By Arthur G. Patzia

How did we get our New Testament? Its pages were not dropped from heaven. Its words were not whispered into the eras of the apostles. In affirming the divine inspiration of Scripture, we too often forget the human side of the story. The narratives, letters and Apocalypse of our New Testament were shaped by worn pens gripped by callous, ink-stained fingers.

The Making of the New Testament is a textbook study of the origin, collection, copying and canonizing of the New Testament documents. Like shrewd detectives reading the subtle traces of evidence, biblical scholars have studied the trail of clues and pieced together the story of these books. Arthur Patzia tells the story, answering our many questions:

• How were books and documents produced in the first century?
• What motivated the early Christians to commit teaching and events and visions to papyrus?
• How were the stories and sayings of Jesus circulated, handed down and shaped into Gospels?
• >What do we know about ancient letter writing, secretaries and "copy shops"?
• When and where were the New Testament documents written?
• Why were four Gospels included instead of just one?
• How were Paul's letters, sent here and there, gathered into a single collection?
• Who decided - and by what criteria - which documents would be included in the New Testament?
• Are there other letters, Gospels and Acts that almost made it into the New Testament but didn't?

The information in this book is both interesting and informative. It faces honestly some of the issues serious Bible students must deal with, such as form criticism, copyist errors, the so-called "synoptic problem," to name a few. Patzia examines these subjects in a scholarly manner while keeping a conservative perspective.

Paperback, 205 pages, indexed
Published 1995