How We Got the New Testament

The Gospels

Why Were the Gospels Written?

• Books were the most common way ideas were spread across the Empire. To evangelize the Empire, you needed books.
• Eyewitnesses to the Gospel events were passing away. The church needed to crystalize the memories of the original disciples and apostles.
• Books were the perfect tool for instruction.
• False ideas—Gnosticism, Docetism, etc.—from both outside and inside the church could be formally challenged by books. (These false ideas also found their way into book form as spurious Gospels.)
• The Gospels made clear to Roman authorities that Christians were not politically subversive.
  
  

---

The Traditional View of How the Gospels Were Written

• Mark copied; Peter spoke in random remembrances (non-chronological)
• Matthew reported what he had seen and heard.
• Luke read existing documents and interviewed eyewitnesses in order to produce a chronological account.
• John reported what he had seen and heard

---

The Da Vinci Code Smokescreen

“WHAT SHOULD WE MAKE of the claim in Dan Brown’s popular novel The Da Vinci Code that Constantine created the New Testament canon and suppressed 80 ‘gospels’ in favor of the now-established four?...It is true that many works about Jesus (now labeled gospels) circulated both in the first century and later. But Brown’s claim is hardly serious history; the vast majority of Christians had been reading precisely our four Gospels as Scripture since the second century at least, as writings from Irenaeus make clear. Church authorities did not wait until Constantine to fish out gospel pretenders.”

“Further, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John differ in kind from the second- and third-century works called “gospels,” which reflect little or no apostolic tradition and do not even fit the same genre as the canonical Gospels. The four first-century Gospels we possess are, as the church long understood and recent scholarship has confirmed, ancient bioi, or “lives” of Jesus. (A bios focused on the most relevant events of a person’s life, commonly leaving gaps in the chronology.) These Gospels include many elements of Jesus’ Judean culture, Aramaic figures of speech, and so on; this differs sharply from later stories written about Jesus. In contrast, second-century and later gospels tend to fall into two categories: “sayings—gospels” (favored especially by gnostics) and religious novels (what we usually call the apocryphal gospels).”

Keener, “Da Vinci”

---

The Synoptic Problem

“Synoptic problem - Questions that arise from comparing the Synoptic Gospels for their similarities and differences and attempting to explain them.” Patzia, p. 264

The Synoptic Problem also attempts to figure out who wrote first, who borrowed from whom, and what common documents that two or more Gospel writers may have used that have since disappeared.

 

---

Gospel Account Differences

Billy Graham himself was deeply troubled by the one aspect of the Synoptic Problem, the large number of differences between different Gospel accounts of the same event. You can see these for yourselves by studying a Harmony of the Gospels.

Graham persevered in the faith by reminding himself that Inerrancy and Verbal Inspiration apply to the original autographs of Scripture. We no longer have these; we have only have multi-multi-generation copies of the original documents. (People who hold to an “Authoritative in All Matters of Faith and Practice” view of Scripture are pretty much untroubled by differences in the Gospel accounts.)

---

What Caused the Synoptic Problem?

• Only God knows why He did not preserve the original autographs.
• Scribe Problems
  • In early days, multiple copyists copied as one person read aloud. Noise and distractions meant different results for different copyists listening to the same reader.
  • When copyists later worked from a written document at their own pace, some had the same issues as people you meet in the working world today: lazy, bored, careless, inattentive, distracted, sleepy, underqualified for the job, and so on.

---

Tatian’s Diatessaron and The Synoptic Problem

Tatian was a Syrian Christian who handled the Synoptic Problem by creating his own Harmony of the Gospels, the Diatessaron ('Through the Four'), around 150-160 AD. Tatian added, omitted, reworked, and introduced other sources till he had a smoothed-out harmony where the four gospels happily agreed with one another. We can infer two things from Tatian’s work:

• The 4 Gospels had been accepted as authoritative by this point
• Many in the early church still viewed them as biographies, not verbally inspired documents that it would have been blasphemous to alter. The focus was their truthfulness.

Patzia, pp. 93-94

---

Other Approaches to the Gospels

The Pauline Epistles

Paul’s Triple Heritage

“To understand Paul fully, one has to appreciate his dual heritage. He was brought up a pious Jew (Phil 3:4-6) and therefore had a a thorough knowledge of Judaism and the Old Testament. But he was a Hellenistic Jew. This heritage helps us to understand his preference for the LXX, fluency in the Greek language, familiarity with Greek authors and the use of current literary forms in his letters. When it comes to his interpretation of the Old Testament, however, he often employs Jewish exegetical techniques that he learned fom the rabbis.” Patzia, p. 101

Note: Paul had a triple heritage: he was a Hellenistic Jew who was also a freeborn Roman citizen

---

Amanuensis, Scribe, Secretary

”Paul probably exercised considerable control over his secretary, but there was more influence possible from a secretary than many modern Bible readers understand." Patzia, p. 114.

The use of secretaries for letter writing undermines those arguments that a change in style indicates two different authors; e.g., Paul didn’t write Hebrews since it’s so different stylistically from Paul’s epistles. This difference could be just as easily explained by Paul using a new and incredibly gifted stylist as his secretary for his epistle to the Hebrews.

---

Co-Authors?

“In addition to examples of secretarial assistance, a number of letters suggest joint authorship…I Corinthians 1:1-2…II Corinthians 1:1…Philippians 1:1…Colossians 1:1…I Thessalonians 1:1…II Thessalonians 1:1…Philemon 1…Although we cannot be absolutely certain, these salutations seem to imply more than the contributions of a secretary. These individuals mentioned along with Paul must have had some specific role in the composition of the letter , or else Paul would not have mentioned them by name.” Patzia, p. 115

---

How Could Paul Afford to Write Those $10K Letters?

Church sponsorship? Wealthy patron? “Karl Donfried reasons that the Greek word skenopoiov, commonly translated as ‘tent-maker,’ should be expanded to include ‘leather-worker.’ As a leather-worker, Paul may have experimented in the production of parchment notebooks.” Patzia, p. 204

---

Writing Materials And Instruments

• Papyrus – Nothing outside of Egypt survived
• Parchment (Pergammum) – Leather dipped in lime, scraped, and polished
• Vellum – Parchment refined even further
• Reeds then Quills
• Scrolls Vs. Codex – Videotapes VS DVD
• Uncial and Miniscule

---

Letter Carriers

“’Letters could travel some 800 miles in two months; or some 350 miles in thirty-six days; or 125 miles in three weeks; or some 400 miles in fourteen days; or 150 miles in four, six, or eve days; or fifteen miles in the same day.’” Eldon J. Epp cited in Patzia, p. 221

---

Letter Readers

The person delivering Paul’s letter, a person probably familiar with what Paul was thinking as he wrote it, read and expounded upon the letter. As the church developed, elders or deacons would read the authorized texts. By the middle of the 3rd century, the church office of Lector, i.e., reader, appeared. Patzia, p. 127-9

---

Collecting Paul’s Letters

• Paul Himself - Paul’s might have made copies of his own letters
• Gradual Gathering – Paul’s letters were acquired by more and more churches as they increasingly recognized Paul’s importance and influence
• The Binge Gathering – Paul’s importance and influence had faded, but the appearance of Luke’s Gospel (which originally contained the Book of Acts) created a resurged interest in Paul

The Remainder of the New Testament

Acts of the Apostles

“Acts begins to appear as a separate work under the title 'The Acts of the Apostles' only around A.D. 150, after the Gospel of Luke became part of the fourfold Gospel collection.“ Patzia, p. 148

---

General/Catholic Epistles

Jude – Another disputed book

James – “[T]he least Christian and most Jewish book in the New Testament.” Patzia, p. 156 (As we will see, Martin Luther despised the Epistle of James.)

Hebrews – It did not match Paul’s style, but it was eventually accepted because influential people pushed for it being a Pauline epistle.

Epistles of John – I John was undisputed, but II John and III John were thought suspicious; that the early Church Fathers had known and accepted II John and III John won over the skeptics.

---

Revelation

• Researchers believed John experienced the Revelation at Patmos, but wrote about it after his exile was rescinded and he returned to Ephesus.
• The Syrian Bible, the Peshitta, excludes it.
• Revelation is included in the Eastern Orthodox Bible, but it is never read in their liturgy. The Eastern Orthodox Church feels attention to Revelation creates timewasting and fruitless disputations.

Prelude to Canonization

The Canonization Process

Books Not Immediately Accepted

"Certainly the whole Canon was not universally received by the churches till somewhat later. The Latin church of the second and third centuries did not quite know what to do with the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Syrian churches for some centuries may have lacked the lesser of the Catholic Epistles and Revelation. But from the time of Ireanaeus down, the church at large had the whole Canon as we now possess it. And though a section of the church may not yet have been satisfied of the apostolicity of a certain book or of certain books; and though afterwards doubts may have arisen in sections of the church as to the apostolicity of certain books (as e.g. of Revelation): yet in no case was it more than a respectable minority of the church which was slow in receiving, or which came afterward to doubt, the credentials of any of the books that then as now constituted the Canon of the New Testament accepted by the church at large." Warfield

---

Canonical Criteria

• Apostolicity – Apostle or close associate
• Usage in the Church – Successful use in liturgy, catechism, proclamation
• Orthodoxy – Theology was unresolved, but not unboundaried

---

The Criteria, Shelley pp. 68-69

• Self-Authenticating – Transforming Power
• Already being used in Christian worship
• The book was tied to an apostle, either the apostle himself or by someone with direct contact to an apostle (Mark wrote the Gospel he heard from Peter; Luke wrote the book of Acts based on what Paul told him)

---

Not Apostolic Authorship, Apostolic Imposition as "Law."

The principle of canonicity was not apostolic authorship, but imposition by the apostles as "law." Hence Tertullian's name for the "canon" is "instrumentum"; and he speaks of the Old and New Instrument as we would of the Old and New Testament. That the apostles so imposed the Old Testament on the churches which they founded — as their "Instrument," or "Law," or "Canon" — can be denied by none. And in imposing new books on the same churches, by the same apostolical authority, they did not confine themselves to books of their own composition.

---

The Canon and Inspiration

“The Gospels and letters that were canonized were considered to be authoritative and reliable witnesses [emphasis mine] of the saving events of the Lord Jesus Christ…With the exception of prophetic and apocalyptic documents, inspiration was attributed by the church only after it was recognized as canonical…at no time was inspiration considered the unique or primary criterion to determine which writings of the New Testament should be canonized.” Patzia, pp. 172-173

---

The Canonization Process

• Athanasius’s Easter Letter of 367 AD Not only one of the three largest cities in the empire, Alexandria was also the Empire’s chief city in the knowledge and study of astrology/astronomy. As the Bishop of Alexandria, it was Athanasius’s job to confer with the astronomers and use that information to set the date for the Empire-wide celebration of Easter. Along with his Easter message of 367 AD, Athanasius included the list of books that two later Church Councils ratified as the New Testament canon.
• Council of Rome, 382 A.D, Ratified.
• The Council of Carthage, 397 A.D., Affirmed previous ratification,

---

Council of Hippo, 393 AD

Canon LX. [N. B.—This Canon is of most questionable genuineness.]

THESE are all the books of Old Testament appointed to be read: 1, Genesis of the world; 2, The Exodus from Egypt; 3, Leviticus; 4, Numbers; 5, Deuteronomy; 6, Joshua, the son of Nun; 7, Judges, Ruth; 8, Esther; 9, Of the Kings, First and Second; 10, Of the Kings, Third and Fourth; 11, Chronicles, First and Second; 12, Esdras, First and Second; 13, The Book of Psalms; 14, The Proverbs of Solomon; 15, Ecclesiastes; 16, The Song of Songs; 17, Job; 18, The Twelve Prophets; 19, Isaiah; 20, Jeremiah, and Baruch, the Lamentations, and the Epistle; 21, Ezekiel; 22, Daniel.

And these are the books of the New Testament: Four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; The Acts of the Apostles; Seven Catholic Epistles, to wit, one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude; Fourteen Epistles of Paul, one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, Schaff, Philip. Early Church Fathers - Post Nicene Fathers II - Volume 14 - The Seven Ecumenical Councils (The Early Church Fathers-Post Nicene II) . GraceWorks Multimedia. Kindle Edition.

---

Council of Carthage, 397 AD

Third Council of Carthage, 397
Novi autem Testamenti, evangeliorum libri quator, Actuum Apostolorum liber unus, Epistolae Pauli Apostoli xiii., ejusdem ad Hebraeos una, Petri apostoli duae, Johannes tres, Jacobi i., Judae i., Apocalipsis Johannis liber unus.	Of the New Testament: four books of the Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, one epistle of the same [writer] to the Hebrews, two Epistles of the Apostle Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, one book of the Apocalypse of John.

Luther and the Canon

Luther’s Antilegomena ἀντιλεγόμενα

Luther “had a low view of Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Revelation, and so when he published his New Testament in 1522 he placed these books apart at the end.” Marlowe “Erasmus had also called into question these four books in the Annotationes to his 1516 Greek New Testament” Marlowe

---

Luther on the Book of James [A]

“I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle; and my reasons follow.

1. In the first place it is flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works.”
2. “In the second place its purpose is to teach Christians, but in all this long teaching it does not once mention the Passion, the resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ.”
3. “James does nothing more than drive to the law and to its works.”
4. “[H]e throws things together so chaotically that it seems to me he must have been some good, pious man, who took a few sayings from the disciples of the apostles and thus tossed them off on paper. “
5. “[I]t seems that this author came long after St. Peter and St. Paul.”
6. “Therefore, I will not have him in my Bible to be numbered among the true chief books, though I would not thereby prevent anyone from including or extolling him as he pleases, for there are otherwise many good sayings in him.”

---

Luther on the Book of Jude

“[N]o one can deny that it [Jude] is an extract or copy of St. Peter's second epistle, so very like it are all the words. He also speaks of the apostles like a disciple who comes long after them and cites sayings and incidents that are found nowhere else in the Scriptures. This moved the ancient fathers to exclude this epistle from the main body of the Scriptures…Therefore, although I value this book, it is an epistle that need not be counted among the chief books which are supposed to lay the foundations of faith.”

---

Luther on the Book of the Revelation

• “First and foremost, the apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear and plain words, as do Peter and Paul, and Christ in the gospel.“
• “Moreover he seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his own book so highly”
• “Many of the fathers also rejected this book a long time ago”

---

Sources