It's really hard to tell when the first compilations of those books came together because, as we know, periodically in an age of persecution there were books that were burned by the Romans, Christian books, and no doubt some of those were Scriptures. Because the New Testament is properly a new covenant between the Lord and those who have faith in Him, the books are intended for all those who seek to know Him, whether in this dispensation or in previous dispensations. Dr. Joel C. HunterThe Scriptures, especially the New Testament, address specific circumstances that we need to understand in order to interpret — this is called "hermeneutics" — in order to interpret accurately how those might apply to our day, or at least approximate ways in which they could apply to our day. Nonetheless, the apostles, often at least, and probably regularly, are these specially-authorized, designated representatives of God. The cartoonist Charles Schultz, who was a strong Christian person, in his book You Don't Look 35, Charlie Brown!, mentioned looking at his marked-up Bible — he had all these passages that had been marked, arrows, and underlinings and so forth — said he couldn't even remember all the reasons they were marked, but God knew. . He wrote largely to settle disputes within the branches, but at other times he wrote to his personal friends (Timothy and Titus). And, the church at Galatia, for example, they were having trouble going back to their old legalistic ways, and so he writes this wonderful epistle, this letter to them saying, "Don't, you know, starting off in the Spirit? In other words, the Old Testament is alive. So, the New Testament represents the authoritative apostolic teaching from these witnesses of Christ's life and work, and therefore, it is essential that Christians today study the New Testament. And indeed it was Irenaeus, I believe, who said, "You Gnostics, you're using these Scriptures, but these are not your books, and you're reading them wrongly." And so, the authority of the apostles in a more general sense in the New Testament, including all of those who wrote the New Testament books, is the authority of people who were either eyewitnesses or who were very close to eyewitnesses who therefore could interpret the life, death, resurrection and significance of Jesus for believers. So, against the Gnostics they said, "These are the true Scriptures, and this is the way we read them, according to the creeds." So, in 1 Corinthians 10 he's reflecting on the history of Israel and the fact that this history is written down in the Old Testament Scriptures, and he says to the Corinthians, to largely former pagans, to Gentiles, "These things happened and they were written down for our instruction." Dr. Fredrick Long is Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. This writing material was prepared from the reed plant of the same name, and its most important producing country was Egypt. This course approaches the New Testament not as scripture, or a piece of authoritative holy writing, but as a collection of historical documents. A:The New Testament was written and compiled by Christians for Christians, and is the story of the emergence of Christianity as a new faith. Our earliest manuscript that contains the whole New Testament is dated to the 4th Century A.D., though there are a number of partial manuscripts which contain substantial portions of some NT books from the period of about 200 A.D. Daniel Wallace notes that the twelve earliest manuscripts, which date to no later than about the early 3 rd century (i.e. So, those are things that were critical to the New Testament audience, and they haven't changed very much today. And Paul in 1 Corinthians points out that the spirit of prophets are subject to prophets. You're going to go back to the flesh?" God was there to apply his Word to that moment. So, increasingly gospel scholars are open to the view that the Gospels are written, not just for one isolated community but for all Christians. ‘New Testament studies’, as most of us learned the discipline, depends on some fundamental assumptions: that scientific history leads us toward objective, secure knowledge of the past; that careful method can unlock the real meaning of a stable text; that we have an audience who genuinely care what we say. He responds in his humanity; he responds using his words, his language, his personality, his understanding of the situation. Four reasons for accepting the integrity of the New Testament text: 1. What is this whole relationship between being man and God, how do we understand that? My vote is for Hebrews 11, the great book of faith. There is a dynamism in the Spirit working in the early community where prophets are subject to other prophets. Now, I'm aware that one of the dangers, or problems, of the Hispanic church is that people go in and out of the church. Why Is He Important? The second category of texts in the New Testament are the letters from Paul. The quintessential text here would be in Revelation where their names are actually on the New Jerusalem along with the twelve patriarchs. These were social movements going back to the days of Jewish independence a century and a half before Jesus. The first is called the "test of apostolicity." Two events may have triggered their desire to preserve their records about the life of Jesus: first, Jerusalem and the temple fell to a Roman army in A.D. 70. From a purely critical point of view, the text of the Fathers of the first three centuries is particularly important, especially Irenaeus, Justin, Origen, That's part of the joy, as Lamin Sanneh says, the Bible was meant to be translated. leads readers step-by-step through the entire New Testament. The placement of these prophetic works also emphasizes a forward-looking hope of salvation and future revelation. In the Muratorian Canon, which is the first orthodox canon list of ancient books, it talks about a number of books and says, "These are books that should be read in the churches." 149 Such is the roll of the most important uncial manuscripts of theNew Testament. And in some, they were given the authority and the divinely granted competency to correctly interpret the full meaning and implications of the person and the work of Jesus Christ. So, their authority is the authority as eyewitnesses. I like the new testament better because the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are about the gospel. With the gospel authors, that's a little bit more difficult to say. Dr. Richard Lints is Professor of Theology and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. 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