The New Testament (Greek: Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Kainē Diathēkē) is the name given to the second half of the Christian Bible, the first half being the Hebrew Bible (also called by Jews Tanakh), known to Christians as the Old Testament. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. It is sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures, or the New Covenant – which is the literal translation of the original Greek. The term New Covenant (; Greek:, diathēkē kainē is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer Translation is the interpreting of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text likewise called a " translation Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The original texts were written in Koine Greek by various authors after c. Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in AD 45 and before c. AD 140. Its 27 books were gradually collected into a single volume over a period of several centuries. The New Testament is a central element of Christianity, and has played a major role in shaping modern Western culture. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Although certain Christian sects differ as to which works are included in the New Testament, the vast majority of denominations have settled on the same twenty-seven book canon: it consists of the four narratives of Jesus Christ's ministry, called "Gospels"; a narrative of the Apostles' ministries in the early church, which is also a sequel to the third Gospel; twenty-one early letters, commonly called "epistles" in Biblical context, written by various authors and consisting mostly of Christian counsel and instruction; and an Apocalyptic prophecy, which is technically the twenty-second epistle. A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament The Twelve Apostles (Greek apostolos, "someone sent out" e Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus ( c The word " Epistle " is from the Greek word epistolos which means a written " letter " addressed to a recipient or recipients Prophecy, generally describes the disclosing of Information that is not known to the Prophet by any ordinary means Although the traditional timeline of composition may have been taken into account by the shapers of the current New Testament format, it is not, nor was it meant to be, in strictly chronological order. Though Jesus speaks Aramaic in it, the New Testament (including the Gospels) was written in Greek because that was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire. Aramaic is a Semitic language with A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely

Gospels

Each of the Gospels narrates the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the The Gospel of John (literally According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth Gospel in the canon The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. The Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a book in the New Testament, written by Paul the Apostle. The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Described by William Barclay as the "Queen of the Epistles" the Epistle to the Ephesians is one of the books of the Bible in the New The Epistle to the Philippians (or simply Philippians) is a Book included in the New Testament of the Bible. The Epistle to the Colossians is a book of the Bible New Testament. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the First Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles. The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Epistles, traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the canonical New Testament The Epistle to Titus is one of the Pastoral Epistles. The Epistle to Titus is a book of the canonic New Testament, one of the The Epistle to Philemon is a prison letter from Paul of Tarsus to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. It has traditionally been held to have been written by Saint Peter the apostle during his time as Bishop The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as The First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament, and is the fourth catholic or "general" Epistles. The Second Epistle of John (often simply called 2nd John or II John) is a book in the Christian Holy Scriptures, the authorship of The New Testament Third Epistle of John (often referred to as 3 John) written in the form of an Epistle, is the 64th book of the Bible. The brief Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book in the Christian New Testament canon. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Nazareth (ˈnæzərəθ (נָצְרַת Hebrew Natz'rat or Natzeret, الناصرة an-Nāṣira or an-Naseriyye) is the capital and largest The traditional author is listed after each entry. Modern scholarship differs on precisely by whom, when, or in what original form the various gospels were written.

• The Gospel of Matthew, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle Matthew, son of Alphaeus. The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel Matthew the Evangelist (מתי/מתתיהו "Gift of Yahweh " Standard Hebrew and Tiberian Hebrew: Mattay or Mattithyahu
• The Gospel of Mark, traditionally ascribed to Mark the Evangelist, who wrote down the recollections of the Apostle Simon Peter. Content Authorship The gospel itself is anonymous but as early as Papias in the early 2nd century a text was attributed to Mark, a cousin "Saint Mark" redirects here For other uses see Saint Mark (disambiguation.
• The Gospel of Luke, traditionally ascribed to Luke, a physician and companion of the Apostle Paul. The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and
• The Gospel of John, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle John, son of Zebedee

The first three are commonly classified as the Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel of John (literally According to John; Greek, Κατὰ Ἰωάννην Kata Iōannēn) is the fourth Gospel in the canon Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. The synoptic gospels are the first three Gospels of the New Testament in the Christian Bible. They contain very similar accounts of events in Jesus' life. The Gospel of John stands apart for its unique records of several miracles and sayings of Jesus, not found elsewhere.

See also: synoptic problem

Acts

The book of Acts, also termed Acts of the Apostles or Acts of the Holy Spirit, is a narrative of the Apostles' ministry after Christ's death and subsequent resurrection, which is also a sequel to the third Gospel. The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationships between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. The Twelve Apostles (Greek apostolos, "someone sent out" e In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance Examining style, phraseology, and other evidence, modern scholarship generally concludes that Acts and Luke share the same author.

• Acts, traditionally Luke. Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of

Pauline epistles

The Pauline epistles (or Corpus Paulinum) constitute those epistles traditionally attributed to Paul. The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul (Παῦλος as the first An epistle (pronounced) ( Greek επιστολη epistolē "letter" is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of persons usually a letter Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and However the authorship of a number of the other epistles is sometimes disputed (see section on authorship below, and Authorship of the Pauline epistles). The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to and explicitly ascribed to Paul of Tarsus.

• Epistle to the Romans
• First Epistle to the Corinthians
• Second Epistle 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

General or Catholic epistles

See main article: General epistles

Includes those Epistles written to the church at large (Catholic in this sense simply means universal). The Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Romans is one of the letters of the New Testament canon of the Christian Bible. The First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book of the Bible in the New Testament. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is a book in the New Testament, written by Paul the Apostle. The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Described by William Barclay as the "Queen of the Epistles" the Epistle to the Ephesians is one of the books of the Bible in the New The Epistle to the Philippians (or simply Philippians) is a Book included in the New Testament of the Bible. The Epistle to the Colossians is a book of the Bible New Testament. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the First Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the Pastoral Epistles. The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Epistles, traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the canonical New Testament The Epistle to Titus is one of the Pastoral Epistles. The Epistle to Titus is a book of the canonic New Testament, one of the The Epistle to Philemon is a prison letter from Paul of Tarsus to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. Christianity ( Greek Χριστιανισμός from the word Xριστός ( Christ)is a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) Christ is the English term for the Greek ( Khristós) meaning "the anointed " The virgin birth of Jesus is a religious Tenet of Christianity and Islam which holds that Mary miraculously conceived Jesus while The crucifixion of Jesus is an event recorded in all four Gospels (;;) which takes place after his arrest and trial and includes his scourging Within the body of Christian beliefs the resurrection of Jesus is a core event on which much of Christian doctrine and theology depend Church (disambiguation Christian Church and the word church are used to denote both a Christian association of people and a Place of worship The term New Covenant (; Greek:, diathēkē kainē is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer The Twelve Apostles (Greek apostolos, "someone sent out" e This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament The purpose of this timeline is to give a detailed account of Christianity from the beginning of the current era ( AD) to the present Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Jews and Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox Slavonic Orthodox Georgian Armenian Apostolic A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious The biblical apocrypha (from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφος meaning hidden) are books published in an edition of the Bible whose canonicity Christian Theology is discourse concerning Christian faith Christian theologians use biblical Exegesis, rational analysis and argument SSC RF "Troitsk Institute of Innovative and Termonuclear Research" or TRINITY for shprt Троицкий Институт инновационных и термоядерных In many religions the supreme Deity ( God) is given the title and attributions of Father. Christian views of Jesus consist of the teachings and beliefs held by Christian groups about Jesus including his divinity humanity and earthly life In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance This is an overview of the History of Christian Theology from the time of Christ to the present Christian Theology is discourse concerning Christian faith Christian theologians use biblical Exegesis, rational analysis and argument Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections Christian tradition is a collection of Traditions of practice or belief associated with Christianity. Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus ( c This is a general introduction to ecumenical councils For the Roman Catholic councils, see Catholic Ecumenical Councils. A creed is a statement of Belief — usually Religious belief — or Faith often recited as part of a religious service See also Evangelism, Christianization A Christian mission has been widely defined since the Lausanne Congress of 1974 as that which The East-West Schism, or the Great Schism, divided medieval Christendom into Eastern (Greek and Western (Latin branches which later became known as the The Crusades were a series of military campaigns of a religious character waged by much of Christian Europe against external and internal opponents The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time Denominationalism|List of Christian denominations|Church (disambiguation A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name structure and doctrine within A sermon is an oration by a Prophet or member of the Clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, or religious topic Prayer is an important theme in Christianity, and there are several different forms of prayer Ecumenism (also oecumenism, œcumenism) refers to initiatives aimed at greater Religious unity or cooperation Christianity and other religions appear to share some elements Christian movements are theological, political or philosophical interpretations of Christianity that are not generally represented by a specific church Christian music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life A Liturgy is a set form of ceremony or pattern of worship Christian liturgy is a pattern for worship used (whether recommended or prescribed by a Christian congregation or The liturgical year, also known as the Christian year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when Christian symbolism is defined as the investing of outward things or actions with an inner meaning the expression of Christian ideas Christian art is Art produced in an attempt to illustrate supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity. Throughout the History of Christianity, a wide range of Christians and non-Christians alike have offered criticisms of Christianity, the Church, and Christians General epistles (also called Catholic Epistles) are books in the New Testament in the form of letters

• Epistle to the Hebrews, anonymous and unknown authorship
• Epistle of James, traditionally by James, brother of Jesus and Jude Thomas. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. Saint James the Just ( Hebrew: יעקב or Jacob ( Greek Iάκωβος (died 62AD also known as James of Jerusalem, James Adelphotheos
• First Epistle of Peter, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle Simon, called Peter. The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. It has traditionally been held to have been written by Saint Peter the apostle during his time as Bishop
• Second Epistle of Peter, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle Simon, called Peter. The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as
• First Epistle of John, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle John, son of Zebedee. The First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament, and is the fourth catholic or "general" Epistles. Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus.
• Second Epistle of John, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle John, son of Zebedee. The Second Epistle of John (often simply called 2nd John or II John) is a book in the Christian Holy Scriptures, the authorship of Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus.
• Third Epistle of John, traditionally ascribed to the Apostle John, son of Zebedee. The New Testament Third Epistle of John (often referred to as 3 John) written in the form of an Epistle, is the 64th book of the Bible. Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus.
• Epistle of Jude, traditionally ascribed to Jude Thomas, brother of Jesus and James. The brief Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book in the Christian New Testament canon. Jude (alternatively Judas or Judah) is the third of the brothers of Jesus appearing in the New Testament.

Revelation

The final book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου The authorship is attributed either to the Apostle John, son of Zebedee or to John of Patmos. Saint John the Apostle ( Greek Ιωάννης, see Names of John) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. John of Patmos is the name given to the author of the Book of Revelation (or Book of the Apocalypse) in the New Testament. For a discussion of authorship see Authorship of the Johannine works. Scholars have debated the authorship of the Johannine works ( Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book

Revelation is sometimes called The Apocalypse of John. It is also not read or used during church services by the Orthodox church. The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to The Eastern Orthodox Church: the Eastern Christian churches of Byzantine

See also: Apocalyptic literature, Bible prophecy

Order

The New Testament books are ordered differently in different Church Traditions. Bible prophecy, or " biblical prophecy " is the belief in prophecies in the Bible. For example the Protestant order follows the Roman Catholic order. Outside the Catholic/Protestant world there are different orders in the Slavonic, Syriac and Ethiopian Bibles.

Apocrypha

Main article: New Testament apocrypha

In ancient times there were dozens of Christian writings claiming Apostolic authorship, or for some other reason considered to have authority by some ancient churches, but which were not ultimately included in the 27-book New Testament canon. New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus accounts These works are considered "apocryphal", and are therefore referred to as the New Testament Apocrypha. It includes many writings unfavourable to the position of the orthodoxy, such as Gnostic writing. Gnosticism (γνώσις gnōsis, Knowledge) refers to a diverse Syncretistic Religious movement consisting of various Belief systems These apocryphal works are nevertheless important insofar as they provide an ancient context and setting for the composition of the canonical books. They also can help establish linguistic conventions common in the canonical texts. Examples of early apocryphal works are the Gospel of Thomas, the Epistle of Barnabas and the Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Gospel According to Thomas ( Coptic: ⲡⲉ̅ⲩ̅ⲁ̅ⲅⲅ̅ⲉⲗ̅ⲓⲟⲛ̅ ⲡⲕ̅ⲁ̅ⲧⲁ ⲑ̅ⲱ̅ⲙⲁⲥ also known as The Gospel The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek treatise with some features of an Epistle containing twenty-one chapters preserved complete in the 4th century Codex An Epistle to the Laodiceans, purportedly written by Paul of Tarsus to the Laodicean Church, is mentioned in the canonical Epistle to the Colossians

Language

Part of a series on The Bible
Biblical canon and books
Tanakh: Torah · Nevi'im · Ketuvim Old Testament · Hebrew Bible · New Testament · New Covenant · Deuterocanon · Antilegomena · Chapters & verses · Jefferson Bible Apocrypha: Jewish · OT · NT
Development and authorship
Panbabylonism · Jewish Canon · Old Testament canon · New Testament canon · Mosaic authorship · Pauline epistles · Johannine works
Translations and manuscripts
Septuagint · Samaritan Pentateuch · Dead Sea scrolls · Targums · Peshitta · Vetus Latina · Vulgate · Masoretic text · Gothic Bible · Luther Bible · English Bibles
Biblical studies
Dating the Bible · Biblical criticism · Higher criticism · Textual criticism · Novum Testamentum Graece · NT textual categories · Documentary hypothesis · Synoptic problem · The Bible and history‎ · Biblical archaeology
Interpretation
Hermeneutics · Pesher · Midrash · Pardes · Allegorical · Literalism · Prophecy
Views
Inerrancy · Infallibility · Criticism · Islamic · Qur'anic · Gnostic · Judaism and Christianity · Law in Christianity
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The common languages spoken by both Jews and Gentiles in the holy land at the time of Jesus were Aramaic, Koine Greek, and to a limited extent a colloquial dialect of Mishnaic Hebrew. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious Books of the Bible are listed differently in the canons of Jews and Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox Slavonic Orthodox Georgian Armenian Apostolic See also Old testament, Septuagint, Targum, Peshitta The Tanakh (תַּנַ"ךְ (taˈnax or; also Tenakh or Tenak is term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets" is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the Ketuvim (כְּתוּבִים "writings" is the third and final section of the Tanakh ( Hebrew Bible) after Torah and Nevi'im In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic The term New Covenant (; Greek:, diathēkē kainē is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer " Deuterocanonical books " is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages Antilegomena (from Greek, meaning things contradicted or disputed literally spoken against) was an Epithet used by the Church Fathers to denote those The Bible comprises 24 books for Jews, 66 for Protestants, 73 for Catholics, and 78 for most Orthodox The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled was Thomas Jefferson's effort to extract the doctrine This article on Jewish apocrypha includes a survey of books written in the Jewish religious tradition either in the late pre-Christian era or in the early Christian era but The biblical apocrypha (from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφος meaning hidden) are books published in an edition of the Bible whose canonicity New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus accounts The Authors of the Bible have authored or co-authored literature that has appeared in the canons of Judaism and of Christianity Panbabylonism is a school of thought within Assyriology and Religious studies that considers the Hebrew Bible and Judaism as directly derived Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text, commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian Biblical canon, which includes the books of the Hebrew Bible as well as several Deuterocanonical The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. Mosaic authorship is the traditional ascription to Moses of the authorship of the five books of the Torah or Pentateuch - Genesis, The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to and explicitly ascribed to Paul of Tarsus. Scholars have debated the authorship of the Johannine works ( Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book The Bible has been translated into many languages from the Biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek. A Biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the The Samaritan Pentateuch is the text of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah or Law that is used by the Samaritans The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of roughly 1000 documents including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1947 and 1979 in eleven Caves A targum ( Hebrew: תרגום plural targumim, lit "translation interpretation" is an Aramaic Translation of the Hebrew The name 'Peshitta' The name 'Peshitta' is derived from the Syriac mappaqtâ pšîṭtâ (ܡܦܩܬܐ ܦܫܝܛܬܐ literally meaning 'simple version' Vetus Latina is a collective name given to the Biblical texts in Latin that were translated before St Jerome 's Vulgate The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by The Masoretic Text ( MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible ( Tanakh) The Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible is the Christian Bible as translated by Wulfila into the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic or The Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534 The efforts of translating the Bible from its original languages into over 2000 others have spanned more than two millennia. Biblical studies is the academic study of the Judeo-Christian Bible and related texts The Bible is a compilation of various texts or " books " of different ages used in the Jewish and Christian religions This article is about the academic treatment of the bible as a historical document Historical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text as applied in Biblical studies it naturally Textual criticism (or lower criticism) is a branch of Literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of Transcription errors in Novum Testamentum Graece is the Latin name of the Greek language version of the New Testament. New Testament manuscripts are categorized into five groups This categorization scheme was introduced in 1981 by Kurt and Barbara Aland in Der Text des Neuen Testaments The synoptic problem concerns the literary relationships between and among the first three canonical gospels (the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and The historicity of the Bible addresses in what ways the Bible is historically accurate the extent to which it can be used as a historic source and what qualifications should For the movement associated with William F Albright and known as Biblical archaeology see Biblical archaeology school. Biblical hermeneutics refers to methods of interpreting the Bible. Pesher (pl pesharim) is a Hebrew word meaning "interpretation" in the sense of "solution" Midrash ( Hebrew: מדרש plural midrashim, lit "to repeat" is a Hebrew term referring to the not exact but comparative ( homiletic The Pardes typology describes four different approaches to Biblical Exegesis in rabbinic Judaism (or - simpler - interpretation of text in Allegorical interpretation is the approach which assigns a higher-than-literal interpretation to the contents of a text (eg Bible) Biblical literalism (also called Biblicism) is a primarily pejorative term referring to the adherence to an explicit and literal sense of the Bible. Bible prophecy, or " biblical prophecy " is the belief in prophecies in the Bible. Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction Biblical infallibility is the theological term to describe the belief that the Bible is free from errors on issues of faith and practice while minor possible contradictions in history This article is about criticisms which are made against the Bible as a source of information or ethical guidance In Islam, the Bible is held to reflect true unfolding revelation from God but revelation which had become corrupted or distorted in its handing down (in Arabic The Qur'an, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to over fifty people also found in the Bible, typically in the same or similar This article discusses the relationship between Gnosticism and the New Testament. This article discusses the traditional views of the two religions and may not be applicable all adherents of each Biblical law in Christianity generally refers to a discussion as to what and how the biblical law applies in a Christian context. Most scholars believe that historical '''Jesus''' primarily spoke Aramaic, with some Hebrew and Greek, although there Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in The term Mishnaic Hebrew refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud, excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible However, the original text of the New Testament was most likely written in Koine Greek, the vernacular dialect in 1st century Roman provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean, and has since been widely translated into other languages, most notably, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic. In Ancient Rome, a province (Latin provincia, pl provinciae) was the basic and until the Tetrarchy (circa Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. See Syriac (disambiguation for other uses Syriac (syr ܠܫܢܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ leššānā Suryāyā) is an Eastern Aramaic language Coptic or Coptic Egyptian ( MetRemenkīmi) is the final stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt However, some of the Church Fathers seem to imply that Matthew was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and there is another contention that the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote in Hebrew, which was translated into Greek by Luke. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of Neither view holds much support among contemporary scholars, who argue that the literary facets of Matthew and Hebrews suggest that they were composed directly in Greek, rather than being translated.

A very small minority of scholars consider the Aramaic version of the New Testament to be the original and believe the Greek is a translation (see Aramaic primacy). Aramaic primacy is the view that the Christian New Testament and/or its sources were originally written in the Aramaic language.

Etymology

Some believe the English term New Testament ultimately comes from the Hebrew language. New Testament is taken from the Latin Novum Testamentum first coined by Tertullian. Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca Some believe this in turn is a translation of the earlier Koine Greek Καινή Διαθήκη (pronounced in postclassical Greek as Keni Dhiathiki). Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in This Greek term is found in the original Greek language of the New Testament, though commonly translated as new covenant, and found even earlier in the Greek translation of the Old Testament that is called the Septuagint. The term New Covenant (; Greek:, diathēkē kainē is used in the Bible (both in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament) to refer In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the At Jeremiah 31:31, the Septuagint translated this term into Greek from the original Hebrew ברית חדשה (brit chadashah). Jeremiah ( jirmɛ'jahu; Septuagint Greek: Ἰερεμίας was one of the 'greater prophets ' of the Hebrew Bible. Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions The Hebrew term is usually also translated into English as new covenant.

As a result, some claim the term was first used by Early Christians to refer to the new covenant that was the basis for their relationship with God. Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus ( c God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. About two centuries later at the time of Tertullian and Lactantius, the phrase was being used to designate a particular collection of books that some believed embodied this new covenant. Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca Lucius Caelius (or Caecilius? Firmianus Lactantius was an Early Christian author (ca

Tertullian, in the 2nd century, is the first currently known to use the terms novum testamentum/new testament and vetus testamentum/old testament. Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca For example, in Against Marcion book 3 [1], chapter 14, he wrote:

This may be understood to be the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel

And in book 4 [2], chapter 6, he wrote:

For it is certain that the whole aim at which he has strenuously laboured even in the drawing up of his Antitheses, centres in this, that he may establish a diversity between the Old and the New Testaments, so that his own Christ may be separate from the Creator, as belonging to this rival god, and as alien from the law and the prophets. Marcion (Μαρκίων (ca 110 - 160) was a Christian Theologian who was excommunicated by the Early Christian church term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament Antithesis ( Greek for "setting opposite" from against + position) is a counter- Propositions and denotes a direct Contrast Christ is the English term for the Greek ( Khristós) meaning "the anointed " A creator deity is a Deity in a Creation myth responsible for the creation of the World (or Universe) Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets" is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the

Lactantius, also in Latin, in the 3rd century, in his Divine Institutes, book 4, chapter 20 [3], wrote:

But all Scripture is divided into two Testaments. Lucius Caelius (or Caecilius? Firmianus Lactantius was an Early Christian author (ca That which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. term " Torah " ( Hebrew: תּוֹרָה "teaching" or "instruction" sometimes translated as "Law" most commonly refers to Nevi'im (נְבִיאִים "Prophets" is the second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, between the The Jews make use of the Old, we of the New: but yet they are not discordant, for the New is the fulfilling of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who, having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, the people of the Jews being deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks such things: [Jer 31:31–32] "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new testament to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord. " . . . For that which He said above, that He would make a new testament to the house of Judah, shows that the old testament which was given by Moses was not perfect; but that which was to be given by Christ would be complete.

The Vulgate translation, in the 5th century, used testamentum in 2nd Corinthians 3 [4]:

(6) Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament, not in the letter but in the spirit. The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by For the letter killeth: but the spirit quickeneth. (Douay-Rheims)
(14) But their senses were made dull. The Douay-Rheims Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douai Bible and abbreviated as D-R, is a translation of the Bible from the For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void). (Douay-Rheims)

However, the more modern NRSV translates these verses from the Koine Greek as such:

(6) Who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Douay-Rheims Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douai Bible and abbreviated as D-R, is a translation of the Bible from the The New Revised Standard Version ( NRSV) of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version (RSV Koine Greek (Κοινὴ Ἑλληνική, "common Greek" or, ciˈni ðiˈale̞kto̞s "the common dialect" is the popular form of Greek which emerged in
(14) But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.

Thus, it is common to translate using either of two English terms, testament and covenant, even though they are not synonymous. In Common law, a will or testament is a document by which a person (the Testator) regulates the rights of others over his or her Property A covenant, in its most general sense is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action

Authorship

Main articles: Authorship of the Pauline epistles and Authorship of the Johannine works

The New Testament is a collection of works, and as such was written by multiple authors. The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to and explicitly ascribed to Paul of Tarsus. Scholars have debated the authorship of the Johannine works ( Gospel of John, the first, second, and third epistles of John, and the Book The traditional view--that is, according to most orthodox Christians--is that all the books were written by Apostles (e. The Twelve Apostles (Greek apostolos, "someone sent out" e g. Matthew and Paul) or disciples working under their direction (e. g. Mark^[1] and Luke^[2]). "Saint Mark" redirects here For other uses see Saint Mark (disambiguation. Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of However, in modern times, with the rise of rigorous historical inquiry and textual criticism, these traditional ascriptions have been rejected by some. While the traditional authors have been listed above, the modern critical view is discussed herein.

Seven of the epistles of Paul are generally accepted by most modern scholars as authentic; these undisputed letters include Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon. Raymond E. Brown has this to say about Colossians: "At the present moment about 60 percent of critical scholarship holds that Paul did not write the letter" (An Introduction, p. Raymond Edward Brown ( May 22, 1928 - August 8, 1998) was an American Roman Catholic Priest and Biblical 610; cited by earlychristianwritings. com). Liberal scholars usually question Pauline authorship for any other epistle, although there are conservative Christian scholars who accept the traditional ascriptions. However, almost no current mainstream scholars, Christian or otherwise, hold that Paul wrote Hebrews. In fact, questions about the authorship of Hebrews go back at least to the 3rd century ecclesiastical writer Caius, who attributed only thirteen epistles to Paul (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. , 6. 20. 3ff. ). A small minority of scholars hypothesize Hebrews may have been written by one of Paul's close associates, such as Barnabas, Silas, or Luke, given that the themes therein seemed to them as largely Pauline. Saint Barnabas (1st century born Joseph was an early Christian convert one of the earliest disciples in Jerusalem. Saint Silas or Saint Silvanus (flourished 1st century was a leading member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and later became a companion Luke the Evangelist ( Hebrew: לוּקָֻא Greek: Loukás) was an early Christian leader who is said by tradition to be the author of Pauline Christianity is a term used to refer to a branch of Early Christianity associated with the beliefs and doctrines espoused by Paul the Apostle through

The authorship of all non-Pauline books have been disputed in recent times. Ascriptions are largely polarized between Christian and non-Christian experts, making any sort of scholarly consensus all but impossible. Even majority views are unclear.

The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, unlike the other New Testament works, have a unique interrelationship. The dominant view among non-theologian scholars is the Two-Source Hypothesis. The Two-Source Hypothesis (or 2SH is an explanation for the relationship between the three Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke This hypothesis proposes that both Matthew and Luke drew significantly upon the Gospel of Mark and another common source, known as the "Q Source" (Q is derived from Quelle, the German word for "source"). However, the nature and even existence of Q is speculative, and scholars have proposed variants on the hypothesis which redefine or exclude it. Most pro-Q scholars believe that it was a single written document, while a few contest that "Q" was actually a number of documents or oral traditions. If it was a documentary source, no information about its author or authors can be obtained from the resources currently available. The traditional view supposes that Matthew was written first, and Mark and Luke drew from it and the second chronological work; and some scholars have attempted to use their modern methods to confirm the idea. An even smaller group of scholars espouse Lukan priority.

Modern scholars are skeptical about authorship claims for noncanonical books, such as the Nag Hammadi corpus discovered in Egypt in 1945. Nag Hammadi library (popularly known as The Gnostic Gospels) is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the This corpus of fifty-two Coptic books, dated to about 350–400, includes gospels in the names of Thomas, Philip, James, John, and many others. The Gospel According to Thomas ( Coptic: ⲡⲉ̅ⲩ̅ⲁ̅ⲅⲅ̅ⲉⲗ̅ⲓⲟⲛ̅ ⲡⲕ̅ⲁ̅ⲧⲁ ⲑ̅ⲱ̅ⲙⲁⲥ also known as The Gospel The Gospel of Philip is one of the Gnostic Gospels, a text of New Testament Apocrypha, dating back to around the third century but lost to modern researchers The Gospel of James, also sometimes known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about Like almost all ancient works, they represent copies rather than original texts. None of the original texts has been discovered, and scholars argue about the dating of the originals. Suggested dates vary from as early as 50 to as late as the late second century for the gnostics. (See Gospel of Thomas and New Testament Apocrypha. The Gospel According to Thomas ( Coptic: ⲡⲉ̅ⲩ̅ⲁ̅ⲅⲅ̅ⲉⲗ̅ⲓⲟⲛ̅ ⲡⲕ̅ⲁ̅ⲧⲁ ⲑ̅ⲱ̅ⲙⲁⲥ also known as The Gospel New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus accounts )

To summarize, the only books for which there are solid authorship consensuses among modern critical scholars are the Pauline epistiles mentioned above, which are universally regarded as authentic, and Hebrews, which is nearly always rejected. The remaining nineteen books remain in dispute, some holding to the traditional view, and others regarding them as anonymous or pseudonymic.

Date of composition

According to tradition, the earliest of the books were the letters of Paul, and the last books to be written are those attributed to John, who is traditionally said to have lived to a very old age, perhaps dying as late as 100, although this is often disputed. Irenaeus of Lyons, c. Saint Irenaeus (Greek Ειρηναίος (2nd century AD - c 202 was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, Roman Empire (now Lyons France 185, stated that the Gospels of Matthew and Mark were written while Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome, which would be in the 60s, and Luke was written some time later.

Most secular scholars agree on the dating of the majority of the New Testament, except for the epistles and books that they consider to be pseudepigraphical (i. Pseudepigrapha (from Ancient Greek ψευδής e. , those thought not to be written by their traditional authors). For the Gospels they tend to date Mark no earlier than 65 and no later than 75. Matthew is dated between 70 and 85. Luke is usually placed within 80 to 95. The earliest of the books of the New Testament was First Thessalonians, an epistle of Paul, written probably in 51, or possibly Galatians in 49 according to one of two theories of its writing. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, also known as the First Letter to the Thessalonians, is a book from the New Testament of the Christian Bible Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and The Epistle to the Galatians is a book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of early Christian communities in the Roman province of Of the pseudepigraphical epistles, Christian scholars tend to place them somewhere between 70 and 150, with Second Peter usually being the latest. The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as

In the 1830s German scholars of the Tübingen school dated the books as late as the third century, but the discovery of some New Testament manuscripts and fragments, not including some of the later writings, dating as far back as 125 (notably Papyrus 52) has called such late dating into question. Tübingen, a traditional University town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is situated 30 km (19 miles southwest of Stuttgart, on a ridge between A Biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The Rylands Library Papyrus P52, also known as the St John's fragment, is a fragment from a Papyrus Codex, measuring only 3 Additionally, a letter to the church at Corinth in the name of Clement of Rome in 95 quotes from 10 of the 27 books of the New Testament, and a letter to the church at Philippi in the name of Polycarp in 120 quotes from 16 books. Corinth, or Korinth ( Greek Κόρινθος ( is a city in Greece. Saint Polycarp 's Letter to the Philippians (often simply called To the Philippians) composed around 110 to 140 AD is described by Irenaeus as follows Therefore, some of the books of the New Testament were at least in a first-draft stage, though there is negligible evidence in these quotes or among biblical manuscripts for the existence of different early drafts. Other books were probably not completed until later, if we assume they must have been quoted by Clement or Polycarp. Saint Polycarp of Smyrna (ca 69 – ca 155 was a second century Bishop of Smyrna. There are many minor discrepancies between manuscripts (largely spelling or grammatical differences).

Canonization

Main article: Development of the New Testament canon

The process of canonization was complex and lengthy. The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. It was characterized by a compilation of books that Christians found inspiring in worship and teaching, relevant to the historical situations in which they lived, and consonant with the Old Testament.

Contrary to popular misconception, the New Testament canon was not summarily decided in large, bureaucratic Church council meetings, but rather developed very slowly over many centuries. citation needed By the 300's, almost all churches had independently reached the same canon. A citation is a reference to a source (not always the original source published or unpublished(citation needed However, this is not to say that no councils touched the issue of the canon. Some of these include the Council of Trent (also called the Tridentine Council) of 1546 for Roman Catholicism (by vote: 24 yea, 15 nay, 16 abstain),^[3] the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for Eastern Orthodoxy. The Council of Trent was the 19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established in 1563 and are the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed Confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition Calvinism (sometimes called the Reformed tradition, the Reformed faith, or Reformed theology) is a theological system and an approach to the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Dositheos Notaras convened a Synod in Jerusalem on March 1672. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Although these councils did include statements about the canon, they were only reaffirming the existing canon which was reached by mutual agreement over many centuries--they were just making it official.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on the Canon of the New Testament: "The idea of a complete and clear-cut canon of the New Testament existing from the beginning, that is from Apostolic times, has no foundation in history. The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia The Canon of the New Testament, like that of the Old, is the result of a development, of a process at once stimulated by disputes with doubters, both within and without the Church, and retarded by certain obscurities and natural hesitations, and which did not reach its final term until the dogmatic definition of the Tridentine Council. The Council of Trent was the 19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. "

In the first three centuries of the Christian Church, Early Christianity, there seems not to have been a New Testament canon that was complete and universally recognized. Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of the three centuries between the Crucifixion of Jesus ( c

One of the earliest attempts at solidifying a canon was made by Marcion, c. Marcion (Μαρκίων (ca 110 - 160) was a Christian Theologian who was excommunicated by the Early Christian church 140 AD, who accepted only a modified version of Luke (Gospel of Marcion) and ten of Paul's letters, while rejecting the Old Testament entirely. The Gospel of Marcion or the Gospel of the Lord was a text used by the mid-second century Christian teacher Marcion to the exclusion of the other gospels His unorthodox canon was rejected by a majority of Christians, as was he and his theology, Marcionism. Marcionism is the dualist Belief system that originates in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome around the year 144. Adolf Harnack in Origin of the New Testament (1914)[5] argued that the orthodox Church at this time was largely an Old Testament Church (one that "follows the Testament of the Creator-God") without a New Testament canon and that it gradually formulated its New Testament canon in response to the challenge posed by Marcion. Adolf von Harnack ( May 7, 1851 &ndash June 10, 1930) was a German theologian and prominent church historian ^[4]

The Muratorian fragment, dated at between 170 (based on an internal reference to Pope Pius I and arguments put forth by Bruce Metzger) and as late as the end of the 4th century (according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary), provides the earliest known New Testament canon attributed to mainstream (that is, not Marcionite) Christianity. The Muratorian fragment is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of the books of the New Testament. Pope Bruce Manning Metzger ( 9 February, 1914, Middletown Pennsylvania – 13 February, 2007, Princeton New Jersey) was a professor The Anchor Bible Project consisting of the Anchor Bible Commentary Series, Anchor Bible Dictionary and Anchor Bible Reference Library is a scholarly It is similar, but not identical, to the modern New Testament canon.

The oldest clear endorsement of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John being the only legitimate gospels was written c. 180 AD It was a claim made by Bishop Irenaeus in his polemic Against the Heresies, for example III.XI.8: "It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. Saint Irenaeus (Greek Ειρηναίος (2nd century AD - c 202 was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, Roman Empire (now Lyons France For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the “pillar and ground” of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh. "

At least, then, the books considered to be authoritative included the four gospels and many of the letters of Paul. Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian (all 2nd century) held the letters of Paul to be on par with the Hebrew Scriptures as being divinely inspired, yet others rejected him. Saint Justin Martyr (also Justin the Martyr, Justin of Caesarea, Justin the Philosopher, Latin Iustinus Martyr or Flavius Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca Other books were held in high esteem but were gradually relegated to the status of New Testament Apocrypha. New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings of the early Christian church that give accounts of the teachings of Jesus, aspects of the life of Jesus accounts

Eusebius, c. 300, gave a detailed list of New Testament writings in his Ecclesiastical History Book 3, Chapter XXV:

"1. . . First then must be put the holy quaternion of the Gospels; following them the Acts of the Apostles. This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. . . the epistles of Paul. The Pauline epistles, Epistles of Paul, or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen New Testament books which have the name Paul (Παῦλος as the first . . the epistle of John. The First Epistle of John is a book of the New Testament, and is the fourth catholic or "general" Epistles. . . the epistle of Peter. The First Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament. It has traditionally been held to have been written by Saint Peter the apostle during his time as Bishop . . After them is to be placed, if it really seem proper, the Apocalypse of John, concerning which we shall give the different opinions at the proper time. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου These then belong among the accepted writings. "

"3 Among the disputed writings [Antilegomena], which are nevertheless recognized by many, are extant the so-called epistle of James and that of Jude, also the second epistle of Peter, and those that are called the second and third of John, whether they belong to the evangelist or to another person of the same name. Antilegomena (from Greek, meaning things contradicted or disputed literally spoken against) was an Epithet used by the Church Fathers to denote those The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. The brief Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book in the Christian New Testament canon. The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as The Second Epistle of John (often simply called 2nd John or II John) is a book in the Christian Holy Scriptures, the authorship of The New Testament Third Epistle of John (often referred to as 3 John) written in the form of an Epistle, is the 64th book of the Bible. Saint John the Evangelist (d ca 110 יוחנן " The LORD is merciful" Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew Among the rejected [Kirsopp Lake translation: "not genuine"] writings must be reckoned also the Acts of Paul, and the so-called Shepherd, and the Apocalypse of Peter, and in addition to these the extant epistle of Barnabas, and the so-called Teachings of the Apostles; and besides, as I said, the Apocalypse of John, if it seem proper, which some, as I said, reject, but which others class with the accepted books. The Acts of Paul is one of the major works from the New Testament apocrypha, and thought to have been written at the end of the second century The Shepherd of Hermas (sometimes just called The Shepherd) is a Christian work of the second century considered a valuable book by many Christians The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek treatise with some features of an Epistle containing twenty-one chapters preserved complete in the 4th century Codex The Didache ( Koine Greek:, Didachē, meaning "Teaching" ˈdɪdəkiː in English ðiðaˈxi in Modern Greek) is the common name of a brief The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου And among these some have placed also the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The Gospel of the Hebrews (see "About titles" below is a lost gospel preserved only in a few . . And all these may be reckoned among the disputed books. "

"6. . . such books as the Gospels of Peter, of Thomas, of Matthias, or of any others besides them, and the Acts of Andrew and John and the other apostles. The Gospel of Peter was a prominent passion narrative in the early History of Christianity, but over time passed out of common usage The Gospel According to Thomas ( Coptic: ⲡⲉ̅ⲩ̅ⲁ̅ⲅⲅ̅ⲉⲗ̅ⲓⲟⲛ̅ ⲡⲕ̅ⲁ̅ⲧⲁ ⲑ̅ⲱ̅ⲙⲁⲥ also known as The Gospel The Gospel of Matthias is a lost text from the New Testament apocrypha, ascribed to Matthias, the apostle chosen by lots to replace Judas Iscariot The Acts of Andrew ( Acta Andreae) is the earliest testimony of the acts and miracles of the Apostle Andrew. The Acts of John is a 2nd-century Christian collection of narratives and traditions well described as a "library of materials", inspired by the . . they clearly show themselves to be the fictions of heretics. Heresy is an introduced change to some system of belief especially a religion that conflicts with the previously established canon of that belief Wherefore they are not to be placed even among the rejected writings, but are all of them to be cast aside as absurd and impious. "

Revelation is counted as both accepted (Kirsopp Lake translation: "Recognized") and disputed, which has caused some confusion over what exactly Eusebius meant by doing so. From other writings of the Church Fathers, we know that it was disputed with several canon lists rejecting its canonicity. EH 3. 3. 5 adds further detail on Paul: "Paul's fourteen epistles are well known and undisputed. It is not indeed right to overlook the fact that some have rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it is disputed by the church of Rome, on the ground that it was not written by Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. " EH 4. 29. 6 mentions the Diatessaron: "But their original founder, Tatian, formed a certain combination and collection of the Gospels, I know not how, to which he gave the title Diatessaron, and which is still in the hands of some. The Diatessaron ( c 150 - 160 is the most prominent Gospel harmony. But they say that he ventured to paraphrase certain words of the apostle [Paul], in order to improve their style. "^[5]

The New Testament canon as it is now was first listed by St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in 367, in a letter written to his churches in Egypt, Festal Letter 39. Also cited is the Council of Rome, but not without controversy. The Council of Rome was a meeting of Western church officials and theologians which took place in 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus I. That canon gained wider and wider recognition until it was accepted at the Third Council of Carthage in 397. Synods of Carthage During the 3rd 4th and 5th centuries the town of Carthage in Africa served as the meeting-place of a large number of church synods of which however only Even this council did not settle the matter, however. Certain books continued to be questioned, especially James and Revelation. The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου Even as late as the 16th century, theologian and reformer Martin Luther questioned (but in the end did not reject) the Epistle of James, the Epistle of Jude, the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation. Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer The Epistle of James is a book in the Christian New Testament. The brief Epistle of Jude is the penultimate book in the Christian New Testament canon. The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbr Heb for Citations is one of the books in the New Testament. The Book of Revelation, also called Revelation to John, Apocalypse of John ( pronounced, from the Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου Even today, German-language Luther Bibles are printed with these four books at the end of the canon, rather than their traditional order for other Christians. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534 Due to the fact that some of the recognized Books of the Holy Scripture were having their canonicity questioned by Protestants in the 16th century, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the traditional canon (that is for Catholics the canon of the Council of Rome) of the Scripture as a dogma of the Catholic Church. The Council of Rome was a meeting of Western church officials and theologians which took place in 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus I. Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek, plural) is the established Belief or

Early manuscripts

The early New Testament manuscripts can be classified into certain major families or types of text. A Biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. A "text-type" is the name given to a family of texts with a common ancestor. It must be noted that many early manuscripts can be composed of several different text-types. For example, Codex Washingtonianus consists of only the four gospels, and yet, different parts are written in different text-types. The Codex Washingtonianus, (Gregory-Aland no W or 032) also called the Washington Manuscript of the Gospels, The Freer Gospel, and Codex Four distinctive New Testament text-types have been defined:

The Alexandrian text-type is usually considered the best and most faithful at preserving the original; it is usually brief and austere. The Alexandrian text-type (also called Neutral or Egyptian) is one of several text-types used in New Testament Textual criticism to describe The main examples are the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus and Bodmer Papyri. The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl Vat, Vat gr 1209 Gregory-Aland no Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmarks and references London Brit Libr, Additional 43725 Gregory - Aland nº א (Aleph or 01, Soden The Bodmer Papyri are a group of twenty-two Papyri discovered in Egypt in 1952

The Western text-type has a fondness for paraphrase and is generally the longest. The Western text-type is one of several text-types used in Textual criticism to describe and group the textual character of Greek New Testament manuscripts Most significant is the Western version of Acts, which is 10% longer. The Acts of the Apostles is a book of the Bible, which now stands fifth in the New Testament. The main examples are the Codex Bezae, Codex Claromontanus, Codex Washingtonianus, Old Latin versions (prior to the Vulgate), and quotes by Marcion, Tatian, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Cyprian. The Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis (Gregory-Aland no Dea or 05, Soden δ 5 is an important Codex of the New Testament dating from the fifth-century Codex Claromontanus symbolized by Dp or 06 (Gregory-Aland is a 6th century Manuscript, written in an Uncial hand on The Codex Washingtonianus, (Gregory-Aland no W or 032) also called the Washington Manuscript of the Gospels, The Freer Gospel, and Codex Vetus Latina is a collective name given to the Biblical texts in Latin that were translated before St Jerome 's Vulgate The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by Marcion (Μαρκίων (ca 110 - 160) was a Christian Theologian who was excommunicated by the Early Christian church Tatian the Assyrian was an early Christian writer and theologian of the second century. Saint Irenaeus (Greek Ειρηναίος (2nd century AD - c 202 was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, Roman Empire (now Lyons France Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca This page is about Cyprian bishop of Carthage For other Cyprians see Cyprian (disambiguation.

The Caesarean text-type is a mixture of Western and Alexandrian types and is found in the Chester Beatty Papyri and is quoted by Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem and Armenians. Caesarean text-type is the term proposed by certain scholars to denote a consistent pattern of variant readings that is claimed to be apparent in certain Greek manuscripts The Chester Beatty Biblical Papyri or simply the Chester Beatty Papyri are a group of early Papyrus manuscripts of biblical texts. Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (Κύριλλος Α΄ Ἱεροσολύμων was a distinguished theologian of the early Church (ca

The Byzantine text-type is the textform that is contained in a majority of the extant manuscripts and thus is often called the "Majority Text. The Byzantine text-type (also called Majority, Traditional, Ecclesiastical, Constantinopolitan, or Syrian) is one of several " The origin of this text is debated among scholars. Some scholars, observing that few Byzantine readings exist among early uncial manuscript witnesses, contend that the text formed late and contains conflated readings. Other scholars look to the shear number of consistent witnesses to the Byzantine textform, and the existence of readings which parallel the Byzantine textform in very early translations, as evidence that the Byzantine textform is probably the closest text to that originally penned by the New Testament authors. The Byzantine textform can be found in the Gospels of Codex Alexandrinus, later uncial texts and most minuscule texts. This article is about the canonical books of the New Testament The Codex Alexandrinus (London British Library, MS Royal 1 D V-VIII Gregory-Aland no Uncial is a Majuscule script commonly used from the 3rd to 8th centuries AD by Latin and Greek Scribes From the 8th century to the A variant of the Byzantine text, called the Textus Receptus, is the basis of Erasmus's printed Greek New Testament of 1516, which became the basis of the 1611 King James Version of the English New Testament. Textus Receptus ( Latin: "received text" is the name subsequently given to the succession of printed Greek texts of the New Testament which constituted

Most modern English versions of the New Testament are based on critical reconstructions of the Greek text, such as the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament or Nestle-Alands' Novum Testamentum Graece, which have a pronounced Alexandrian character. A Bible society is a non-profit organization (usually Ecumenical in makeup devoted to Translating, publishing distributing the Bible at affordable costs Novum Testamentum Graece is the Latin name of the Greek language version of the New Testament.

Additions

Over the years, there have been a number of possible additions to the original text, such as:

• Mark 16:9-20
• Luke 22:19b-20,43-44
• John 7:53-8:11
• 1 John 5:7b–8a

In addition, there are a large number of variant readings, see Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (1994) for details. Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The Pericope Adulterae (pəˈrɪkəpi əˈdʌltəri in anglicised Latin)is a traditional name for a famous passage ( Pericope) about an adulterous woman— The Comma Johanneum is a comma (a short clause contained in most translations of the First Epistle of John published from 1522 until the latter part of the nineteenth Bruce Manning Metzger ( 9 February, 1914, Middletown Pennsylvania – 13 February, 2007, Princeton New Jersey) was a professor

Authority

All Christian groups respect the New Testament, but they differ in their understanding of the nature, extent, and relevance of its authority. Views of the authoritativeness of the New Testament often depend on the concept of inspiration, which relates to the role of God in the formation of the New Testament. Generally, the greater the role of God in one's doctrine of inspiration, the more one accepts the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy and/or authoritativeness of the Bible. Doctrine (Latin doctrina) is a codification of beliefs or "a body of teachings quot or "instructions" taught principles or positions as the Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction One possible source of confusion is that these terms are difficult to define, because many people use them interchangeably or with very different meanings. This article will use the terms in the following manner:

• Infallibility relates to the absolute correctness of the Bible in matters of doctrine.
• Inerrancy relates to the absolute correctness of the Bible in factual assertions (including historical and scientific assertions).
• Authoritativeness relates to the correctness of the Bible in questions of practice in morality.

Christian scholars such as Professor Peter Stoner see the Bible having compelling and detailed fulfilled Bible prophecy and argue for the Bible's inspiration. Peter Stoner ( June 16 1888 &ndash March 21, 1980) was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College Bible prophecy, or " biblical prophecy " is the belief in prophecies in the Bible. This is argued to show that the Bible is authoritative, since it is argued that only God knows the future. A common objection in the West regarding this matter is that the burden of proof is on miracles, which, by Occam's Razor, should only be considered when all ordinary explanations fail. A miracle is an event believed to be caused by interposition of Divine intervention by a Supernatural being in the Universe by which the ordinary operation Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English Logician and Franciscan Friar, C. S. Lewis, Norman Geisler, William Lane Craig, and Christians who engage in Christian apologetics have argued that miracles are reasonable and plausible. Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963 Norman L Geisler (born 1932 is a Christian Apologist and the co-founder of Southern Evangelical Seminary outside Charlotte North Carolina. William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American Philosopher, Theologian, New Testament Historian, and Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections [6] [7] [8][9][10]PDF (133 KiB) [11]. A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International On the other hand, in the West those who do not believe in miracles often use the arguments of David Hume, Benedict de Spinoza, or the arguments of Deism. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza (ברוך שפינוזה Bento de Espinosa Benedictus de Spinoza ( November 24, 1632 – February 21, Deism is the belief that a supreme God exists and created the physical universe and that religious truths can be arrived at by the application of reason alone without dependence on revelation [12][13][14].

All of these concepts depend for their meaning on the supposition that the text of Bible has been properly interpreted, with consideration for the intention of the text, whether literal history, allegory or poetry, etc. History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology An allegory (from αλλος allos "other" and el αγορευειν agoreuein "to speak in public" is a figurative mode of representation Especially the doctrine of inerrancy is variously understood according to the weight given by the interpreter to scientific investigations of the world.

Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy

For the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, there are two strands of revelation, the Bible, and the (rest of the) Apostolic Tradition. The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Both of them are interpreted by the teachings of the Church. In Catholic terminology the Teaching Office is called the Magisterium; in Orthodox terminology the authentic interpretation of scripture and tradition is limited, in the final analysis, to the Canon Law of the Ecumenical councils. Magisterium is a "teaching authority especially of the Roman Catholic Church" Canon law is internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Anglican Communion of churches This is a general introduction to ecumenical councils For the Roman Catholic councils, see Catholic Ecumenical Councils. Both sources of revelation are considered necessary for proper understanding of the tenets of the faith. The Roman Catholic view is expressed clearly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992):

§ 83: As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the twenty-two Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.
§ 107: The inspired books teach the truth. Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.

Protestantism

Following the doctrine of sola scriptura, Protestants believe that their traditions of faith, practice and interpretations carry forward what the scriptures teach, and so tradition is not a source of authority in itself. Sola scriptura ( Latin ablative, "by scripture alone" is the assertion that the Bible as God's written word is self-authenticating Their traditions derive authority from the Bible, and are therefore always open to reevaluation. This openness to doctrinal revision has extended in Liberal Protestant traditions even to the reevaluation of the doctrine of Scripture upon which the Reformation was founded, and members of these traditions may even question whether the Bible is infallible in doctrine, inerrant in historical and other factual statements, and whether it has uniquely divine authority. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. However, the adjustments made by modern Protestants to their doctrine of Scripture vary widely. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

American Evangelical and fundamentalist Protestantism

Certain American conservatives, fundamentalists and evangelicals believe that the Scriptures are both human and divine in origin: human in their manner of composition, but divine in that their source is God, the Holy Spirit, who governed the writers of scripture in such a way that they recorded nothing at all contrary to the truth. Fundamentalist Christianity, also known as Christian Fundamentalism or Fundamentalist Evangelicalism, is a movement that arose mainly within British and Evangelicalism is a theological movement tradition and system of beliefs most closely associated with Protestant Christianity, which identifies with the Gospel Fundamentalists accept the enduring authority and impugnity of a prescientific interpretation of the Bible. In the United States this particularly applies to issues such as the ordination of women, abortion, and homosexuality. In general religious use Ordination is the process by which a person is consecrated (set apart for the administration of various religious rites An Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. However, although American evangelicals are overwhelmingly opposed to such things, other evangelicals are increasingly willing to consider that the views of the biblical authors may have been culturally conditioned, and they may even argue that there is room for change along with cultural norms and scientific advancements. Both fundamentalists and evangelicals profess belief in the inerrancy of the Bible. In the US the fundamentalists' stronger emphasis on literal interpretation has led to the rejection of evolution, which contradicts the doctrine of Creationism. eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 "Creationism" can also refer to Creation myths in general or to a concept about the origin of the soul.

Evangelicals, on the other hand, tend to avoid interpretations of the Bible that would directly contradict generally accepted scientific assertions of fact. They do not impute error to biblical authors, but rather entertain various theories of literary intent which might give credibility to human progress in knowledge of the world, while still accepting the divine inspiration of the scriptures.

Within the US, the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) is an influential statement, articulating evangelical views on this issue. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was formulated in October of 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Paragraph four of its summary states: "Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God's acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God's saving grace in individual lives. "

Critics of such a position point out that there are many statements that Jesus makes in the Gospels or that Paul makes in his epistles, even to the point of making them commands, which are not taken as commands by most advocates of Biblical inerrancy. Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction Examples of this are Jesus' command to the disciples to sell all they have and give the money to the poor so as to gain treasure in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mark 10:21), or Paul's calls to imitate him in celibacy (1 Cor 7:8). Celibacy refers to the lack of participation in Sexual intercourse. Other sections of the Bible, such as the second half of John chapter six, where Jesus commands that the disciples eat his flesh and drink his blood, are interpreted by most adherents of Biblical Inerrancy as symbolic language rather than literally, as might be expected from the statements of the doctrine. Supporters of Biblical Inerrancy generally argue that these passages are intended to be symbolic, and that their symbolic nature can be seen directly in the text, thus preserving the doctrine.

American Mainline and liberal Protestantism

Mainline American Protestant denominations, including the United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church USA, The Episcopal Church, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, do not teach the doctrine of inerrancy as set forth in the Chicago Statement. Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination and the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The Presbyterian Church (USA or PC (USA is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. The Episcopal Church is the official name of the Province of the Anglican Communion in the United States. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( ELCA) is a mainline Protestant denomination headquartered in Chicago Illinois. All of these churches have more ancient doctrinal statements asserting the authority of scripture, but may interpret these statements in such a way as to allow for a very broad range of teaching—from evangelicalism to skepticism. It is not an impediment to ordination in these denominations to teach that the Scriptures contain errors, or that the authors follow a more or less unenlightened ethics that, however appropriate it may have seemed in the authors' time, moderns would be very wrong to follow blindly. For example, ordination of women is universally accepted in the mainline churches, abortion is condemned as a grievous social tragedy but not always a personal sin or a crime against an unborn person, and homosexuality is increasingly regarded as a genetic propensity or morally neutral preference that should be neither encouraged nor condemned. In general religious use Ordination is the process by which a person is consecrated (set apart for the administration of various religious rites An Sin is a term used mainly in a religious context to describe an act that violates a moral Rule, or the state of having committed such a violation Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. In North America, the most contentious of these issues among these churches at the present time is how far the ordination of gay men and lesbians should be accepted.

Officials of the Presbyterian Church USA report: "We acknowledge the role of scriptural authority in the Presbyterian Church, but Presbyterians generally do not believe in biblical inerrancy. Presbyterians do not insist that every detail of chronology or sequence or prescientific description in scripture be true in literal form. Our confessions do teach biblical infallibility. Infallibility affirms the entire truthfulness of scripture without depending on every exact detail. "

Those who hold a more liberal view of the Bible as a human witness to the glory of God, the work of fallible humans who wrote from a limited experience unusual only for the insight they have gained through their inspired struggle to know God in the midst of a troubled world. Therefore, they tend not to accept such doctrines as inerrancy. These churches also tend to retain the social activism of their Evangelical forebears of the 19th century, placing particular emphasis on those teachings of Scripture that teach compassion for the poor and concern for social justice. Social justice, sometimes called civil justice, refers to the concept of a Society in which Justice is achieved in every aspect of society rather than The message of personal salvation is, generally speaking, of the good that comes to oneself and the world through following the New Testament's Golden Rule admonition to love others without hypocrisy or prejudice. In Theology, salvation can mean three related things being saved from or Liberation from something such as Suffering or the punishment of The ethic of reciprocity is a fundamental moral Value which " refers to the balance in an interactive system such that each party has both rights and Toward these ends, the "spirit" of the New Testament, more than the letter, is infallible and authoritative.

There are some movements that believe the Bible contains the teachings of Jesus but who reject the churches that were formed following its publication. These people believe all individuals can communicate directly with God and therefore do not need guidance or doctrines from a church. These people are known as Christian anarchists. Christian anarchism is any of several traditions which combine Anarchism with Christianity.

Messianic Judaism

Messianic Judaism generally holds the same view of New Testament authority as evangelical Protestants. Messianic Judaism is a Christian movement that emphasizes the Jewish roots of the Christian religion

See also

• Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
• Gnosticism and the New Testament
• List of Gospels
• Expounding of the Law
• Bible translations
• Biblical canon
• Books of the Bible
• Gospel of Thomas
• New Testament apocrypha
• New Testament view on Jesus' life
• Old Testament
• Textus Receptus
• Two-source hypothesis
• Bodmer Papyri
• Authorship of the Johannine works
• Authorship of the Pauline epistles
• Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture
• Category:New Testament books

Notes

Further reading

• Raymond E. Brown: An Introduction to the New Testament (ISBN 0-385-24767-2)
• Burton L. Mack: Who Wrote the New Testament?, Harper, 1996
• Randel McCraw Helms: Who Wrote the Gospels?

External links

Source text of New Testament

• The New Testament Gateway - Dr. Mark Goodacre.
• Latin harmony of the Four Gospels: «Live» of Jesus (1)
• Latin harmony of the Four Gospels: «Live» of Jesus (2)
• N.T. Ancient Manuscripts: Partial New Testament Papyri
• New Testament - King James Version with Greek and Encyclopedic links
• Vatican Resource Library - Vatican Library Archives
• Complete Text of the New Testament, 1611 King James Version
• Tessarôn Euaggeliôn Sumphônia - The Greek harmony of the Gospels
• Searchable New Testament Greek Lexicon

Greek

• New Testament Byzantine Greek Original Side by side with the English (King James) and Russian (Synodal) translation - Commentary by the Greek Fathers - Icons from Athos Holy Mountain
• New Testament, Greek Polytonic Text according to Ecumenical Patriarchate
• Greek New Testament text (searchable only; no downloads) with lexical aids
• Greek New Testament This is a Greek text of the New Testament, specifically the Westcott-Hort text from 1881, combined with the NA26/27 variants]
• Greek-English interlinear of the Old & New Testaments - in PDF format.
• Palmer, Edwin Palmer, ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. The Greek Testament with the Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorised Version. Raymond Edward Brown ( May 22, 1928 - August 8, 1998) was an American Roman Catholic Priest and Biblical Burton L Mack is a writer and John Wesley Professor (now Emeritus) in early Christianity at the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont California Russian Synodal Bible (Синодальный перевод The Synodal Translation is a Russian non- Church Slavonic translation of the Bible commonly used by the London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232

Other languages

• Lutheran Church China: - Has the only Traditional Chinese New Testament (1880 A. D. ) based on the King James Version.
• Bible Gateway 35 languages/50 versions at GospelCom.net
• Unbound Bible 100+ languages/versions at Biola University
• Online Bible at GospelHall.org - King James Version, English Standard Version, Bible in Basic English, Darby Translation
• King James version of New Testament at Project Gutenberg
• Full text of the New Testament in English, Arabic, Amharic, Hebrew and French
• Serbian New Testament — full text
• The New Testament at romansonline.com
• The Complete Sayings of Christ The complete collection of Christ's sayings from the New Testament --- in parallel English and Latin.
• Online New Testament in Turkish.

General references

• New Testament Gateway, sponsored by Duke University
• New Testament Books
• Chicago Statement of Biblical Inerrancy
• Overview of Inerrancy
• Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Ask the Pastor - a Lutheran discussion of the dates of writing, compiling, and setting of the canon
• New Testament Alterations from the Order of Nazorean Essenes (Budhist / Gnostic Chritian source)
• Jewish Encyclopedia: New Testament
• Catholic Encyclopedia: New Testament
• Evangelical Textual Criticism Blog
• Dating the NT - list of opinions of scholars
• Scholarly articles on the New Testament from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library

Development and authorship

• http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_ntb1.htm
• http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Trowbridge/NT_Hist.htm
• Synoptic Problem Home Page