...Running Head: THE NEW COVENANT FOR ALL MANKIND The New Covenant: New Testament Canionization? Abstract The canonization of the New Testament evolved over 400 years following the death of Jesus, influenced by social upheaval, different cultures, and political pressures of the era. This paper examines how the 27 books of the New Testament were formulated, recognized as Holy Scriptures, and eventually declared for inclusion in the new canon. It will examine how the new scriptures were evaluated using a new four-step criterion, determining which books were divinely inspired. It will also examine a new classification system, created to help determine which writings were acceptable, disputed, or rejected from consideration. Finally, the decision of which books to include in the New Testament is addressed during four major councils held by the church during the fourth century. The New Covenant: New Testament Canonization. After the death of Jesus, the apostles, and other followers, spread the word of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The primary method of teaching was by way of oral communication, spreading the message by word of mouth. As time went by, and the Apostles started to die, the first efforts were made to capture their life with Jesus into written word. The dissemination of these works was a slow process due to the hindrance in transportation and the inability to mass produce the writings. The ability to capture and fully understand these divine works...
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...The Biblical Canon: The Movement, Methodologies, and People Who Influenced It Thomas Gainey CHHI 301: History of the Christian Church I February 7, 2016 Introduction In Christianity one of the key factors of its faith is the belief that the Bible is inerrant. Many great Christian leaders have expressed the importance of the Bible. Norman Geisler once stated “The inerrancy of Scripture is the foundational doctrine in which all other doctrines rest, and the Psalmist rightly said, ‘If the foundation be destroyed, then what can the righteous do?’” In his statement he expresses the truth behind the fact that the Christian faith resides on the fact that the Bible is inerrant. Interesting enough the Bible of today with its 66 books, 39 Old Testament, and 27 New Testament are very similar to the bible of the early church. In the words of Herman Ridderbos, "the history of the Canon is the process of the growing consciousness of the Church concerning its ecumenical foundation.” People have often wonder why certain books made into the Bible, but others did not. In this paper will look how we got the Bible we have today and what movements, people, and doctrines effected. Old Testament Canon The Old Testament known to Christians in the Bible is what is known to Jews as the Tanakh. This is made of the writings of the Laws, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus Christ stated in Luke 24:44 “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and...
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...PAPER 1 THE CANONS INSTRUCTOR: DR. NICKENS CHHI 301 SUBMITTED BY: JANET SHELTON-WHITE PAGE 1 The Hebrew Bible is divided into 3 sections Law, Prophets and the Writings of Wisdom. The Jewish canon has 66 books; there are 39 books from the Old Testament originally in Hebrew and some written in Aramaic. [1]The New Testament has 27 books, the 12 Minor Prophets are counted as one book, and the Apocrypha word that comes from the Greek word meaning hidden or concealed were not included in the Hebrew Bible. The Catholics considered these writings and canonicals, and Orthodox Churches considered some as canon to a lesser degree. The heretical teachers from Asia Minor author of Roman Canon of sacred books did not believe that the New Testament books superseded the Old Testament others were omitted and did not recognize 10 Pauline Epistles but accepted 13 Epistles. [2] The Latin Greek word Kanon (kav’wv) defined as a measuring rod or index list centuries later the secondary word for the Church to recognize the Scripture of the Bible. The disciples and the Jews used a Septuagint from Alexandria Egypt is the early Greek translation of the Old Testament dating to BC 250. In the 3rd Century BC included the deuteron canonical books. The New Testament books were not in existence until after 300 the death of Christ. The person known as Marcion tried to develop a New Testament Canon and it conclude...
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...Daryl Miller CHH301-B12 LUO September 11, 2012 Paper 1 The Foundation of Orthodoxy and the Canon If we consider that what we know as Christianity is not what it began as, then we will see the need for a standard. That fact that Christianity as a religion and a worldview was revolutionary as is was also evolutionary. It was revolutionary in that it stood against the norm of Judaism and paganism. It was evolutionary in that what it was then is not what it is today. Therefore, the need of orthodoxy and for cannon is presented. Orthodoxy is the “correct, conventional or currently accepted beliefs, especially in religion.”The consolidation of power under Constantine and the stretch of the empire caused a need for orthodoxy of Christianity’s belief system. It also demanded a standard of doctrine. This leads to the canonicity of the Holy Scriptures. Canon is derived from the Greek word kanon. Elwell says of the word canon, “in Christianity [canon] refers to a group of books acknowledged by the early church as a rule of faith and practice” The word carries the idea of the measuring rod or standard against which the sacred text are weighed for inclusion. It should be noted that different faith systems have different canonical books. The Jewish canon is different from the Protestant as is the Catholic. If we bear in mind that the Bible we know today did not start out as a book at all, and then the logical progression must be to ask, how did it come about? An important note...
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...TO PROFESSOR C. PAUL KING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR HISTORY OF THE CHURCH I 301 DEPARTMENT OF CHURCH HISTORY BY GLENN ROGERS LYNCHBURG. VIRGINIA 10 NOVEMBER 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Reason or Need for Adoption of a Canon of Scripture 4 Key Events that were Influential in Recognition of the Canon 5 Individuals and Councils that Helped Shape the Canon 6 Conclusion 8 Works Cited 10 Introduction The Bible is one of the most intriguing books ever written. There is no other book in history that covers the same amount of time or the comprehensive aggregation of people and cultures as found in the pages of the Bible. The mysteries and wisdom of the Bible have held the attention of Biblical and non-biblical scholars for centuries. We know from the study of history that not all Jews agreed on which books belonged in the Bible. As a matter of fact Christians also debated what to include and exclude in the New Testament Scriptures. This was a major problem in the first two centuries of Christianity. Biblical historian Paul Johnson wrote in his book entitled History of Christianity, “After more than two centuries since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christians faced a terrifying jungle of scholarly contradictions.”...
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...referred to as the formation of the canon. To begin our investigation we will need to have a sound understanding of the terminology. Our English word "canon" is a loan-word from the Latin canon, which in turn was derived from the Greek kanon. For our purposes it is important to trace the linguistic development of the term. While the Greek word kanon does occur in the New Testament it cannot be translated by "canon" in English. In each case it is more suitably translated "rule" or "standard" (2 Cor.10:13,15,16; Gal.6:16; Phil.3:16). It will be noted that all the occurrences of the word are in Paul's writings, and in none of these instances is he referring to the canon of Scripture. That was to be a much later development. Movement in this direction occurred when "in the second century in the Christian church kanon came to stand for revealed truth, rule of faith." 1 Here we are distinguishing the redemptive-historical idea of the Canon, in which we may take note of three main elements: 1. That of exclusive authority, according to the authorization of the apostles by Christ himself; 2. That of a qualitatively closed unity, according to the unrepeatable and unique character of the apostolic witness; 3. That of fixation and stabilization, according to its destination as foundation and depositum custodi of the Church. At the same time, it should be stated that this concept of the Canon cannot be harmonized with the idea that the Canon of the Church can be subjected to...
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...The Canonization of the New Testament When we think about the New Testament in our Bibles today most of us pay little attention to, or have little regard for the history that surrounds how it came to be. This is partly because of the high position we as Evangelicals have for our Bibles. We are taught that the Bible is infallible and never contradicts itself. I agree whole heartedly that the Bible is God's Holy Word and infallible non contradictory. But two weeks ago if you were to ask me how the Bible was put together or "canonized", I would have told you that there was some sort of council that decided which books should be in there, but ultimately it was God's sovereign will. Now the last part would be correct, but the rest is at best debatable. So how was the Bible put together? Since the argument is extremely complex and much of the details are lost or were never recorded, we will be exploring the different events that drove the movement, along with several different opinions of when the Bible was Complete or Canonized. There were two particular movements during the second century that made the Church realize a need to have a compilation of books that were universally accepted. The first movement, although not as well know, was Marcionism. This heretical sect was started by Marcion who was born into Christianity but had a deep dislike for Judaism and the material world. He believed that the God and Father of Jesus are not the same as the creator Yahweh, and it was...
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...Discussion Board Post Forum 4 Question 2 Word Count- 568 The twenty-seven books of the New Testament are referred to as the canon, a term that has come to mean “list” or “table” (Carson 2005, 726). In English, the term canon represents an accepted rule or norm, Paul used this same word in Galatians 6:16 when he described the standards to be followed by believers (Lea 2003, 70). The Scriptures are collectively accepted beliefs for Christians, and the New Testament canon contains the approved doctrines for the Church (Lea, 71). The books of the New Testament are considered authoritative, and from divine origin, and these twenty-seven books are distinct from other books and literature written at that time (Lea, 72). Not all books were accepted as authoritative scripture, and the criteria for determining such was difficult. However, the most important element used to indicate canonicity was inspiration, this follows 2Tim 3:16 which says that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.”(Lea, 71). Further reference specifies that “inspired scripture” is from God, and that “not inspired” meant writings other than from God. Many other writings of the Christian Church existed and were sifted through because they lacked the elements necessary for inclusion into the canon (Lea, 72). The early Christian Church leaders used three factors to determine the validity of scriptures claimed to be inspired. Number one was the “rule of faith”, meaning that the Church...
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...literally means “little books,” meaning the bible is a collection of many individual books. The word bible is translated from the Greek word biblia. The definition expresses that it is a book that consists of diverse compositions, ranging from poetry, narrative to law, and prophecy. 2. Explain the relationship of the Christian Old Testament to the Hebrew Bible; define the term Tanakh, and name and describe the three main sections into which it is divided. In what way to Protestant editions of the Old Testament resemble the contents of the Tanakh? How do Catholic and Orthodox editions of the Old Testament differ from the Tanakh in content? Define the terms canon, Apocrypha, and deuterocanon. The Christian Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible are looked upon as the same even though there are significant differences between them. The most important of these variations is a change to the order of the books: the Hebrew Bible ends with the Book of Chronicles, which describes Israel restored to the Promised Land, and the Temple restored in Jerusalem; in the Hebrew Bible God's purpose is thus fulfilled and the divine history is at an end. In the Christian Old Testament the Book of Malachi is placed last, so that a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah leads into the birth of the Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. Tanakh is the modern name for the Hebrew Bible. It is an acronym consisting of three consonants that represent the three major divisions of the Bible; the Torah (law), the Nevi’im...
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...The Formation of the Canon, 5-6 page paper. Thus far we have come to a closing about the date and source of the individual books of the New Testament, but another questions remains unanswered. We can ask ourselves, how did the New Testament itself come into being? Who collected the writings and on what ideology? What conditions led to the creations of a canon, of trustworthy books? Throughout history Christian’s belief is that the Holy Spirit, who controlled the writing of the individual books, also controlled their selection and compilation, thus continuing to fulfill our Lord’s promise that He would guide his disciples into all reality. This however, is something that is to be discerned by spiritual insight, and not by historical research. The object is to find out what historical research reveals about the origin of the New Testament canon. We have people tell us that we receive the twenty seven books of the New Testament on the mandate of the Church; but even if we do, we have to look at how the Church came to recognize these twenty-seven books as worthy of being placed on a level of encouragement and authority with the Old Testament. It took over a century of the proliferation of numerous writings before anyone was even concerned. They started to pick and choose and it was largely a cumulative, individual and accidental event, guided by chance and prejudice more than objective and scholarly research, until priests and academics began declaring what was authoritative...
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...of stories told, a collection of interpretations, whether they be right or wrong, are ought to form. Throughout the early centuries many altered interpretations, or heresies, regarding the bible formed. Although the heresy of Marcionism was outlandish and heavily disputed against, it actually aided in the emergence of the Catholic Church. According to John Knox, of the University of Chicago, “Among the creative personalities of early Christianity few are so interesting and important as Marcion, who was expelled from the Roman community… and whose activities gave rise to the most vigorous heretical movement within the ancient church”(p.1). According to the article, Marcion and Scripture: The Impact of a Second Century Heretic on the New Testament, Marcion’s early life was filled with disgrace. “At some point later, however, he was “excommunicated by his own father” for having seduced a consecrated virgin and “degraded both her and himself.” Most modern historians think that the story of Marcion's seduction of a virgin may be a symbolic tale in which the virgin represents the church and Marcion's seduction represents his introduction of heretical teaching”(p.1-3). After being excommunicated from the Church, he took his odd beliefs to Asia Minor. Adolf von Harnack, the author of Marcion The Gospel of the Alien God, explained the bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp’s views as “Polycarp sharply...
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...Bible The Malmesbury Bible Canons · Books [show] Authorship · Development [show] Translations · Manuscripts [show] Biblical studies[show] Interpretation[show] Perspectives[show] Wikipedia book Bible book Portal icon Bible portal v · t · e The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, "the books") is a canonical collection of texts sacred in Judaism and Christianity. There is no single "Bible" and many Bibles with varying contents exist.[1] The term Bible is shared between Judaism and Christianity, although the contents of each of their collections of canonical texts is not the same. Different religious groups include different books within their Biblical canons, in different orders, and sometimes divide or combine books, or incorporate additional material into canonical books. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, contains twenty-four books divided into three parts: the five books of the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), the Nevi'im ("prophets"), and the Ketuvim ("writings"). Christian Bibles range from the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon to the eighty-one books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church canon. The first part of Christian Bibles is the Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the twenty-four...
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...THE FOUNDATION OF ORTHODOXY AND THE FORMATION OF THE CANON Presented to Professor G. Johnson For CHHI 301-D06 LUO By Dana Peebles L25945367 July 18, 2015 Throughout the legacy of Rome there has been much conversation over the rise and fall of the empire. From the government and its ideas to establish an effective common law, to the economic and social status of the culture and what the values and beliefs are for Christians, the foundation of orthodoxy and the formation of the canon becomes quite influential in this process. It is my desire to explain that despite the disputes going on within the early church, the essential matters such as the nature, humanity, and deity of Christ are critical to the rise of Christianity. The fact that the “Roman law also influenced the church law,” is something that cannot go unnoticed either, as it was “derived from the Bible, the church fathers, church councils, and the decisions of popes.” [1]. In describing this and relating it to how we view the Bible today and its inerrancy, the formation of the New Testament Canon and its relationship to orthodox tradition can “accurately embody the revealed truth content of Christianity” and what that means for the church universal. [2]. In today’s world, often times people take for granted what the New Testament represents. We live day to day reading and trying to apply the teachings of Christ as Christians everywhere strive to follow God’s Word. However, we do this...
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...Foundation: The Orthodoxy and the Canon 4/25/2016 Submitted To- Professor C Paul King CHHI-301 2 Foundation: The Orthodoxy and the Canon Many in today’s culture follow this sad, but dangerous view: there is no truth that can be deemed as absolute truth. A few years back, I can recall sitting in a classroom at a Union County High school here in Tennessee, as the teacher begins to introduce himself and his stance on philosophy. The teacher, in his introduction states an ignorant statement in a very arrogant manner: “There is no such thing as absolute truth, just personal opinion.” He continued by stating, “Because there is no absolute truth, there is no absolute truth in the matter of what is right and wrong.” A few students were shocked by this statement and raised their hands to ask about whether certain issues were right or wrong–– such as stealing, murder, drug use, abortion, and similar issues. He attempted to shoot all their examples down, with a sense of arrogance on his face. I slowly slipped my hand up and asked him the following statement: “What about incest, where relatives molest and rape their children?” I will never forget the look on his face, his smirk swiftly dropped to the floor. As he stumbled through his incoherent response, I thought about the importance of absolute truth. Christians need to realize the importance of what our Canon represents: a book of absolute truth given to us by our God. We are living in a generation where...
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...Canonization of Scripture Stephen Landrum The word canon has evolved over time to come to mean the official inventory of books, like that of Athanasius, that a religious community regards as its authoritative source of doctrinal and ethical beliefs. The word comes from the Greek kanwn and most likely from the Hebrew qaneh and Akkadian, qanu. Literally, it means a straight rod or bar; a measuring rule as a ruler used by masons and carpenters; then a rule or standard for testing straightness (Harris 24). In the past, canon referred the doctrines of the church that were accepted as rule of faith. The canonization of the New Testament was a long and complex process. Canonization served two purposes. It clarified the beliefs church leaders considered true and acceptable; and it provided a unifying force for the churches throughout the Roman Empire. Canonization provided a firm written authority for universal belief and practice. A major factor in the permanent establishment of a New Testament canon was the Vulgate, a translation done by Jerome. This translated the scripture into common Latin of western Roman civilization. For nearly one thousand years no new translations of the Bible appeared even as new European languages developed through the dark ages of the medieval period. The Vulgate remains the official Bible of The Roman Catholic Church (Harris 31-32). The protestant canon differs from the Roman Catholic canon. The protestant Bible is seven books shorter that the...
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