Over the past week, we’ve been discussing the formation of the New Testament and how there never really has been throughout history to this day a church-wide universally recognized New Testament canon.
It wasn’t only until around 200 A.D. that we see the Gospels and Epistles being elevated to the status of Holy Scripture.
However, this process did not occur in a linear black-and-white fashion.
Whether any congregation accepted the Gospels or the Epistles as Holy Scripture depended on whether that church originally hailed from the East or the West.
The city the church was located in also played a key role.
There were some churches that absolutely refused to recognize anything other than the TANAKH (Hebrew Bible) as Holy Scripture (I would be on their side).
On the other hand, there were other churches who decided that some of the Gospels (not all of them) and some of the Epistles (again not all of them) carried enough weight that it was okay to elevate their status to the same level as the Hebrew Bible.
Here’s another little known fact.
By 200 A.D., it was actually gentile church elders and bishops who decided to include many of the books of the Apocrypha via a majority rule vote they conducted at a council they formed.
And it wasn’t until around 220 A.D that some of the gospels and epistles were elevated to the same holy status as the Hebrew Bible and the idea of a separate “New Testament” became a reality.
Are you catching this point homies?
This means it wasn’t until about 200 years AFTER the crucifixion of Yeshua (well into the 3rd century!) that the idea of an additional body of Scripture or the concept of another “testament” was even given serious consideration!
And even then, only some parts of the New Testament as we know it today were accepted.
In addition, this so-called New Testament was never ever held above or considered to be a replacement of the Hebrew Bible.
Finally, it wasn’t until 367 A.D. (the latter half of the 4th century) that a New Testament canon was officially recognized.
But it wasn’t recognized by the Eastern Church, only within the Western branch of the church.
So here are the indisputable historical facts you need to burn into your cranium:
-The only Bible the gentile church knew of was the TANAKH (Hebrew Bible) right up until around 220 A.D.
-The first addition to the Hebrew Bible as Holy Scripture by the gentiles (of all people) was the Apocrypha. This is ironic as all heck because while the Apocrypha has been revered by Jews, they have never considered it to be on the same level as Holy Scripture.
-It wasn’t until a few decades after gentile Christians added the Apocrypha to the Hebrew Bible that the New Testament was added to the TANAKH to form the Christian Bible that more resembles what we’re familiar with today.
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