And so we move to the New Testament, the section of the Bible that separates Christianity from Judaism, whose bible ends with Malachi, and who are still awaiting the Messiah. But the 27 books of the Christian New Testament specifically identify Jesus as that Messiah or “Christ” (note: the Old Testament certainly still points to Jesus, while the New Testament explicitly identifies Him). The first question to be pondered when considering the New Testament is whether or not it should even exist, that is, why add a second part to the Old Testament canon? Recall, we just concluded that the Old Testament was written by God, it was complete, and the Jews agreed that was it! So what gives Christians the right to add a second part to the Old Testament?
Well, the Old Testament itself! Yes, when carefully examined, the Old Testament itself tells us that God’s Word is not finished with Malachi…that there is something further God is going to say which warrants recording, see Jeremiah 31 v31-34: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt…my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people…[34b] ….For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Sound familiar? Forgiveness of sins, a new covenant not like the old one, who is this referring to? Jesus of course! The Old Testament absolutely leads it’s readers to anticipate and expect a part 2 to the Bible. Moreover, it even prepares us that this 2nd part would be written not just for the Jews but for all peoples, see Isaiah 49v6: “he says: ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” This is what the Old Testament tells us! There is going to be a part 2 to God’s Word because there’s going to be a new covenant which warrants recording, a covenant of forgiveness, not just for Hebrews but for everyone…and so we welcome the New Testament of Jesus!
Now the New Testament contains 27 books, originally written in “Koine” Greek, and the author (just like the Old Testament) is God; see for yourself in the following proofs:
- God the Father and Jesus the Son are authors of the NT: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
- God the Holy Spirit is also author of the NT: “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21)
Whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, it was the triune God who wrote the New Testament! But of course critics will not accept this blindly! The Christian must go further to know who the actual human authors were to ensure they were trustworthy and legitimate to the same degree as prophets who authored the Old Testament! A common opposition the Christian may therefore face is as follows: “What criteria do you Christians use to claim these 27 books as written by God, while other books are not? What’s so special about these authors that gives them the right to record the very words of God? Are they people who can be trusted to write down what God said? ‘Men who spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’? Furthermore, what makes them different from other early church fathers or even pastors and believers today who claim ‘God said this to me…’ Shouldn’t we be adding all these new ‘words from God’ to the New Testament?”
To begin our response, examine the table below which lists each book of the New Testament in approximate chronological order and the corresponding author as per scholarly consensus: Click here for author table.
The foremost criteria which is common to all the authors of the New Testament is this: all are associated with a unique group of disciples who were called “apostles”. Now the word “apostle” has been thrown around much in Christian circles so it requires definition: “messenger” or “one who is sent out”. To be sure, the apostles in the Bible were more than just missionaries, but possessed a resume/job description unlike any disciple since then:
- Chosen by Jesus: “And when day came, (Jesus) called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles” (Luke 6:13)
- Eyewitnesses: “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” (Acts 1:21-22; also Acts 1:8)
- Given God’s Word: “I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14) “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
- To be written and shared: “that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles” (2 Peter 3:2)
- To be the foundation of the Church: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.” (Acts 2:42-43) “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20)
- Attested by the early church fathers: Clement of Rome attested that “The apostles received the gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus the Christ was sent forth from God. So then Christ is from God, and the apostles are from Christ. Both, therefore, came of the will of God in good order” (1 Clement 42.1–2 written ~ 95AD)
This is who the apostles were: chosen by Jesus, eye witnesses, given God’s Word to be written and shared and form the foundation of the church, recognized by even the earliest Christians! Accordingly, every single New Testament author is associated with an apostle!
- Peter (leader of the original 12) wrote 2 epistles
- Matthew (tax collector in the original 12) wrote 1 gospel
- John (beloved disciple in the original 12) wrote 1 gospel + 3 epistles + the book of revelation
- Paul is known as the last apostle as noted in 1 Corinthians 15v8-9: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, (Jesus) appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Paul wrote 13 epistles!
- Mark was not an apostle himself but was the apostle Peter’s penman. Mark wrote 1 gospel (see early church elder Papias 120AD, also Mark 14:52)
- Luke was also not an apostle himself but was the apostle Paul’s penman. Luke wrote 1 gospel + the book of acts (see early church elder Eusebius 250AD, also Colossians 4:14, Acts 16:10)
- James was the half brother of Jesus himself and was also called an apostle (see Galations 1v19: “But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.”
- Jude was also a half brother of Jesus himself whose letter is so similar in content to the apostle Peter’s 2nd letter that scholars believe it is likely they sourced one another (Jude 1:1a, also compare Jude 17-18 with 2 Peter 2-3:3)
- And finally the unknown author of Hebrews…the honest truth is there is still uncertainty as to the author of Hebrews; some say the apostle Paul, while others say the apostle Barnabas (Acts 14:14). Despite the lack of consensus, scholars generally agree it was again most likely a penman associated with the eyewitness apostles.
And just like that we have 27 books, 9 human authors, all with apostolic coverage and authority! What confidence the Christian can have in the New Testament! But more than being written by God, there remains the need to justify why we believe the New Testament is complete / the canon is closed (nothing in it that shouldn’t be, nothing missing that should be). And this justification is fairly easy to find for only eyewitness apostles authorized by Jesus could write Scripture, and there are simply no more eyewitness apostles alive to write additional books! The last one, as we read above, was Paul. Perhaps more convincingly, the last book of the New Testament (written by the apostle John) actually ends with a warning: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” (Revelation 22:18-19)
Now that’s an ending if I ever heard one! And so, with much confidence, the Christian can indeed say that the 27 books of the New Testament are canonized…written by God and complete. One challenging secondary topic worth addressing at this point is the timeline of said canonization. Did you know when the early church recognized the 27 books of the New Testament as being canonized? 367AD in an annual Easter letter written by the Alexandrian bishop Athanasius who named other books as useful, but only 27 as Scripture. A keen student will notice that the last book of the New Testament (Revelation) was written around 95AD…so why did it take the church so long to recognize which books were from God? The answer is found in the key word: “recognize”…
The church did not decide which books were from God and which were not; no, they could only recognize which books God had already decided were authoritative for He authored them. See the subtle difference? The Bible is “god-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16), so it actually needs no human authority, it is self-attesting! Thus, the centuries it took to have unanimous agreement on the 27 books is not unexpected…I want you to remember that this is 100AD. No cars to get from church to church, just sandals. No cell phones to share the gospel with others, just word-of-mouth conversations or letters sent by messengers on foot. So if you’ve got over 2 dozen books, written in different times over a span of 50 years, in different cities and distant countries, circulating to new churches as they were springing up all over the Roman Empire…it makes sense that it would take time for all the books to be canonized! Even so:
- The gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) were universally accepted by 110AD in writings of early church fathers (Ignatius of Antioch, Papias of Hierapolis in Asia Minor, and by the middle of the second century Justin Martyr in Rome)
- Most or all of Paul’s 13 epistles were already known and regarded as scripture by the time Peter wrote 2 Peter 3:16 (“as (Paul) does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters…”) written between 64 – 67AD
- By 200AD (within 100 years of the New Testament being written), 21/27 books were canonized!
- Hebrews, James, 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter and Jude were acknowledged by 240AD (Origen, Eusebius) as “disputed but known to most”
- Finally by 367AD…the New Testament as we know it today was recognized by the world-wide church
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