New Testament Christians in Cork

If you have seen The Da Vinci Code movie, or spent any time on the internet you will be aware that modern popular culture promotes as fact the idea that a group of clerics in the fourth century decided what was acceptable and right for Christians to read. This same group of mainstream churchmen, at this meeting organised by the Roman emperor Constantine in 325AD, threw out all that was unacceptable, or dangerous for faith and morals, or what they did not like. And so the conspiracy goes, the official New Testament was born.

On the other extreme, some have argued that to ask where we got our New Testament from is somehow to attack the Word of God. It would be very easy to accept a list of 27 books without question. But ask yourself; why are there 27 books in our New Testaments and not 26 or 28?

How about the facts? What really happened in the formation of this list of New Testament documents? Was it a decision made in May 325 and rubber-stamped by the Emperor? (Or perhaps the Emperor made the decision and the council of bishops approved it?) Or is there another, more plausible explanation for the origin of the New Testament?

The idea of Christians circulating a collection of books having authority among Christians goes back to a very early stage in the church’s development. In fact it goes back to a time when those men who penned these letters were still alive.

The apostle Paul himself encouraged churches to share letters he had written. One passage that is often overlooked is Galatians 1:1-2. Paul explicitly states that his letter is “to the churches of Galatia.” Many consider that this letter is among the earliest of Paul’s writings, making it one of the earliest writings in the New Testament list; much earlier than any of the four Gospels. Scholars give this letter a date somewhere between 47AD and 57AD, with the majority favouring the earlier date. The late F.F. Bruce[i] states:

“It was evidently a circular letter, designed to be taken by a messenger to one of the Galatian churches, then to the next on his itinerary, and so on until each church had heard its contents. If some of the churches wished to make and retain a copy, that could no doubt be done. But Paul apparently did not send several copies, one for each church; his words in 6:11 imply that each church would see the one copy that he sent and take note of the ‘large letters’ that characterized his own handwriting.”

The apostle Paul also instructed the church at Colossae to share letters; “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea” (Col.4:16). This would not have been too difficult a task, given that the two cities were about 10 miles (16km) apart. But Paul clearly expected these two congregations to share letters he had written to both.

Later on, the apostle Peter refers to a collection of Paul’s letters (2Pet.3:15-16). We do not know which writings of Paul’s that Peter is alluding to. For the purposes of this article that question is a side issue. What we can say with confidence is that Peter knew of a collection, and Peter’s readers in the first century knew of a collection.

Paul wrote to Timothy and explained to him the need to support elders in the preaching and teaching of the gospel (1Tim.5:17-25). What is interesting, for our discussion, is that Paul bolsters his argument for that support with two quotations. The first is taken from the Jewish Old Testament (Deuteronomy 25:4), “You shall not muzzle an ox that it treading out the grain.” But the second statement is only found in Luke 10:7; “The labourer is worthy of his wages.” And for the purposes of this article, we are not so much concerned with what Paul considers to be Scripture or not Scripture. My point is that Paul was aware of Luke’s Gospel and was able to quote it word for word to Timothy and others, who must also have taken it as an authoritative statement.

So, let’s recap what we have so far. Paul expected his letters to be circulated. Peter and others were aware of a collection of Paul’s letters. Paul and others knew of Luke’s Gospel. And all this at least 250 years before Constantine got his council of clerics together to pronounce what was acceptable for Christians and what was to be discarded. Clearly, Christians were gathering together writings which they judged to be authoritative at a very early stage. And they were circulating these scriptures amongst themselves in this early period.

Next time we’ll look at some of the reasoning behind a ‘list’ of acceptable New Testament documents.