How the New Testament Came to Be: The 35th Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium

Edited by Kent P. Jackson and Frank F. Judd

Media attention worldwide has focused on the origin, early history, and reliability of the documents that make up the New Testament. Through popular books, the publication of alternate Gospels, and the continuing popularity of novels and motion pictures that deal with New Testament themes and question biblical claims, readers and viewers have been exposed to many new ideas relating to New Testament studies. How the New Testament Came to Be, a new volume from the ReligiousStudiesCenter at BrighamYoungUniversity, publishes the research of Latter-day Saint scholars who have explored the earliest evidence for the New Testament and have asked hard questions concerning it.

 

The New Testament’s early history is in large part unknown. We do not know, for example, when and under what circumstances many of the documents were written. Nor do we know all the history of the texts from the time of their composition until many years later when the earliest-known manuscripts were copied. The Book of Mormon asserts that “plain and precious things” were removed from the scriptural text (1 Nephi 13:28), but is there any way to find out from the earliest preserved documents what those “plain and precious things” were and when they were lost? What does modern revelation contribute to answer questions like this?

How the New Testament Came to Be looks into the writing and compilation of the New Testament, with a focus on authors and manuscripts. Topics include writing in the ancient world, the work of scribes, the authorship of New Testament books, the occasions for and dating of individual New Testament books, the earliest ancient manuscripts, New Testament textual criticism, the development of the New Testament canon, and contributions of Joseph Smith to our understanding of the New Testament. What the authors have in common is a commitment to the centrality of the sacred mission of Jesus Christ and a belief that modern revelation is an indispensable guide for reading and understanding the New Testament.