When was new testament finalized

By about , a harmony of the four Gospels had appeared. The oldest nearly complete New Testament manuscripts still in existence date from the fourth century, but their predecessors probably emerged already in the third.

Initially, there was not full agreement on the order of the books. It was natural to group the Gospels together and the letters of Paul together. Revelation naturally came at the end of the collection because it was the last one written and it also discussed the last things of human history.

The rationale for the existing order would appear to have been as follows. The Gospels came first because they are biographies of the life of Jesus, the founder of the Christian religion, who is the reason there is any New Testament in the first place.

The order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John probably corresponds to the order in which several Church Fathers believed they were written, though Matthew was regularly credited with having written something in a Hebrew dialect, probably less than a full-fledged Gospel. Even if Mark was written first, as most modern scholars have good reason to believe, Matthew could easily have been put first because it is the most Jewish of the four Gospels and has the greatest number of links with the Old Testament.

Then come all the epistles, grouped together, beginning with the letters of Paul, the most influential of all the first-generation Christians. Except when two epistles are adjacent because they have the same addressees, the letters of Paul are arranged in descending order of length. Galatians also disrupts the pattern, being just slightly shorter than Ephesians. First came letters to churches and then letters to individuals, each arranged according to this pattern.

The authorship of Hebrews has been uncertain from its initial publication. Because some thought it Pauline, while many did not, it was place immediately next to the Pauline epistles but not inserted where it would have gone, according to its length, within that collection.

The so-called General Epistles were apparently arranged in the order of the importance or prominence of their authors in the first decades of the Jesus movement.

And the Ethiopian Orthodox Church includes 81 total books in its Bible , including pseudepigrapha like 1 Enoch and Jubilees. The word "apocrypha" comes from the Greek for "hidden" or "secret. First, there's the category of "New Testament Apocrypha" which includes a long list of non-canonical texts written mostly in the second century C. As Combs says, there are hundreds of these texts and we don't have written specimens for all of them. And then there's a third category called "pseudepigrapha" from the Greek for "false author.

Many of the New Testament texts familiar to Christians today were being used authoritatively already in the second century, but different congregations preferred some texts over others and included some texts that don't appear in the New Testament. Here are a few:. The Gospel of Peter : Only a fragment of this text was recovered in in Egypt, but it includes the only narrative account of the resurrected Jesus leaving his tomb.

According to Peter's version, two giant angels descended to the tomb and escorted the resurrected Jesus out, who was also suddenly gigantic. But the oddest note was that the three figures were followed by a floating cross that could talk. The Gospel of Mary : Combs says that some apocryphal texts reflected theological and doctrinal debates going on within the early church, such as the role of women. In the Gospel of Mary discovered in the late 19th century , Mary Magdalene is not only referred to as one of Jesus's disciples, but perhaps his favorite one.

In this text, after Jesus is resurrected, he relays esoteric teachings to Mary, who then tells the other disciples. Peter asks why they should listen to a woman, to which another disciple Levi [Matthew] responds:. Surely the Savior knows her full well. These initial Epistles were forwarded to Peter and John, who fully accepted them as Scriptures sanctioned by God.

Only the apostles of Jesus Christ, whom God had specifically chosen for this task, wrote and canonized the New Testament. They were nothing less than the direct teachings of God. This is why Paul had little reluctance in telling people about the high calling that he had. Paul considered that the teachings he recorded represented the very commandments of God. These are strong and authoritative words.

Knowing he would soon be martyred, Paul urgently began to complete the canonization of his Epistles. At this time, Luke was with Paul and could assist in this all-important task. However, in order for Paul to complete his work, he needed Timothy—and Mark. Paul summoned Timothy, specifically requesting that he bring Mark as well.

Mark had previously assisted both Paul and Peter, and would be invaluable in helping Paul edit his Epistles and complete his canonization before his death II Tim. Paul also wanted Timothy to bring several important items needed to complete the canonization of his Epistles. Once Timothy and Mark arrived with these items, Paul could then add the final inspired additions to his Epistles.

Because Paul had already canonized eleven of his Epistles earlier in 63 AD, this final canonization probably required little editing. When the relevant information contained in the writings of the New Testament is brought to light, absolute proof emerges that the apostles Paul and Peter canonized their Epistles before the destruction of Jerusalem, because this was the most catastrophic event to happen—in the history of the Jews and the New Testament Church.

Therefore, it is self-evident that if their epistles were written after 70 AD they would have written about it. In the following chapter, we will see that the New Testament was not completed until God gave the apostle John the task of finishing his Gospel and epistles, writing the book of Revelation and canonizing the entire New Testament before he died. Exact match All words Any word.

It is not until well into the 2nd century that the four Gospels are given their names see Naming the Gospels. Establishing the canon: 2nd - 4th century AD. By the middle of the 2nd century it becomes evident that a great many different and often contradictory passages of holy scripture are circulating among the various Christian churches, each claiming to offer the truth.

There is even a Gospel according to Judas Iscariot. Which of these shall be accepted as the official canon? This becomes a subject of urgent debate among church leaders. By the end of the century it is widely agreed that four Gospels, the Epistles of Paul and the Acts of the Apostles are authentic. But it is not until that a list is circulated by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, which finally establishes the content of the New Testament.