How Did We Get The New Testament?

Formation of the New Testament

The formation of the N.T. went through a long period as well. The four gospels as well as the 13 epistles of Paul were affirmed in about 130 AD by the church as having sacred authority scriptures. About AD170-220, they had the same authority as the OT canon. The rest of the NT books were canonized later. Amongst them which stirred greatest controversy were Hebrews, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Revelation.

On the other hand, there were other works which were earlier recognized as having authority but later not canonized. E.g. Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas.

The earliest church NT list of titles was written in AD367 by Athanasius titled, the 'Festal Epistle'. The order in which he wrote was, the Gospels, Acts, Major letters, Pauline letters, Revelation. In AD 397, north africa in a meeting, they decided that the 27 books listed by Athanasius to be the canon which we have today.

After the 16th century, the Protestant church (新教／更正教) had a meeting and affirmed the 66 books of the NT, OT canon. The Roman Catholics in 1546 in the council of trent added seven more books into the canon. Thus, the RC's canon became 73 books. The eastern orthodox church in 1672 added 14/15 books in their canon which made their canon 80/81 books.

We have to note that this does not mean that the books were decided to be in the canon by these meetings, e.g. Jewish meetings, the Synod of Jamnia, Catholic Church, Carthage Meeting, because man has no ability to decide or judge which books' content are God's Words. Rather, the Holy Spirit led the Jewish rabbis to understand which books ought to be in the OT canon. Similarly, the Holy Spirit led the early church to understand which books's content were the word of God. God revealed His word to some Christian authors, and through their writings, presented the Word of God in written form.

Thus, before the period of Athanasius, various churches already knew and recognized which books were deemed to have authority. This is because they were moved by the same Spirit. Only till the 4th century, when the church met with heresies that the church decided in AD 397 to be the canon. The rest of the meetings similarly were just to re-affirmed what was already recognized to be the canon in the believers circle.