How Did the New Testament Come Together?
Have your children ever asked you: “Why do we have 27 ‘books’ in the New Testament?” “How did those books come together?” “Why 27, and not 37?” “Who made the decision to stop at 27?”
Have members of your discipleship group, high school or college students, or friends approached you with similar questions? Have you yourself ever wondered how the New Testament came together? Are you able with confidence to explain the process of how the New Testament canon was formed?
Perhaps you are looking for a timely text to read through next fall with your weekly Bible study, Sunday School class, discipleship or training group.
Since the recent publication of The Da Vinci Code and Misquoting Jesus, there has never been a better time than to familiarize ourselves with the facts of how the Bible came together.
To address these and other questions, the previous generation used legendary Bruce Metzger’s, The Text of the New Testament, or F.F. Bruce’s text, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? They are still the go-to books on the topic for those advanced students.
Metzger, from Princeton University, was arguably the foremost textual critic of the last century. F.F. Bruce, from the University of Manchester, was arguably the foremost New Testament scholar of the 20th century. Their books remain in print. But is there a tool one can use that is written at a more popular and readable level?
Yes. today, we have another volume, in booklet form, readable and written at a popular level, to help thinking Christians understand the process of how the 27 documents of the New Testament came together.
Dr. Peter Head of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, has given us How the New Testament Came Together (Grove Books). It’s timely, needed today for thoughtful followers of Jesus. Peter Head’s booklet just might be what you are looking for.
Here’s a blurb:
How did twenty-seven ancient Christian documents come together as the New Testament? How were they recognized, read and bound together as one half of the Christian Bible? Beginning with Jesus and the documents which arose from the apostolic testimony to him in the first century, this booklet traces how Paul’s letters and the four gospels came to be grouped together and how the basic shape and contents of the New Testament emerged by the end of the second century.
And, here is a review of Head’s booklet by Andrew Gregory, Chaplain and faculty member at University College in Oxford.
As is to be expected of a Grove Booklet, the discussion is short, clear and largely jargon free. But no one should doubt the depth of detailed knowledge and careful judgment that underpins this work. Teachers and other specialists who read it will appreciate the way in which Head offers a clear and accessible route through a range of primary evidence and modern debates, and will want to add it to reading lists for their students. Students in turn will find an excellent introduction to the topic, and a useful list of further reading in the endnotes. For other readers, who have no essays to write, and who want just a brief but informed introduction to the formation of the New Testament, I know of nothing to rival Head’s account.
Thank you for reading.