For the last month or so, I have been working through a new series on the NT canon designed to help Christians understand ten basic facts about its origins. This series is designed for a lay-level audience and hopefully could prove helpful in a conversation one might have with a skeptical friend.
Given that there are already four installments in this series, I thought would be helpful to have them listed all in one spot. Thus, I will list the current installments below, and plan to update this list as the series progresses. Also, note that the bottom left of my website has a link to all my blog series.
#1: “The New Testament Books are the Earliest Christian Writings We Possess”
#2: “Apocryphal Writings are All Written in the Second Century or Later”
#3: “The New Testament Books Are Unique Because They Are Apostolic Books”
#4: “Some NT Writers Quote Other NT Writers as Scripture”
#5: “The Four Gospels are Well Established by the End of the Second Century”
#6: “At the End of the Second Century, the Muratorian Fragment lists 22 of our 27 NT books”
#7: “Early Christians Often Used Non-Canonical Writings”
#8: “The NT Canon Was Not Decided at Nicea—Nor Any Other Church Council”
#9: “Christians Did Disagree about the Canonicity of Some NT Books”
#10 “Early Christians Believed that Canonical Books were Self-Authenticating.”
Linda Hulse says
Very helpful! Thank you.
Richard Sutherland says
And we know there were early Christian writings that never made it into the New Testaments. example; Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Thomas and others.
Sammas says
Those were the Apocrypha…not accepted due to their gnosticism and later datings…read them and you’ll see why.Peter and Thomas were both dead by the date these are dated
George says
Those were written over 150 years after Jesus had died by others not associated with the apostles at all. In an effort to give them credibility they had apostle’s names attached to them, but when you study them closely they don’t stand historically, theologically, or with accuracy. That’s why many of those so-called lost gospels aren’t even considered apocryphal- they can’t hold up to even those lowered standards, let alone the ones of Scripture.