The New
Testament (Koine Greek: Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, Hē Kainḕ
Diathḗkē) is the second major part of the Christian biblical canon,
the first part being the Old Testament.
Although Christians
hold different views from Jews about the
Old Testament, Christians regard both the Old and New Testaments together as sacred scripture. The contents of
the New Testament deal explicitly with first-century Christianity. Therefore, the New Testament (in whole or in part) has frequently
accompanied the spread of Christianity around
the world. It reflects and
serves as a source for Christian theology. Both extended readings and
phrases directly from the New Testament are also incorporated (along with
readings from the Old Testament) into the various Christian liturgies. The
New Testament has influenced not only religious, philosophical, and political movements in Christendom, but also has
left an indelible mark on its literature, art, and music.
The
New Testament is an anthology, a collection of Christian works written in the common Greek
language of the first century, at different times by various
writers, who were early Jewish disciples of Jesus of
Nazareth. In almost all Christian traditions today, the New
Testament consists of 27 books. The original texts were written in the first
and perhaps the second centuries of the Christian Era,
generally believed to be in Koine Greek, which was the common
language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the Conquests of Alexander the Great(335–323
BC) until the evolution of Byzantine
Greek (c. 600). All of the works which would eventually be
incorporated into the New Testament would seem to have been written no later
than around AD 150.
Collections
of related texts such as letters of
the Apostle Paul(a major collection of which must
have been made already by the early 2nd century) and
the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John (asserted by Irenaeus of Lyonin the late-2nd century as the Four
Gospels) gradually were joined to other collections and single works in
different combinations to form various Christian canons of
Scripture. Over time, some disputed
books, such as the Book of Revelation and the Minor Catholic
(General) Epistles were introduced into canons in
which they were originally absent. Other works earlier held to be Scripture,
such as 1 Clement,
the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Diatessaron,
were excluded from the New Testament. The Old Testament canon is not completely
uniform among all major Christian groups including Roman
Catholics, Protestants, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Slavic
Orthodox Churches, and the Armenian Orthodox Church. However, the twenty-seven-book canon of
the New Testament, at least since Late
Antiquity, has been almost universally recognized within Christianity.
The New Testament consists of:
·
four narratives of the life,
teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus, called "gospels"
(or "good news" accounts);
·
a narrative of the Apostles'
ministries in the early church, called the "Acts of the Apostles", and probably
written by the same writer as the Gospel of
Luke, which it continues;
·
twenty-one letters, often called
"epistles"
in the biblical context, written by various authors, and consisting of
Christian doctrine, counsel, instruction, and conflict resolution; and
·
an Apocalypse,
the Book of Revelation, which is a book of
prophecy, containing some instructions to seven local congregations of Asia Minor,
but mostly containing prophetical symbology,
about the end times.
DEFINITIONS
Apocrypha - From the Greek
"things hidden away". Old Testament books of doubtful authority
included in the later Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate versions, but not
in the original Jewish Bible. Written mostly in the four centuries before the
birth of Christ, they include:
Tobit - Judith - parts
of Esther - First and Second Book of Macabees - Book of Wisdom - Ecclesiasticus
(as distinct from the "canonical" Ecclesiastes) - Baruch - parts of
Daniel collected together as the Old Testament Apocrypha
The term is also applied
to gospels, acts, letters and apocalypse of the early Christian era that were
not included in the New Testament canon
Aramaic - Ancient Semitic language related to Hebrew. It
became the common language across the Middle East from the 6th century BC. By
the time of Jesus, it had partly replaced Hebrew as the language of Palestine
especially in Galilee
Bible - From the Greek
"biblia" for books, a form of "biblos" = papyrus. Byblos
was a port in Phoenicia which exported papyrus
Canon - From the Greek "a rule". Books of
the Old and New Testaments accepted as authentic by the Christian Church.
The "Canon" of
the Protestant church does not include the "Deuterocanonical" Old
Testament Apocrypha of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. However their
historical value is accepted
Codex - Any ancient manuscript cut and assembled to
open up as a conventional book; plural "codices"
Jewish Bible - The Books of the "Law and Prophets"
and the "Writings" of Judaism that also became the Christian Old
Testament. Most were originally written in Hebrew with some parts in Aramaic
"Law and Prophets" - The "Law", or Jewish Torah, or five
Books of Moses, or Pentateuch - the Old Testament Books of Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The "Prophets"
are the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
the twelve minor prophets from Hosea to Malachi
Septuagint (LXX) - From Latin for "seventy". A Greek
translation of the Jewish Bible and Apocrypha made for the growing number of
Greek-speaking Jews scattered throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle
East area. The work started in c 250BC in Alexandria, Egypt with the
translation of "The Law", traditionally made by 72 (or 70 = LXX)
Jewish scholars
Vulgate - From Latin
"vulgata", "to make public" = in common use. Latin
translation of the Christian Bible made in the 4th century by Jerome, much of
it in Bethlehem. The Vulgate was in wide use until the Reformation, and is
still the official text of the Catholic church.
"Writings" - The Jewish Bible
and Old Testament Books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth,
Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles
EARLY HISTORY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
c
AD27, The
Bible of Jesus - Two
versions of the Jewish Bible existed - the original Hebrew and the Greek
Septuagint translated in Egypt.
from c AD30, The first Christian "Bible" - The Greek Septuagint, soon to become the Christian Old
Testament, was probably used by most early Christians as their
"Bible"
from c AD50-100, Books of the New Testament - Some scholars date some books of the New
Testament to c AD150. In this 50 to 100 year period, the 27 books of the New
Testament were written, completed and preserved:
Four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John;
One Acts - the Acts of the Apostles;
21 Letters or Epistles - 13 from Paul, one to the Hebrews, one
from James, two from Peter, three from John, and one from Jude;
One Apocalypse - Book of Revelation.
Although no originals
have been found, more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts from the next few centuries
- complete, in part, or fragments - still exist. They all help to
confirm how accurately the Bible has come down to us. They also show the Greek
was not a special religious language, but the common "koine" spoken
by ordinary people throughout the Greek-speaking world.
from 1st Cen, Writings of the Church Fathers - Many thousands of scripture references from
the New Testament were included in the writings of the "Church
Fathers" - often brilliant bishops, scholars, doctors, theologians, and
historians of the early Church through to the 5th century. Such famous men as:
Clement, bishop of Rome, end of 1st century;
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, end of 2nd century;
Justin Martyr, philosopher, 2nd century;
Tertullian, theologian, 2nd/3rd century;
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, 4th century;
Jerome, Biblical scholar and translator of the
Latin Vulgate, 4th/5th century; and
Augustine, bishop of Hippo and theologian,
author of "Confessions" and "The City of God", 4th/5th
century.
New Testament
apocrypha - Also over this
period many other gospels, letters, apocalypse and acts circulated within the
Christian communities. Amongst the most valued were the:
Epistle to the Corinthian church by Clement,
bishop of Rome (c AD96)
The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles (c 120)
The Epistle of Barnabas (c 130), and
The Shepherd of Hermas (c 140).
from 2nd Cen, First Translations - Although written in Greek, the rapid
spread of Christianity meant the need to translate all or part of the New
Testament into other languages starting with Syriac and Old Latin.
mid 2nd Cen, The Marcion Canon - The first canon was probably drawn up by
Marcion in c 150. He only included Luke's Gospel and ten of Paul's letters,
heavily edited to remove Jewish influence. In reaction to Marcion's heresy, and
to control the growing number of New Testament apocrypha, an accepted and
authoritative canon became necessary. This happened gradually as it came to
meet the needs of the universal Church and its members. The criteria for the
acceptance of a book into the New Testament were:
Was the author an apostle, or did he have close
associations with an apostle - men such as Mark, Luke, the author of Hebrews?
Was the subject and its treatment acceptable as
Holy Scripture?
Did the book have universal appeal to the Church?
and
Was the book unmistakably inspired by God?
3rd and 4th Cen, Development of the New Testament Canon - Irenaeus, Tertullian, and other Church Fathers had confirmed by
this time that only the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were approved.
Also that the Acts of the Apostles, Paul's thirteen Letters, and the First
Letters of Peter and John were accepted as scripture. Thus 20 of the present 27
books were "canonical" within 150 years or so of Jesus' death and
resurrection. The main arguments against the seven that were eventually
included are:
Hebrews - The author was not known, and although often
attributed to Paul, it differed in style and vocabulary to his other writings;
James - The author refers to himself as a
"servant of Christ", not an apostle. Also the Letter was written to
early Jewish converts and not to the Universal Church;
Second Peter - Differs from First Peter in style and
vocabulary;
Second and Third John - The author refers to himself as a
"presbyter" or "elder", and not an apostle;
Jude - The author calls himself a "servant
of Christ" not an apostle, and quotes from the apocryphal Old Testament
book of Enoch;
Revelation - John calls himself servant and brother.
In this period, the
disputes over these seven books was settled in their favour, and the canon
finally confirmed by the Church. The New Testament apocrypha were not accepted
as "canonical"
4th Cen, The Latin Vulgate - In AD382, Pope Damascus I commissioned Jerome
to produce a Latin Bible complete with Apocrypha to replace the poorly
translated Old Latin versions. He worked in Bethlehem. A thousand years later,
the Latin Vulgate Bible was the first book
to be printed, on the Gutenberg press. In a revised form, it remains the
standard and official Bible of the Catholic church
5th-10th Cen, Hebrew Bible - Jewish scholars produced the authoritative "Masoretic"
text of the Hebrew Bible.
MEDIEVAL TRANSLATIONS
8th, 10th and Later
Cen, Early Translations of
the Latin Vulgate - In Western Europe,
religious works and small portions of the Vulgate were translated into a number
of languages, including Anglo-Saxon. Examples of Anglo-Saxon works are John's
Gospel by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century; also the translations of King
Alfred in the 10th century
14th Cen, Translation of the Latin Vulgate into English - The first translation was made by John
Wycliffe. He finished the New Testament about 1380, and started on the Old
Testament, friends completing the work
First Printed Bible - The Gutenberg Bible, the Latin Vulgate printed
by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany c 1452
POST-REFORMATION AND
MODERN TRANSLATIONS
15th-19th Cen, Translations after the Reformation - With the Protestant Reformation of the
15th and 16th centuries, and the desire for people to read and understand the
Bible in their own language, an increasing number of translations appeared in
Europe. Although some were made from the Latin Vulgate, increasingly the
original Hebrew and Greek texts were used.
With the rise of
European trade and colonisation, and Christian missionary work, translations
were made into many of the languages and dialects of Africa, the Americas,
Asia, and the Pacific. Starting in the 17th century, the work shows no signs of
diminishing.
MODERN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE
TRANSLATIONS and VERSIONS
16th and 17th Cen, Major Translations in the English Language - As part of the Reformation, a series of increasingly
authoritative and official translations were made within the English Protestant
church. This started with the 1525 "Tyndale Bible", and ended in 1611
with the "King James" or "Authorized Version", which
reigned supreme in the English-speaking world well into the 20th century. The
Catholic translation from the Latin Vulgate at this time was the 1610
"Douay Bible".
Over this period, and
later, various translations and revisions were made by Protestant scholars, but
failed to gain acceptance over the King James Version. The Catholic Douay Bible
was officially revised in the 18th century as the Challoner versions.
19th and early 20th
Cen, The First Modern
English and American Versions - In 1885, a revision of the King James Bible,
the "Revised Version" was published in England, followed by the
"American Standard Version" in 1901. Up to the Second World War, a
number of individual authors translated the New Testament into modern speech.
During this period the Catholic Bible remained the Douay-Challoner version.
from 1947, The Dead Sea Scrolls - The first Dead Sea Scrolls were
discovered around Qumran in Israel in 1947; others further south of Qumran.
These Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts and parts of the Old Testament, dating
from the time of Jesus, are more than 1,000 years older than any previously
known manuscripts. Until then, the earliest Hebrew documents in existence were
9th century AD copies of the Pentateuch. The Dead Sea Scrolls helped to confirm
just how accurate the translations of the Jewish Bible have been over the
centuries
latter half of 20th
Cen, Further American and
English Versions - A number of major translations and revisions
have been made since World War 2. All attempt to get even closer to the
original texts, while being more readable and understandable by contemporary
society. Well-known titles, mostly American with the dates of publication of
the entire Bible - New and Old Testament, include:
1952 - "Revised
Standard Version"
1965 - "Amplified Bible"
1966 - "Jerusalem Bible" (British Catholic version)
1970 - "New English Bible" (British)
1971 - "New American Standard Bible"
1971 - "The Living Bible" (a paraphrase)
1976 - "Good News Bible"
1978 - "New International Version"
1982 - "New King James Version"
1989 - "Revised English Bible" (British)
1990 - "New Revised Standard Version"
1965 - "Amplified Bible"
1966 - "Jerusalem Bible" (British Catholic version)
1970 - "New English Bible" (British)
1971 - "New American Standard Bible"
1971 - "The Living Bible" (a paraphrase)
1976 - "Good News Bible"
1978 - "New International Version"
1982 - "New King James Version"
1989 - "Revised English Bible" (British)
1990 - "New Revised Standard Version"
Many of these versions are recorded on CD-ROM discs
for computer use. Yet nearly 400 years on, the 1611 “King James Version"
is usually included along with its modern equivalents
end of 20th Cen, Translations of the Holy Bible - The Bible, in whole or part, has been
translated into some 1,750 languages and dialects and the work continues. By
continent, the totals with numbers of complete Bibles in brackets are:
Africa 500 (100)
Americas 400 (15)
Asia and Pacific 800 (125)
Europe 50 (over 40 complete)
Americas 400 (15)
Asia and Pacific 800 (125)
Europe 50 (over 40 complete)
World total 1,750 (280 complete Bibles)
ANCIENT TRANSLATIONS
OLD
TESTAMENT from HEBREW - Greek Septuagint (LXX) - from c 250BC; Syriac
later called the the Peshitta ("simple" or "in common use")
- probably from 1st cen AD; Latin Vulgate - from 390-405AD
NEW
TESTAMENT - Syriac, Old Latin, Coptic, Gothic - all from the Greek from
2nd to 4th cen; Latin Vulgate - from Greek 390-405AD;
Armenian
- from Greek or Syriac early 5th cen; Georgian - possibly from Syriac or
Armenian from 5th cen; Ethiopic - from Greek possibly from 5th cen; Old Arabic
- probably from 8th cen; Slavonic - from Greek from mid 9th cen
EARLY TRANSLATIONS
Portions of Scripture
from the Latin Vulgate -
Anglo-Saxon, German - from 8th cen; French, Hungarian - from 12th cen; Italian,
Spanish, Dutch, Polish, Bohemian - from 13th cen
IMPORTANT EARLY PAPYRI
1a/1b RYLANDS PAPYRI
(P52) - early 2nd cen, fragments of John's Gospel verses 18:31-33,37-38. Found
in Egypt c 1920. Now in John Rylands Library, Manchester, England
2a/2b BODMER PAPYRI
(P66) - 2nd/3rd cen, part of John's Gospel. From Egypt. In Bodmer Library,
Geneva, Switzerland
3a/3b/3c CHESTER BEATTY
PAPYRI (P45, P46, P47) - 3rd cen, much of New Testament. Found in Egypt. Mostly
in Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Ireland; parts in University of Michigan
Library, Ann Arbor
IMPORTANT EARLY CODICES
4a/4b CODEX VATICANUS
(B) - 4th cen, almost entire Holy Bible in Greek with New Testament missing
beyond Hebrews 9:14. Written in Alexandria, Egypt. In the Vatican Library since
1481
5a/5b/5c/5d CODEX
SINAITICUS (aleph) - 4th/5th cen, entire New Testament and parts of Old, all in
Greek. Written in Alexandria. Found 1844-59 by German scholar Tischendorf at St
Catherine's Monastery near Mount Sinai, Egypt. Went to Russia, bought from the
Soviet Union by Britain in 1933. Now in British Library, London
6a/6b/6c CODEX
ALEXANDRICUS (A) - 5th cen, entire Greek Bible with some leaves missing.
Written in Alexandria. Later presented by Patriarch of Constantinople to
Charles 1 of England in 1627. Now in British Library, London
Translations in approximate date order within
each century:
15th cen - German, Italian, Catalan, Czech
16th cen - Dutch, French, English, Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Polish, Slavonic, Icelandic, Slovenian, Welsh, Hungarian
17th cen - Finnish, Irish, Rumanian, Latvian
18th cen - Lithuanian, Estonian, Portuguese
19th cen - Gaelic, Serbo-Croat, Slovak, Norwegian, modern Greek, Bulgarian, Basque, Russian
Translations complete or part in approximate
date order by century and continent:
17th cen America - Massachusetts Indian (Mass.)
18th cen Asia - Tamil, Malay
19th cen Africa - Malagasy, Amharic, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Yoruba, Sudanese, kiSwahili - America - Cree Indian, Labrador Eskimo, Sioux/Dakota - Asia - Bengali, Chinese, Turkish, Hindi, Burmese, Persian, Urdu, Armenian, Javanese, Thai, Japanese, Taiwanese, Kashmiri - Pacific - Tahitian, Hawaiian, Samoan, Maori, Tongan, Fijian
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