The New Testament: History and Composition

This assignment delves into the historical context surrounding the creation of the New Testament and examines its structure and content. It analyzes the threefold classification of books (historical, epistolary, and prophetic) and their respective roles in conveying the message of Jesus Christ. The essay also discusses the dating of New Testament books and the reliability of existing manuscripts.

Running head: THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDY
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Course Title: Theology and Religious Study
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Introduction to the New Testament
The New Testament is the records of all the historical events and good news of saving
Lord Jesus Christ’s life. Everything related to his life, death, resurrection, ascension and
continuation of his activities in this world. It also refers to the fulfillment of the events which
were long anticipated in the Old Testament. In addition to this, the sacred history, unlike the
secular one is written under the guidance of the supernatural Holy Spirit. Specifically the Old
Testament is being protected by the human error, which possesses authority for church in
modern days and all throughout the human history, until and unless the Lord returns. The
Bible is being divided in two different sections, that is, the Old Testament and the New
Testament (Brown, 2015).
The ‘Testament’ has been derived from the Latin word, testamentum, which means
“will or covenant”. In connection with New Testament, the best translation of the word is
“covenant”. It gives a brief explanation of the new relationship, which is received by the God.
On one hand, Old Testament is basically a record of all the dealings of God with Israelites,
which is based on the Mosaic Covenant and given at the Mount Sinai. Critics have mentioned
the point that practicing of religion sometimes harms the society and become violent while
promoting their goals and endorsing themselves. However, the New Testament or one can
say Covenant explains all the new arrangements made by God with his pupil, belonging from
different tongue and tribes and nations, who accept salvation based on their Christ’s faith.
The Old Testament reveals God’s holiness in the right standard of law and also promises the
coming of Redeemer. On the other hand, the New Testament consists of the writings, which
reveal all the content in this covenant (Harris, 2014).
The New Testament gives a message regarding the person who himself gave
suspension of sins and the people or the church who received the salvation. Therefore, one

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can say the New Testament’s central theme is the salvation. The names New and Old
Covenants are applied in the first two relationships, where the God has entered with his men
and also to those books which consists of the records of these relationships. The New
Testament can be referred as a divine treaty in terms of which the God has received enemies
and rebels in peace with his own self. Rome dominated the world and was ruling over the
ancient world, at the time of the New Testament. At a small town of Palestine, Bethlehem of
Judea took birth who would transform the whole world. Apostle Paul said, concerning the
person, God has sent his son before, when the time came. In many wonderful and special
ways, God prepared this world for Messiah’s coming. Different factors made its contribution
in these preparations (Hagner, 2012).
The preparation of Christ’s coming is the overall story of Old Testament. God chose
the Jews from all over the nations as a treasured possessions and priests kingdom. In this
regard, beginning of the God’s promises given to all the patriarchs, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham
were to be the God’s custodian words as well as the Redeemer’s channel. The Old Testament
was related to the Christ and his coming was anticipated as suffering and also glorified
savior. Moreover, the prophesies were not many, but precise. It gave details of the lineage of
Messiah’s birthplace, life and also his resurrection. However, Israel was disobedient; thus, it
was taken to the captivity of God, as his judgment on the hardness of the heart. God brought
some remnant back to the homeland after many years. He promised of preparing the coming
back of Messiah. After the Old Testament has been written, four hundred years have passed
and the religious climate has been one of Pharisaic hypocrisy as well as externalism.
Furthermore, there has been a spirit of the anticipation of Messiah in the air and also the
remnant looked out for Messiah (Kennedy, 2014).
The New Testament mentions that it is significant when Christ, who saved the world
and sent his disciples to earth in order to proclaim gospel, there was a “world speech”. The

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whole thing was actually the result of the aspirations and the conquests of Alexander the
Great. He was the son of King Philip, who before the Christ’s birth, swept all across ancient
world and conquered nations after nations. His main desire was one language and one world.
In the fall out of Alexander’s victories, he started establishing the Greek language as lingua
franca, as the common tongue and culture. However, he had a short lived empire, which
resulted in spreading of the Greek language. It became significant and the Greek speech was
one of many dialects at the time, when Roman rule swept over the world. Alexander’s army
spread the language all over Eastern segment of the world and persisted after the kingdom’s
division. It penetrated to all other parts of Roman World and even in the Rome itself. Paul
wrote in Greek and also the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, wrote the “Meditations” in
Greek. The language was therefore, not only letters but also the commerce of day to day life
(Moyise, 2015).
The main point is that the God was busy preparing the whole world for the common
language. This was the matchless vehicle or mode of communication for preciseness and
clarity to proclaim the messages of Savior. This resulted in; the New Testament books were
being written in a common language, that is, Koine Greek. The books were not written in
Aramaic or Hebrew language, even when the writers of the books were all Jews except Luke.
Koine Greek became second language of everyone. Religious practices vary from religion to
religion and different religions may or may not contain various elements like supernatural
beings, divine, faith and sacred things which will provide power and norms for the rest of the
life. However, God did not finish making his preparations for the world’s savior’s coming. At
the time Christ took birth in Palestine, the Rome was ruling the world. The Palestine was
under the rule of Rome. Moreover, Rome was highly noted for the insistence upon order and
law. The bloodiest and the longest civil war in the history of Rome finally ended along with

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the rule of Augustus Caesar. Furthermore, the hundred years of civil war was brought to rest,
which resulted in the extension of the boundaries of Rome (Robertson, 2014).
In addition to this, Romans built a whole new system of roadways, with full
protection being provided by their army, who patrolled the roads often. These factors
contributed a lot to the measures of safety and ease for the travelers, for making their way
back and forth all across the empire of Rome. Augustus became the first Roman for wearing
an imperial purple as well as a crown, being the sole ruler of the whole empire. Augustus was
moderate and wise; he considered his people and brought in great time of prosperity and
peace. This made Rome a safer place to travel and live in. This also introduced the period of
“Pax Romana”, or the peace of Rome. All these reasons made his birth accomplished, as
when he was born, everybody said a God took birth. In these conditions, one took birth, who
was truly a source of the long lasting peace of the world and personal peace, versus the false
and temporary peace which men gave. No matter how good or wise or outstanding it is
(Porter, 2012).
Moreover, he was truly a God, people considered him as the God Man, rather than a
man being called as God. The Roman rule’s presence and laws helped in preparing the world
of his ministry as well as life, thus the gospel can be preached. After John was being taken to
the custody, Jesus came to Galilee and preached the God’s gospel. He said that the time is
now fulfilled and the God’s kingdom now at hand; believing in gospel. Before the surveying
of the New Testament, it would be great for getting a general picture of the religious world
and what it was like at the time of Savior coming into the scene and also when church was
being sent out to the world. The greatest similarity of the modern world is being noted by
Merrill Tenney. The savior’s message is now revealed in the New Testament, like a fresh
air’s breath after coming out from a room filled with smoke. The birth of Christian Church
took place into the world which is filled with the competitive religions. They differed among

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themselves widely, but all possessed one general and common characteristic. The common
feature was the struggle for reaching to the God or various Gods, who on the other hand
remained inaccessible (Robertson, 2015).
Judaism taught its disciples that the God disclosed himself to all the patriarchs, to the
Moses and also to Prophets. Apart than that, there did not exist any faith which could actually
speak the certainty of divine declaration or any concept of salvation and sin. The academic
practice of comparative religion, in the nineteenth and the twentieth century, divided the
beliefs of religion into categories those were philosophically defined, known as “World
Religions” (Kennedy, 2014). It can be divided into three broad categories; world religions,
indigenous religions and new religious movements. World religions refer to international
faiths, indigenous religions which refer to smaller or nation specific religious groups and new
religious movements which refer to the faiths and beliefs that recently developed. The recent
standards of ethics were mainly superficial and despite all the insights and ideals possessed
by the philosophers, they discoursed over virtue and evil. They basically had neither of the
remedies for the problems not dynamic for producing the others (Moyise, 2015).
Even in the Judaism, revealing the truth was being obscured either by encrustation of
the traditions or neglected. The religion’s origin is uncertain. There are several theories which
are about the origin of religious practices. Anthropologists John Monaghan and Peter Just
mentioned that the inception of the world’s great religions is through some sort of
revitalization movements, as the visions and imaginations of people seek more
comprehensive answers to their questions rather than what is provided by their everyday
beliefs. Religion development has been in different forms varying from culture to culture.
Some religions emphasize on beliefs and some religion emphasize on practices. Some focus
on the experience which is more subjective, while other religions consider the activities of the
community to be more important. Some claim to be universal, while others confine

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themselves to a closely localized group. Many associate religion with the public institutions,
like, schools, family, political hierarchies, hospitals and the government. Scholars have
emphasized the academic study of religion in schools, colleges and university (Brown, 2015).
Moreover, religion has marked its print in the field of law, with several scholars
involved in the school of law and the departments of academics including history and
political science. Paganism as well as other religions had always produced a perversion and
parody of the God’s original declaration to the man. It helped in retaining the basic elements
of the truth and twists them to the practical falsehood. Divine sovereignty became fatalism
and grace became indulgence. In addition to this, righteousness became conformity to the
arbitrary rules and worship became empty ritual (Brown, 2015). Furthermore, the worship
became empty ritual and the prayer became selfish begging, also the supernatural
degenerated to superstition. Religion beliefs are not static; it changes from time to time.
Devotees are committed to a particular religion and are opposed to change. Religious scholars
have argued that the study of religion will help individuals to gain knowledge which is useful
for inter personal as well as professional contexts in this increasingly modern world
(Robertson, 2014).
The light of the God is fully clouded by several fanciful legends and the downright
falsehood. The New Testament mentions that it is significant when Christ, who saved the
world and sent his disciples to earth in order to proclaim gospel and there was a “world
speech”. The confusion of the beliefs and values left people wonder the maze of several
uncertainties. According to some people, the expedience became very domination for the
life’s philosophy, as there could be no certainty and there could be no principles to guide the
conduct (Hagner, 2012). If there does not exist any permanent principles for guiding the
conduct, one may live by the advantage of that particular moment. However, doubtfulness
still prevailed for old gods, who had lost all of their powers and new gods did not appear. A

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number of novel cults started invading the empire, at each and every quarter, which became
fads for the rich people and refugee for desperate poor. People started losing the joyous sense
and the destiny made their lives worthwhile (Kennedy, 2014).
The composition and arrangement of the New Testament are being discussed in this
segment of the essay. The New Testament comprises twenty seven books in total, written by
various authors. On the basis of the literary characteristics, the books are being classified into
a total of three major groups. They are the historical, that is, five books which includes the
Gospels and the acts; the second one is the epistolary, that is, twenty one books which
includes the Romans all through Jude and the third one is the prophetical, that is, one book
which includes revelation. The books illustrate the focus and division of the threefold
classification of all the subjects in the New Testament. The Historical book tells the whole
story of the coming and savior of the person as well as his works. It proclaims the savior’s
messages that came. The Epistolary book contained letters to the churches as well as the
individuals and Roman people through Jude. It developed the full significance of person as
well as the Christ’s work and how it should affect the Christianity’s walk throughout the
world. The third book is the Prophetical book which mentions about the apocalypse of Lord
Jesus Christ. It anticipated the end time of the events and also the return of Lord himself,
along with his end time rule and the eternal state of power (Hagner, 2012).
To conclude, firstly, the Gospel came which recorded the Christ’s life and then it gave
the history of spreading the Christianity. Then the letters came, which showed the
development of several doctrines regarding the church, along with the problems. Finally,
vision of Christ’s second coming in the revelation. However, several scholars of the Bible
differed on exact date of the New Testament books which were written. However, there
doesn’t exist any original copy of the writings which contains the survival of the New
Testament. There are more than four thousand five hundred Greek manuscripts, eight

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thousand Latin manuscripts and at least one thousand other versions to which the books were
being translated. Careful comparison and study of these copies has already given a
trustworthy and accurate New Testament.

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References
Brown, R. E. (2015). An introduction to the New Testament. Yale University Press.
Hagner, D. A. (2012). The New Testament: A historical and theological introduction. Baker
Books.
Harris, S. (2014). The New Testament. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Kennedy, G. A. (2014). New Testament interpretation through rhetorical criticism. UNC
Press Books.
Moyise, S. (2015). The Old Testament in the New: An Introduction:: Revised and Expanded.
Bloomsbury Publishing.
Porter, S. E. (2012). Verbal aspect in the Greek of the New Testament. Peter Lang
International Academic Publishers.
Robertson, A. T. (2014). A grammar of the Greek New Testament in the light of historical
research. Ravenio Books.
Robertson, A. T. (2015). An introduction to the textual criticism of the New Testament. Wipf
and Stock Publishers.