The new testament – God’s covenant with all humanity

We also owe our New Testament, the covenant that God offers to all of humanity, largely to our Jewish brothers and sisters.

With the exception of the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which he also wrote, all parts were written by Messianic Jews, i.e., the first Christians, who all descend from the nation of Israel.

As far as we know, all the books and letters were written in the Greek common language “Koine,” which means “common dialect.”
During the Hellenistic period, this had slowly replaced Aramaic as the lingua franca in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.
Only Matthew, according to a church leader unknown to us, is said to have originally written his Gospel in Hebrew.

There is still scientific controversy about the time of their origin, but there are good reasons to believe that all of these 27 books were written between 40 and 98 after Christ.

The collection of Christian writings was already complete by the middle of the 2nd century. Shortly after this time, the terms Old –
and later New Testament came into use to distinguish the older Jewish books from the Christian writings.

The decision as to which of the many early Christian writings were to be regarded as canonical, i.e., directly inspired by God and thus included in the New Testament, was not made until the Third Council of Carthage in 397—and confirmed by the Council of Hippo in 419.

One participant in the council had demanded that only such authentic writings should be read in Christian communities

Four criteria were established at the Council as benchmarks for legality:

• Was the writer himself a disciple or apostle, or did he at least have close and long-standing contact with them, like Mark and Luke?
  
• Does the content of the writing truly exhibit a high spiritual content and the influence of the Holy Spirit?
  
• Does the book contain general instructions and concerns that are valid for the entire Christian community?
  
• Can the inspiration of the Holy Spirit be clearly recognized in the writing, and does it also testify to this to Christians?

However, much more important than questions about time periods and authors is the message from God that we encounter here!

The Old Testament offers us — in addition to a brief overview of the creation of the universe, our planet, and humanity as HIS creatures — in particular the history of God and His covenant with the people of Israel.
The main theme, however, is the future. The entire Old Testament is filled with prophecies about a coming Messiah, the Savior and King of the world.

In the New Testament, we see how the promises regarding the Messiah’s first coming are fulfilled.
We get to know this Anointed One — which is what “Messiah” means in English — our Savior Jesus the Christ, more closely, and learn how we can enter into God’s plan of salvation, into God’s own family, and become HIS children!