Introduction (1/2-1 page)
The theme I am writing about is “Historical background of the New Testament”. I chose this topic because I have a lot of unanswered questions about it. I hope when I finish this paper I will have the answers for my questions.
One of the main questions I have about the whole New Testament is What is it? This is going to be the first part of my paper that I am going to answer. The second big question I have is How did the New Testament get to us? And one of the most curious question I have about is that Who wrote the New Testament? And for whom did he/they wrote it too?
We know that the New Testament is the book which was written by the people who knew Jesus in person or people who became followers right after his resurrection. This made the New Testament that great and priceless for us to help us to get closer to Jesus. The New Testament is way more valuable if we know and understand the story’s how did they got to us and who wrote them. It can also provide us a greater spiritual strength as we have to face our own challenges as well such as Jesus Christ early followers had to. Content (3-4 pages)
The first question I am answering is: What is the New Testament? The New Testament was not written about Gods life and death, it was more likely written about what God said to his disciples on the last dinner: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28) The word “new testament” translated from Greek actually refer to the word covenant, to the New Testament which was offered from the Lord for us to Atonement. The writings kept in the New Testament focus on the various aspects of the Savior’s ministry. The New Testament begins with the Gospels, which means “good news”, referring with this to Jesus Christ life, services and divine role. We can found the story of the Christianity first missionary effort in the New Testament as well in the book of Doctrines. In additional to this we can found old letters such as Peters or Pauls, in which they try to encourage christians to stay faithful to the faith. There is also a testimony (Letter to the Jews) as an apocalypse (Revelation), which promises the Lord’s return in the last day. By the middle of the 4th century they collected and placed in the well-known order the Lord’s New Testament which has 27 books.
The second question I am answering is: How did the New Testament get to us? Jesus from his disciples invited 12 men to be his apostle. These men were with him during his duty and followed him, they were suffering with Him and enjoying the victory and the spiritual experiences. After the death of Jesus the apostles with other faithful disciples started writing their experiences. Two events may have triggered their desire to preserve their record of life of Jesus. The first one was in AD70 then the romans army destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The second one is could be that people started loosing their faith (for example Acts 20:29-30 (“I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them”)). In the New Testament, therefore, many writings have been recorded in order to help the faithful to see the way clearly despite the plagues and strokes of that time.
If we look back to their experiences we see how did they faced the difficult times, and how the Gospels good news helped them to get back their faith and to fight against loosing every faith in themselves.
The end of the 1st century all of the writing we know in the New Testament was done and it was getting popular in the different congregations of christianity. The clerk first on papyrus and after then on parchment was writing the text, but there was not enough copies and all of them was hand written. The members gathered the books they could and they started read it and study the words of the Lord and the apostles. The dissemination of the scriptures was considerably shaken when Diocletianus, Roman Emperor AD 303 began chasing (üldözni) Christians. He ordered to burn all the Christian scriptures, and he forced the christians to worship to pagan gods. In the years of chasing a lot of believer hid the scriptures. Later, when the first Christian emperor, Constantine ordered new copies of the scriptures, his scientists also sought books that were used before the Diocletians’s ordinance in different churches. The origins of or New Testament, which is currently being printed, can be traced back to the copies of the Bible in the time of Constantine, as well as the people who sacrificed their security for the preservation of the new alliance of the Lord.
Shortly after Constantine ordered the reproduction and dissemination of the New Testament, they put the books in the correct order the same as we see it in the nowadays Bible. This order followed the order of the Old Testament. The New Testament is cludes the laws (the Gospels), the history of Christianity (Acts), and prophets (from the Romans to the Book of Revelation). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament end with the promise of the Lord’s return (Malachi and Revelation). The sequence of these prophetic works also emphasizes the joyful hope of the liberation and future revelation.
The next big question is Who wrote the New Testament? Each author of the New Testament described from different perspectives the missionary mission of Jesus Christ. Two of the gospels were written by apostles Matthew and John. These apostolic testimonies as witnesses testify of Jesus’ life. The two later followers of Lord also wrote gospels: Mark and Luke, they testified them self that they felt and heard everything. Once they both were Paul’s missionary companions (“When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.” (Acts 12:25) and “only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” (2 Timothy 4:11)). Their work reflects on their growing number of saints who are outside of Judea, as well as those who did not know the Lord in His earthly life at all. Their testimonies tend to be a kind of vivid testimony to Hail in whom they believed.
Probably Paul’s letters are the earliest writings in the New Testament, through not all of them were written at the same time. His testimony comes from his missionary experience, the many powerful revelations ( Acts 9:1-6, 2 Corinthians 12:1-7) and also the relationship with some others, like Peter (“Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw saw Nono of the other apostles – only James, the Lord’s brother.” (Galatians 1:18-19)). He generally wrote to the public to calm the disputes in the churches, but occasionally he turned to his friends in his letters (Timothy and Titus). In one of his letters Paul asks his master, to readmit the escaped slave whom Paul met during his imprisoned time. The book of Jews is normally attributed to Paul, but the ordinary introduction is missing from it where he usually introduce him self as an author. Nevertheless, the book is a great testimony of faith by faith in the Lord’s coming. After Pauls’s letters the letter to the Hebrews is a kind of New Testament is a study of faith exerted against persecution.
James short letter was written relatively early and it contains references to Jesus’ mountain speech, which spreads in speech independently from the Gospel of MatthewWhen tempted, no one should say, (“God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he test anyone.” (James 1:13), “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you – who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12), “Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear – not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No”. Otherwise you will be condemned. (James 5:12)). This letter is probably written by James, who was the younger brother of the Lord. His privilege was to know and see the resurrected Savior (“Then he appeared to James then to all the apostles, “ (1 Corinthians 15:7)), but he played an important role in many other events in Church History (Acts 15:13-29).
The New Testament keeps two letters from apostle Peter and three from John. Both of them encouraged the Christians to be faithful. Peter was the one who dealt particularly a lot with loyalty during difficult times.
Jude’s letter is one of the most recently written books in the New Testament. Like James, this book was probably written by a brother of the Lord as well (Mark 6:3). Jude wrote this book because he was hoping that this way he can stop the apostasy in the churches.
The New Testament ends with a revelation given from an apostle, John. The apostle noted in this his vision of the Lord’s glorious return, who will come to begin his millennial reign. This vision reveals vivid details of the struggle between good and evil. Most of the chapters deals with Johns future events, such as the last days, which is our days.
The last question I am trying to answer is to For whom did he/they wrote it too? Since the New Testament is exactly the new covenant of the Lord that he associates with those who believed in Him, the book is those who want to know Him, it can be about this or about the earlier donation ages. The authors of the New Testament originally described texts, which were immediately applicable to churches as they were aware as they were aware of the most important events of human history. John, for example, considered his own writings as a testimony: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Other, such as Luke, have the intention of documenting the story (Luke 1:1-3). Early Christians had different backgrounds: there were people from Jewish families, others from pagans families, while other who only knew a few religions before they were baptized. In essence, they mirrored the varied group of present saints. That is why their struggles can reveal effective lessons about how to overcome evil and remain faithful despite trials and temptations. They also show how the churches were struggling when they were still small and how they found safety in the words of the spotless and prophets. Reflection/application (1/2 -1 pages)
The New Testament reveals that in times of uncertainty, when many people did not listen to the gospel, they were “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42). Other examples tell us that even the righteous ones have tried “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13) and the message of the gospel is as simple today as 2000 years ago: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”(James1:27). The New Testament also testifies that on the morning of Easter, the tomb was empty.