The Goldsboro star. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1881-18??, 1881-09-17
THE BIBLE.
History of the Formation Of the Scripture.

tion OF sacred writings had its origin.
The history of the formation of what is
technically known as the canon of the
New Testament-that is, the collection
of those writings that were accepted as
of divine authority and the separation
from them of other writings, even con-
temporaneous, that were not accepted
bears some points Of resemblance to the
long and gradual growth of the Old
Testament canon. This, it will be re-
membered, was process extending
over centuries. After the return of the
Jews from captivity, one of the first
cares of Ezra and his associates was to
collect, edit and transcribe, if not to
translate, the Books of Moses called
in Hebrew, fora, o landmark known to
us as the Pentateuch, or, from the Greek
title afterward given them, "the Law"
After that an effort was made to gather
together the various prophetic books,
"the writings of the saints" and in the
course of time there was gradually
formed the second part Of the canon,
which is referred to in the New Testa-
ment as "the Prophets" Finally there
were collected from the remaining body
of Hebrew literature. both ancient and
recent, variety Of sacred writings or
Photographic" some of them used
in the Temple service, some handed
down by popular tradition, and some
evidently compiled from various sources
to complete the historic record. This
group, which took it's popular title from
the leading division, "the Psalms" was
not closed until long after the Law and
the Prophets. These were the three
separate collections so often referred to
by the sacred writers. The dates of the
different books thus gathered together
cover period of at least 1000 years,
and there is no doubt that they were
originally written in great variety of
dialects and characters. As finally
transcribed and edited, however, they
formed the sacred canon of the Jewish
Church, in somewhat different order
but substantially as we have them in our
Bibles to-day. The whole of these
sacred writings was translated into
Greek, at Alexandria, by order of ptol-
envy Philadelphus, by seventy-two
learned men assembled for the purpose,
and this version of "the seventy" or
the Septuagint, was the version that
was familiar at the beginning of our era
and that is commonly quoted in the New
Testament.
The history Of the New Testament
does not extend over any such long
period, but within it's narrower limits
the process was not dissimilar. The
earliest Of the Christian writings is sup
posed to have been the first general
epistle of st. Peter. which was written
some sixteen years after the formation
of the Christian Church. After this st.
Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians,
those to the Thessalonians, and like,
messages to other churches that had
been established through his preaching.
Naturally these letters were highly
priced, and no doubt they were handed
about and copied, and as the number OF
them increased the churches in different
cities would take pains to secure copies
for their own use. It was not until
those who had been the personal com
panions of our Lord on earth were
growing old, and felt that it would be
well to leave a permanent. record of
what they had seen and heard, that St.
Matthew and ST. Mark were moved to
write the Gospel narratives that go by
their names. st. Luke wrote his Gospel
and his history Of the Acts of the Apos.
ties a little later, st. Paul having
meanwhile added to the number of his
epistles, and the several writings of st.
John, the last survivor of the Apostles,
were written last of all, the date as
signed to his Gospel being near the end
of the first century of our era. There
is no record of the manner in which
these various writings were circulated,
but that they were very commonly cir
culated is evident in many ways. st.
Peter, for example, alludes to the
epistles of st. Paul as though they were
known to his readers, and ST. John
plainly wrote his Gospel as o supple
ment to the others. In the writings of
the early Fathers We begin to meet with
references to the Gospel and to the
apostolic discourses, and by the middle
OF the third century we hear of the New
Testament as collective body of sacred
writings to be named beside the Old.
Still there was no authoritative action
like that by which the Great Synagogue
had accepted or rejected and made up
the Hebrew canon. By gradual and
natural process the extant Christian
writings became divided into two classes
the "homologoumenoi," which the
universal tradition of all the churches
accepted as authentic, and "antilegom-
enoi,' which were accepted by some or
majority, but not by all. Among the
books which do not appear to have been
at first universally accepted were the
epistles of st. James and ST. Jude, the
later epistles of st. Peter and st. John,