a bit later.

What else? Hebrews, anytime between 65 and 80. Revelation around 94-96. 2 Peter–any date is controversial, but I go with those who think it could be as late as 110.

Now it gets complicated. Ten of Paul’s letters (not counting 1, 2 Timothy and Titus) were probably put together as a collection before the end of the first century. That suggests they received special regard from people. They were mentioned by other Christian writers. Maybe they were being regarded as like the (Old Testament) Scriptures.  Something similar began to happen maybe in the middle of the second century with the Gospels. Christians writings were being treated as having a degree of authority for Christians. But which ones? What could you read at church like Scriptures? On this there was no agreement.

Late in the second century many Christians regarded the four Gospels, Acts, the letters of Paul, 1 Peter and 1 John as being authoritative books. There was disagreement over whether Hebrews, James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2,3 John, and Revelation were authoritative. Furthermore, some regarded additional books as being authoritative. Commonly mentioned were 1 Clement (written about 96), the Didache (about 100), The Shepherd of Hermas (150), The Epistle of Barnabas (130-140),  The Apocalypse of Peter (130-150), and the Acts of Paul (180-190) . Although none of these books are in the present New Testament, you can still get copies of most them.  Personally, I find the Didache the most interesting.

Then there were dozens of writings that people produced that a few people liked, but were generally rejected by most Christians such as, The Gospel of the Egyptians, The Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of Thomas, and on and on. Some of these we have, some only exists as quotes in other writers. A lot of it sounds absolutely nutty.

And just for good measure, there were some writings from near the time of the New Testament writings that were never considered scripture, but were widely read as good, edifying material. These include the Letters of Ignatius, the Epistle of Polycarp, and the Martyrdom of Polycarp.  They are very helpful in understanding early second-century Christianity.

In 367 Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of the books that matches what is in the present New Testament, nothing omitted, nothing added. That didn’t mean, however, that everyone, everywhere agreed. So how did the final decision get made? It didn’t. Over time there came to be widespread acceptance of what constituted the New Testament. We have to believe that the same Spirit that inspired the writing of these books also inspired the selection process.

Well, that’s all for now. Don’t forget February 17 is Ash Wednesday.

The Lord bless you on your Lenten journey and greet you on your Easter arrival,

Wayne




The picture is of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 654 which contains a portion of the Gospel of Thomas. Reconstructed, it begins: 'These are the secret sayings which Jesus the Living spoke and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote.” The Gospel of Thomas was a collection of sayings of Jesus, many of which are nothing like the real words of Jesus. The collection reflects a twisting of Christianity into the religion of Gnosticism.





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