The new testament is the 2nd division present in the Christian Biblical Canon and is second to the old testament.
The new testament consists of all the teachings and the happenings from the life of Jesus Christ and also the events which happened during the first century of Christianity. The people believe in both the new and the old testament & together consider them as sacred scripture.
The Book of Revelations
The book of Revelation is believed to be the final book of the new bible testament. This book is also famous by the name of the apocalypse of John. In the new bible testament Canon, the apocalyptic literature or prophetical happenings are mentioned.
It is believed to be the authorship of Jesus Christ and has been attributed to either John the apostle who is often thought that he is John the apostle or John the evangelist and the author of the Gospel of John.
Another John who is designated as John of Patmos, after the islands where the text mentions that the revelation was received.
Quick read: Complete Glossary of Catholic Symbols
Some of the writers have also dated the writings of this particular book somewhere around 95 AD while some other writers have mentioned the date of around 68 AD.
This particular book opens with the mention of letters to the seven local congregations of Asia Minor and after that takes the form of an apocalypse that has a revealing of the divine prophecy and the various mysteries of the Ancient Christianity and Judaism religion.
New Testament Cannons
In the general context, the Christian denominations have the new bible testament Canon which is agreed upon the list of 27 books. The order of the books can vary according to need and desire.
In the Western Christian denominations and the Roman Catholic protestant traditions, the book order remains the same. The Armenian and Eastern Orthodox traditions have different book orders.
The new bible testament Canon includes Mark, Luke, John, and Matthew written in the Greek language. The apostolic history includes the Acts which was written in the original Greek language.
Quick read: 50 Days of Easter Longest Liturgical Season
Pauline Epistles includes the books of Corinthian’s first and second parts along with Thessalonians first and second parts. It also includes Timothy’s first and second parts along with Titus. All these books are written in the Greek language.
Apart from this, the Catholic abstinence includes Peter’s first and second parts along with the three parts of John, which are all written in the Greek language.
The last book is the Apocalypse which includes Revelation written in the Greek language.
Dating Evidence
The dating evidence related to the new bible testament in the Bible is based upon the internal pieces of evidence and the external pieces of evidence. The external pieces of evidence tell that the earliest manuscripts of the new testament book were dated from the second till the 3rd Century.
All these manuscripts place a clear upper limit on the greetings of the new bible testament texts. No explicit reference to the books in the various documents, in the Bible was able to push this particular date down to a further extent.
Ignatius of Antioch has written many letters that were selected into the new bible testament. He lived from 35 AD till 107 AD. His writings have become the reference for the gospels of John and Matthew and also for the epistle of Paul.
Quick read: Punishments for Seven Deadly Sins in Christianity
His writings are also attributed to the end of his life which has placed the gospels as the first-century writings.
The internal pieces of evidence give the literary analysis of the new testament texts which are believed to be dated somewhere around the mid to the late first century. The internal evidence believes that the earliest works of the new bible testament are in the form of letters of the apostle Paul.
It is determined that the Thessalonians were likely the earliest of the letters which were written somewhere around 52 AD.
Manuscripts of the New Testament
Various texts of the new bible testament were preserved and then transmitted into manuscripts. The manuscripts contain at least some part of the new bible testament numbers in thousands.
The earliest of these manuscripts are preserved in fragments. Some of these fragments have been dated way back to the 2nd century. After the passage of each century, more and more manuscripts have survived, which contains a lot of portions of the books that were believed to be part of the new bible testament.
Quick read: Lesson of the Jesus and Widow Offerings
Some of these manuscripts also contain other works. The date when a manuscript was written does not tell the date of the text which it contains. This can be interpreted as the later manuscripts which occasionally contained older forms of the text or even old readings.
Some of the most important manuscripts containing these early texts from the new bible testament are given below:
| S No. | Manuscripts |
| 1 | The Chester Beatty Papyri (Greek; the New Bible Testament portions of which were copied in the 3rd century) |
| 2 | The Bodmer Papyri (Greek and Coptic; the New Bible Testament portions of which were copied in the 3rd and 4th centuries) |
| 3 | Codex Bobiensis (Latin; copied in the 4th century, but containing at least a 3rd-century form of text) |
| 4 | Uncial 0171 (Greek; copied in the late-third or early 4th century) |
| 5 | Syriac Sinaiticus (Syriac; copied in the 4th century) |
| 6 | Schøyen Manuscript 2560 (Coptic; copied in the 4th century) |
| 7 | Codex Vaticanus (Greek; copied in the 4th century) |
| 8 | Codex Sinaiticus (Greek; copied in the 4th century) |
| 9 | Codex Vercellensis (Latin; copied in the 4th century) |
| 10 | Curetonian Gospels (Syriac; copied in the 5th century) |
| 11 | Garima Gospels ( Ge’ez language, produced in the 5th through 6th century) |
Quick read: BarlowGirl Christian All-Female Rock Band
Textual Variations
Various textual variations are present in the new bible testament which are printed in different books. The textual criticism deals with the removal and identification of the various errors which are present in the text of the manuscripts.
The ancient writers made errors or alterations. It has been preserved for more than 10 centuries and also has preserved more than 5800 Greek manuscripts.
It also contains 10,000 Latin manuscripts along with 9300 manuscripts in various other ancient languages like Ethiopic and Armenian.
Quick read: Seeing Abraham and Sarah: (50th) Birthday
Even if the original Greek versions of the new bible testament were lost, the entire new testament could still be assembled from the various translations which are available in the books.
A large number of surviving ancient manuscripts can be noted in the new bible testament. Various writers have summed up their view on this particular issue by saying that:
“The more often you have copies that agree with each other, especially if they emerge from different geographical areas, the more you can cross-check them to figure out what the original document was like. The only way they’d agree would be where they went back genealogically in a family tree that represents the descent of the manuscripts”.
Quick read: How long was Jesus on the cross? (Crucifixion)
Conclusion
The new testament of the holy book of the Bible is a collection of all the famous quotes and the teachings which were given by Jesus Christ himself. It also contains all the happenings of the Christian religion.
The people all around the world believe that the old and the new testament together form the sacred scriptures of the Christianity religion which are religiously followed by all the Christians present in different countries.
People Also Ask (FAQs)
Why was there a need for the New Testament?
The old testament of the Bible was made up of all the religious scriptures of the Jewish faith while the Christianity religion concluded both the new and the old testaments. Thus, the new testament was rolled out to fulfill the prophecies of the old testament.
What are the important parts of the new testament?
The important parts of the new testament include 27 books which are written in the Greek language. These books were written somewhere between 50 to 60 CE and are divided into 4 groups which are Gospels, Epistles, Acts of Apostles, and Apocalypse.