The writings of the New Testament have survived thousands of years due to the work of faithful believers and scribes who copied the Christian works that we treasure today. During their day, these people would use a variety of resources as writing surfaces, including wood, bone, broken pottery, and parchment. However, the most important within the New Testament period would be papyrus, a fifteen-foot stalk harvested from the Nile area. These stalks were cleaned, flatten, and cut into strips that were overlapped so their natural glue would bond the pieces together. After the second and third layer was added, the page would roughly be 20x9 inches, and would be glued to numerous other sheets to make a scroll a professional scribe would use for
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The word could either refer to a measuring ruler that guides and regulates belief or practice, or the series or marks of something that make up a list. In regards to scripture, canon refers to the list of the books that are acknowledge to be the rule and belief of practice. Many of the Jews within Jesus’s day agreed on a common core of authoritative books, but there are disagreements on whether the Jewish canon was established after Jesus’s day, or if Judaism within Jesus’s day work within a canon. Within the New Testament we see writings being gathered in collections with claims of their authority, but it wasn’t until the second century that we see the pattern of New Testament scripture being revered as well as being collected in an authoritative body of work. This spurred discussion on which Christian writings were considered inside or outside of canonical authority, and the creation of many canon lists, such as the Muratorian Canon established in 200 AD. While it is missing both its beginning and end, the Muratorian Canon includes the gospels of John and Luke, Acts, Paul’s letters, Apocalypse of John, Jude 1 and 2 John, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Apocalypse of Peter. In the early third century, though, Eusebius came up with a system that referred to three categories of text; recognized, disputed, and spurious. The books that were considered “recognized” included the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters including Hebrews, 1 John, 1 Peter, and at times the Apocalypse of John. To be considered “recognized”, books had to follow the criteria of three things; the book must be true, the book must be genuine in the fact of being written by an apostle or associate, and the book must be widely used among all churches. Books considered to be “disputed” were James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2-3 John, and those considered “spurious” included Acts of Paul, Shepard of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle
The word could either refer to a measuring ruler that guides and regulates belief or practice, or the series or marks of something that make up a list. In regards to scripture, canon refers to the list of the books that are acknowledge to be the rule and belief of practice. Many of the Jews within Jesus’s day agreed on a common core of authoritative books, but there are disagreements on whether the Jewish canon was established after Jesus’s day, or if Judaism within Jesus’s day work within a canon. Within the New Testament we see writings being gathered in collections with claims of their authority, but it wasn’t until the second century that we see the pattern of New Testament scripture being revered as well as being collected in an authoritative body of work. This spurred discussion on which Christian writings were considered inside or outside of canonical authority, and the creation of many canon lists, such as the Muratorian Canon established in 200 AD. While it is missing both its beginning and end, the Muratorian Canon includes the gospels of John and Luke, Acts, Paul’s letters, Apocalypse of John, Jude 1 and 2 John, Wisdom of Solomon, and the Apocalypse of Peter. In the early third century, though, Eusebius came up with a system that referred to three categories of text; recognized, disputed, and spurious. The books that were considered “recognized” included the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters including Hebrews, 1 John, 1 Peter, and at times the Apocalypse of John. To be considered “recognized”, books had to follow the criteria of three things; the book must be true, the book must be genuine in the fact of being written by an apostle or associate, and the book must be widely used among all churches. Books considered to be “disputed” were James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2-3 John, and those considered “spurious” included Acts of Paul, Shepard of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle