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The New Testament Cover Image
The New Testament, 4/e
Stephen Harris, California State University - Sacramento
How the New Testament Was Formed and Handed Down to Us

Outline


I. Key topics/themes

II. Formation of the New Testament canon

  1. The diverse historical origins of the New Testament books
  2. The process of growth
    1. The development of a canon of Paul's letters
    2. The Gospels as "scripture"
    3. The Gospels associated with various apostles or companions of apostles
    4. The Muratorian Canon
    5. Codex Claromontanus
    6. The canon of Eusebius
    7. Developments in Alexandria and Antioch
  1. Marcion and Gnosticism
  1. Marcion's disputed role
  2. Gnosticism
    1. Salvation by gnosis (secret knowledge)
    2. Body/spirit dualism
    3. Dualism between Old Testament God and God who sent Jesus Christ
  1. The impact of Marcion and Gnostic thought
  2. Purposes of the development of the New Testament canon
    1. Clarification of doctrine
    2. Enforcement of official doctrine
  1. The Latin Vulgate
    1. Translated by Jerome
    2. Influenced by twenty-seven-book New Testament canon of Athanasius

III. Transmitting the New Testament texts

  1. The earliest fragments of New Testament manuscripts
  2. The earliest complete copies of the New Testament
    1. Codex Sinaiticus
    2. Codex Vaticanus
  1. Production of biblical manuscripts during reign of Constantine I
  2. The end of the Great Persecution
  3. Problems in transmission
  1. Chronological gap between New Testament authors and earliest surviving manuscripts of their work
  2. Frequency and types of variations between New Testament manuscripts
  3. The development of the codex
  4. Manuscript types
    1. Uncials (majuscules)
    2. Minuscules
  1. Assembling a composite New Testament text
  1. Important early manuscripts
    1. Codex Sinaiticus
    2. Codex Vaticanus
    3. Codex Alexandrinus
    4. Codex Bezae
    5. Other manuscripts and manuscript fragments
    6. New Testament quotations in writings of the church fathers
    7. Minuscule manuscripts of the New Testament
    8. Translations of the New Testament from Greek into various ancient languages
  1. Creating a standard Greek text
    1. Desiderius Erasmus
    2. The Greek New Testament edition
    3. Novum Testamentum Graece edition

IV. English translations

  1. Early resistance to English Bible translations
  2. Early efforts at English Bible translations
    1. The Venerable Bede
    2. John Wycliffe
  1. The invention of printing
    1. Significance of the Gutenberg typeset
    2. Significance of Martin Luther's German Bible translation
  1. Other important English Bible translations
    1. William Tyndale
    2. Coverdale Bible
    3. Matthew's Bible
    4. The Great Bible
    5. The Bishop's Bible
    6. The Geneva Bible
  1. The King James Bible (Authorized Version)
    1. Commissioned by James I
    2. A masterpiece of English literature
    3. Shortcomings of the King James translation
  1. Modern English and American translations
  1. American Standard Version
  2. Revised Standard Version
  3. New Revised Standard Version
  4. Jerusalem Bible
  5. New Jerusalem Bible
  6. New English Bible
  7. Revised English Bible
  8. New International Version
  9. Popular translations with controversial characteristics
    1. Living Bible
    2. New World Translation
  1. Multivolume translations
    1. Doubleday Anchor Bible
    2. Scholars Version

V. Summary









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