He could have, but did not, use the much harsher Hebrew term for dogs commonly used by the Jews in their hatred and contempt for Gentiles. The New Testament was an outburst of proclamation of God’s Word after the coming of Jesus. The Old Testament is the first half of the Christian Bible. The New Testament was not written all at once. The Gospel of Luke was written by the same author as the Acts of the Apostles, who refers to Luke as the 'former account' of 'all that Jesus began to do and teach' (Acts 1:1). A chronological New Testament is different from and yet the same as the New Testament familiar to Christians. Furthermore, because of the thousands of ne… The spoken tongue used by both the disciples and Christ was highly likely Aramaic, even though such a Semitic language was not the original one used by the Jews. . The books of Galatians and James are thought to be the oldest in the New Testament Canon, written by 49 A.D. Have you ever thought about which books of the New Testament were written first? The holy book used by the early Christians is the Jewish Bible, known to Christians now as the Old Testament ('testament' meaning in this context a covenant between God and man). The New Testament was written by Jews. So the greatest surviving satirical work … The New Testament was written in Greek by Greek-speaking writers for a Greek-speaking, largely Gentile audience. The language was written and used during the early church period to communicate between people who grew up in different areas of the world and whose native tongues were quite different. It contains the same 27 documents, but sequences them in the chronological order in which they were written. Greek was the leading written and spoken language of the eastern Mediterranean world when Rome ruled the world during the New Testament period. If we do not know who Jesus is and what He did for us, we cannot be saved.  Mere intellectual knowledge about the facts of his life and identity as the Son of God is necessary, but it is not sufficient to produce salvation. We also need to emotionally accept and act on what we hear as well for it to be effective in saving us. After all, as James states, "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26).Â. https://www.insight.org/resources/bible/the-general-epistles/james Jews Had an Aversion Toward the Greeks. Jesus, befitting a Jew raised in 'Galilee of the Gentiles' (Isaiah 9:1), could converse with people of both Jewish and gentile backgrounds. The great Jewish aversion toward the Greeks (especially … Paul was a Jew of the diaspora, and diaspora Jews used Greek in their everyday lives, with many of them unfamiliar with the Aramaic (or Hebrew) of Palestinian Jews. Why did the writers of the New Testament wait so long before writing about the events of Jesus?Why didn't they write the events down as they were happening? Later, the book of Acts describes how the apostles gave themselves to “the ministry of the Word” (Acts 6:4)—that is, they began to write and compile the teachings of Jesus within the first year after His crucifixion in 30 AD. The New Testament was nor dug up in a farmer's field as golden plates like the "Book of Mormon". The word 'testament' in the expression New Testament refers to a new 'covenant' or alliance that Christians believe God makes with the people of Israel, described in the books of the New Testament, which completes or fulfils what Christians refer to as the 'old' covenant of God with the people of Israel made on Mount Sinai through Moses, described in the books of the Old Testament . The New Testament was written in order to make it possible for humanity to receive spiritual salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote the first 13 of these letters, each addressing a specific situation or problem. Still it can be said that fro… This evidence includes these observations: 1. The evidence shows that the four Gospels were written in a relatively short time after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus' disciples authored the documents before the close of the 1st Century. The New Testament was written in order to make it possible for humanity to receive spiritual salvation.  In order to have the knowledge that would save us, we need to know who Jesus Christ was, what he did for us, and to accept His sacrifice for our sins.  Additionally, we have to know whom God is and how he wants us to live our lives.  The Apostle Paul explained how important it was to have specific spiritual knowledge. Similarly, Jesus Himself told His disciples on the night before He died that he was the only way to God the Father and that he embodied truth and eternal life (John 14:6). The evidence is as follows: The City of Jerusalem and the Temple Were Still Standing When the Gospels Were Written Acts, the fifth book in the New Testament, is a methodical account of the early church written by a doctor named Luke when he was the assistant to and the note taker for the Apostle Paul. 64 AD was when Emperor Nero burnt Rome and blamed the fire on Christians to launch the Roman persecution of Christians, and 70 AD was when the future Emperor Titus sacked … (Matthew 16:18). 2. ." The text chronicles the Israelites from creation to the leave-taking of Moses. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord’” ( 1 Corinthians 1:20–22, 26–31 ). In terms of volume, Paul's writings constitute about one-fourth of the entire New Testament. It was penned and made available to us in order to provide us with saving knowledge that reveals the true purpose and meaning of our lives. Most importantly, spiritual salvation and eternal life can only come through Jesus and not by some other means or person, as Peter explained to his nation's leadership (Acts 4:12). Jesus' play on words for "stone" and "rock," while talking with Peter in Matthew 16:18, also uses Grecian words that cannot be replicated in another language. It has been argued by scholars that the earliest written book of the New Testament is either Galatians or 1 Thessalonians, around AD 50. A history of the New Testament is made difficult by the relatively short time span covered by its books when compared with the millennium and more of history described by the Old Testament. The language of some New Testament books has been influenced by the fact that the mother tongue of Jesus and his first disciples was not Greek but Aramaic. . Written over a period of around 100 years, the New Testament documents the early stages of Christianity, including the birth of Christ and His teachings and ministry. The destiny ('Theophilus'), style, and vocabulary of the two books betray a common author. Some evidence that Christ spoke the language does exist in the New Testament. 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). For centuries, Christians have asked why Jews don’t accept the authenticity of the New Testament. But the writings not only give us a look into Jewish customs, thinking and beliefs; they also provide us with clues concerning the languages spoken at that time. The New Testament provides humanity with saving knowledge, which the Old Testament does not fully possess, although the same God inspired both. Such information, however, cannot be known by human reasoning and sensory experience alone. Matthew, a Levite and tax collector, was one of the first disciples that Jesus had called to be an apostle. Egypt, the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament was translated into Greek as the famous “Septuagint.” And, finally, Alexander’s Hellenistic political and cultural transformation of the Mediterranean and the Near East explains why Greek is the original language of the New Testament. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. From the internal evidence of his Gospel, it seems probable that he was taking notes of Jesus’ teachings from the beginning of His ministry in 26 AD. NT. The basic reason why Greek was chosen for the New Testament instead of Aramaic or Hebrew was that the writers wished to reach a broad, Gentile (non-Israelite) audience, not just a Jewish audience. The New Testament Gospels and Epistles were only part of a Hellenistic Jewish culture in the Roman Empire, where Alexandria had a larger Jewish population than Jerusalem, and Greek was spoken by more Jews than Hebrew. The Pentateuch is the Greek version of the Torah, which consists of the first five books of the Bible. Jewish scholar David Flusser observes how the New Testament records Jewish life in the Hellenistic Diaspora. To them, only the original Hebrew name is right! Why is our modern New Testament written in Greek, anyway? The familiar New Testament begins with the Gospels and concludes with Revelation for obvious reasons. . The apostles (or their companions) who wrote each book did not assume their writings were simply one of a dozen other alternative accounts of the message of God’s redemption. The basic reason why Greek was chosen for the New Testament instead of Aramaic or Hebrew was that the writers wished to reach a broad, Gentile (non-Israelite) audience, not just a Jewish audience. Since the apostles and evangelists in the early New Testament church wished to reach as large an audience as possible, they chose to write their inspired words in Greek and not Aramaic, Hebrew or some other language. 62 AD was when Paul was martyred in Rome. New Testament Greek The New Testament is written in so-called 'koiné' Greek, the quality of which varies from writer to writer. The unification of the canon was not accomplished without much controversy (see Canon of the Holy Scriptures). For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved . In order to have the knowledge that would save us, we need to know who Jesus Christ was, what he did for us, and to accept His sacrifice for our sins. The purpose of the New Testament among other things was to propagate antisemitism because the New Testament was written during the time the Jews were rebelling against the Romans and the Romans wrote the books. We are also to become just like Jesus, who is God, until we all are unified by a singular faith and knowledge of Christ, "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). The well-known Jewish historian of the New Testament period, Josephus, stated that the ability to speak Greek was very common not only among the general populous but also among servants and slaves. For many Christians, it forms an important part of their personal faith, with people turning to it to hear the words of Christ as recorded by His followers, and to learn more about the evolution of Christianity. The books of the New Testament were composed not in order to satisfy historical curiosity about the events they recount but to bear witness to a faith in the action of God through these events. The New Testament was not written hundreds of years after the time of Christ. Traditionally, 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament were attributed to Paul the Apostle, who famously converted to Christianity after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and wrote a … Why was the New Testament written? Greek, not Hebrew, was the commonly used language of Palestine during the rule of the Roman Empire. Some today teach that that the Greek names for God, found in the New Testament, are PAGAN! And He (Christ) said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). Their choice, given that the Bible is the most popular book ever printed, proved wise indeed. Jesus utilized at least two Grecian words for love in his well-known post-resurrection conversation with Peter regarding how much he loved him. in the second half of the first century. The New Testament was not suddenly "discovered" in a clay jar with 27 "books" intact like the Dead Sea Scrolls4 or the Nag Hammadi 5 texts. After being initially rebuffed, she persisted with her request. Even if the Gospels, for example, were written before 50 A.D., doesn't that mean it was 20 years between the actual events and the recording? The New Testament is a collection of twenty-seven documents from four genres: gospels (4), acts (1), epistles (21), and apocalypse (1). 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. (And, we could add, how could they learn about God and study about salvation unless the New Testament was written - Romans 10:13 - 14, HBFV throughout). It is highly unlikely Pilate would have known the local languages of the "despised" and conquered peoples he ruled in the name of the mighty Roman Empire. These words have no exact corresponding word either in Old Testament Hebrew or in Aramaic. If one of these books had been written in AD 40, then it is likely that they may have had an original Aramaic version, but this is not the case. Additionally, Pontius Pilate could well have questioned Jesus in Greek, since few non-Romans in Judea spoke Latin. Examining the internal evidence of the New Testament itself can make this plain. The Epistles are letters written to the fledgling churches and individual believers in the earliest days of Christianity. The books that compose it appeared one after another in the space of fifty years, i.e. Roman historian Colin Hemer has provided powerful evidence that Acts was written between AD 60 and 62. This set of twenty-seven books gives us knowledge that is crucial to living a happy life. The ability to speak the Greek language, especially during New Testament times, was a needed skill as it was used as the standard way of communicating, carrying out business, and so on. The New Testament word Jesus used for 'dogs' was the Greek Kunarion (Strong's Concordance #G2952), commonly used in reference to household pets. For example, Matthew, the first Gospel, is actually the 20th book, written between 60 and 69 A.D. There i… Mark 7 records the story of a Gentile woman who requested Jesus heal her young daughter. It took about 1,070 years for the Old Testament to be written. The books that compose it appeared one after another in the space of fifty years, i.e. The New Testament is the second half of the Christian Bible. The New Testament was not written all at once. Christians traditionally view this new covenant as being prophesized in the Hebrew Bible's book of Jeremiah(31:31): "The days … It explains why, in third-century B.C. Jesus responded that he was sent to save and serve Israelites and that, "It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" (Mark 7:27). There is no mention in Acts of the crucial event of the fall of Jerusalem in 70. Indeed, it remained the dominant language, especially in the large cities of Alexandria, Antioch, etc., until after the Arab Muslim conquest, long after the time the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D. By the time of the New Testament church in the first century A.D., Hellenism had greatly influenced and changed the people and culture of Judea. Additionally, we have to know whom God is and how he wants us to live our lives. A book in the language of the Jews. The 29 books do not appear in sequential order. The New Testament reveals to humanity the purpose and meaning of life.  The main purpose of life on this earth, when correctly lived, is to prepare us for the next life. We are supposed to become like God in character, as Christ tells us, "Therefore, you shall be perfect, even as your Father Who is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). "And I also say to you that you are Peter (Petros, Strong's Concordance #G4074, which literally means a stone), and on this rock (Petra, Strong's #G4073, which literally means a massive rock) I will build My church . This part is also used by the Jewish faith in the Tanakh. The New Testament was not written all at once. And how shall they hear without preaching? He used the word agape, which is a deep love and phileo, which is brotherly love toward someone we like (see John 21: 15 - 17). 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