New Testament

This article is about the Christian Greek Scriptures of the biblical canon. For the theological concept, see New Covenant. For other uses, see A New Testament (disambiguation) and The New Testament (disambiguation).

New Testament
Part of the Bible
Information
ReligionChristianity
LanguageKoine Greek
Chapters260
Verses7,957
Part of a series on
Books of the
New Testament
Papyrus 46, one of the oldest New Testament papyri, showing 2 Cor 11:33–12:9
Gospels and Acts
Four Evangelists
Lukan Acts
Epistles and Apocalypse
Pauline epistles
Catholic epistles
Apocalypse
Authorship
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Part of a series on
Christianity
Principal symbol of Christianity
Theology
Nicene
Restorationist
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The New Testament[a] (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events relating to first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible; together they are regarded as Sacred Scripture by Christians.[1]

The New Testament is a collection of Christian texts originally written in the Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different Christian denominations, the 27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity[2] since at least Late Antiquity. Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books:

The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria, dated to 367 AD.[3] The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided the canon of the Old Testament, which included the deuterocanonical books.[4]

There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the latest New Testament texts. John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD.[5] Many other scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman and Stephen L. Harris, date some New Testament texts much later than this;[6][7][8] Richard Pervo dated Luke–Acts to c. 115 AD,[9] and David Trobisch places Acts in the mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first New Testament canon.[10] Whether the Gospels were composed before or after 70 AD, according to Bas van Os, the lifetime of various eyewitnesses that includes Jesus's own family through the end of the First Century is very likely statistically. [11] Markus Bockmuehl finds this structure of lifetime memory in various early Christian traditions. [12]

The New Oxford Annotated Bible claims, "Scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching."[13][14] The ESV Study Bible claims the following (as one argument for gospel authenticity): Because Luke, as a second generation Christian, claims to have retrieved eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:1–4), in addition to having traveled with Paul the Apostle (Acts 16:10–17; arguing for an authorship date of c. AD 62[15]), which is corroborated by Paul's Letter to the Colossians (Col. 4:14), Letter to Philemon (Philem. 23–24), and Second Letter to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:11),[b] the gospel account of Luke "was received as having apostolic endorsement and authority from Paul and as a trustworthy record of the gospel that Paul preached" (e.g. Rom. 2:16, according to Eusebius in Ecclesiastical History 3.4.8).[16]


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  1. ^ "BBC – Religions – Christianity: The Bible". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  2. ^ Gil, Jesus; Dominguez, Joseangel (2022). Bible Portico. Translated by Scott, Helena. Saxum International Foundation. p. 15. ISBN 979-12-80113-17-7.
  3. ^ Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4051-1078-5.
  4. ^ Kümmel, Werner Georg (1975). Introduction to the New Testament. Translated by Kee, Howard Clark (English translation of revised 17th ed.). Nashville: Abdingdon Press. ISBN 0-687-19575-6.
  5. ^ Robinson, John Arthur Thomas (2000) [1976]. Redating the New Testament. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-57910-527-3.
  6. ^ Ehrman 1997, p. 8: "The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, written in Greek, by fifteen or sixteen different authors, who were addressing other Christian individuals or communities between the years 50 and 120 C.E. (see box 1.4). As we will see, it is difficult to know whether any of these books was written by Jesus' own disciples."
  7. ^ Harris 2010, p. 20: Dates Jude and 2 Peter to 130–150 AD.
  8. ^ Harris 1980, p. 295: Virtually no authorities defend the Petrine authorship of 2 Peter, which is believed to have been written by an anonymous churchman in Rome about 150 C.E.
  9. ^ Pervo, Richard (2015). "Acts in Ephesus (and Environs) c. 115" (PDF). Forum. 3 (Fall 2015): 125–151. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2021.
  10. ^ Trobisch, David. "Who Published the New Testament?" (PDF). Free Inquiry. 28 (Dec. 2007/Jan. 2008): 30–33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2021. ...Acts provides information that makes it possible to identify Luke, the author of the Gospel, as the doctor who travels with Paul and to identify Mark as someone close to Peter and Paul. This 'canon consciousness' suggests that the book of Acts was composed at a later date than is typically thought; this theory is supported by the first attestation of the book around 180 CE.
  11. ^ van Os, Bas (2011). Psychological Analyses and the Historical Jesus: New Ways to Explore Christian Origins. T&T Clark. p. 57, 83. ISBN 978-0567269515.
  12. ^ Bockmuehl, Markus (2006). Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study. Baker Academic. p. 178-184. ISBN 978-0801027611.
  13. ^ Cousland 2010, p. 1744.
  14. ^ Cousland 2018, p. 1380.
  15. ^ ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. 2008. p. 2073. ISBN 978-1-4335-0241-5. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023.
  16. ^ ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. 2008. p. 1935. ISBN 978-1-4335-0241-5. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023.