Day 2 - NT Study - Development of New Testament
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Monday, 4 January 2021 Bible in Time: New Testament Study
Today: Timeline and Canon
Tomorrow: Background on the Acts to the Apostles
Prayer Suggestion:
Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer -
Dear Friends in Christ,
I hope by now you have selected a study Bible that
you will use during this New Testament study. I
suggested you get one that was copyrighted during
the 2000s.
After you have broken the binding of the Bible,
go look for the Table of Contents.
Most modern Bibles will have the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
The Old Testament is commonly called now
“The Hebrew Bible” or the Scriptures that have
been passed to us from the community of believers of
Hebrews or Jewish people. The subdivision is usually
the Pentateuch, the Historical Books, Wisdom and
Poetry literature, and the Prophets. This is the scripture
of Jesus and the Disciples and tells the ongoing
relationship that God has sought with us since
the dawn of Creation.
The New Testament is generally listed
as Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John);
a history of the spread of the Way of Love of
Jesus called the Acts of the Apostles, and
letters to individuals and congregations written
to them by leaders of the new faith in Jesus Christ.
Your Bible may have a third section that might
be called the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical
books. These books were written during the time
between the writings of the Hebrew Bible and
the New Testament. Some faith communities use
them and others do not.
When I talk about “Canon” I refer to the rule
or standard of the books and writings that the
faith community has selected as a rule and
normative to building and deepening faith.
This also includes the ordering of the books
and writing are printed.
The Bible that you have is a miracle of God and
faith communities over the past 6,000 years of
prayer, reflection, gathering together, decision
making, publishing, and distribution. We as the
people of God through its history have come
together and said, “These are the writing that tells
of God and deepen the faith that we hold to be true.”
Wow!
The Bible was developed as first the witnesses
telling the story of God to other believers. These
stories were written down and circulated among
believers. There were also letters that were written
to particular individuals or faith communities
that leaders agreed should be shared with a wider
audience of the faithful. These were all gathered by
individuals, councils, and other church leaders
to say these books, stories, and letters deepen
the faith and reflect who we are as the people
of God. These agreed documents were eventually
printed and distributed by the best communication
of each era to spread these words of faith.
The Bible went from storytelling to gathering and
agreement of what kept the faith and studied,
proclaimed, and soul deeping and moved into
each of the ways of communication of each time.
So whatever “Canon” your Bible has, it shares the
telling the story of faith to generations of individuals,
used to worship, and get to know God and the
salvation God provides to all who have faith.
In the New Testament, the Gospels are placed first,
then the Acts of the Apostles, the letters to churches
and individuals, and the Revelation.
After Acts, most of the letters were arranged
by the length of the scroll that it was written
on and NOT the order or time it was written.
Edwards will help us to deconstruct this order.
We will start with the guidance of the book,
“Revolutionary Bible Study” by Gene Edwards to
look at the New Testament in new ways. We will
use Edwards’ calendar of writing Acts and the Letters
of the Apostles during the first part of the year.
If you want to delve into more about the
development of the Canon of the New Testament,
search “Canon of the New Testament” for more
resources. One source - Mark Allen Powell -
Introducing the New Testament. Here are
some early lists of the books of the New Testament.
In Christ,
Dave Eitland
P.S. I will often link sources and additional
information via links on the internet.
Sources:
Development of the Canon; Introducing the
New Testament by Mark Allen Powell,
ISBN 978-0-8010-2868-7. pp. 50 - 53
(New Edition is available.)
Essay - Canons of the Bible; The New Oxford
Annotated Bible Fifth Edition, pp. 2235 - 2241.
ISBN 978-0-19-027608-9
Posted to The Bible in Time Blog 4 Jan 2021.
Posted to Archive.org - 4 Jan 2021.
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