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New Testament Timeline / Introduction to the New Testament

The name given to the second half of the English Bible is "the New Testament," which literally means "the New Covenant" (see Luke 22:20). The word covenant meant an arrangement made by one party, which the other party involved could accept or reject but could not alter. The Old Testament primarily records God's dealings with Israel on the basis of the covenant given through Moses at Mount Sinai, while the New Testament describes the new arrangement of God with men through Christ on the basis of the new covenant (see Ex. 24:1-8; Luke 22:14-20; 2 Cor. 3:6-11). The old covenant revealed the holiness of God in the righteous standard of the law and promised a coming Redeemer; the new covenant shows the holiness of God in His righteous Son. The New Testament, then, contains those writings that reveal the content of this new covenant.

The message of the New Testament centers on (1) the Person who gave Himself for the remission of sins (Matt. 26:28) and (2) the people (the church) who have received His salvation. Thus the central theme of the New Testament is salvation. The Gospels introduce the Savior. The book called the Acts of the Apostles describes the spread the he good news about His salvation through a large part of the Mediterranean world o the first century A.D. The letters give details of the blessings of that salvation, and Revelation previews the culmination of salvation.

THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The New Testament includes twenty-seven books written by nine different authors over about fifty years' time. These books fall naturally into four divisions:

(1) The Four Gospels. These describe the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Although they were written later than many other books of the New Testament, it was natural that, in the order of the books, a priority position should be given to these account of Jesus' earthly life and ministry.

(2) The book of Acts. This is the history of the beginning of the church and the spread of Christianity throughout the Greco-Roman world

(3) The twenty-one letters (Romans through Jude). Since archaeological discoveries have shown that letter writing was a common means of communication in the Christian centuries, it is not surprising to find that most of the books of the New Testament were in the form of letters. The apostle Paul, the great missionary and theologian of the early church, wrote thirteen or fourteen of these letters. They were addressed to churches as well as to individuals, and they teach Christian doctrine in a formal way (as in Romans) and in application to life situations (as in I Corinthians and Philemon).

(4) The Revelation. This last book describes the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ and His people in the future.

THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The approximate writing dates of the New Testament books are all AD;

James AD 45-49

Galatians 49

I and 2 Thessalonians 51

Mark 50s or 60s

Matthew 50s or 60s

1 Corinthians 55

2 Corinthians 56

Romans 57-58

Luke 60

Acts 61

Colossians, Ephesians 61

Philippians, Philemon 63

1 Peter 63-64

1 Timothy 63-66

Titus 63-66

Hebrews 64-68

2 Peter 66

2 Timothy 67

Jude 70-80

John 85-90

1.2.3 John 90s

THE COLLECTION OF THE BOOKS

After they were written, the individual books were not immediately gathered together into the canon, or collection of twenty-seven that comprise the New Testament. Groups of books like Paul's letters and the Gospels were preserved at first by churches or people to whom they were sent, and gradually all twenty-seven books were collected and formally acknowledged by the church as a whole.

This process took about 350 years. In the second century the circulation of books that promoted heresy accentuated the need for distinguishing valid Scripture from other Christian literature.

Certain tests were developed to determine which books should be included.

(1) Was the book written or approved by an apostle? (2) Were its contents of a spiritual nature? (3) Did it give evidence of being inspired by God? (4) Was it widely received by the churches?

Not all of the twenty-seven books that were eventually recognized as canonical were accepted by all the churches in the early centuries, but this does not mean that those that were not immediately or universally accepted were spurious. Letters addressed to individuals (Philemon, 2 and 3 John) would not have been circulated as widely as those sent to churches. The books most disputed were James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Philemon, but ultimately these were included, and the canon was certified at the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397.

Although no original copy of any of the writings that comprise the New Testament has survived, there exist more than 4,500 Greek mss. of all or part of the text, plus some 8,000 Latin mss. and at least 1,000 other versions into which the original book were translated. Careful study and comparison of these many copies has given us an accurate and trustworthy New Testament

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