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| Pentecost |
We are considering in this
essay the question of Canonicity or, put another way, which books truly belong
in the Bible and why others do not. In
part one of this series we looked at the canon of the Old Testament and found
there to be an almost shocking unanimity about it. It isn’t in human nature to not have some
controversy when it comes to religion, but apparently for the descendants of
Abraham, they knew when they heard the voice of God in their prophets, they
recorded it in writing, and made copies of their collections for
perpetuity. When the Christian movement
began, it came out of Judaism but didn’t leave behind the Law and prophets
because in them was a foundational understanding which in part explains and
predicts the incarnation and ministry of Jesus Christ. Thus the canon of the Old Testament was a fait accompli inherited by the Christian
Church.
The Christian scriptures,
also known as the New Testament, went through their own process of recognition
over several centuries which will be attended to in parts three and four of
this series. In this installment, I
would like to fill in the story of the New Testament with regards to its completion,
collection, and finally its connection to the Old Testament.
The actual writing of the New
Testament literature happened between 45 and 85 AD. Some date some of the Apostle John’s writings
to as late as the 90’s which is certainly plausible as there is strong support
for the idea that he lived into advanced age.
Given this time frame, the first thing which should strike you is that
the events recorded in the Gospels had happened 17 years prior to any of them
being written down. In some regards that
does seem like a long time, but on the other hand, nearly all of us have
moments that are so profound, they are almost impossible to forget decades and
decades later. I don’t think it is too
much of a stretch to say that those who were the eyewitnesses of the
extraordinary life of Jesus probably remembered these things as if they
happened yesterday. But there is also
another factor we must consider that is unfamiliar to us today and that is the
preference for oral tradition that existed in the Eastern world where the
Church began.
It could simply be that the
Apostles and those who followed shared these stories day-by-day and so often
that they knew them by heart. An
analysis of some of the sermons that are recorded in Acts of the Apostles,
shows there was a pattern in how the gospel was preached publicly and this
pattern seems to be followed in the written versions. Part of this delay in writing could be
explained by belief that Jesus’s return was imminent. It might also have been related to simple
economics. Before the invention of the
printing press, books were hand-copied and as such were quite expensive. A book the length of Luke’s gospel would have
run around $250 in today’s money.
Eventually these things were committed to writing, but when it happens
it is done from a position of expediency before eyewitnesses die and in larger
cities where copyists can be hired for better prices.
After the Gospels and letters
of the New Testament were written, they began the process of being collected
together. This didn’t happen all at once
but in segments. One of the earliest
known collections of the Apostle Paul’s
letters was in the city of Ephesus around 100 AD. St. Luke had written the book of Acts which
describes the early church era and the missionary journeys of Paul. This is turn created an interest to read the
other writings of Paul and soon the churches which had a letter from the
Apostle began sharing copies with each other.
Soon Acts and the Letters of Paul are copied as a collection and owned
by churches and individuals. Simultaneously is the collection of the four
Gospels we know simply as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
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| Irenaeus |
That these writings were
collected are attested by leading Christian teachers in the 2nd
Century. One such author known as
Irenaeus writes a famous book around 150 AD called Against Heresies. What is
important about this book is it catalogues all errors taught by false teachers
in the early church. In this book
Irenaeus directly states that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the only
authentic gospels in existence and indirectly he gives testimony to the
collection of the New Testament through use of quotations from every book of
the New Testament except Philemon.
Hippolytus of Rome (170 AD)
gives reference to the expansion of the scriptures to include the New Testament
writings by referring to them in his writings as “The Prophets, The Lord, and
The Apostles.” In this same era there
was another document written we know today as the Muratorian Canon. It lists the collected works of the New
Testament almost exactly as they are found today. So even in this early era, collections exist
of these individual works and there is an official sense developing of what is
and is not truly authentic scripture.
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| Tertullian: First to name the New Testament |
This brings us to the
connection of the Old Testament to the New Testament. The earliest Christians thought of the Jewish
scriptures as their own. The naming of
them as “Old” and “New” Testaments is above all a theological statement and
speaks to how Christians understand them.
This is why Christians and Jews can actually share a common book as
scripture and yet be in opposition regarding their conclusions. To generalize, Judaism focuses on the laws
and covenants and the centerpiece of their faith, while Christians read the Old
Testament as a unfolding revelation pointing to Jesus Christ (Jn. 5:39) who is
the sum and substance of the true faith.
Historically speaking, it was the North African bishop Tertullian (ca.
200 AD) who first began calling the collection of Christian writings “The New
Testament of Our Lord.”
To
conclude, the collections of both the Old and New Testament writings are joined
in the Christian mind but only with the Old serving as an extended introduction
to the New. The Old Testament does not
stand by itself but rather is subsumed in the New.
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