The Christian Canon is formed by twenty-seven writings known as the New Testament. The Christian Bible combines the Old Testament (the Jewish Tanakh) with the New Testament into a single volume. These twenty-seven writings are:
- Four Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John): Out of the four canonical books that narrate the “Good News” (meaning of the word “Gospel”) brought by Jesus Christ, the first three have such similarities that they can be put side by side and encompassed “in a single glance.” Hence their name “Synoptic Gospels.” Only the Gospel of John presents distinctive features that clearly distinguish it from the synoptic Gospels.
- The Acts of the Apostles: The third Gospel and the book of Acts were composed as integral parts of a single work, which today we would call the “History of the Origins of Christianity.” The two works were separated when Christians desired to have the four Gospels in a single codex. The tradition of the Church agrees in identifying the author of both works as Saint Luke. Perhaps the title “Acts of the Apostles” was given to it at some point following the fashion of Hellenistic literature, which knew of the “Acts of Hannibal,” the “Acts of Alexander,” and so on.
- Fourteen Letters of Paul (of Tarsus): Epistle to the Romans, First Epistle to the Corinthians, Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Epistle to the Galatians, Epistle to the Ephesians, Epistle to the Philippians, Epistle to the Colossians, First Epistle to the Thessalonians, Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, First Epistle to Timothy, Second Epistle to Timothy, Epistle to Titus, Epistle to Philemon, and Epistle to the Hebrews.
- One Letter of James: Epistle of James.
- Two Letters of Peter: First Epistle of Peter and Second Epistle of Peter.
- Three Letters of John: First Epistle of John, Second Epistle of John, and Third Epistle of John.
- One Letter of Jude: Epistle of Jude.
The seven non-Pauline epistles of the New Testament were, for this reason, soon collected into a single collection, despite their diverse origins: one from James, two from Peter, three from John, and one from Jude. Their ancient title of “Catholic Epistles” undoubtedly derives from the fact that most of them are not addressed to specific communities or individuals but rather to Christians in general.
- The Book of Revelation: The word “Revelation” is a transcription of a Greek term that means “unveiling” or “revelation.” Every apocalypse, therefore, implies a revelation made by God to humankind of hidden things known only to Him, especially regarding the future. It is difficult to precisely distinguish the boundaries between the apocalyptic genre and the prophetic genre, which in a certain way is an extension of it. However, while the ancient prophets listened to divine revelations and transmitted them orally, the author of an apocalypse receives revelations in the form of visions, which he records in a book. Moreover, these visions have value not in and of themselves but in the symbolism they contain. In an apocalypse, almost everything has symbolic value: numbers, things, parts of the body, and even the characters that appear on the scene. When the seer describes a vision, he translates the ideas suggested to him by God into symbols, accumulating things, symbolic colors, and numbers without concern for the incoherence of the effects obtained. Therefore, to understand him, one must grasp his methods and retranslate the symbols he proposes back into ideas, lest the meaning of his message be distorted.
The New Testament has only maintained one apocalypse in its canon, which is attributed to an author who calls himself John and is identified with the apostle John, the author of the fourth Gospel. Whether both characters are the same person or not, it is considered certain that it was written by someone from the apostle’s circle and influenced by his teachings.
Source: Shiva Shambho
Books on The Christian Canon
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