Customer Reviews

The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text & Canon

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book offers some good information for considering different aspects about the new testament literature. However, I'd recommend "Fortress Introduction to the Gospels" by Mark Allan Powell as a place to start, rather than this book.

Patzia sometimes makes incredible statements of fact, which in reality are points of debate among scholars. For example, in one half sentence, Patzia declares (with no backing) that the Gospel of John was written in Ephesus in the late 1st Century. Contrast that with Powell's two page discussion of the when and where questions of that same gospel.

Basically, there is not enough discussion of the reasoning of the scholars on particular points. In one odd twist, the Patzia states that the authorship of some of Paul's letters is questioned. This includes, among others, 2 Thessalonians. A couple of pages later, though, he makes the statement that "Paul himself" gives (in 2 Thessalonians) an explanation about how to tell that the letter is authentic. Of course, if Paul didn't write 2 Thessalonians, then the explanation is bogus, a point that Patzia seems to miss.

I have to admit that I was surprised that the book didn't contain more information about the decision making process for what was considered canon. This work only gives the Council of Carthage of 397 brief treatment.

The book does contain some valuable information, but it wouldn't be my first choice. It's too bad the author (or editor) didn't spend a little extra time refining the material.

Have you ever been asked by someone "How did the New Testament get put together?" or "how did they choose the books for the New Testament?" What would you say if someone did ask you? While such questions can be red herrings, for some people the origin and process of HOW the New Testament came together and when it was regarded as `scripture' or God's word, is very important. Sadly, many Christians either do not know HOW the books of the New Testament came together, or what they do know is incorrect. It is vital for Christians to know and understand how this process happened, not just in order to answer questions, or to tackle the increasing attacks upon the reliability of the New Testament, but more importantly, so that our faith can be strong in knowing the New Testament as God's word.

Arthur Patzia has done a wonderful job in "The Making Of The New Testament'. Despite being a reasonable 280 plus pages, he has packed a lot information into this book, covering everything from the making of the Gospels to what they used to write with, and what they wrote on!

While this does have the feel of a theological `text book', don't let that put you off. This book is for both the theological student and the Church layperson. It provides you with a wealth of information and understanding about the practical aspect of the gathering of the New Testament and it will be both interesting and immensely beneficial to read. A great introductory text!

Highly recommended.

The Making of The New Testament, by Arthur G. Patzia, is a concise and interesting entry level text that introduces the reader to the origin, collection, canonization, and transmission of the New Testament.
Patzia begins by helping the reader to see the world in which the early church existed. He introduces us to the Hebrew Scriptures, the Septuagint, the apocryphal writings, the OT pseudapigrapha, the Dead Sea scrolls, as well as Greco-Roman literature. This sounds like a large amount of info, but it is written in a manner that makes it accessible to all. It is a helpful background to have, however, to see the world into which the NT came.
In part two, the author presents to us the gospels. The reader will find an overview of oral tradition, the transition from oral tradition to written gospels, why and how the gospels were written, a brief overview of the synoptic problem, source criticism and redaction criticism. While I felt that this chapter was not the strongest in the book due to the focus on Markan priority that seems to accept the theories of the day instead of dealing with the history found in the Apostolic Fathers, the author does take the time to give us a view of how the early church fathers viewed the Scriptures. He also shows us a bit of how the gospels became accepted as canonical.
Parts three and four deal with the rest of the NT books. There is much here to interest the reader, as we not only find an introduction to the various books, but we are introduced to them in their historical, societal, and religious contexts. We also are given a view of the acceptance of the various books and how they came to be considered canonical books.
Part five is among the stronger sections of the book, as it deals with the criteria of canonicity. It is brief, yet gives us an introduction to the subject that will help the reader understand the background of his NT.
Parts six and seven were the parts that I found most interesting. In these sections we study the writing, copying, and transmission of the NT manuscripts as well as an introduction to textual variants and textual criticism. The author does well in introducing us to the writing materials that were used in the production of the NT. We are also introduced to the various styles of writing that were used in the copying and transmission of the NT. It is here that we begin to see why textual variants exist. They do not exist simply because of some widespread conspiracy to corrupt the text, but because of the imperfections of men. Never the less, textual criticism shows us that we have essentially the same NT as the early church possessed: it has not been lost, but has been preserved for us.
Five appendices also add some info concerning various leaders in the early church, the canon of the OT, various lists of the NT canon, and a list of early NT manuscriptus. There is also a glossary included to help the reader.
This book will serve to be a good introduction to the NT text. Though I wish that the author took a much more conservative stance toward the dating of the gospels (though he is by no means extremely far off) and the Synoptic problem, I find this book to be one that should be extremely helpful to the beginning student of the NT. I would recommend its being used along with Lea/Black The New Testament Message for a comprehensive overview of the NT.

Christian Viewpoint: Bible is infallible and innerrant. Moses wrote the first four books, that the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote the gospels, that Paul wrote all the letters attributed to him, etc. etc. Essentially Christians supports the original findings of those who actually put the book together. Interestingly enough, the actual formation of the canon is never highlighted...very few Christians know of verbal traditions in the early church, Athanasius and Arius, and about the Councils of Nicea. You will never hear about the mistranslation of "virgin" and "young women". Books like Lightfoot's "How We Got the Bible" and Bruce's "The Canon of Scripture" are good examples of this viewpoint.

Scholarly Viewpoint: The Bible is like any other book, and can be understood using the same methods that other ancient texts are understood by. Using Textual Criticism and historical evidence, they speak of "J", "E", "P", and "D". They talk about the origins of Joshua and Kings, and show how more than one author wrote Daniel. This viewpoint is fascinating and is backed up by massive amounts of evidence. Indeed, it takes much faith to ignore the scholarly work on Scripture. Friedman's "Who Wrote the Bible" is a good book on this, as is "The Unauthorized Version".

I read this book along with many others as part of a "Bible Study", and it is one of the only books from a Christian [traditional protestant] viewpoint that did not assume Biblical innerancy and infallibility, and accepted textual and historical criticism. For this reason alone I'm giving it four stars.

It's very uncommon to find a "Popular" book that tries to reconcile these points of view, so for that reason alone people should read this book. As far as I can tell, if you're looking for books full of cold hard facts you should avoid the [apologetic] viewpoint altogether.

Innerancy and infallibility require LESS evidence to be believable. By this I mean, so much historical evidence and textual criticism makes it obvious that these beliefs are incorrect; and faith is lost. Patzia obviously disagrees, and sees no problem between historical truth and Christian faith.

Actually, I rather enjoyed the book. It didn't look as though Patzia is so concerned with making a strong position as he is with expressing a summary and the different positions on the topics he covers. The glossary looked helpful and I really appreciated the extensive end notes and annotated bibliographies included in them. I thought there was a lot of good information here for someone wanting an introduction to the issues.

I spoke to the author of this book. He wrote it after years of teaching by gathering up the FAQs from students. If you are a person who has questions about the New Testament, this is a great and accurate tool.

Good for students, pastors, and seekers of information. It is not a biased text, which makes it more trustworthy.

This book is an insightful look into the compilation of the New Testament text. It is a good read for anyone considering Christian ministry. Additionally, it will answer many questions brought up by non-Christian scholars concerning the Word of God.