Formation of the New Testament Canon
A process that spanned more than three centuries, the formation of the New Testament canon was long and complex. With the possible exception of Luke-Acts, each of the twenty-seven (eventually) canonical books originated separately and at first circulated independently of the others.
Although the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters were generally accepted by about AD 200, other books, such as James, Revelation, and 2nd Peter, were disputed well into the fourth century. Only gradually were these writings gathered together into a single volume with contents identical to those of today.
Canonization
The debate for canonization in the early church was based largely around the writings after the time of Jesus.
The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was already viewed as authoritative and therefore acceptable.
The process of canonization determined which books should be included beyond the OT.
Criteria for Canonization
The criteria that figured most prominently in the thinking of the church were:
Apostolicity
Catholicity
Orthodoxy
Traditional/Established Usage
Inspiration
Apostolicity
Was a book/letter written by an apostle?
What was the author’s connection to the apostles and thus to Christ?
“The concept ‘apostolic’… could connote, beyond direct apostolic authorship, authorship by followers of apostles, derivation from the general time of the apostles, or even simply an agreement of content with what the church took to be apostolic teaching.”
Catholicity
Was the document relevant to the universal Church?
Paul’s letters were disputed because they were specifically addressed to individual churches.
“What is at work in the use of this criterion is the church’s desire to eschew limited, private, and esoteric resources and to prefer broadly accessible and relevant documents.”
Orthodoxy
Did the document’s content agree with the faith/doctrine of the church?
This criteria was circular
The Synoptic Gospels and the writings of Paul were not put to this criterion because they were already widely accepted and used.
This criterion thus was applied to those texts which had questionable authority.
Traditional Usage
Was a document used in worship and teaching in the churches?
A retrospective approach primarily in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Some writings which were used were excluded from the canon and others which were used more sparingly were canonized (James, 2 Peter, etc.).
Inspiration
The Church recognized the OT as being inspired by God, but at first it did not claim such for the Christian writings.
When the writings began being used commonly with the OT they began being viewed as inspired as well.
While the authority of the canon is argued on this point, it does not appear to have been a primary criteria of the church.
Transmitting the New Testament Texts
Although approximately 5,000 manuscripts containing all or part of the New Testament survive, only a few small fragments date back as early as the first half of the second century AD. The oldest extant manuscripts of a few individual books were composed about AD 200, but the earliest copies of the complete New Testament were not produced until the time of Constantine (c. AD 325).
Because none of the authors’ original documents exist (we have only several generations of copies) and no two of the surviving manuscript copies are precisely alike, it is extremely difficult for scholars to compile a reasonably reliable text of the Christian Greek Scriptures from which English translations can be made.
English Translations
Based on the pioneering labors of Wycliffe and Tyndale, the King James Bible (Authorized Version, AD 1611) became the most popular translation in the English-speaking world.
More recent translations, however, such as the New English Bible, are based on older manuscripts than were not available to the King James scholars and offer more exact approximations of the original Greek.
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Special Thanks
Mike Flowers
Tyler Brinkman
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