Difference between revisions of "New Testament"
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− | Christians argued for a couple centuries over which writings should be considered their biblical canon. Each major branch of Christianity has independently decided upon a canon, and, while the majority of them eventually agreed upon the same list, there is still disagreement among the less-popular denominations to this day. If | + | Christians argued for a couple centuries over which writings should be considered their biblical canon. Each major branch of Christianity has independently decided upon a canon, and, while the majority of them eventually agreed upon the same list, there is still disagreement among the less-popular denominations to this day. If the Christian god wanted a specific canon, why didn't he reveal it to everyone everywhere? Why allow for ambiguity or debate to decide which writings are the most important? |
===Authorship=== | ===Authorship=== |
Revision as of 15:33, 6 November 2018
The New Testament is a collection of ancient writings put together by Christians who believed them to accurately describe the foundation of their religion. Which specific writings should be viewed as canon has been a matter of great debate in the early days of Christianity, but now, most denominations agree on a single set of 27 writings. However, as most New Testament scholars now point out, a large portion of these writings are thought to have been modified from their original form, or, in several cases, completely fraudulent.
Contents
Canon
Standard List
In 382 CE, after a couple centuries of growth, the Christian church convened at the Council of Rome where officials, after much debate, agreed upon 27 writings to be considered their official list (known as the "canon"), however, Eastern Christians, who would later broke away to form the Eastern Orthodox, didn't agree on their own canon until 692. Catholics would later reaffirm their canon at the Council of Trent of 1545. The Church of England agreed on their canon in 1563, and Calvinists in 1647. While each of these groups may disagree on the books of the Old Testamen, they all agree on the same books of the New Testament. Only some of the less-popular denominations disagree on the 27 books of the New Testament canon which are:
- Gospel of Matthew
- Gospel of Mark
- Gospel of Luke
- Gospel of John
- Acts of the Apostles
- Epistle to the Romans
- First Epistles to the Corinthians
- Second Epistles to the Corinthians
- Epistle to the Galatians
- Epistle to the Ephesians
- Epistle to the Philippians
- Epistle to the Colossians
- First Epistle to the Thessalonians
- Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
- First Epistle to Timothy
- Second Epistle to Timothy
- Epistle to Titus
- Epistle to Philemon
- Epistle to the Hebrews
- Epistle of James
- First Epistle of Peter
- Second Epistle of Peter
- First Epistle of John
- Second Epistle of John
- Third Epistle of John
- Epistle of Jude
- Book of Revelation
Additional Writings
The following writings are in the canon of some minor denominations, or have been considered canon in the past, but no longer are:
- Acts of Paul and Thecla
- Epistle of Barnabas
- First Epistle of Clement
- Second Epistle of Clement
- Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul
- Third Epistle to the Corinthians
- First Book of the Covenant
- Second Book of the Covenant
- Epistle to the Laodiceans
- Gospel of Marcion
- The Shepherd of Hermas
- Didache
- Seyon
- Te'ezaz
- Gessew
- Abtelis
- Qälëmentos
- Didesqelya
Criticisms
Canon
Christians argued for a couple centuries over which writings should be considered their biblical canon. Each major branch of Christianity has independently decided upon a canon, and, while the majority of them eventually agreed upon the same list, there is still disagreement among the less-popular denominations to this day. If the Christian god wanted a specific canon, why didn't he reveal it to everyone everywhere? Why allow for ambiguity or debate to decide which writings are the most important?
Authorship
There is much conjecture and debate about the authors of the books in the New Testament canon. Excluding letters attributed to Paul, most of the authors don't identify themselves, but church tradition has assigned authors to each work regardless. Among the 27 books, there are only four distinct authors who explicitly identify themselves, however Christian tradition generally accepts nine, but there is disagreement among the various denominations. Historians, however, have a very different approach to the New Testament, and believe that the majority of the books are not written by either the church-assigned authors or the the authors named in the books, and suggest around 15-20 different authors. The table below lists each book, if the author identifies himself and how they do, the traditionally attributed author according to most Christians, what historians generally say, and, assuming the historians are accurate, what it means for the authorship.
Book | Author From Book | Traditional Author | Historian's Opinion | Verdict |
---|---|---|---|---|
Gospel of Matthew | None | Matthew the Apostle | Unknown, unlikely Matthew | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Gospel of Mark | None | Mark the Evangelist, Saint Peter | Unknown, unlikely Mark | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Gospel of Luke | None | Luke the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely Luke, probably same author as Acts | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Gospel of John | None | John the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely John | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Acts of the Apostles | None | Luke the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely Luke, probably same author as Luke | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Epistle to the Romans | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
First Epistle to the Corinthians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Second Epistle to the Corinthians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Epistle to the Galatians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Epistle to the Ephesians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Maybe Paul | Maybe a fraud. |
Epistle to the Philippians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Epistle to the Colossians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Maybe Paul | Maybe a fraud. |
First Epistle to the Thessalonians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Maybe Paul | Maybe a fraud. |
First Epistle to Timothy | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Unknown, unlikely Paul | Probably a fraud. |
Second Epistle to Timothy | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Unknown, unlikely Paul | Probably a fraud. |
Epistle to Titus | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Unknown, unlikely Paul | Probably a fraud. |
Epistle to Philemon | Paul | Paul the Apostle | Paul the Apostle | Probably accurate. |
Epistle to the Hebrews | None | Paul the Apostle | Unknown, unlikely Paul | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Epistle of James | James | James the Just | Several people named James, maybe one. | Maybe accurate. |
First Epistle of Peter | Peter | Saint Peter | Unknown, unlikely Peter or author of II Peter | Probably a fraud. |
Second Epistle of Peter | Simon Peter | Saint Peter | Unknown, unlikely Peter or author of I Peter | Probably a fraud. |
First Epistle of John | None | John the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely John | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Second Epistle of John | None | John the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely John | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Third Epistle of John | None | John the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely John | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Epistle of Jude | Jude | James the Apostle | Maybe Jude | Maybe accurate. |
Book of Revelation | Unclear | John the Evangelist | Unknown, unlikely John | Tradition is probably wrong. |
Content
We should expect a book inspired by a god to be rife with deep philosophical wisdom, full of inexplicable insight to the very foundations of the universe, and written in the most interesting way possible, but the actual content of the books of the New Testament are unimpressive. But instead, we find that there is little wisdom to be gleamed. Authors often state tautologies saying bad actions are bad, but good actions are good, of they praise authoritarianism, fail to speak ill of slavery, and so forth. No secrets of the universe are revealed, instead the book is filled with the conventional knowledge of the time, much of which is wrong. And most of the books are very poorly written, fail to maintain a coherent narrative, and show a lot of evidence of tampering.
Redaction
In addition to the Synoptic problem and its various possible solutions like the two-source hypothesis, the bulk of the books in the New Testament show signs of redaction, modification, editing, etc. Part of this is because none of the early sources are identical and a choice had to be made on which one to treat as canon, tampering for political benefit has also been suggested by a number of scholars. For example, the Comma Johanneum in the First Epistle of John.
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament - Wikipedia.