The birth of the New Testament and the Canon

 

How and in what way happened the birth of the New Testament and the Canon? There are various teaching and comprehension about it. The birth of the Canon is very interesting and also very often understood insufficiently. I bring forth issues which show that common teaching for the birth of New Testament is an erroneous conclusion. I challenge you to read and look over this writing very carefully, because it can lead you from the tradition to the truth. The Bible says that prove (test) all things, hold fast that which is good. Test this writing with the Bible and hold fast to the good and reject that which is not Biblical.
 

The birth of the New Testament texts

I have made out a list for the writing time of the New Testament books. Precise writing time of all books we cannot know, but rather accurately we can define the right writing time. There are various interpretations about this, but we can place them approximately very close to the right time.

- The Gospel of Matthew: Some researchers say that it has been born about 50 A.D. I think that this is probable. Some say 60-65 A.D. and some 100-110 A.D. The most probable alternative is that it has been written very early. One proof which support this is that in Matthew's gospel is prophecy destroying of Jerusalem's temple, which happened 70 A.D. This proves that this book has had to write before 70 A.D. In early Church was information that Matthew's gospel first was written in Hebrew (Aramaic) and then in Greek. Matthew was an eye-witness of Jesus and one of Jesus' twelfth disciples.

- The Gospel of Mark: According to sources of Early Church Mark had written his gospel in Rome at the same when apostle Paul was in Rome. Thus Mark's gospel would be written about 64-68 A.D. Some say that it has been written 45-46 A.D. Some say that it has been written after 70 A.D. Estimation about after year 70 A.D. is not correct, because also Mark has prophecy about destroying of the temple. This gospel is written before year 70 A.D. Mark was also eye-witness of Jesus and one of Jesus' twelfth disciples.

- The Gospel of Luke: Luke was apostle Paul' fellow worker and wasn't an eye-witness of Jesus. Thus he had to turn to those people (12 apostles) who knew Jesus, or he turned to people who were accurately instructed by 12 apostles. Luke had examined all things accurately and dedicated his gospel to the most excellent Theophilus. Luke wrote to Theophilus that he might know the exact truth about the things, which had been taught to him. This shows us that Theophilus had been Jesus' disciple. Some say that Theophilus was the high priest (37-41 A.D.) of Israel imposed by Romans. It is not probable that Theophilus would have been the high priest of Israel. He was the high priest of Israel, and I think that there must be some record in the history if someone from the high priests would have believed in Jesus Christ. It is not probable that Luke's gospel has been written 37-41 A.D. and dedicated to the high priest of Israel. The date of Luke's gospel is being assessed about 63-64 A.D.

- The Gospel of John: This gospel has been written after synoptic (Matthew, Mark and Luke) gospels. The date of John's gospel is about 85 A.D. Some say that John's gospel is gnostic gospel, but this claim is not true. 1946 from Nag Hammad was found scrolls, which helped dating of John's gospel and synoptic gospels. On the basis of these evidences from Nag Hammad was found gnostic text written in 200-300 A.D. and these discoveries proves that Gnosticism was born much later as John's gospel was written. John's gospel is not gnostic text, but text of Jesus' disciple, who was an eye-witness of Jesus and events of New Testament.

- Acts of the apostles:  Acts of the apostles have been written about 63 A.D. Luke who was apostle Paul's fellow worker wrote both Acts of the apostles and Luke's gospel. Acts of the apostles is first book and account from the phase of Early Church. Acts of apostle begin from the year about 30 A.D (depent on it, which is accurate year when Jesus died), and it comes to an end 62 A.D.

- Letter to the Romans: Letter to the Romans is letter written by apostle Paul. The date of the letter is about 57-58 A.D. Apostle Paul wrote this letter from Corinth in his third mission trip.

- First letter to the Corinthians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter in Ephesus year 55 A.D.

- Second letter to the Corinthians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter 56 A.D. and probable in Macedonia.

- Letter to the Galatians: Some say that this letter has been written 49 A.D. and some 57-58 A.D. Apostle Paul was writer of this letter.

- Letter to the Ephesians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter about 61-62 A.D. Paul wrote this letter being in prison in Rome.

- Letter to the Philippians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter 62 A.D. being in prison in Rome.

- Letter to the Colossians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter about 61-61 A.D. being in prison in Rome.

- First letter to the Thessalonians:  Apostle Paul wrote this letter in Corinth 50 A.D. during his second mission trip.

- Second letter to the Thessalonians: Apostle Paul wrote this letter in Corinth about 50-51 A.D.

- First letter to Timothy: Apostle Paul wrote this letter about 66 A.D.

- Second letter to Timothy: Apostle Paul wrote this letter about 67 A.D. This was apostle Paul's latest letter.

- Letter to Titus: Apostle Paul wrote this letter 64 A.D or 66 A.D.

- Letter to Philemon: Apostle Paul wrote this letter in Rome in prison 61-62 A.D.

- Letter to Hebrews: We don't know for sure writer of this letter. During the history writer of the letter has speculated Paul, Barnabas, and Apollos. Accurate dating of the letter we don't know for sure. However, the letter has been written before 70 A.D., because the letter tells that old covenant temple offerings was still practised among Jews.

- Letter of James: James Jesus' brother wrote this letter. The date is uncertain, but some say 49 A.D. and some 62 A.D.

- First letter of Peter: Peter wrote this letter about 63-65 A.D. Peter wrote in his letter: The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you; and so does Marcus my son. Some say that Jesus' disciples called Rome as name Babylon and thus Peter would have written his letter in Rome. However, the history doesn't know such information that Peter would have been in Rome. The history records that Jews didn't call Rome as Babylon before 70 A.D when Romans occupied Jerusalem and destroyed the Second temple, where more than 100,000 Jews died and nearly 100,000 became slaves in Rome. I don't believe that Peter would call Rome as Babylon, but more likely he was in Babylon as in Rome and wrote his letter from Babylon.

- Second letter of Peter: Peter wrote this letter probable 65-66 A.D.

- First letter of John: John wrote this letter about 90 A.D. in Ephesus.

- Second letter of John: John wrote this letter about 90 A.D.

- Third letter of John: John wrote this letter about 90 A.D.

- Letter of Jude: Jude wrote this letter about 75 A.D.

- The book of Revelation: Apostle John wrote this letter about 96 A.D.

The word of God. Precise and accurate dating of all letters is not possible. However, important is to remember that they all have been written and are the word of God and announcement of the order of the New Covenant.
 

Canon before Roman Catholic Church
 

Clemens Alexandrian (150-215 A.D.) accepted and knew all current New Testament books as the word of God. Before and after Clemens were many who argued that the letter of Hebrews, the letter of James and the book of Revelation don't belong to Canon. Clemens believed that the Didache "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" was also part of the canon, however it is not canonical book.

Long before existence of Roman Catholic Church the canon was already used in Early Church. Roman Catholic Church has not borne the canon, but began to use letters, which Early Church has canonized and used long before Roman Catholic Church. Remarkable is that year 1546 Roman Catholic Church canonized some old testament books of Apocrypha, they called them as 'Deuterocanonical', which means 'secondary canon.' Roman Catholic Church has accepted books as canonical, which are not canonical.
 

Birth phases of the Canon
 

Marcion's Canon

Marcion whom said to be heretical gnostic lived about 85-160 A.D. He made his own New Testament canon. Marcion accepted Luke's gospel and ten letters of apostle Paul. We have very one-sided Church history, because Roman Catholic Church killed its opponents as heretic and destroyed their works and have given a name of heretic the opponents of Catholic Church. Testimony of the Roman Catholic Church is not trustworthy in all, because it has been destroyed many books, which it has hold as heretical books. However, it is correct that Gnosticism is heretic. Marcion's imperfect canon was very powerful maker, which led later forming of the Roman Catholic Church canon. Roman Catholic Church resisted heretic doctrines, however they also taught heretic doctrines such as:

- 375 A.D. began worship of the angels and dead saints.

- 378 A.D. Roman bishop Damascus inherited as a religious leader the names Pontifex Maximum and Vicarius Christi from Caesar. Like this way from the seat of the Pope became heir of Babylonian high priest cult.

- 381 A.D. began unofficial prayers to Virgin Mary, to mother of God and the Queen of the Heaven. Mary is not Queen of the Heaven and not mother of God, but she was mother of Jesus the Son of God, but not mother of Father God.

- 394 A.D. began the daily mass in Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic Church teach that the mass of Christ must carry out daily and that in the mass of Christ Catholic priests continuously sacrifice Jesus with a bloodless way. Roman Catholic Church teach also that this sacrifice is the most powerful sin offering in the Church.

With those heretic doctrines Roman Catholic Church is also heretic sect, and the gospel of Roman Catholic Church is non-biblical gospel.

The Muratorian Canon

The Muratorian canon (170 A.D.) L.A. Muratori found in 1740. The Muratorian canon is catalog of the New Testament writings, in which has been mentioned all the New Testament books except the letter of Peter, the letter of James and  letter to the Hebrews.


Eusebius

Eusebius bishop of Caesarea published 325 A.D. list of the texts of the New Testament in his book Church History.

Eusebius recognised Acts of the Apostels, Paul's letters, first letter of Peter, first letter of John. He said that some are arguing about letter of James, letter of Jude, second letter of Peter and second and third letters of John. Eusebius said that spurious books are the Acts of Paul, the Shepherd, Apocalypse of Peter, letter of Barnabas and the Teaching of the Apostles (Didache). Eusebius also said that the book of Revelation is disputed among some, but counted as recognized books for some believers. Then he also said that letter to Hebrews have accepted especially those Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Eusebius said that heretic books are the gospel of Peter, the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Matthias, acts of Andrew and John. Eusebius hold apocrypha books as heretic made during the New Testament era.
 

Athanasius

Athanasius bishop of Alexandria in 376 A.D. reckoned all 27 books of the New Testament.


The Third Church Council of Carthage

The Third Church Council in 397 A.D represented and accepted the official canon, in which was taken all 27 New Testament books (which are in current NT). Roman Catholic Church canonized officially 397 A.D. it what has been existed in the Early Church already few centuries. Representatives of Roman Catholic Church are proud that they have given the New Testament to Christians and to the world. However, the fact is that Roman Catholic Church canonized that which had been existed and use already in the Early Church. Roman Catholic Church got its canon from those who had been lived long before them and used and believed all 27 New Testament books.

 

The Council of Trent and books of Apocrypha

Roman Catholic Church gave to order about content of the Bible in 1546, in which they decided that Jerome's Latin Vulgate is official canon of the Church. Like this way Roman Catholic Church took to the Bible old testament era Apocrypha books, which are not Biblical books. Roman Catholic Church's Bible contains books that are not Biblical. This is also indication an attitude of the Catholic Church and how it continuously adds non-biblical things inside the Church.

Concept Catholic Church was born in 150 A.D. when believers begin to call Church meaning by that Church is general and universal (katolikos). In the Bible (Greek) is not the word katolikos, it means that Jesus Christ and apostles and Early Church didn't call Church as Catholic Church and this means that we shouldn't either.

Roman Catholic Church with Popes (word Pope is not in the Bible, but is man made doctrine and title in RCC) and archbishops begin to form after 312 A.D. when emperor Constantine converted for a Christian. Years 380-381 Caesar declared Christianity for the religion of the Rome and so finally formed officially Roman Catholic Church, which was and is false imitation for the real Church, which is the body of Christ; real Jesus' disciples who are born again in the Holy Spirit from the grace of God.

The truth is that Roman Catholic Church didn't give us canon of the New Testament, but God did it by the apostles and Early Church and thus Roman Catholic Church confirmed it. Which had been already existed and used in the Early Church.

Books of Apocrypha

In what way the Early Church accepted books as canonical? The books got authority of canon that they were written by the twelfth Jesus' disciples. There is two expections in this rule and they are Paul and Luke. Jesus Christ appeared personally to apostle Paul and taught him. Apostle Peter accepted Paul's teaching and ministry and gave canonical authority to Paul letters in his own letters. Early Church also accepted the gospel of Luke without any doubts and so must we do also. Canonical books have authority of the word of God.

Old testament and new testament Apocrypha books don't have canonical authority, and they don't belong to the Bible (the word of God). The so called Apocrypha of the New Testament (The Gnostic Gospels) do not belong to the books of the Bible and most of them were written in the second century or later; so they are much younger than the canonical texts of the New Testament. The latest canonical text The Revelation saw the light in ca. 96 A.D. The Revelation of John ended the chain of Divine revelation, its’ message was for that time and will be until the final moment of mankind’s earthly history. So, no new revelation was needed anymore because the revelation concerning the whole historical era of mankind was already given. And before that everything that is essential was already said and brought up. The Apocrypha of the New Testament was born much later than The Revelation of John. Also this tells us that the new revelations was from a man and did not have the Divine authority since The Revelation of John was the end of God’s biblical revelation history. The Apocrypha of the New Testament share one feature: they show the influence of Gnosticism. The features characteristic of the Gnostic texts are also the following: Gnosticism placed itself in a higher position than Christianity and Gnosticism did not believe that Jesus was God. The foregoing features prove themselves that Bible’s teaching cannot be proved by the Gnostic Apocrypha, because Gnosticism placed itself higher than Christianity and believing Jesus to be an ordinary man made them people who did not want to have biblical faith, but rather they wanted to prove it wrong elevating their own faith. Thus the Gnostic texts can no way be considered the original texts of Christianity or works belonging to Christianity because the Gnostics regarded Christianity as their enemy and the Gnostics’ faith was “orthodox”. In reality the Gnostics were in the same boat of deception than the church institution; they had different kinds of teachings but the inspiration for the teachings came from the same source: the headquarters of darkness.

There were different views prevailing in Gnosticism, e.g. some Gnostics taught that divinity is accomplished uniting man and woman. This idea also led some Gnostics to pursue divinity through sexual intercourse between a man and woman. But there were also Gnostics, who abstained for sexual relationships. When we are aware of the fact that the Gnostics considered the Christians their enemies, and that they considered themselves better than the Christians, and they wanted to show in every way that Christianity was wrong, we understand why the so called Gnostic Gospels were born which aimed to defame and distort the real gospel. The Gnostics went so far in this that they wrote the Gospels “anew” by distorting them; they pictured Jesus an ordinary man, who was united with divinity through Mary Magdalene. The Gnostic claim that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife suited the Gnostics because that way they tried to claim that their own doctrine was true and their thoughts were supported. The idea of Jesus being married (uniting with divinity through woman) is a Gnostic Gospel. In the same way that another group, the abstained group, got more grist to their mill claiming through the “new” Gospels that Jesus was leading a sinful and immoral sex life. This way both groups used the “new gospels” as their spokesmen for attacking the Christians and the message of the Bible. That was a clever plot to defame others, but fortunately we know that the source of inspiration for these Gnostic texts has been in the headquarters of darkness, and the Bible has the truth about these things. The Bible does not tell us that Jesus was married, and He really was not married because he was not born to this world to get married but to die as the sin-offering for the sin of the world.

The Early Church and the Bible


The Early Church read books, which already existed and first ones were books of the old testament. Then came the New Testament books from which latest was the book of the Revelation.

The Bible tells that already very early letters of the apostles have gone around in the Churches. This means that very early the letters of the apostles were available in the Early Church.

2 Pe 3:15 15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

Apostle Peter wrote his letter Jesus' disciples who were in lesser Asia and Asia. First letter of Peter tells us that the letters of apostle Paul and Peter was read in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. This proves for us that apostles letters were in use of the Early Church.

Rev 1:
3 ¶ Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

 

Col 4: 16 And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.

The book of the Revelation was read also in seven churches of Asia. The letter to the Colossians exposes for us that his letters were read in many churches. This proves also that the letters of apostles were spread existed churches. For this reason Clemens Alexandrian also knew all 27 books of the New Testament and hold them as the word of God.

 

Actually, RCC collected texts, which Early Church had already used about almost 300 years. So in fact RCC has not given us Canon of the Bible, but collected it, which was already used in Early Church.

 

God's word and its teaching have been existed all the time in the Early Church, since then when they were completed. Let's read those same texts, which congregation of God have read in the old covenant time and the time of the New Covenant. The centre of the New Testament texts is God the Father through Jesus Christ, this we must always remember!

 

 

Petri Paavola from Finland

 

Link:
The roots of Romen Catholic Church and Pope

 

Sources:

 

- Uuras Saarnivaara: Jumalan kansan pyhä Raamattu 1993

- Raamattu 33/38 Finnish Bible
- KJV 1769

- Merril F. Unger: Raamatun lukijan käsikirja

- Lauri Pohjanpää: Pyhien saatto kautta aikain