The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1881-09-09
THE BIBLE.


cepted text OF the New Testament, SAVE
the Philadelphia Times, to recall the
circumstances under which this collec.
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 we're not accepted
bears some points OF resemblance to the
long and gradual growth Of the Old
Testament canon. This, il will be re.
membered, was a 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, Tora, a landmark-known to
us as the Pentateuch. or. from the Greek
title afterward given them, "the Law"
Alter 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, a variety of sacred writings or
Hagiographa, 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 its popular title from
the leading division, ''the Palms." 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-
emy 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 its narrower limits
the process was not dissimilar. Tho
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 tllis 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. 1t 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 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 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 tho
epistles of st. Paul as though they wero
known to his readers, and st. John
plainly wrote his Gospel as 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 a 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 We're accepted by some or
a 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,
the epistle to the Hebrews and the Apo
calypso, while some of the churches re-
ceived as authoritative the epistles OF
Barnabas and Clement, the Shepherd
of Hermas and some other books that
were afterward discarded. Tie promi.
nence given to the Christian writings
in the persecution of Diocletian shows
what importance they had then as
sumed, and it was during this PERIOD
no doubt, that the greatest efforts were
made for their preservation. Long be.
fore the first General Council of Nicea
which formulated the Catholic creed OF
IL g Trinity, the Holy Gospels had been
held in the utmost veneration, alike in
private devotions and in the divine ser
vice, but as to the apostolic writings the
canon had not been finally determined
even at that time, and it was not until
the third council Of Carthage, in the
year 397-which was not one of the
great councils-that the last of the
books of the New Testament as we now
have it, reduced to the generally-ac-
cepted writings of the Apostles them
selves, was first set forth complete by
what may be called official authority.
This was the period of st. jerome, one
of he greatest Biblical scholars of that
or any time, who, partly by original
translation and partly by revision and
comparison of the various partial trans
lations already existing-for by thin
| fima t,OrfiOpo &c fba L. 49,