We saw last month that the New Testament was finished before the close of the first century. We can see from the last epistles that even before the death of the apostles the church had lost her first love, and a time of decline had set in. It is evident that there was no one in the church great enough or devoted enough to carry on the work of the apostles. Individuals there were, and many of them who were willing to seal their confession with their blood, but there was no one with a grasp of the truth, or spiritual discernment and power, which was able to turn back the tide of error which was slowly creeping over the church.
Some writings of that early time have come down to us. The most important are as follows: The two epistles of Clement, Bishop of Rome, about A. D. 95.
The epistles of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, written on the way to his martyrdom in Rome about A. D. 107.
An Epistle of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, also about A. D. 107.
A letter of Barnabas.
A curious allegory called “The Shepherd,” written about the beginning of the 2nd century.
All these writings, though coming so soon after the New Testament, are immeasureably inferior. They show in a wonderful way the difference between an inspired writing and the mere work of man.
The later writers, Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp, and others, of course do not pretend to claim inspiration. Their epistles are full of quotations and allusions from the Old and New Testaments, and they speak most humbly of the difference between their position and that of the apostles.
We must remember the difficulties of the Christians of that age. The writings of the New Testament had not been collected, though they were known individually by assemblies scattered all over the world. Although their authors wrote by the inspiration of God, yet not all the epistles definitely state that they are inspired, and probably there were other epistles by equally holy men which have been lost, and no doubt were permitted so by God because they were not inspired. “He that is of God heareth God’s words.” John 8:4747He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (John 8:47). May we not say that the guidance of the Holy Spirit was needed to discern, and acknowledge the inspired writings, just as it was needed to write the words?
But just as the New Testament was written spontaneously, without concerted action, “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” so during a century it was gradually being received, acknowledged, and collected into a whole. During those days, sometimes some books which we accept as inspired were not so accepted by individual assemblies, and on the other hand, they sometimes received books which we regard as apocryphal. But at last, at the end of the second century, the judgment of the church was almost unanimous in accepting the Bible as we have it.
This is shown by two translations of the whole Bible which appeared almost at the same time, a Latin one in the west, and a Syriac one in the east.
The Syriac version, known as the Peshito, that is, simple or literal version, is the oldest. Nothing is known of its translator, but it was in use among the assemblies of Syria early in the second century, and manuscripts of it are still in existence.
The Old Testament of the Peshito was taken directly from the Hebrew, and therefore its contents are the same as ours. The New Testament contains the four gospels, the Acts, the 14 epistles of Paul, including the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistles of James, 1 Peter, 1 John.
The remaining Epistles, that is, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Revelations were translated and added later on.
The Old Latin version of the Bible, known as the Old Vulgate, was made in Africa about the middle of the second century. The Old Testament was a translation of the Septuagint, which it will be remembered was a Greek translation of the Old Testament made in Egypt about the middle of the third century. It therefore contained the books of the Apocrypha which had been included with the Septuagint.
The New Testament lacked, at first, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Epistles of James and 2 Peter. This old Latin version of the Bible was the one habitually used by Tertullian. It is worth while quoting some of his words on the authority of the Bible which he regards as one “Divine Instrument.” (that is, record). He appeals to the historic tradition of the churches to show the authenticity of the apostolic writings. “The Epistles of Paul have been preserved in the churches which he founded; so too the four gospels have been handed down to us in due succession on the authority of the Apostolic churches.”
(To be continued).