The Authority and Authenticity of NT Scripture

Introduction

I believe that the Bible (both the Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament) is inspired by God and is authoritative. The Scriptures, through narrative, poetry, prophecy, and letters, etc, show us how we can know God. They also show us how we can live lives that please God, lives that will be blessed and used by him.

Here is a bit of information on the formation of the Protestant canon of scripture, as well as a few resources that I’ve found useful and informative in regard to trusting the authority and authenticity of the New, or Second, Testament.

The Development of the Canon of New Testament Scripture

Different Christian traditions have different canons of the Bible and these developed over time. The Protestant canon of 66 books—33 First Testament books and 27 Second Testament books—was settled quite late. This is because Protestantism is a relatively late expression of Christianity. Protestants adopted the same canon of First Testament books that are also regarded as canonical by the Jewish people. These were all originally written in Hebrew (with a bit of Aramaic).

Thirteen letters attributed to the apostle Paul are part of the Second Testament canon. Here is an outline of the brief history of the acceptance of Paul’s thirteen letters by the early church. The early acceptance of Paul’s letters demonstrates how NT books made it into the NT canon.

~ Paul’s letters are quoted, or alluded to, approvingly in the works of several 2nd-3rd century Christian theologians such as Polycarp of Smyrna, Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian of Carthage, and Origen of Alexandria. This indicates a large geographic spread of the acceptance and use of Paul’s letters. (See chart here.)

~ Marcion of Sinope, admittedly regarded as a heretic, included 10 letters of Paul in his short canon (AD 140). He did not include the Pastoral Epistles.

~ Thirteen Pauline letters (all the ones in the present Protestant and Catholic canons) are listed in the so-called Muratorian Canon (c. 170–200).

~ Eusebius (died 340) stated that “Paul’s fourteen epistles are well known and undisputed” (Church History 3.3.5). (Eusebius thought the Letter to the Hebrews was written by Paul.)

~ In his Catechetical Lectures, 4.36, Cyril of Jerusalem (circa 350) mentions the 14 letters of Paul (which includes Hebrews) as having a seal upon them.

~  Codex Sinaiticus, produced in the 300s, contains all thirteen Pauline letters.

~ Athanasius includes Paul’s thirteen letters in his list which he wrote in his Easter Letter of AD 367. This is the oldest surviving list that completely matches the books of the New Testament that we have today in the Protestant canon.

This information, and more, is on the NT Canon website, collated and organised by Glen Davis. This website shows the processes by which the Church selected certain writings and deemed them as authoritative, separating them from a larger body of early Christian literature. I like the information on this website and how it has been arranged. Wikipedia has a useful article on the different biblical canons.

I’ve read many books of the Jewish Apocrypha and Pseudoepigrapha, as well as early Christian writings such as several of the Apostolic Fathers and Apocryphal Acts, sometimes in Greek. They are fascinating, but it is obvious to me why they were not considered for inclusion in the Protestant canon of scripture. And note that there is no evidence that either Constantine or the Council of Nicea (AD 325) made decisions regarding the canon.

The Reliability of New Testament Scripture with Dan Wallace

There are thousands of surviving ancient and medieval manuscripts of biblical books. In this video, Dr Daniel Wallace, Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, gives a 35-minute talk about textual variants in Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, and how these variations help us to trust the reliability and message of Scripture.

Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then?

This is a more recent 50-minute video where Dan Wallace speaks about the reliability of the Greek New Testament. His speech starts at the 5-minute mark.

Fragments of Truth with Craig Evans

Fragments of Truth is a one-hour documentary featuring Dr. Craig Evans, Professor of Christian Origins at
Houston Theological Seminary. Dr Evans has travelled the globe to track down the most ancient New Testament manuscripts. In this video, “he highlights groundbreaking new evidence, demonstrating that the case for the reliability of the New Testament manuscripts is stronger than ever.”

In this 1-minute video, Craig Evans speaks with Larry Hurtado about the second-century fragment Papyrus 52 of John’s Gospel housed at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, UK.

Explore more

Dan Wallace is an expert on New Testament Greek. However, I disagree with his conclusions about the ministries of Priscilla and Junia. My articles on Priscilla and Junia where I refer to Dr Wallace’s ideas are here.
Did Priscilla Teach Apollos?
Was Junia well known “to” the apostles?

More Related Articles

The Bible and “Plain Sense” Reading
Some Pitfalls of Using Greek-English Dictionaries
My articles about Bible translations are here.