The Encyclopedia of World Religions

New Testament, apocryphal S 321

do a better job. They include the oldest complete manuscripts of the New Testament, which date from the fourth and fifth centuries, as well as fragments of writing on papyrus, some of which are even earlier. In “critical editions” textual crit ics give their guess as to the best readings. They also provide the most important variations, telling which readings occur in which manuscripts. Most of the variations concern individual sentences. For example, some manuscripts add a sentence to the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6.13: “For yours is the kingdom, power, and glory for ever, Amen.” But the oldest complete manuscripts omit this sentence. A few variations concern entire sections. For example, two endings exist for the Gospel of Mark, but scholars think that neither of them was in the original. Further reading: Raymond E. Brown, Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997); Michael D. Coogan et al., eds., The New Oxford Annotated NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha, 3d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Paula Fredriksen, From Jesus to Christ: The Origins of the New Testament Images of Jesus, 2d ed. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000). New Testament, apocryphal Books produced by early Christians that were not included in the N EW T ESTAMENT . Early Christian communities pro duced a variety of books. Eventually, in the fourth century C . E ., churches that stood in the tradition of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christi anity came to agree on a standard list of authorita tive books, known as a canon, for the New Testa ment. Books that they did not include make up the apocryphal New Testament. (Protestants [ see P ROTESTANTISM ] also use the name Apocrypha for books in the Old Testament that they do not accept but that Catholics and Orthodox Christians do.) The books in the apocryphal New Testament come from many sources. Some represent the views of the same communities that produced the books in the New Testament. Books like 1 Clem ent, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Didache or

in it Paul systematically presents his views, includ ing those about the saving significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Other Epistles Besides the epistles of Paul, the New Testament contains 11 other letters from the earliest years of Christianity. The letters to Titus and Timothy attributed to Paul are almost certainly not by him. They reflect how someone influenced by Paul would respond to situations that Paul himself could not yet have faced. Other letters include an anony mous letter to the Hebrews and letters attributed to James, Peter, John, and Jude. A major theme in these letters is how Christians should live. The Revelation to John The book of Revelation is an apocalypse ( see APOC ALYPTIC LITERATURE ). The word apocalypse indicates that the book uncovers knowledge that is hidden. Early Christians wrote several apocalypses. The book of Revelation in the New Testament reports a vision received by John of Patmos. Opinions dif fer about whether this was the same John who wrote the gospel and the letters. In highly symbolic language Revelation tells of the heavenly struggle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. Many of its images have become well known, such as the seven seals, the four horsemen, the whore of Babylon, the beast with the mark on its forehead, and the lake of fire. The book ends with an inspir ing account of the new HEAVEN and new earth that God will create and a plea to Jesus to return soon. THE TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT The books of the New Testament were originally written in Greek. None of the original manuscripts has survived, and the old texts that do survive are not all the same. Scholars known as textual critics try to reconstruct the lost originals as accurately as possible. The first person to do so was a Dutch scholar named Erasmus (1466–1536). He com pared several Greek manuscripts to come up with what he considered the best reading. But the man uscripts Erasmus used were rather late. Discover ies within the past 200 years have helped scholars