117-677: The New Testament ( NT ) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon . It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus , as well as events relating to first-century Christianity . The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament , which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible ; together they are regarded as Sacred Scripture by Christians. The New Testament
234-671: A secondary status . Martin Luther (1483–1546) moved seven Old Testament books (Tobit, Judith, 1–2 Maccabees, Book of Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch) into a section he called the " Apocrypha , that are books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are useful and good to read". All of these apocrypha are called anagignoskomena by the Eastern Orthodox Church per the Synod of Jerusalem . As with
351-588: A 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae ( Divine Institutes ): But all scripture is divided into two Testaments. That which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets —is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The Jews make use of the Old, we of
468-638: A Gentile, and similarly for the Gospel of Matthew, though most assert Jewish-Christian authorship. However, more recently the above understanding has been challenged by the publication of evidence showing only educated elites after the Jewish War would have been capable of producing the prose found in the Gospels. Authorship of the Gospels remains divided among both evangelical and critical scholars. The names of each Gospel stems from church tradition, and yet
585-566: A complete list of the books received by the Catholic Church as inspired, but omits the terms "canon" and "canonical". The Council of Florence therefore taught the inspiration of all the Scriptures, but did not formally pronounce itself on canonicity. Luther proposed that the genuine mark of canonical material was that it preached Christ. This allowed him to relegate books (including ones that may not have supported his theology) to
702-466: A corpus of fourteen "Pauline" epistles. While many scholars uphold the traditional view, some question whether the first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles", are authentic letters of Paul. As for the latter three, the "Pastoral epistles", some scholars uphold the traditional view of these as the genuine writings of the Apostle Paul; most regard them as pseudepigrapha . One might refer to
819-672: A different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles . Scholars hold that these books constituted two-halves of a single work, Luke–Acts . The same author appears to have written the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, and most refer to them as the Lucan texts. The most direct evidence comes from the prefaces of each book; both were addressed to Theophilus , and
936-499: A lesser degree of inspiration, but a later time of final approval. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate contained in the Appendix several books considered as apocryphal by the council: Prayer of Manasseh , 3 Esdras , and 4 Esdras . Church History (Eusebius) The Ecclesiastical History ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Ἱστορία , Ekklēsiastikḕ Historía ; Latin : Historia Ecclesiastica ), also known as The History of
1053-510: A letter ( c. 405) to Exsuperius of Toulouse , a Gallic bishop, Pope Innocent I mentioned the sacred books that were already received in the canon. When bishops and Councils spoke on the matter of the Biblican canon, however, they were not defining something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church". Thus from the 4th century there existed unanimity in
1170-579: A liar, the "first thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity." Ramsay MacMullen in the 20th century regarded Eusebius's work as representative of early Christian historical accounts in which "Hostile writings and discarded views were not recopied or passed on, or they were actively suppressed... matters discreditable to the faith were to be consigned to silence." As a consequence this kind of methodology in MacMullen's view has distorted modern attempts, (e.g. Harnack, Nock, and Gustave Bardy), to describe how
1287-515: A list of exactly the same books that would become the New Testament –27 book–proto-canon, and used the phrase "being canonized" ( kanonizomena ) in regard to them. In 331, Constantine I commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty Bibles for the Church of Constantinople . Athanasius recorded Alexandrian scribes around 340 preparing Bibles for Constans . Little else is known, though there
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#17327725488731404-762: A part of the Jewish canon, describes Nehemiah ( c. 400 BC ) as having "founded a library and collected books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings about votive offerings" ( 2:13–15 ). The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple ( 8–9 ) around the same time period. Both 1 and 2 Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus ( c. 167 BC ) likewise collected sacred books ( 3:42–50 , 2:13–15 , 15:6–9 ), indeed some scholars argue that
1521-518: A scholarly consensus that many New Testament books were not written by the individuals whose names are attached to them. Scholarly opinion is that names were fixed to the gospels by the mid second century AD. Many scholars believe that none of the gospels were written in the region of Palestine . Christian tradition identifies John the Apostle with John the Evangelist , the supposed author of
1638-639: A standard by the early 5th century. The five excluded books were added in the Harklean Version (616 AD) of Thomas of Harqel . The standard United Bible Societies 1905 edition of the New Testament of the Peshitta was based on editions prepared by Syriacists Philip E. Pusey (d. 1880), George Gwilliam (d. 1914) and John Gwyn . All twenty seven books of the common western New Testament are included in this British & Foreign Bible Society's 1905 Peshitta edition. The first Council that accepted
1755-613: A uniformity of doctrine concerning the Mosaic Law , Jesus, faith, and various other issues. All of these letters easily fit into the chronology of Paul's journeys depicted in Acts of the Apostles. The author of the Epistle of James identifies himself in the opening verse as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". From the middle of the 3rd century, patristic authors cited the Epistle as written by James
1872-460: A variety of reasons the majority of modern scholars have abandoned it or hold it only tenuously. It is significantly different from the synoptic gospels, with major variations in material, theological emphasis, chronology, and literary style, sometimes amounting to contradictions. Christian biblical canon A biblical canon is a set of texts (also called "books") which a particular Jewish or Christian religious community regards as part of
1989-656: Is a collection of Christian texts originally written in the Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different Christian denominations , the 27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity since at least Late Antiquity . Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books: The earliest known complete list of
2106-455: Is often thought that John the Apostle is John the Evangelist , i.e. author of the Gospel of John ) or to another John designated " John of Patmos " after the island where the text says the revelation was received (1:9). Some ascribe the writership date as c. 81–96 AD, and others at around 68 AD. The work opens with letters to seven local congregations of Asia Minor and thereafter takes
2223-555: Is plenty of speculation. For example, it is speculated that this may have provided motivation for canon lists, and that Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus are examples of these Bibles. Those codices contain almost a full version of the Septuagint ; Vaticanus lacks only 1–3 Maccabees and Sinaiticus lacks 2–3 Maccabees, 1 Esdras , Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah . Together with the Peshitta and Codex Alexandrinus , these are
2340-530: Is scholarly debate as to the reason why the translators of the Septuagint chose the term diatheke to translate Hebrew brit , instead of another Greek word generally used to refer to an alliance or covenant. The use of the phrase New Testament ( Koine Greek : Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη , Hē Kainḕ Diathḗkē ) to describe a collection of first- and second-century Christian Greek scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian in his work Against Praxeas . Irenaeus uses
2457-623: Is the Old Testament , which contains, at minimum, the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible divided into 39 ( Protestant ) or 46 ( Catholic [including deuterocanonical works]) books that are ordered differently. The second part is the New Testament , almost always containing 27 books: the four canonical gospels , Acts of the Apostles , 21 Epistles or letters and the Book of Revelation . The Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches hold that certain deuterocanonical books and passages are part of
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#17327725488732574-418: Is to "prefer those that are received by all Catholic Churches to those which some of them do not receive" (On Christian Doctrines 2.12). In the same passage, Augustine asserted that these dissenting churches should be outweighed by the opinions of "the more numerous and weightier churches", which would include Eastern Churches, the prestige of which Augustine stated moved him to include the Book of Hebrews among
2691-624: Is upon Mount Gerizim that sacrifices to God should be made—not in Jerusalem. Scholars nonetheless consult the Samaritan version when trying to determine the meaning of text of the original Pentateuch, as well as to trace the development of text-families. Some scrolls among the Dead Sea scrolls have been identified as proto-Samaritan Pentateuch text-type. Samaritans consider the Torah to be inspired scripture, but do not accept any other parts of
2808-452: Is written as follows: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James". The debate has continued over the author's identity as the apostle, the brother of Jesus, both, or neither. The Gospel of John, the three Johannine epistles , and the Book of Revelation , exhibit marked similarities, although more so between the gospel and the epistles (especially the gospel and 1 John) than between those and Revelation. Most scholars therefore treat
2925-535: The Bible . The English word canon comes from the Greek κανών kanōn , meaning " rule " or " measuring stick ". The use of the word "canon" to refer to a set of religious scriptures was first used by David Ruhnken , in the 18th century. Various biblical canons have developed through debate and agreement on the part of the religious authorities of their respective faiths and denominations. Some books, such as
3042-629: The Catholic biblical canon consisting of 46 books in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament for a total of 73 books. The canons of the Church of England and English Presbyterians were decided definitively by the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563) and the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), respectively. The Synod of Jerusalem (1672) established additional canons that are widely accepted throughout
3159-558: The Council of Florence (1439–1443) took place. With the approval of this ecumenical council , Pope Eugenius IV (in office 1431–1447) issued several papal bulls ( decrees ) with a view to restoring the Eastern churches , which the Catholic Church considered as schismatic bodies, into communion with Rome . Catholic theologians regard these documents as infallible statements of Catholic doctrine . The Decretum pro Jacobitis contains
3276-510: The Eastern Orthodox Church . Various forms of Jewish Christianity persisted until around the fifth century, and canonized very different sets of books, including Jewish–Christian gospels which have been lost to history. These and many other works are classified as New Testament apocrypha by Pauline denominations. The Old and New Testament canons did not develop independently of each other and most primary sources for
3393-637: The Epistle to the Laodiceans and the Third Epistle to the Corinthians as examples of works identified as pseudonymous. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary scholars generally reject Pauline authorship. The epistles all share common themes, emphasis, vocabulary and style; they exhibit
3510-429: The Gospel of John . Traditionalists tend to support the idea that the writer of the Gospel of John himself claimed to be an eyewitness in their commentaries of John 21 :24 and therefore the gospel was written by an eyewitness. This idea is rejected by the majority of modern scholars. Most scholars hold to the two-source hypothesis , which posits that the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written . On this view,
3627-747: The Hasmonean dynasty (140 BCE to 37 BCE) fixed the Jewish canon. Another version of the Torah, in the Samaritan alphabet , also exists. This text is associated with the Samaritans ( Hebrew : שומרונים ; Arabic : السامريون ), a people of whom the Jewish Encyclopedia states: "Their history as a distinct community begins with the taking of Samaria by the Assyrians in 722 BC." The Samaritan Pentateuch's relationship to
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3744-531: The Jewish Bible 's Book of Jeremiah , Judaism traditionally disagrees: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a lord over them, saith
3861-609: The Jewish–Christian gospels , have been excluded from various canons altogether, but many disputed books are considered to be biblical apocrypha or deuterocanonical by many, while some denominations may consider them fully canonical. Differences exist between the Hebrew Bible and Christian biblical canons, although the majority of manuscripts are shared in common. Different religious groups include different books in their biblical canons, in varying orders, and sometimes divide or combine books. The Jewish Tanakh (sometimes called
3978-647: The Lutheran Churches , the Anglican Communion accepts "the Apocrypha for instruction in life and manners, but not for the establishment of doctrine", and many "lectionary readings in The Book of Common Prayer are taken from the Apocrypha", with these lessons being "read in the same ways as those from the Old Testament". The Protestant Apocrypha contains three books (3 Esdras, 4 Esdras and
4095-575: The New Testament developed over time. Writings attributed to the apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. Possible apostolicity was a strong argument used to suggest the canonical status of a book. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected forms by the end of the 1st century AD. Justin Martyr , in the early 2nd century, mentions the "memoirs of the Apostles", which Christians (Greek: Χριστιανός) called " gospels ", and which were considered to be authoritatively equal to
4212-516: The Old Testament canon . The Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , and Assyrian churches may have differences in their lists of accepted books. Some Christian groups have other canonical books (open canon) which are considered holy scripture but not part of the Bible. Rabbinic Judaism ( Hebrew : יהדות רבנית ) recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text , commonly called
4329-662: The Tanakh ( תַּנַ"ךְ ) or Hebrew Bible . Evidence suggests that the process of canonization occurred between 200 BC and 200 AD, and a popular position is that the Torah was canonized c. 400 BC , the Prophets c. 200 BC , and the Writings c. 100 AD perhaps at a hypothetical Council of Jamnia —however, this position is increasingly criticised by modern scholars. According to Marc Zvi Brettler ,
4446-640: The West concerning the New Testament canon as it is today, with the exception of the Book of Revelation . In the 5th century the East too, with a few exceptions, came to accept the Book of Revelation and thus came into harmony on the matter of the New Testament canon. As the primary canon crystallised, non-canonical texts fell into relative disfavour and neglect. Before the Protestant Reformation ,
4563-677: The same communion and hold the same theological beliefs. The Peshitta is the standard version of the Bible for churches in the Syriac tradition . Most of the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are found in the Syriac, and the Wisdom of Sirach is held to have been translated from the Hebrew and not from the Septuagint . This New Testament, originally excluding certain disputed books (2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation), had become
4680-484: The " canon " (meaning a measuring line, rule, or principle) of accepted theological thought and those that promoted heresy. This played a major role in finalizing the structure of the collection of works called the Bible. It has been proposed that the initial impetus for the proto-orthodox Christian project of canonization flowed from opposition to the list produced by Marcion. A four-gospel canon (the Tetramorph )
4797-536: The 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius , a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria , dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided
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4914-608: The 2nd century. The Pauline letters are the thirteen New Testament books that present Paul the Apostle as their author. Paul's authorship of six of the letters is disputed. Four are thought by most modern scholars to be pseudepigraphic , i.e., not actually written by Paul even if attributed to him within the letters themselves. Opinion is more divided on the other two disputed letters (2 Thessalonians and Colossians). These letters were written to Christian communities in specific cities or geographical regions, often to address issues faced by that particular community. Prominent themes include
5031-570: The 4th century or later. The people of the remnants of the Samaritans in modern-day Israel / Palestine retain their version of the Torah as fully and authoritatively canonical. They regard themselves as the true "guardians of the Law". This assertion is only re-enforced by the claim of the Samaritan community in Nablus (an area traditionally associated with the ancient city of Shechem ) to possess
5148-511: The 5th century, the Christian historian Socrates Scholasticus described Eusebius as writing for "rhetorical finish" in his Vita Constantini ("Life of Constantine ") and for the "praises of the Emperor" rather than the "accurate statement of facts." The methods of Eusebius were criticised by Edward Gibbon in the 18th century. In the 19th century Jacob Burckhardt viewed Eusebius as
5265-542: The Apocrypha". The fathers of Anabaptism, such as Menno Simons , quoted "them [the Apocrypha] with the same authority and nearly the same frequency as books of the Hebrew Bible" and the texts regarding the martyrdoms under Antiochus IV in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees are held in high esteem by the Anabaptists, who historically faced persecution. Lutheran and Anglican lectionaries continue to include readings from
5382-564: The Apocrypha. In response to Martin Luther 's demands, the Council of Trent on 8 April 1546 approved the present Catholic Bible canon, which includes the deuterocanonical books , and the decision was confirmed by an anathema by vote (24 yea, 15 nay, 16 abstain). The council confirmed the same list as produced at the Council of Florence in 1442, Augustine's 397–419 Councils of Carthage , and probably Damasus' 382 Council of Rome . The Old Testament books that had been rejected by Luther were later termed "deuterocanonical", not indicating
5499-649: The Apostle ( Acts 16:10–17 ; arguing for an authorship date of c. AD 62 ), which is corroborated by Paul's Letter to the Colossians ( Col. 4:14 ), Letter to Philemon ( Philem. 23–24 ), and Second Letter to Timothy ( 2 Tim. 4:11 ), the gospel account of Luke "was received as having apostolic endorsement and authority from Paul and as a trustworthy record of the gospel that Paul preached" (e.g. Rom. 2:16 , according to Eusebius in Ecclesiastical History 3.4.8). The word testament in
5616-436: The Apostles is a narrative of the apostles' ministry and activity after Christ's death and resurrection, from which point it resumes and functions as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke . Examining style, phraseology, and other evidence, modern scholarship generally concludes that Acts and the Gospel of Luke share the same author, referred to as Luke–Acts . Luke–Acts does not name its author. Church tradition identified him as Luke
5733-401: The Bible—probably a position also held by the Sadducees . They did not expand their canon by adding any Samaritan compositions. There is a Samaritan Book of Joshua ; however, this is a popular chronicle written in Arabic and is not considered to be scripture. Other non-canonical Samaritan religious texts include the Memar Markah ("Teaching of Markah") and the Defter (Prayerbook)—both from
5850-462: The Church and Church History , is a 4th-century chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century , composed by Eusebius , the bishop of Caesarea . It was written in Koine Greek and survives also in Latin, Syriac , and Armenian manuscripts. The result was the first full-length narrative of the world history written from a Christian point of view. According to Paul Maier , Herodotus
5967-424: The Church grew in the early centuries. Arnaldo Momigliano wrote that in Eusebius's mind "chronology was something between an exact science and an instrument of propaganda". The work was translated into other languages in ancient time (Latin, Syriac, Armenian). Codex Syriac 1 housed at the National Library of Russia is one of the oldest Syriac manuscripts, dated to the year 462. The first English translation
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#17327725488736084-446: The Epistle to the Hebrews does not internally claim to have been written by the Apostle Paul , some similarities in wordings to some of the Pauline Epistles have been noted and inferred. In antiquity, some began to ascribe it to Paul in an attempt to provide the anonymous work an explicit apostolic pedigree. In the 4th century, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo supported Paul's authorship . The Church largely agreed to include Hebrews as
6201-430: The Evangelist , the companion of Paul, but the majority of scholars reject this due to the many differences between Acts and the authentic Pauline letters, though most scholars still believe the author, whether named Luke or not, met Paul . The most probable date of composition is around 80–90 AD, although some scholars date it significantly later, and there is evidence that it was still being substantially revised well into
6318-405: The Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching." The ESV Study Bible claims the following (as one argument for gospel authenticity): Because Luke , as a second generation Christian, claims to have retrieved eyewitness testimony ( Luke 1:1–4 ), in addition to having traveled with Paul
6435-508: The Hebrew Bible) contains 24 books divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah ("teaching"); the eight books of the Nevi'im ("prophets"); and the eleven books of Ketuvim ("writings"). It is composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew , with portions in Aramaic . The Septuagint (in Koine Greek ), which closely resembles the Hebrew Bible but includes additional texts, is used as the Christian Greek Old Testament, at least in some liturgical contexts . The first part of Christian Bibles
6552-438: The Jewish scriptures outside the Torah and the Prophets were fluid, with different groups seeing authority in different books. The Book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or subtracting ( 4:2 , 12:32 ) which might apply to the book itself (i.e. a "closed book", a prohibition against future scribal editing) or to the instruction received by Moses on Mount Sinai . The book of 2 Maccabees , itself not
6669-411: The Jewish translators of the Septuagint in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE, has been understood in Christian theology to imply a reinterpreted view of the Old Testament covenant with Israel as possessing characteristics of a 'will left after death' (the death of Jesus ) and has generated considerable attention from biblical scholars and theologians: in contrast to the Jewish usage where brit
6786-557: The Just . Ancient and modern scholars have always been divided on the issue of authorship. Many consider the epistle to be written in the late 1st or early 2nd centuries. The author of the First Epistle of Peter identifies himself in the opening verse as "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ", and the view that the epistle was written by St. Peter is attested to by a number of Church Fathers : Irenaeus (140–203), Tertullian (150–222), Clement of Alexandria (155–215) and Origen of Alexandria (185–253). Unlike The Second Epistle of Peter ,
6903-403: The LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto
7020-408: The Masoretic Text is still disputed. Some differences are minor, such as the ages of different people mentioned in genealogy, while others are major, such as a commandment to be monogamous, which appears only in the Samaritan version. More importantly, the Samaritan text also diverges from the Masoretic in stating that Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Gerizim —not Mount Sinai —and that it
7137-414: The New Testament were all or nearly all written by Jewish Christians —that is, Jewish disciples of Christ, who lived in the Roman Empire , and under Roman occupation . The author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts is frequently thought of as an exception; scholars are divided as to whether he was a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew . A few scholars identify the author of the Gospel of Mark as probably
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#17327725488737254-457: The New Testament were only a few among many other early Christian gospels. The existence of such texts is even mentioned at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. In modern scholarship, the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing Christ's ministry. The Acts of
7371-407: The New: but yet they are not discordant, for the New is the fulfilling of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who, having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, the people of the Jews being deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks such things: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new testament to
7488-541: The Old Testament. Marcion of Sinope was the first Christian leader in recorded history (though later considered heretical ) to propose and delineate a uniquely Christian canon (c. 140). This included 10 epistles from Paul , as well as an edited version of the Gospel of Luke , which today is known as the Gospel of Marcion . By doing this, he established a particular way of looking at religious texts that persists in Christian thought today. After Marcion, Christians began to divide texts into those that aligned well with
7605-408: The Prayer of Manasseh) that are accepted by many Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical, but are regarded as non-canonical by the Catholic Church and are therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles. Anabaptists use the Luther Bible , which contains the intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in
7722-494: The West for the necessity of making sharp delineations with regard to the canon. They were more conscious of the gradation of spiritual quality among the books that they accepted (for example, the classification of Eusebius, see also Antilegomena ) and were less often disposed to assert that the books which they rejected possessed no spiritual quality at all. For example, the Trullan Synod of 691–692 , which Pope Sergius I (in office 687–701) rejected (see also Pentarchy ), endorsed
7839-443: The author did not primarily intend it as such. Eusebius has been often accused of intentional falsification of the truth . Other scholars, while admitting that his judging of persons or facts is not entirely unbiased, push back on claims of intentional fabrication as "quite unjust." Eusebius attempted according to his own declaration (I.i.1) to present the history of the Church from the apostles to his own time, with special regard to
7956-414: The authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke used as sources the Gospel of Mark and a hypothetical Q document to write their individual gospel accounts. These three gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels , because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes in exactly the same wording. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, by using
8073-438: The authors of the Gospels do not identify themselves in their respective texts. All four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are anonymous works . The Gospel of John claims to be based on eyewitness testimony from the Disciple whom Jesus loved , but never names this character. The author of Luke-Acts claimed to access an eyewitness to Paul ; this claim remains accepted by most scholars. Objections to this viewpoint mainly take
8190-429: The authorship of which was debated in antiquity, there was little debate about Peter's authorship of this first epistle until the 18th century. Although 2 Peter internally purports to be a work of the apostle, many biblical scholars have concluded that Peter is not the author. For an early date and (usually) for a defense of the Apostle Peter's authorship see Kruger, Zahn, Spitta, Bigg, and Green. The Epistle of Jude title
8307-494: The books that would later be put in the New Testament canon except the Letter to Philemon , II Peter , III John , and the Epistle of Jude in Against Heresies , refers to the Shepherd of Hermas as "scripture" and appears to regard I Clement as authoritative. By the early 3rd century, Christian theologians like Origen of Alexandria may have been using—or at least were familiar with—the same 27 books found in modern New Testament editions, though there were still disputes over
8424-512: The canon of the Old Testament, which included the deuterocanonical books. There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the latest New Testament texts. John A. T. Robinson , Dan Wallace , and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Many other scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman and Stephen L. Harris , date some New Testament texts much later than this; Richard Pervo dated Luke–Acts to c. 115 AD , and David Trobisch places Acts in
8541-418: The canon specify both Old and New Testament books. For the biblical scripture for both Testaments, canonically accepted in major traditions of Christendom , see § Canons of various traditions . For churches which espouse sola scriptura it is necessary and critical to have a clear and complete list of the canonical books. For churches which espouse sacred Tradition or Magisterium as well as Scripture,
8658-416: The canonical writings, though he had reservation about its authorship. Philip Schaff says that "the council of Hippo in 393, and the third (according to another reckoning the sixth) council of Carthage in 397, under the influence of Augustine, who attended both, fixed the catholic canon of the Holy Scriptures, including the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, ... This decision of the transmarine church however,
8775-558: The canonicity of some of the writings (see also Antilegomena ). Likewise by 200, the Muratorian fragment shows that there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to what is now the New Testament, which included four gospels and argued against objections to them. Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings were accepted by almost all Christians by
8892-686: The city and in all Judea until finally the siege of Vespasian overwhelmed them. Thus the divine vengeance overtook the Jews for the crimes which they dared to commit against Christ. Eusebius levels a similar charge against Christians, blaming a spirit of divisiveness for some of the most severe persecutions. But when on account of the abundant freedom, we fell into laxity and sloth, and envied and reviled each other, and were almost, as it were, taking up arms against one another, rulers assailing rulers with words like spears, and people forming parties against people, and monstrous hypocrisy and dissimulation rising to
9009-526: The current New Testament canon except for four books: James , 2nd Peter , and the 2nd and 3rd epistles of John . He also included the Shepherd of Hermas which was later rejected. The religious scholar Bruce Metzger described Origen's efforts, saying "The process of canonization represented by Origen proceeded by way of selection, moving from many candidates for inclusion to fewer." In his Easter letter of 367, Patriarch Athanasius of Alexandria gave
9126-505: The debates of scholars, but the spiritual nourishment of the people of God...the factor which ultimately carried the day (for what was in the canon) was actual usage in the Church." The Early Church used the Old Testament , namely the Septuagint (LXX) among Greek speakers, with a canon perhaps as found in the Bryennios List or Melito's canon . The Apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures ; instead,
9243-518: The drawing up of his Antitheses, centres in this, that he may establish a diversity between the Old and the New Testaments, so that his own Christ may be separate from the Creator , as belonging to this rival God, and as alien from the law and the prophets . By the 4th century , the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius ,
9360-611: The earliest extant Christian Bibles. There is no evidence among the canons of the First Council of Nicaea of any determination on the canon; however, Jerome (347–420), in his Prologue to Judith , makes the claim that the Book of Judith was "found by the Nicene Council to have been counted among the number of the Sacred Scriptures". The Eastern Churches had, in general, a weaker feeling than those in
9477-610: The end of 323 or in 324. This work required the most comprehensive preparatory studies, and it must have occupied him for years. His collection of martyrdoms of the older period may have been one of these preparatory studies. Eusebius blames the calamities which befell the Jewish nation on the Jews' role in the death of Jesus . This quote has been used to attack both Jews and Christians (see Antisemitism in Christianity ). … that from that time seditions and wars and mischievous plots followed each other in quick succession, and never ceased in
9594-463: The epistle to the Hebrews, based on its distinctive style and theology, which are considered to set it apart from Paul's writings. The final book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation , also known as the Apocalypse of John. In the New Testament canon, it is considered prophetical or apocalyptic literature . Its authorship has been attributed either to John the Apostle (in which case it
9711-527: The expression "New Testament" refers to a Christian new covenant that Christians believe completes or fulfils the Mosaic covenant (the Jewish covenant) that Yahweh (the God of Israel) made with the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses , described in the books of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. While Christianity traditionally even claims this Christian new covenant as being prophesied in
9828-440: The five as a single corpus of Johannine literature , albeit not from the same author. The gospel went through two or three "editions" before reaching its current form around AD 90–110. It speaks of an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions, but does not say specifically that he is its author; Christian tradition identifies this disciple as the apostle John , but while this idea still has supporters, for
9945-535: The following lists of canonical writings: the Apostolic Canons (c. 385), the Synod of Laodicea (c. 363), the Third Synod of Carthage (c. 397), and the 39th Festal Letter of Athanasius (367). And yet, these lists do not agree. Similarly, the New Testament canons of the Syriac , Armenian , Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian Churches all have minor differences, yet five of these Churches are part of
10062-526: The following points: He grouped his material according to the reigns of the emperors, presenting it as he found it in his sources. The contents are as follows: Andrew Louth has argued that the Ecclesiastical History was first published in 313 CE . In its present form, the work was brought to a conclusion before the death of Crispus (July 326), and, since book x is dedicated to Paulinus, Archbishop of Tyre , who died before 325, at
10179-634: The form of an apocalypse , a "revealing" of divine prophecy and mysteries, a literary genre popular in ancient Judaism and Christianity. The order in which the books of the New Testament appear differs between some collections and ecclesiastical traditions. In the Latin West, prior to the Vulgate (an early 5th-century Latin version of the Bible), the four Gospels were arranged in the following order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark. The Syriac Peshitta places
10296-486: The form of the following two interpretations, but also include the claim that Luke-Acts contains differences in theology and historical narrative which are irreconcilable with the authentic letters of Paul the Apostle . According to Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina , none of the authors of the Gospels were eyewitnesses or even explicitly claimed to be eyewitnesses of Jesus's life. Ehrman has argued for
10413-524: The fourteenth letter of Paul, and affirmed this authorship until the Reformation . The letter to the Hebrews had difficulty in being accepted as part of the Christian canon because of its anonymity. As early as the 3rd century, Origen wrote of the letter, "Men of old have handed it down as Paul's, but who wrote the Epistle God only knows." Contemporary scholars often reject Pauline authorship for
10530-421: The gospels are in accord with these things ... For the living creatures are quadriform and the gospel is quadriform [...] These things being so, all who destroy the form of the gospel are vain, unlearned, and also audacious; those [I mean] who represent the aspects of the gospel as being either more in number than as aforesaid, or, on the other hand, fewer. Irenaeus additionally quotes from passages of all
10647-514: The greatest height of wickedness, the divine judgment with forbearance, as is its pleasure, while the multitudes yet continued to assemble, gently and moderately harassed the episcopacy. He also launches into a panegyric in the middle of Book x. He praises the Lord for his provisions and kindness to them for allowing them to rebuild their churches after they have been destroyed. The accuracy of Eusebius's account has often been called into question. In
10764-405: The greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. The word covenant means 'agreement' (from Latin con-venio 'to agree' lit. 'to come together'): the use of the word testament , which describes the different idea of written instructions for inheritance after death, to refer to the covenant with Israel in the Old Testament, is foreign to
10881-413: The house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord." ... For that which He said above, that He would make a new testament to the house of Judah, shows that the old testament which was given by Moses
10998-569: The influence of Augustine of Hippo , who regarded the canon as already closed. Pope Damasus I 's Council of Rome in 382 (if the Decretum is correctly associated with it) issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above. Likewise, Damasus' commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, proved instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West. In
11115-412: The issue can be more organic, as the Bible is an artifact of the church rather than vice versa . Theologian William J. Abraham has suggested that in the primitive church and patristic period the "primary purpose in canonizing Scripture was to provide an authorized list of books for use in worship. The primary setting envisaged for the use of Scripture was not that of the science of theology, or that of
11232-441: The late second century, the four narrative accounts of the life and work of Jesus Christ have been referred to as "The Gospel of ..." or "The Gospel according to ..." followed by the name of the supposed author. The first author to explicitly name the canonical gospels is Irenaeus of Lyon , who promoted the four canonical gospels in his book Against Heresies , written around 180. These four gospels that were eventually included in
11349-593: The major Catholic epistles (James, 1 Peter, and 1 John) immediately after Acts and before the Pauline epistles. The order of an early edition of the letters of Paul is based on the size of the letters: longest to shortest, though keeping 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians together. The Pastoral epistles were apparently not part of the Corpus Paulinum in which this order originated and were later inserted after 2 Thessalonians and before Philemon. Hebrews
11466-561: The mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first New Testament canon. Whether the Gospels were composed before or after 70 AD, according to Bas van Os, the lifetime of various eyewitnesses that includes Jesus's own family through the end of the First Century is very likely statistically. Markus Bockmuehl finds this structure of lifetime memory in various early Christian traditions. The New Oxford Annotated Bible claims, "Scholars generally agree that
11583-464: The middle of the 3rd century. Origen of Alexandria (184/85–253/54), an early scholar involved in the codification of the biblical canon, had a thorough education both in Christian theology and in pagan philosophy, but was posthumously condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 since some of his teachings were considered to be heresy. Origen's canon included all of the books in
11700-561: The next thousand years. Eusebius's Chronicle , which attempted to lay out a comparative timeline of pagan and Old Testament history, set the model for the other historiographical genre, the medieval chronicle or universal history . Eusebius had access to the Theological Library of Caesarea and made use of many ecclesiastical monuments and documents, acts of the martyrs, letters, extracts from earlier Christian writings, lists of bishops, and similar sources, often quoting
11817-591: The oldest existing copy of the Torah—one that they believe to have been penned by Abisha, a grandson of Aaron . The canon of the Catholic Church was affirmed by the Council of Rome (AD 382), the Synod of Hippo (AD 393), two of the Councils of Carthage (AD 397 and 419), the Council of Florence (AD 1431–1449) and finally, as an article of faith, by the Council of Trent (AD 1545–1563). Those established
11934-429: The original Hebrew word brit (בְּרִית) describing it, which only means 'alliance, covenant, pact' and never 'inheritance instructions after death'. This use comes from the transcription of Latin testamentum 'will (left after death)', a literal translation of Greek diatheke (διαθήκη) 'will (left after death)', which is the word used to translate Hebrew brit in the Septuagint . The choice of this word diatheke , by
12051-423: The originals at great length so that his work contains materials not elsewhere preserved. It is therefore of historical value, though it pretends neither to completeness nor to the observance of due proportion in the treatment of the subject-matter. Nor does it present in a connected and systematic way the history of the early Christian Church. It is to no small extent a vindication of the Christian religion, though
12168-477: The phrase New Testament several times, but does not use it in reference to any written text. In Against Marcion , written c. 208 AD, Tertullian writes of: the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel . And Tertullian continues later in the book, writing: it is certain that the whole aim at which he [ Marcion ] has strenuously laboured, even in
12285-500: The post-resurrection appearances, but the emptiness of the tomb implies a resurrection). The word "gospel" derives from the Old English gōd-spell (rarely godspel ), meaning "good news" or "glad tidings". Its Hebrew equivalent being "besorah" (בְּשׂוֹרָה). The gospel was considered the "good news" of the coming Kingdom of Messiah , and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, the central Christian message. Starting in
12402-624: The preceding epistles. These letters are believed by many to be pseudepigraphic. Some scholars (e.g., Bill Mounce, Ben Witherington, R.C. Sproul) will argue that the letters are genuinely Pauline, or at least written under Paul's supervision. The Epistle to the Hebrews addresses a Jewish audience who had come to believe that Jesus was the Anointed One (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ—transliterated in English as "Moshiach", or "Messiah"; Greek: Χριστός—transliterated in English as "Christos", for " Christ ") who
12519-457: The preface to the Acts of the Apostles references "my former book" about the ministry of Jesus. Furthermore, there are linguistic and theological similarities between the two works, suggesting that they have a common author. The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus . Seven letters are generally classified as "undisputed", expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are
12636-498: The present Catholic canon (the Canon of Trent of 1546) may have been the Synod of Hippo Regius , held in North Africa in 393. A brief summary of the acts was read at and accepted by the Council of Carthage (397) and also the Council of Carthage (419) . These Councils took place under the authority of Augustine of Hippo (354–430), who regarded the canon as already closed. Augustine of Hippo declared without qualification that one
12753-584: The relationship both to broader " pagan " society, to Judaism, and to other Christians. [Disputed letters are marked with an asterisk (*).] The last four Pauline letters in the New Testament are addressed to individual persons. They include the following: [Disputed letters are marked with an asterisk (*).] All of the above except for Philemon are known as the pastoral epistles . They are addressed to individuals charged with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. They often address different concerns to those of
12870-411: The work of Paul: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is, despite unlikely Pauline authorship, often functionally grouped with these thirteen to form
12987-526: Was asserted by Irenaeus (c. 130 – c. 202 AD) in the following quote: It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four-quarters of the earth in which we live, and four universal winds, while the church is scattered throughout all the world, and the 'pillar and ground' of the church is the gospel and the spirit of life, it is fitting that she should have four pillars breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh [...] Therefore
13104-472: Was not perfect; but that which was to be given by Christ would be complete. Eusebius describes the collection of Christian writings as "covenanted" (ἐνδιαθήκη) books in Hist. Eccl. 3.3.1–7; 3.25.3; 5.8.1; 6.25.1. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (the gospel of Mark in the original text ends with the empty tomb and has no account of
13221-619: Was predicted in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. The author discusses the superiority of the new covenant and the ministry of Jesus, to the Mosaic Law Covenant and urges the readers in the practical implications of this conviction through the end of the epistle. The book has been widely accepted by the Christian church as inspired by God and thus authoritative, despite the acknowledgment of uncertainties about who its human author was. Regarding authorship, although
13338-578: Was subject to ratification; and the concurrence of the Roman see it received when Innocent I and Gelasius I (414 AD) repeated the same index of biblical books. This canon remained undisturbed till the sixteenth century, and was sanctioned by the council of Trent at its fourth session." According to Lee Martin McDonald, the Revelation was added to the list in 419. These councils were convened under
13455-464: Was the father of history and Eusebius of Caesarea is the father of ecclesiastical history. In the early 5th century, two advocates in Constantinople , Socrates Scholasticus and Sozomen , and a bishop, Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Syria , wrote continuations of Eusebius's account, establishing the convention of continuators that would determine to a great extent the way history was written for
13572-454: Was the usual Hebrew word used to refer to pacts, alliances and covenants in general, like a common pact between two individuals, and to the one between God and Israel in particular, in the Greek world diatheke was virtually never used to refer to an alliance or covenant (one exception is noted in a passage from Aristophanes ) and referred instead to a will left after the death of a person. There
13689-478: Was variously incorporated into the Corpus Paulinum either after 2 Thessalonians, after Philemon (i.e. at the very end), or after Romans. Luther's canon , found in the 16th-century Luther Bible , continues to place Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse (Revelation) last. This reflects the thoughts of the Reformer Martin Luther on the canonicity of these books. It is considered the books of
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