The Formation of the Christian Bible

The Codices Vaticanus, Sinaiticus (both from the 4th century) and Alexandrinus (5th century) are the oldest known complete extant copies of the New Testament. Most modern translations of the Bible depend on one or all three of these versions, which do differ substantially in certain areas. The Codex Sinaiticus, one of the oldest existing bound books in history, is available for viewing online.

The Bible itself is divided into two sections, namely the Old and New Testament. The dividing point between these two halves is the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Most of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and most of the New Testament was written in Koine Greek.

The Old Testament is the sum of the Tanakh and (depending on your denomination) a group of deutrocanonical books. Most Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox traditions include several such texts. Common to all traditions are the books of Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and some additions to the books of Baruch, Daniel and Esther. Orthodox traditions also recognize the books 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees (though only as an appendix note), the Prayer of Manasseh and add Psalm 151. Various Orthodox traditions include even more than these. For instance, the current ‘narrow’ Ethiopian Bible has 81 books, adding the books of Enoch, Jubilees, and the three books of the Meqabyan to the already sizable Orthodox canon. The ‘broad’ Ethiopian Bible, which has not been in print for over 100 years, was even larger.

The New Testament took shape quickly. Early on it was clear that the core of the New Testament would involve The Tetramorph (Greek tetra, meaning ‘four’, and morph, meaning ‘shape’). This term refers to the Gospels of the Four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The writings of Irenaeus, a 2nd century Christian theologian, confirm this. Many of the epistles were also in the early New Testament. Particularly important were the Pauline epistles, which are considered by scholars to be the earliest works (dated by time of authorship) included in the New Testament.