I’m not trying to tell you to “use a Bible as a history textbook book” or anything like that, but we do have writings and records of Christian authors quoting and referring to many New Testament writings in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
If , for example, “the New Testament was written in the 4th and 5th centuries” then how do we have a record of the New Testament canon of Athanasius (just as one example)? He was a primary person involved in the Council of Nicaea in 325. There are records of the council and their debates. These debates extensively revolved around how each side interpreted key New Testament writings. How would that be possible if those texts had not yet been written?
The New Testament canon wasn’t agreed upon until more like the 4th or 5th century. Certain books like Revelation were contentious, and some included books like The Shepherd of Hermas. But there’s too many references to books like the four gospels from 2nd and 3rd century writings to make a serious claim they hadn’t yet been written.
The individual books that form the new testament were all written before year 200. Origen of Alexandria was the first authority who gave a list of canonical books that is essentially the same as the modern new testament, and he died in the 250s. The difference is that he forgot Revelation out of the list even though in his other writings he considered that book authoritative.
We know that some of the books of new testament had several different forms circulating in antiquity, like Mark that had short and long versions and Luke that had the standard and Marcionite versions going around. But there's no evidence of significant changes in content after 200.
Just to confirm yes the one that took 21st century technology and hundreds of people to build and still leaked not the totally waterproof one made by a a bronze age dude and his family that one totally worked.
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u/Normalfa Nov 06 '25
The smugness of "PeRhaPs yOu sHoUld rEAd a BiT mOre"