RELI 104 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Last Lecture I No notes from previous lecture Outline of Current Lecture II The leading questions III The layout of the New Testament IV Some books that didn t get included a The Infancy Gospel of Thomas b The Epistle of Barnabas c The Apocalypse of Peter V The process a Creation b Circulation c Collection d Canonization e The Criteria Applied VI Significance of the New Testament Canon as a Collection a Individual books b Historical context Current Lecture II The leading questions What other early Christian books were written other books written at the same time Why were some accepted as scripture and others not Who made these decisions Who decided which books would be in the NT and which ones wouldn t be On what grounds did they make them what was there basis on deciding which books to include When did they make them When did we first get a canon of scripture III The layout of the New Testament NT is in four sections These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute first gospels 4 books Mathew Mark Luke and John Four books described the beginnings of Christianity Talk about the life death and reserection of Jesus Only books that tell the stories Where you get info about jesus Beginning of NT and Christianity Acts The spread of Christianity 1book How did Christianity spread after jesus s death Narrates how the early church converted people to be followers of jesus Spread of Christianity Epistles Letters that Christian readers wrote the beliefs and ethics of Christianity 21 books don t tell stories don t talk about spread written to talk about what Christians should believe and how they should behave 13 of these are Pauline Epistles books claim to be written by paul 8 General epistles Catholic universal general dealing with general problems Revelation The Culmination of Christianity 1 book blueprint is what is going to happen in the future about what happens at the end of time IV Some books that didn t get included many that didn t get included most of them are written after the NT NT books are our earliest books NT is not arranged chronologically Not that first books to be written are first in NT Earliest writings we have are the letters of Paul 49 62 ce Jesus died 30 boce Gospels are written later 6595 ce Last books to be written is the book of second peter 120 ce POINT don t have a lot of books that were written in this time frame but we know that there were books that were written at this time and not included the infancy Gospel of Thomas called infancy gospel because its about jesus s life as a young boy Infancy means child Tells stories about jesus as a youngster really interesting Question that s driving this book is if jesus was a miracle working son of god as an adult what was he like as a kid o Stories begin when he was a five year old very different than what you find in NT o Starts out telling a story of jesus playing by a stream and gathers water into a pool but the water is all muddy but he wants it to be clear He orders it to be clear and it clarifies immediately He makes 12 sparrows out of the mud does this on the Sabbath day not supposed to work on a Sabbath not supposed to make something man walks by and tells Joesph that his son is by stream and breaking the sabath Joseph goes and tells Jesus that he has broken the Sabbath He claps his hand and tells the birds to be gone and they fly away He gets out of the problem and shows he is the son of god Jesus zaps a kid because he gets on his nerves o Jesus is walking thru the town and a kid runs up and bumps him on the shoulder The boy falls down dead Jesus has all the powers that would be god b c he is the son of god Father decides that he needs to get an education Sends him to a teacher that is going to teach him to read Greek and Hebrew Jesus wont repeat after the teacher Jesus says that you think you re a teacher Teacher smacks Jesus Jesus withers him on the spot Ends with jesus as a 12 year old o Hard to know if the person who wrote this was serious or not o Gospel floating around in early Christianity The Epistle of Barnabas o Glad that it didn t make it in o Thought to have been written by one of Pauls companions help him with missionary work o One companion was Barnabas this letter is thought to be written by Barnabas but many people don t think this o Glad it didn t make it in because it is really anti jewish Some people think that Christianity is anti jewish o Major thesis The Jews rejected god so god has rejected them Jewish people are no longer the people of god the followers of Jesus are the people of god o Shows from the very beginning that Jews rejected god and god rejected them so that moses broke the covenant of god as soon as he god it so god took them away from them o They broke the Covenant and the law literally and so never did understand it They misunderstood because they thought when god gave them the laws to moses they took them literally and they weren t supposed to o They mistook the Law as a literal guide According to barnabas when god says don t eat pork you can eat pork but you shouldn t behave like a pig Don t make a lot of noise when you are need but when things are going well don t pray at all That s what it means to not eat pork Jews misunderstood Law says shouldn t eat the hyena Hyena changes its sex every year one year male next year female Don t be like that don t commit sexual immorality Observe the Sabbath God didn t mean it literally God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day he rested A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day So when he creates the world in 6 days he creates it in 7th days After 6 000 years there will be 1 000 years of paradise The Apocalypse of Peter o Apocalypse revealing or an unveiling also means revalation o Almost made it into the NT Church fathers thought it belonged in the NT o Apocalypse of john talks about what is going to happen at the end of time apocalypse of peter talks about what happens when you die o Says that you either go to heaven or hell First book where someone is given a guided tour of …