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Historical Accuracy of the New Testament. P52 – Excerpt from John Date: 1 st Half of the 2 nd Century. P52. Josh McDowell. Apologist – Writter of many books such as “More Than A Carpenter”. He was a former atheist. . Josh McDowell.
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Josh McDowell Apologist – Writter of many books such as “More Than A Carpenter”. He was a former atheist.
Josh McDowell “By the twentieth century, however, archaeology discoveries had confirmed the accuracy of the New Testament manuscripts. Early papyri manuscripts (the John Rylands manuscript, AD 130; the Chester Beatty Papyri, AD 155; and the Bodmer Papyri II, AD 200) bridged the gap between the time of Christ and existing manuscripts from later dates.
William F. Albright Was the worlds foremost Biblical archaeologist.
William F. Albright “In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and the eighties of the first century A.D. (very probably sometime between about A.D. 50 and 75).”
Millar Burrows Fomer Professor of Biblical Theology at Yale Divinity School.
Millar Burrows “Another result of comparing New Testament Greek with the language of the papyri [discoveries] is an increase of confidence in the accurate transmission of the text of the New Testament itself.”
Bruce Metzger Author or editor of fifty books on the manuscript authority of the New Testament.
Bruce Metzger “The quantity of New Testament material,” confesses Metzger, ‘is almost embarrassing in comparison with other works of antiquity.” When I wrote this book in 1977, I was able to document forty-six hundred Greek manuscripts of the Bible, abundantly more source material than exists for any other book written in antiquity. As of this writing, even more Greek manuscripts have been found, and I can now document more than fifty-six hundred of them.
Daniel Wallace Professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and one of the world’s leading authorities on the Greek text and New Testament manuscripts.
Daniel Wallace “Well over 200 Biblical manuscripts (90 of which are New Testament) were discovered in the Sinai in 1975 when a hidden compartment of St. George’s Tower was uncovered. Some of these manuscripts are quite ancient. They [the recent manuscript discoveries] all confirm that the transmission of the New Testament has been accomplished in relative purity and that God knows how to preserve the text from destruction.
Daniel Wallace In addition to the manuscripts, there are 50,000 fragments sealed in boxes. About 30 separate New Testament manuscripts have been identified in the fragments and scholars believe there may be many more.”
Josh McDowell “More than twenty thousand copies of New Testament manuscripts are in existence as of 2009. The Illiad, which is second to the New Testament in manuscript authority, has only 643 manuscripts in existence.”
Sir Frederic Kenyon Former director and principal librarian at the British Museum and whose authority on ancient manuscripts is second to none.
Sir Frederic Kenyon “The interval then between the dates of original composition and the earliest extant evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
Papias Bishop of Hierapolos (AD 130) – The historian Eusebius preserves the writings of Papias
Papias “The Elder [apostle John] used to say this also: “Mark, having been the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately all that he [Peter] mentioned, whether sayings or doings of Christ, not, however, in order. For he was neither a hearer nor a companion of the Lord; but afterwards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who adapted his teachings as necessity required, not as though he were making a compilation of the sayings of the Lord.
Papias So then Mark made no mistake, writing down in this way some things as he mentioned them; for he paid attention to this one thing, not to omit anything that he had heard, not to include any false statement among them.”
Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna and had been a Christian for 86 years.) Polycarp’s student Irenaeus, later bishop of Lyons (AD 180) wrote of what he learned from Polycarp (John’s disciple)
Polycarp “Matthew published his gospel among the Hebrews [i.e., Jews] in their own tongue, when Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel in Rome and founding the church there. After their departure [i.e. death, which strong tradition places at the time of the Neronian persecution in AD 64], Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, himself handed down to us in writing the substance of Peter’s preaching.
Polycarp Luke, the follower of Paul, set down in a book the gospel preached by his teacher. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on his breast [this is a reference to John 13:25 and 21:20] himself produced his Gospel, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia.”
The Canon • Canon – comes from the Greek word for “reed” (kanon). • Reeds were used as measuring sticks. • They were the official standard by which other things were measured.
The Canon for The New TestamentReasons For It • Christians inherited the idea of an authoritative scripture from Judaism. • To meet the threat of heresy the church had to define its doctrine and state which books correctly represented the faith. • When persecution came, believers had to know which books they could surrender with freedom of conscience and which they had to protect even at the cost of their lives.
The CanonThe Criteria • Apostolic origin – Had to preserve apostolic testimony. This means the writing had to be written either by an apostle or a first hand account of the apostles testimony. • Orthodox teaching – The work was evaluated by what Jesus taught and what the apostles in the community already knew by word of mouth. • Antiquity – The work had to be written during the lifetime of the apostles. No work seen as being written later was accepted. • Universal use – The work had to be recognized by and used by almost everybody for public worship.
Road of Debate • Marcion’s Cannon – Gnostic influenced - (140 AD) – rejected the Old Testament and accepted only the Third Gospel and ten of Paul’s letters (Gal, 1-2 Cor, Rom, 1-2 Thess, Eph, Col, Phil, Phile) • Muratorian Canon (180 AD) – L.A. Muratorian found a list of books approved for use by the church at Rome about (180 AD). Could be a response to Marcion. Included – (4 Gospels, Acts, thirteen letters of Paul, two (perhaps three) letters of John, Jude and Revelation. • Origen (254 AD) – Acknowledged books were 4 Gosples, Acts, thirteen Pauline letters, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation. Disputed books were James, 2 Peter, 2-3 John ad the Shepherd of Hermas. Rejected books current 27 New Testament works appear. He did not mention Jude at all.
Road of Debate 4. Athanasius (367 AD) – 39th Pascal Letter, he listed as canonical all twenty-seven books and only the twenty-seven books and in their present order. This is the one that we have. 5. Council of Carthage (397 AD) – Adopted exactly the same list. 6. (400 AD) – The debate had ceased.
