New Testament: Bible Canon - Dale Martin 1/23

Overview & Key Concepts

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What is New Testament?

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian biblical canon. The first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New ... more

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What is Bible Canon?

A biblical canon or canon of scripture is a set of texts (or books) which a particular religious community regards as authoritative scripture. Most of ... more

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Who is Dale Martin?

Dale Martin (born 1954) is an American New Testament scholar. He is Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University. He has degrees from ... more

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Frequently Asked Questions

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1.What is the King James Version (KJV) of the New Testament?

The King James Version (KJV) of the New Testament was completed in 1611 by 8 members of the Church of England.

There were (and still are) no original texts to translate. The oldest manuscripts we have were written down hundreds of years after the last Apostle died. There are over 8000 of these old manuscripts, with no two alike.

The King James translators chose to use none of the texts. Instead, they edited previous translations to create the New Testament their king and parliament would approve.

So today, 21st century Christians believe the 'Word of God' is a book edited in the 17th century from 16th century translations of 8000 contradictory copies of 4th century scrolls that claim to copies of lost letters written in the 1st century by unknown authors.

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2.Is the New Testament historically authentic?

Textual critics note that the original autographs of the New Testament books no longer exist, leaving thousands of handwritten Greek manuscripts that contain thousands of minor variants, mostly consisting of spelling or word order differences. Despite these historical copy changes, scholars emphasize that modern textual reconstruction methods allow historians to confidently identify the original 1st-century text, ensuring no essential historical narrative or Christian doctrine is left in doubt.

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3.What is the oldest manuscript of the Bible New Testament?

It is of enormous importance in establishing the biblical text. There are three earliest manuscripts of the Bible New Testament:

1. Codex Alexandrinus is one of the earliest and most important manuscripts of the entire Bible in Greek

2. Codex Sinaiticus is one of the most important books in the world and is kept in the British Library. Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament.

3. Codex Vaticanus in Rome

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4.What language is the earliest New Testament in?

The earliest New Testament manuscripts are in Koine Greek. But there are Aramaic phrases in the Gospels. Therefore, Scholars believe an Aramaic layer lies beneath the written Greek of the New Testament, one which may never have been written down.

If true, the Greek text is itself a translation, and English text would be a translation of a translation, which raises textual inerrancy and corruption issue.

Since every translation is a personal judgement of which word to best use, made at the translators discretion.

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