Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-08-11
THE BIBLE.
HISTORY OF TIE FORMATION OF THE
SCRIPTURES.

SCRIPTURES.
1t may help to an understanding of the
work involved iu revising tho accepted
text of the New Testament, says the Phila
delphia Times, to recall tho circumstances
under which this collection of saclcd writ.
ings had its origin. The history Of the
formation Of what is technically known as
tho canon of the New Tcstamcnt-tl.at is
tho collection of those writings that were
accepted US Of divine authority and the
separation from them of other writings
even contcmporanoous, that were not &C
ceptcd-bearS some points of resemblance
to tho org aud gradual growth of The
Old Testament canon. This, it will be
remembered, was process extending over
centuries. After the return of the Jews
FROM captivity, ono of the frs. cares Of
Ezra and his associates was to collect edit
and transcribe, if not to translatc, the
Books Of Noses called in Hebrew, Tora,
landmark-known to Us as the ponta
touch, or, from tho Greek title arterwarl
given them, "the Law" After that an
effort was made to gather together the "a.
rlous prophetic books, "lhe writings
of tho saints" and in the course of time
there was gradually formed the second part
of the canon, which is referred TO in the
New Testament as "tho Prophets" FL
nally there wero collected from the re-
naming body of Hebrew ltcrture, 5oth
ancient and recent, variety of sacred
writings or "Hagiographa," some of them
used in tho temple service, some handed
down by popupar tradition, and some cyi-
IDENTIFY compiled from various sources to
complete the historic record This group,
which took its popular title from The lead,
ing division, "the Psalms," was not closed
until long after the Law and the Prophets.
These were tho three separate collections SO
often referred TO by the sacred writer's. Tho
dates of tho different books thus gathered
together cover period of at least 1000
years, and there is no doubt that they were
originally written in q great variety of
dialects aud characters. As finally tran
scribcd aud edited, however, they formed
tho sacred canon Of the Jewish Church, in
somewhat different order, but substantially
as VIC have them in our Bibles to-day. The
whole of these sacred writings was traus-
lated into Greek, at Alexandria, by order
OF Ptolcmy Philadclphus, by seycnty-two
learned men assembled for the purpose and
this version of "tho seventy" or the Sep
tuaglnt, was the version that was familiar
at tho beginning Of our era and that is
commonly quoted in the New Testament.
Tho history of the New Testament docs
net extend over any such long period, but
within its narrower limits tho process was
not dissjmilar. The earliest Of the Christian
writings is supposed to have been the first
general epstle of St. Peter, which was some
sixteen years after the formation of the
Christian Church. After this St. Paul
wrote his letter to the Galatons, those
to the Thcssaloniaus and like messages
to other churches that had been establsed
through lis preaching. Naturally these
letters were highly priced, aud no doubt
were handed about and copied, and as tho
number of them increased the churches in
deterrent cities would take pains to secure
copies for their own use. 1t vas not until
those who had been tho personal com mpanions
OF the Lord on Garth wero growing old and
felt it would be we'll to leave permanent
record of what they had seen and heard,
that ST. Mathew and ST. Mark we're moved
to write the Gospel narratives that 80 by their
names. St. Luke wrote his Gospel and his
history Of the Acts of tho Apostles little
later, st. Paul having meanwhile added to
the number of his epstlcs, and the several
writings Of St. Jonp, tho last survivor of
the Apostles, we're written last of all, the
date assigned to his Gospel being near
the end of the first century of our era.
There is no record of tho manner 10 which
these various writings were circulated, but
that they wcro very commonly circulated is
ovidont in many ways. ST. Peter, for exs
ample, alades to tho cpistlcs of ST. Paul
as though they wcro known to his readers
and St. John plainly wrote his Gospel as a
supplement to tho others. In the writings
Of the early Fathers VIC begin to meet with
references to tho Gospel and to the apos-.
toIio discourses, and by tho middle of the
third century VIC hear Of tho New Tcs,a.
mcnt as collective body of sacred writings
to bo named beside the Old.
Still there was no authoritvo action like
that by which tho Great Synagogue had
accepted or rejected and made up tho Ho.