CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: New Testament. Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $1. I. Name; II. Description; III. Origin; IV. Transmission of the Text; V. Contents, History, and Doctrine. Name. Testament come from testamentum, the word by which the Latinecclesiastical writers translated the Greek diatheke. With the profane authors this latter term means always, one passage of Aristophanes perhaps excepted, the legal disposition a man makes of his goods for after his death. However, at an early date, the Alexandrian translators of the Scripture, known as the Septuagint, employed the word as the equivalent of the Hebrewberith, which means a pact, an alliance, more especially the alliance of Yahweh with Israel. In St. Paul (1 Corinthians 1. Jesus Christ uses the words "new testament" as meaning the alliance established by Himself between God and the world, and this is called "new" as opposed to that of which Moses was the mediator. Later on, the name of testament was given to the collection of sacred texts containing the history and the doctrine of the two alliances; here again and for the same reason we meet the distinction between the Old and New Testaments. In this meaning the expression Old Testament (he palaia diatheke) is found for the first time in Melito of Sardis, towards the year 1. There are reasons for thinking that at this date the corresponding word "testamentum" was already in use amongst the Latins. In any case it was common in the time of Tertullian. Description. The New Testament, as usually received in the Christian Churches, is made up of twenty- seven different books attributed to eight different authors, six of whom are numbered among the Apostles (Matthew, John, Paul, James, Peter, Jude) and two among their immediate disciples (Mark, Luke). If we consider only the contents and the literaryform of these writings they may be divided into historical books (Gospels and Acts), didactic books (Epistles), a prophetical book (Apocalypse). Before the name of the New Testament had come into use the writers of the latter half of the second century used to say "Gospel and Apostolic writings" or simply "the Gospel and the Apostle", meaning the Apostle St. Paul. The Gospels are subdivided into two groups, those which are commonly called synoptic (Matthew, Mark, Luke), because their narratives are parallel, and the fourth Gospel (that of St. John), which to a certain extent completes the first three. They relate to the life and personal teaching of Jesus Christ.
The Acts of the Apostles, as is sufficiently indicated by the title, relates the preaching and the labours of the Apostles. It narrates the foundation of the Churches of Palestine and Syria only; in it mention is made of Peter, John, James, Paul, and Barnabas; afterwards, the author devotes sixteen chapters out of the twenty- eight to the missions of St. Paul to the Greco- Romans. There are thirteen Epistles of St. [ English, French, Russian, Spanish ] Biola University's collection of searchable Bibles with 10 English versions, Greek, Hebrew, ancient versions, and numerous other. Paul, and perhaps fourteen, if, with the Council of Trent, we consider him the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. They are, with the exception of this last- mentioned, addressed to particular Churches (Rom.; I, II Cor.; Gal.; Ephes.; Philip.; Colos.; I, II Thess.) or to individuals (I, II Tim.; Titus; Philemon). The seven Epistles that follow (James; I, II Peter; I, II, III John; Jude) are called "Catholic", because most of them are addressed to the faithful in general. The Apocalypse addressed to the seven Churches of Asia Minor (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea) resembles in some ways a collective letter. It contains a vision which St. John had at Patmos concerning the interior state of the above- mentioned communities, the struggle of the Church with pagan. Rome, and the final destiny of the New Jerusalem. Origin. The New Testament was not written all at once. The books that compose it appeared one after another in the space of fifty years, i. Bible Class Books (New Testament) Churches and individuals are welcome to reprint these books, but they may not be placed on any other website. Written in different and distant countries and addressed to particular Churches, they took some time to spread throughout the whole of Christendom, and a much longer time to become accepted. The unification of the canon was not accomplished without much controversy (see CANON OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES). Still it can be said that from the third century, or perhaps earlier, the existence of all the books that today form our New Testament was everywhere known, although they were not all universally admitted, at least as certainlycanonical. However, uniformity existed in the West from the fourth century. The East had to await the seventh century to see an end to all doubts on the subject. In early times the questions of canonicity and authenticity were not discussed separately and independently of each other, the latter being readily brought forward as a reason for the former; but in the fourth century, the canonicity was held, especially by St. Jerome, on account of ecclesiasticalprescription and, by the fact, the authenticity of the contested books became of minor importance. We have to come down to the sixteenth century to hear the question repeated, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by St. Paul, or the Epistles called Catholic were in reality composed by the Apostles whose names they bear. Some Humanists, as Erasmus and Cardinal Cajetan, revived the objections mentioned by St. Jerome, and which are based on the style of these writings. To this Luther added the inadmissibility of the doctrine, as regards the Epistle of St. James. However, it was practically the Lutherans alone who sought to diminish the traditional. Canon, which the Council of Trent was to define in 1. It was reserved to modern times, especially to our own days, to dispute and deny the truth of the opinion received from the ancients concerning the origin of the books of the New Testament. This doubt and the negation regarding the authors had their primary cause in the religious incredulity of the eighteenth century. These witnesses to the truth of a religion no longer believed were inconvenient, if it was true that they had seen and heard what they related. Little time was needed to find, in analyzing them, indications of a later origin. The conclusions of the Tübingenschool, which brought down to the second century, the compositions of all the New Testament except four Epistles of St. Paul (Rom.; Gal.; I, II Cor.), was very common thirty or forty years ago, in so- called critical circles (see Dict. I, 7. 71- 6). When the crisis of militant incredulity had passed, the problem of the New Testament began to be examined more calmly, and especially more methodically. From the critical studies of the past half century we may draw the following conclusion, which is now in its general outlines admitted by all: It was a mistake to have attributed the origin of Christianliterature to a later date; these texts, on the whole, date back to the second half of the first century; consequently they are the work of a generation that counted a good number of direct witnesses of the life of Jesus Christ. From stage to stage, from Strauss to Renan, from Renan to Reuss, Weizsäcker, Holtzmann, Jülicher, Weiss, and from these to Zahn, Harnack, criticism has just retraced its steps over the distance it had so inconsiderately covered under the guidance of Christian Baur. Today it is admitted that the first Gospels were written about the year 7. The Acts can hardly be said to be later; Harnack even thinks they were composed nearer to the year 6. The Epistles of St. Paul remain beyond all dispute, except those to the Ephesians and to the Hebrews, and the pastoral. Epistles, about which doubts still exist. In like manner there are many who contest the Catholic Epistles; but even if the Second Epistle of Peter is delayed till towards the year 1. Epistle of St. James is put by several at the very beginning of Christianliterature, between the years 4. Epistles of St. Paul about 5. At present the brunt of the battle rages around the writings called Johannine (the fourth Gospel, the three Epistles of John, and the Apocalypse). Were these texts written by the Apostle. John, son of Zebedee, or by John the presbyter of Ephesus whom Papias mentions? There is nothing to oblige us to endorse the conclusions of radical criticisms on this subject. On the contrary, the strong testimony of traditionattributes these writings to the Apostle. Wycliffe New Testament Facsimile Reproduction. Wycliffe Manuscript New Testament. Facsimile Reproduction. This is the very first translation of the scriptures into the English. It is a beautiful hand- written manuscript. John Wycliffe is. The Morning Star of the Reformation”. He was the first. Bible into the English language. Because he lived. Gutenberg invented the printing press, his New. Testaments and Bibles were of course, hand- written manuscripts. Wycliffe. is also credited with being the inventor of bifocal eyeglasses (necessity. While a number of "typed- out" printings of Wycliffe’s. Facsimile Reproduction. It actually shows what the original manuscript looked like, and not just. Measuring approximately 7 inches tall by 5 inches wide by. Anniversary of the circa. It is about 4. 00 pages, along with a dozen pages of introductory. This is the only one of our regular facsimiles that we ourselves did. They are 2. 0 years old and now out- of- print, but in brand- new. Once our limited supply is sold, there are no more available. One of our customers is already actively reselling them for $3. While the handwritting is reasonably neat and legible; it is a handwritten manuscript, and not an easy- to- read typed- out book printing like our other facsimiles. Also, the English of the 1. English of the 1. Wycliffe Manuscript facsimile is much more challenging to read than any other facsimile we offer. If you wish to be able to easily read and study Wycliffe's translation, we strongly recommend that you consider our 1. Hexapla Facsimile, which offers the Wycliffe translation typed- out in easy- to- read modern type, (with the original spellings and wording preserved) rather than this 1. Wycliffe Manuscript facsimile. If, however, you want to be able to see for yourself, and show others, exactly what the very first English scriptures looked like, but our genuine original Wycliffe New Testament offered in the Platinum Room of our Ancient Rare Bibles & Books section at $2. Million is more than you wanted to spend… consider this one, for less than one ten- thousandth of the original’s price.
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