• The Old Testament was written between roughly 1500 B.C and 425 B.C.
  • The New Testament was written between roughly 4 A.D. and 90 A.D.
  • Asceticism - abstaining from physical pleasures in pursuance of spiritual goals. See Colossians 2:18-23.
  • Gnosticism - belief that matter is evil and spirit is good. Gnostics believed they had special knowledge that allowed them to be good. See I John 4:1-6
  • Docetism - belief that the body of Christ seemed real, but was an illusion.
  • Pseudepigrapha - Greek for “falsely attributed.” There were many books in the First Century that were falsely attributed to trusted authors.
  • I Timothy 5:18 as “Scripture.”
    • II Peter 3:15-16 - Peter refers to Paul’s letters as “Scripture.”
  • Origen of Alexandria
  • By the 4th Century A.D., the canon of the New Testament is firmly set.
  • We have over 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament in Greek. The next closest writings are the Iliad and Odyssey. There are about 643 manuscripts of the Odyssey.
  • Uncial - A form of manuscript written in all capital letters with no spaces or punctuation. This form was used to aid in checking for errors in the text because all the letters would always line up.
  • Cursive - A form of manuscript written in standard form with spaces and punctuation.