It takes more than 200 years to complete the whole New Testament canonization.
Our Lord Jesus unfolded the New Testament. His teachings were oral without any written record. However, his words and actions were told over and over again by his followers and witnesses. Later they were written down as record. These written records became the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Gospels were first gathered as the N.T. canon. In the middle of the second century, many churches publicly taught from the writings of the Gospels. However, the Gospels were not the first biblical books in existence.
Actually Paul’s Epistles existed before the Gospels. Besides Paul’s Epistles, there are other apostles’ Epistles. Totally there are 21 of them. Other apostles’ Epistles are James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude and Hebrews.
By the end of the second century, the four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s Epistles and some of the other Epistles were already gathered as canon. This was essentially an embryonic version of the N.T. canon.
In the 3rd and 4th centuries, many church leaders testified that the N.T. canon of 27 books had already been completed. Yet traditionally, we say that the N.T. canon wasn’t completely formalized until 367 A.D.
Totally there are 27 books in the N.T. We usually separate them into 4 segments. They are
1. The Gospels (4)
2. Acts (1)
3. Epistles (21)
4. Revelation (1)
(1) 新約的匯集歷時多久?
a. 50至100年
b. 100 至200年
c. 超過200年
答案：C
(2) 主耶穌開展了新約。 他的教訓只是口述 ，他並沒有寫下來
作任何記錄。然而，他的跟隨者(見證人)按着所見所聞，把主耶穌的言行不斷述說、傳開，並漸漸記錄下來，成為聖經哪一卷書？
答案：馬太、馬可、路加、約翰福音。(四福音)
(3) 福音書是最先匯集成正典的書卷。在公元二世紀中期，教會巳公開朗讀福音書的內容。但其實最先面世的書卷並不是福音書。究竟是哪卷書？
a. 使徒行傳
b. 啟示錄
c. 保羅書信
答案：C
(4) 除了保羅書信外，還有其他使徒的書信，合共二十一卷。非保羅所寫的書信是哪些書？試舉一書。
答案：雅各書、彼得前後書、約翰一二三書、猶大書、希伯來書。
(5) 在二世紀末，四福音、使徒行傳、保羅書信及大部份其他使徒書信巳匯集成正典。新約正典的雛形巳成。
(6) 於第三、第四世紀期間，巳有不少教會領袖見證新約二十七卷書匯集成典，但傳統上一般都以公元367年，為新約正典匯集的正式完成日。
(7) 總括來說，新約共有27卷書，可分為哪四類？
1. 福音書(4)
2. ?(1)
3. 使徒書信 (21)
4. 啟示錄 (1)
答案：使徒行傳
