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Origin of the New
Testament
Condensed Version
Copyright
© 2006
Regent of the Church of Celestine
Light All rights reserved.
What is
the Bible? Where exactly did it come from? It didn’t drop down
from Heaven bound in leather and gilded in gold, so how did it
come to be in the form it is today? For Christians, a
consideration of the means by which the New Testament came to be
canonized is even more important than a review of the Old
Testament, as it is more frequently referenced and has a greater
impact and meaning in the lives of Christian readers.
The writer
of the Book of John in the New Testament said,
"There are also many other things
which Jesus did, which if they should be written, every one, I
suppose that even the world itself could not contain all the
books that should be written” John
21:25.
That is an astounding statement if you consider that if you were
to eliminate the frequent repetition of the first four books of
the New Testament, and simply render a work that contained all
the sayings, parables and events in the life of Jesus as
recorded in the Bible, it would only fill a precious few
dozen pages.
The first Christians were all Hebrews, as Christianity sprang up
from within the religion of the Hebrews. The historic scene for
the birth for Christianity, in the land of Palestine, 1st
century AD, was a very tumultuous time. It was under the rule
of the Romans, but had been conquered by a succession of nations
during the previous 400 years. Many of the Hebrews were
fervently looking for a Messiah as had been foretold in their
scriptures. For the early Hebrew Christians, their expectations
and hope were fulfilled in Yeshua of Nazareth, who came to be
known as Iesous Christos in Greek, which was the prevalent
common language in the land. The Romans later latinized the
name into Ieseus.
As Hebrews, the early Christians were quite familiar with the
concept of “scripture”, for the sacred and holy writings of the
prophets and the law had been read to them in the synagogues all
of their lives and formed a foundation for their religious
instruction, worship and actions in life.
It became a natural evolution for early Christians to begin
collecting letters from the Apostles who had been living
witnesses to the life of Yeshua, and from other early leaders of
the church, and using the teachings contained within these as a
foundation for their own beliefs and actions and the essence of
the evolving Christian scriptures.
The problem with doing this arose from the fact that there was a
wide disagreement among the various sects of Christianity as to
which letters from Apostles and early church leaders should be
elevated to the sacredness of “scripture”.
The first few centuries after the death of Yeshua saw the rise
of numerous sects of Christianity with sometimes wide chasms in
the differences of their beliefs. This difference was often
seen by which early Apostolic letters and epistles the various
sects preferred, each choosing “scripture” that
most agreed with their beliefs.
One of the significant early Christian sects was the Gnostics.
We know more about this sect than any other early group of
Christians because of the treasure trove of 4th
century Gnostic manuscripts containing original compositions
dating to the early 2nd century, that were discovered
near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945, by camel drivers.
Although many of the fragile papyrus books were destroyed by
carelessness before their true value was known, 45 unique early
Christian manuscripts survived in whole or part and have been
translated and made available to the public. Among these
are some very notable books that have gained significant
readership among inquiring Christians today, including the
Gospel of Thomas, and the Gospel of Phillip.
In addition to the Gnostics, some of other notable early
Christian sects included the Hebrew Christians of Jerusalem, as
well as
the
Simonians, Ophites, Naassenes and the Cerinthians, all which
formed during 30-130 AD.
It is
curious that Protestants today wouldn’t even consider following
the edicts of the Catholic Pope, but they do not hesitate to
endorse the books of their Bible as being inerrant and inspired,
even though it was assembled by leaders of the early Catholic
church after a thorough suppression of all other manuscripts that
did not support their particular religious views and doctrines.
It wasn’t until the end of the 3rd century, almost 400 years
following the death of Yeshua, that a Bible of Catholic scriptures
was finally canonized by the Roman Church after their leaders
had purged what they felt were spurious letters and epistles
that were either lacking in substantive content, or unsupportive
of the doctrines of Catholic Christianity.
It is this same collection of Catholic New Testament letters
which are published and used in the Protestant Bibles today. This,
despite the fact that such iconic Protestant leaders as
Martin Luther did not feel several books of the Catholic New
Testament should be included in Protestant Bibles.
Given these facts, it is always confounding to hear Protestants
of great faith, but little historical understanding, proclaim
that their Bible is perfect and inerrant, by their belief,
having been assembled as it exists because of the inspiration
and guidance of God. The truth is, the Protestant New Testament
came from the Catholic Church, and it was a tumultuous 400 year
ride to get the version that Catholics and Protestants use
today.
For a
historical timeline chart detailing the development of New Testament “canon”,
which also shows some of the significant differences that
continue to exist in modern times,
click
here.
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