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Advanced New Testament History Research Links
WARNING: This section is NOT for those people who are psychologically committed to a church which claims to have the "New Testament" as its foundation.
A common belief is that there was only one group of early followers of Christ, and they possessed a set of inspired documents which had been written before the end of the first century, mostly by Paul, Luke, James, Peter and John. If you hold these beliefs and do not wish to expand your knowledge of history, read no further, because historical records provide a very different picture of the first four centuries C.E.
These usually concealed facts do not imply that the ancient Greek scriptures are of no value. That would be throwing out the baby with the bath water. The Greek writings that form the "New Testament" are of great value and contain priceless information. However the reader ought to be aware that they are not entirely as they are promoted by adherents. There have been many alterations and insertions implemented over the centuries. Contradictions show they are not all inspired by faultless Divinity. History shows the ancient Greeks were accustomed to plagiarism and religious entrepreneurship. A basic message carried through the New Testament is "Beware of false prophets"!
Few seem to know that there were many other Gospels, Acts, Letters, and Apocalypses each of which was in circulation and treasured by some of the many separate diverse groups who considered themselves to be followers of Christ -- a Jew who lived in a foreign land a long time ago and had not even been seen by most Greeks at the time. Some of these early groups became quite large in their time. Most of their documents survive to the present, but not the churches. The persecutions arising around 300 CE eliminated many and only those with strong political connections were able to resist. After the Edict of Toleration by Galerius in 311 and the Edict of Milan in 313, the survivors of the Diocletianic Persecution emerged, each group with their own favourite documents, and there were disputes as to which sets of documents should be followed. A list of many of the known Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and other documents circulating at that time is presented below.
In the following decades, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria eventually wrote a Festal letter to his flock in which he listed an approved subset of documents. Slowly, his list was adopted by others (and sometimes unadopted and later readopted) and is now known as the "New Testament".
Some of the historical evidence is presented in the following books. - "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament" By Bart D. Ehrman Oxford University Press (C) 1993.
"Victors not only write history: they also reproduce the texts. Bart Ehrman explores the close relationship between the social history of early Christianity and the textual tradition of the emerging New Testament, examining how early struggles between Christian "heresy" and "orthodoxy" affected the transmission of the documents over which many of the debates were waged. He makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the social and intellectual history of early Christianity and raises intriguing questions about the relationship of readers to their texts, especially in an age when scribes could transform the documents they reproduced. This edition includes a new afterword surveying research in biblical interpretation over the past twenty years." - "Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew" By Bart D. Ehrman Oxford University Press (C) 2005
"The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fascinating look at these early forms of Christianity and shows how they came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Modern archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, and as Ehrman shows, these spectacular discoveries reveal religious diversity that says much about the ways in which history gets written by the winners. Ehrman's discussion ranges from considerations of various "lost scriptures" - including forged gospels supposedly written by Simon Peter, Jesus's closest disciple, and Judas Thomas, Jesus's alleged twin brother - to the disparate beliefs of such groups as the Jewish-Christian Ebionites, the anti-Jewish Marcionites, and various "Gnostic" sects. Ehrman examines in depth the battles that raged between "proto-orthodox Christians" - those who eventually compiled the canonical books of the New Testament and standardized Christian belief - and the groups they denounced as heretics and ultimately overcame. Scrupulously researched and lucidly written, Lost Christianities is an eye-opening account of politics, power, and the clash of ideas among Christians in the decades before one group came to see its views prevail." - "Lost Scriptures: Books that did not make it into the New Testament"By Bart D. Ehrman Oxford University Press (C) 2003
"While most people think that the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are the only sacred writings of the early Christians, this is not at all the case. A companion volume to Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities, this book offers an anthology of up-to-date and readable translations of many non-canonical writings from the first centuries after Christ -- texts that have been for the most part lost or neglected for almost two millennia. Here is an array of remarkably varied writings from early Christian groups whose visions of Jesus differ dramatically from our contemporary understanding. Readers will find Gospels supposedly authored by the apostle Philip, James the brother of Jesus, Mary Magdalen, and others. There are Acts originally ascribed to John and to Thecla, Paul's female companion; there are Epistles allegedly written by Paul to the Roman philosopher Seneca. And there is an apocalypse by Simon Peter that offers a guided tour of the afterlife, both the glorious ecstasies of the saints and the horrendous torments of the damned, and an Epistle by Titus, a companion of Paul, which argues page after page against sexual love, even within marriage, on the grounds that physical intimacy leads to damnation. In all, the anthology includes fifteen Gospels, five non-canonical Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles, a number of Apocalypses and Secret Books, and several Canon lists. Ehrman has included a general introduction, plus brief introductions to each piece. This important anthology gives readers a vivid picture of the range of beliefs that battled each other in the first centuries of the Christian era." - "Misquoting Jesus" By Bart D. Ehrman
"For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes." ... "In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra-conservative views of the Bible." - AD 381 by Charles Freeman.
"In AD 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree in which all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy and brought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of the Godhead; all other interpretations were now declared heretical. " (i.e. punishable by death and confiscation of all property).
Very illuminating account of history leading up to the decree by Spaniard Theodosius that the hotly disputed doctrine of the Trinity must be accepted or else. Historical records of shameful and murderous intolerance of the Church of Rome at that time. A stark contrast with Christian folklore about early Christianity.
Some of the Other NT Era Early Writings Not Adopted in the Vatican's "New Testament"
- Gospel of the Ebionites,
- Gospel of the Egyptians,
- Gospel of the Essenes,
- Gospel Accoding to the Hebrews,
- Gospel of Mary,
- Gospel of the Nazareans,
- Gospel of Nicodemus,
- Gospel of Peter,
- Gospel of Philip,
- Gospel of the Savior,
- Gospel of Thomas (Coptic),
- Gospel of Thomas (Jesus as a child),
- Gospel of Truth,
- Proto-Gospel of James,
- Secret Gospel of Mark
- Acts of John,
- Acts of Paul,
- Acts of Peter,
- Acts of Pilate
- Acts of Paul and Thecla
- Acts of Thomas ,
- Epistle of the Apostles,
- Epistle of Barnabas,
- Letter to the Laodiceans,
- Letter of Peter to James and its Reception,
- Letter of Ptolemy to Flora,
- Clement 1,
- Clement 2,
- Third Epistle to the Corinthians,
- Correspondence of Paul and Seneca, Didache,
- First Thought in Three Forms,
- Hymn of the Pearl,
- Origin of the World,
- Preaching of Peter,
- Pseudo-Clementine Literature,
- Pseudo-Titus,
- Second Treatise of the Great Seth,
- Secret Book of John,
- Shepherd of Hermas,
- Treatise on the Resurrection
Written by Selwyn Russell. Copyright Selwyn Russell 2005 - 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022.
Latest update: February 2022
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