Formation of the new testament canon summary. biblical literature 2022-10-15
Formation of the new testament canon summary Rating:
7,8/10
237
reviews
The New Testament canon is the collection of books that are accepted as part of the Christian Bible and considered to be inspired by God. The process of forming the New Testament canon was a long and complex one, and it was not until the fourth century that the list of books that we now know as the New Testament was finalized.
The New Testament canon contains 27 books, including the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of Paul, the General Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. These books were written in the first century AD and were circulated among the early Christian communities.
The process of forming the New Testament canon began with the recognition that certain books were considered to be authoritative and inspired by the Holy Spirit. This recognition was based on the content of the books, their alignment with the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and their acceptance by the early Christian communities.
As the Christian movement spread throughout the Roman Empire, there was a need to establish a standardized collection of books that could be used as a reference for Christian teachings. This process was aided by the development of the Christian canon, which was a list of books that were considered to be authoritative and inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The process of forming the New Testament canon was not without controversy. Some Christian communities accepted certain books that were not accepted by other communities, and there was disagreement over which books should be included in the canon.
Despite these controversies, the process of forming the New Testament canon eventually led to the acceptance of a standardized collection of books that is now considered to be the New Testament. This canon was recognized by the Councils of Hippo and Carthage in the fourth century, and it has been accepted by the majority of Christian denominations ever since.
In summary, the formation of the New Testament canon was a long and complex process that involved the recognition of certain books as being authoritative and inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the eventual acceptance of a standardized collection of these books by the early Christian communities. This canon has played a central role in the development of Christianity and remains an important reference for Christian teachings to this day.
THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON (Chapter 10)
So how do we proceed? As far as we know, the early selectors were anonymous. While Montanism stressed the renewal of the prophetic gift and taught that the Holy Spirit was manifesting himself supernaturally through entranced prophets and prophetesses notably Montanus himself , the result of the Montanist challenge on the question of the canon has long been debated. The Scripture is self-authenticating. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" John 14:25-26, writer's translation. While the Greek word kanon does occur in the New Testament it cannot be translated by "canon" in English.
The Canon of the New Testament: How and When Formed
It lists all the books of our New Testament except Hebrews, James and 2 Peter. It was, therefore, no idle question what book a loyal Christian must stand for as his Scripture. Space permits us only to give in summary form his conclusions, especially in regard to the books still in doubt. We have no post hoc pronouncement from Christ to the effect that these 27 books, and these only, are authoritative, inspired and canonical. How can we espouse a view of Scripture which ipso facto cannot be proved from Scripture itself? The art will be to isolate "factor x" as the index mark of canonicity. The Canon of Scripture. From this time on there was no real challenge to the canon until the time of the Enlightenment.
Canonicity is a unique concept. Origen in the third century as quoted by Eusebius, Hist. John Murray refers to it as "supplementary attestation," 40 i. Heretical teachers arose who sowed in the Christian church the seeds of gnosticism. The Bible was circulated only in handcopies, slowly and painfully made; and an incomplete copy, obtained say at Ephesus in A.
Gaffin, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988, 12-24. It is not indeed right to overlook the fact that some have rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the Church of Rome, on the ground that it was not written by Paul. Paul and Luke were the only Christian authors to find favor with Marcion, though his versions of these differed from those later accepted by mainstream Christianity also termed Proto-orthodox Christianity. Rather it was self-authenticating and sealed to the hearts of God's people by the witness of the Holy Spirit. And the authoritative teachers sent forth by Christ to found His church, carried with them, as their most precious possession, a body of divine Scriptures, which they imposed on the church that they founded as its code of law.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. In the eastern church the 39th Paschal Letter of Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria, dates to A. Hence the New Testament is itself a phenomenon in the history of redemption. Harmer, edited and revised by M. It survives, damaged and thus incomplete, as a bad Latin translation of an original, no longer extant, Greek text that is usually dated in the late 2nd century, although a few scholars have preferred a 4th-century date. What aided essentially in this work was the execution, about this time, of versions of the New Testament books, such as the Old Latin and Syriac; for the authors of these versions must of necessity have brought together the writings, which, in their judgment, proceeded from the apostles and their companions. It provided infallible revelatory attestation for Christ and his work.
In the end, with Ridderbos, we must acknowledge in faith that the empirical canon coincides with the canon of Christ. Harnack's point of view requires a church situation which did not yet exist. Which created the whole creation, God made to dwell in flesh that he desired. Church History Book VI, Chapter 25. It is the ancient church's tradition of what the apostles wrote and handed down that is the criterion for evaluating these writings from the apostolic era, and only these twenty-one or twenty-two pass the test. Patzia, "Canon," Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, edited by G. Ironically it was the heretics who provided Zahn with some of the most substantial evidence for his position.
Another significant Gnostic work was the apocryphal Gospel of Truth written in Rome ca. Early Christians Had the Old Testament: The early Christians had in their hands what was a Bible to them, namely, the Old Testament Scriptures. Both canons are mentioned together as The entire Scriptures both prophetical and evangelical; The prophets, the gospel, and the blessed apostles; the law and the prophets, with the evangelical and apostolical writings; the Old and the New Testament; the entire instrument of each Testament, etc. As in so many other areas there comes a point where it becomes a matter of faith. Some differences of opinion, however, continued. At first a local church would have only a few apostolic letters and perhaps one or two Gospels. It is the Gospel according to Luke, a man who was not an apostle, which Paul parallels in I Tim.
This is true even in the case of apostolicity and Christocentricity. However, its canonical status is recognized. In contrast to Marcion's one Gospel Luke and the Gnostics' Gospel of Truth, Irenaeus maintains that the Church recognizes four Gospels. The possibility of imprisonment or death made it imperative to differentiate between which books the church would recognize as being a part of God's Word and any corollary or supplemental works. For him the issue is the authority of the revelation — not its form, whether oral or written.
It is a phenomenon in the history to which it bears witness. And in imposing new books on the same churches, by the same apostolical authority, they did not confine themselves to books of their own composition. This immediately raises an important question. He makes a sharp distinction between "canonical writings" the 27 books and these alone and "those worthy of reading" Old Testament Apocrypha 28, The Shepherd and the Didache. It is rather the authoritative proclamation entrusted to the apostles, as the witnesses of Christ and as the foundation of the Church. For this and the following categories a more detailed discussion can be found in H.
