PREFACE My friend and fellow-editor has asked me to write a preface to his book. I think the book will speak for itself. I may say, however, that it is a very impartial outline of what is known as Introduction to the Books of New Testament Scripture. I think that in some instances the author has understated the case for the canonicity of a particular Book. It is characteristic of his fairness that he should anxiously avoid taking the place of a mere advocate. It seems to me that the perfect lucidity of his style and the fulness of his information will make this a valuable text-book. A. H. CHARTERIS. NOTE TO READER FOR a full statement of the External Evidences for the authorship of the several books, see Prof. Charteris' Canonicity, or Bishop Westcott's History of the New Testament Canon. Canon (from a Greek word meaning a measuring-rod) was a name applied to Scripture as the rule of faith. In the chapters on the Gospels no attempt is made to deal with the question of alleged recensions of original documents, as being of too technical and at the same time too conjectural a nature to call for treatment in a work of this kind. In Scripture References, when the name of the Book is not given, the citations refer to the Book under discussion. When Scripture is quoted, the words of the Revised Version are given. 5. "THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE" IO. "THE 9. "THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE "THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE 77-82 83-85 91-95 15. "THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE "THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO PHILEMON 95-98 THE NEW TESTAMENT AND ITS WRITERS ITS CHAPTER I THE NEW TESTAMENT TS Name.-The New Testament forms the second and concluding portion of the Revelation given to the world in the line of Jewish history. It derives its name from an expression used by the Lord Jesus Christ in the institution of the rite which was designed to commemorate His death-"This cup is the new testament in my blood"-more correctly, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (R. V.), in contrast with the old covenant made with Moses (Luke xxii. 20; Matt. xxvi. 28; 1 Cor. xi. 25; cf. Exod. xxiv. 8). The use of the word "testament" in this sense was due to the Latin testamentum, which was early adopted as an equivalent for the Greek word meaning "covenant." Its Language.-A period of about four hundred years had elapsed after the last of the Old Testament Scriptures was written before the New Testament was commenced. In the interval the Jewish people, spreading far and wide in the pursuit of arts and commerce, had become familiar with the Greek tongue, which was the intellectual bond of the civilised world, as the Roman empire was its bond in a social and political sense. Into this language the Scriptures of the Old Testament had been translated from the Hebrew, about 200 B.C., at Alexandria, the great meeting-place of Rabbinical learning and Hellenic culture. From the amalgamation of these and other elements there resulted a form of Greek known as the "common "" or Hellenistic Greek. It was in this language |