Show The Herald Journal Logan Utah Thursday June 24 2004 — C3 raises question about New Testament 'Code7 Author’s claims rejected by liberals conservatives By Richard N Ostllng AP Religion Writer - “The Da Vinci Code” Dan Brown’s novel has brought mass g j'attention — and mass confusion — to historical issues among them: How did :''we get theNew Testament? Who decided what to include and when and why7 V The “canon" (official list) of 27 New Testament books was chosen from among numerous writings and the process was V more complicated than many realize- - ' " Brown’s version presented as factual comes through the words of two of his fictional characters — a Harvard profes-- ) sor and a retired “British Royal Histori- ' an ‘The Bible as we know it today was Roman v collated by” the ' Emperor Constantine He “commis- stoned arid financed a new Bible which ' omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished ' those gospels that make him godlike" The compilers’ had a “political agenda!” to solidify their “power base” : Both liberals and conservatives rejixt Brown’s contentions ' Even the secular humanist magazine v i Skeptical Inquirer acknowledges that the earliest Christians believed in Jesus' divinity (see Paul’s letters and Larry Hur- 1 tado’s 2003 blockbuster book “Lord yH Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest ' : y-j' Christianity”)’ y Three centuries later Constantine sum:' Ay moned a council that officially defined v already existing belief that Jesus the ' Son is eternal and fully equal with God : super-sellin- - - - - fourth-centu- ' the Father (Contra Brown it wasn't a “relatively dose vote”) How were the 27 books chosen? The early church considered dating fidelity to past Jewish and Christian teaching and links with Jesus! apostles ' There’s a rundown for y in little readers conservative ' the general classic “The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?” (Eerdmans by British scholar FF Brucei v 'V'-ndw deceased o " - “Introduction to the NewTestament” (Doubleday) by Raymond Brpwn also deceased of Union Theological Seminaiy provides further information More tech- nical tomes include “The Canon of the ' New Testament” (Clarendon) by Bruce Metzger of Princeton Theological Semi- ry I " - - ''the -- user-friend- ly Inter-Varsit- ! ’ !'- nary: 0 yL ' - ng : ! -- best-attest- cut-do- Latin-speaki- ' The New Testament books me by far ancient writings Fof the example only 10 good texts exist for Caesar’s “Gallic War” known to high v school Latin students with the oldest ' written fully 900 years after the original- ' canus) There are alsoimportant chunks and fragments dating from 130 to 350 V" Jewish authorities began defining the Hebrew Bible after Jerusalem fell in 70 v Christianity reaffirmed those Scriptures' " iii 144 when the heretic Marcion wanted to reject ties to Judaism (though earlyw Christians used a Greek translation with several “Old Testament” books that Jews ' excluded) Marcion also proposed a selective list ' of New Testament books (a Luke plus 10 of Paul’s letters) which ' ' helped provoke churches to define a canon broader Christian Matthew Mark Luke (uncut)' John and 13 letters of Paul wonever-widenin- g acceptance particularly after ISO (Syrians preferred a unified narrative compiled in 170 from the four Gospels) Shortly before or after 200 the Greek-West ' speaking East and had agreed upon 20 books (the four Gospels the 13 Paul letters Acts 1 Peter Y John) ' - But complex debate continued about the other books' in What became the New! ' Testament (Hebrews" James 2 Peter 2 John 3 John Jiide'Reyelation) A list by Egypt’s influential Bisliop ' Athanasius in 367 (three decades after V Consiantine died) soon became the con- sensus ttand continues 16 centuries The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?" ' DOCUMENTS ' ars-- THE ' y) On dating: Jesus was crucified around A D 30 Experts say Paul wrote his earti-- : est letters around 30 and John thelast of ' the four Gospels dates from 90 to J00 Liberals think a few of the 27 books were written after 100 conservatives put them earlier There were allusions to many of the 27 in three Christian writings dating from around 100 Several books the ancients rejected have been promoted in recent years by a liberal faction that dates them considerably earlier than do other schol- - By contrast thousands of New Test- ament manuscripts survived the centuries Two key collections dated at around 330 contain the entire New Testament (Codex Sinaiticus) or most of it (Codex Vati- - : ed 'V ‘ ! 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