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When Was The New Testament Added To The Bible?
When the Bible was first compiled, during the fourth century, it contained only the Hebrew Scriptures, or what is commonly known as the Old Testament. At this time, there was no New Testament — only the various books, letters, and gospels that made up the New Testament had been written.
The process of adding the New Testament to the Bible is a fascinating piece of history that is largely unknown by many. The first New Testament books to be included into the Bible were the four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—which were placed alongside the Old Testament in the fourth century. It then took several more centuries for the other books of the New Testament to be added.
The first complete New Testament was put together in the fourth century by a man named Eusebius. He was the first to combine all 27 books of the New Testament into a single volume, and his work helped to form the basis of the Canonical Bible that exists today.
In the fifth and sixth centuries, the New Testament became an official part of the Bible among Catholic and Orthodox churches, though it didn’t become widely accepted among all Christian sects until the 16th century. It was during this period that the Protestant Reformation occurred and Martin Luther famously declared the new Bible was “open to all.”
The final piece of the puzzle was Martin Luther’s German translation and revision of the New Testament, which was released in 1522. This version of the Bible is still regarded as the most influential and widely read translation.
As a result of the Protestant Reformation, the inclusion of the New Testament into the Bible was accepted by all major Christian denominations. Thus, the total number of books in the Bible grew from 39 to 66.
Today, we are able to read the New Testament as part of the Bible. It remains an important part of our faith and culture, and its inclusion in the Bible has been an essential part of our shared history and development as a species.
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