How We Got The New Testament

1. How We Got The New Testament Letters, Scrolls, Codexes and Books

2. Building the New Testament • Hebrews, General Epistles, Revelation • Hebrews was questioned. • No clear author. • Pauline authorship unclear. • Authentically from Apostolic Period. • Accepted by Origen in 240ad. • Accepted fully by 363.

3. Building the New Testament • Hebrews, General Epistles, Revelation • The General Epistles– James, I, II Peter, I, II, III John, Jude. • James was challenged because of its focus on works. Some thought it was a Jewish forgery. Accepted by the Church by 363. • Peter was only a question of division.

4. Building The New Testament • Hebrews, General Epistles, Revelation • Jude was originally questioned because of the author, but fully accepted by 348ad by Cyril of Jerusalem, and other lists followed suit. • Revelation was accepted early on, then challenged not for content but because it was used by Montanists to claim Christ had returned

5. Building The New Testament • Creating the text. • The letters were originally written in Greek. • They circulated (Col 4:16). • Eventually people made copies. • We know that these copies were painstakingly accurate.

6. Building The New Testament • Writing materials– and problems in transmission. • Papyri– Made out of the Papyrus Plant. • Began use in 3000 BC • Longest history of use of any writing material. • Durable, relatively easy to make, reusable.

7. Building The New Testament • Writing materials– and problems in transmission. • Papyri– Made out of the Papyrus Plant. • Relatively delicate– does not work as pages. • Does not store for long periods without preparation. • Sealed jars are the usual. • Dead Sea Scrolls are Papyrus– many damaged.

8. Building the New Testament • Writing materials– and problems in transmission. • Parchment– leather pages. 200 BC • More durable than Papyrus. • Can use both sides. • Now you have Folios or Codexes,. • Codex is a sewn paged book, although they can also be folded like a zigzag. • Major advance in storing writing.

9. Building the New Testament • Writing materials– and problems in transmission. • Paper– 105 AD. • Pressed wood chips. • Very durable. • Cheap to make. • Thinner and easy to bind.

10. Building the New Testament • How the New Testament came about. • From individual letters to scrolls. • The problem is that scrolls can become enormous, so the Bible is contained in several scrolls. • There were no traditional chapter or verse divisions, and they weren’t standardized until the 1200s by Archbishop Stephen Langton.

11. Building the New Testament • The codices and versions. • Greek Scrolls. • AD 313– Constantine ordered 50 vellum copies of the New Testament. • Latin translations and Greek translations were common for centuries. • Latin Vulgate (Jerome) the standard Bible until 1500s.

12. Building the New Testament • The codices and versions • 1500s—Greek, Hebrew and Latin Polyglots. • Wycliffe 1382- English Bible from Vulgate. • Tyndale 1525– Cost him his home. Church opposed it.

13. Building the New Testament • The codices and versions • 1539 Coverdale Bible • Geneva Bible—Complete translation Old and New Testaments • King James 1611 (1723) • Modern translations rely on thousands of documents– all in agreement to a degree not found in other documents