Participants 149
Discussion Questions
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In your own words, give a brief explanation of how the New Testament came to be.
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The new testament was inspired by God.
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The writing that was found to be authentic and helpful were assembled and met various criteria
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First its writings are God inspired, second through Canon, where the books were each chosen to be in the collection.
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God inspired His chosen men to write the New Testament.
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The New Testament came to be by the process of the Cannon which means measuring device and chosen by the Jews or Christians from the intertestamental period who had knowledge of the time and an understanding of the history and by Jesus who spoke God’s Word.
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Describe in your own words, the three major criteria the twenty-seven books of the New Testament had to meet to be included in the New Testament.
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The first criteria is Consistency. This criteria seeks to identify which of the available documents cohere with previous Scripture. In this way, no scripture can be said to contradict other scripture. Second, there is catholicity. This menas that documents must be univesally acepted by the Church in order to be worthy of canonisation. More accurately, though, it speaks to the widespread acceptance of NT documents. If only a particular sect accept a document it would not be accepted int o the canon. lastly, there must be apostolic authority. This means that any book accepted into the canon must be written by either an apostle or someone closely connected to an apostle.
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The 27 books of the New Testament met 3 major criteria.
1. Catholicity- The books had to be used by a variety of religious sects. It could not have been only used by one.
2. Apostolic Authority – Each book had to be written by an apostle or a companion of an apostle. Although the author of Hebrews is unknown, it is widely accepted that it was probably written by a companion of Paul.
3. Consistency – The books could not have any contradictions to previous scripture. -
In order to be included in the New Testament, books had to meet three major criteria – consistency, catholicity, and apostolic authority. First, the teachings in the book had to be consistent with the teachings of already accepted books in the canon. Next, the books had to be widely accepted by a majority of the early Christians, not just by one sect. Finally, the books had to be written either by one of the apostles themselves, or someone very close to the apostles.
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Each had to be consistent with previous Scripture, not contradictory; there had to be widespread acceptance of them, circulated widely (catholicity); and had to penned by an apostle or by one who was a close associate to an apostle.
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There had to be consistency, catholicity, and apostolic authority.