BIBLE HOMESYeshua Literal Version
Bible Studies · History
This page surveys in chronological order the course of the New Testament and the ekklesia (church): from the life of Yeshua and the apostolic age, through persecution and the destruction of the Temple, the imperial church and the Middle Ages, to the printed editions and the translations of today. Dates follow scholarly convention; where views differ, this is indicated by “c.,” “estimated,” “tradition” or “another view.”
Overview
The period in which the New Testament was written spans little more than half a century of the church’s whole history. In the long centuries that followed, its languages and centres, its texts and the framework of its interpretation changed in turn.
The periodization serves the presentation of this page; boundary years are set by representative events. Each card links to the corresponding section.
01 · c. 6–4 BC – AD 33
The Gospels record the life of Yeshua together with the appointed feasts of the Torah. The purification after his birth, the yearly Passover, the cross at Passover, the resurrection on the day of first fruits and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Shavuot all stand on a single calendar.
c. 6–4 BC
“Now after Yeshua(Jesus) was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king” (Matthew 2:1). Since the majority view places the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC (another view proposes 1 BC), the birth is dated before that year. The reckoning that takes AD 1 as the year of the birth derives from Dionysius Exiguus in the sixth century and differs from the actual date by several years.
Forty days after the birth
When the days of purification were completed “according to the nomos(law) of Moses,” the parents presented the child to YHWH in the Temple at Jerusalem and offered a sacrifice (Leviticus 12:2–8; Exodus 13:2).
c. AD 6–9 (estimated)
“His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Passover feast.” In the year he turned twelve they again went up “according to the custom of the feast,” and the boy Yeshua was found in the Temple in discussion with the teachers.
c. AD 27–29
The ministry of John is dated by Luke: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar” (Luke 3:1). This is commonly reckoned as AD 28/29; counting from the period of co-regency yields AD 26/27. When Yeshua began his ministry he was “about thirty years old” (3:23), and after his immersion he fasted forty days in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11).
Early in the public ministry
Yeshua appointed the Twelve, among them Simon Peter and Andrew, and James and John the sons of Zebedee. The number twelve corresponds to the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28).
c. two and a half to three and a half years
The Gospel of John mentions three Passovers (2:13; 6:4; 11:55); if “a feast of the Jews” in 5:1 is also taken as a Passover, the number is four. This is the basis for estimating the length of the ministry at two and a half to three and a half years. Yeshua went up to Jerusalem at the appointed feasts (John 2:13; 5:1; 7:10; 10:22).
31 March AD 33 · 13 Nisan — the Preparation of the Passover
On the morning of 31 March AD 33, the Preparation of the Passover, Yeshua bore the cross to Golgotha. That day was 13 Nisan; shortly afterwards, as the late afternoon drew to its close, 14 Nisan — the Feast of Passover — was about to begin (John 19:14).
From His entry into death and into the tomb to the resurrection was exactly three days and three nights. Where New Testament translations record that the body of Yeshua was laid in the tomb when evening had come, they interpret the original words opse, opsias and related terms not as the Jews of that time used them but in a Gentile manner. This can be understood from the ministry’s studies “The Last Supper and Three Days, Three Nights” and “Opse — The ‘Evening’ Words of the New Testament”.
These dates are a mathematical calculation only. They are calculated from dates currently published by sources such as Hebcal, that is, according to the biblical calendar published by the Jewish community. Should this calculation prove to be in error, it must be recalculated.
Bearing the cross to Golgotha Matthew 27:31–33 · Mark 15:20–22 · Luke 23:26–33 · John 19:16–17
His death Matthew 27:50 · Mark 15:37 · Luke 23:46 · John 19:30
The Preparation · laid in the tomb Matthew 27:57–62 · Mark 15:42–46 · Luke 23:50–54 · John 19:31, 38–42
Three days and three nights Matthew 12:40
3 April AD 33 · very early on 16 Nisan
Yeshua rose very early in the morning on 16 Nisan, 3 April AD 33 in the Common Era. Paul writes, “Messiah(Christ) has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
This date rests on the same mathematical calculation as the date of the crucifixion above (according to the biblical calendar published by the Jewish community, as currently given by sources such as Hebcal); should it prove to be in error, it must be recalculated.
The resurrection Matthew 28:1–6 · Mark 16:1–6, 9 · Luke 24:1–7 · John 20:1–9
The apostolic witness 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, 20
Forty days after the resurrection
“Appearing to them over forty days and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Paul also reports an appearance to more than five hundred brothers at one time (1 Corinthians 15:5–8).
About the fortieth day of the Counting of the Omer
Within the Counting of the Omer, the seven sabbaths reckoned from the day of the first sheaf to Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15–16), the ascension took place about the fortieth day after the resurrection. Yeshua charged the disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem” but to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4).
Shavuot (Pentecost) — the fiftieth day of the Omer
“And when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together with one mind in the same place.” On the Feast of Weeks ordained in the Torah, Shavuot, the Holy Spirit came, and before Jews from many nations gathered in Jerusalem for the feast the ekklesia (church) bore its first witness.
02 · AD 33 – c. 62
Beginning as a Jewish community in Jerusalem, the ekklesia was scattered by persecution and spread to Samaria and Antioch, to Asia Minor and Greece, and to Rome.
From AD 33
The believers gathered daily in the Temple and broke bread in their homes (Acts 2:46). Peter and John went up to the Temple “at the hora(that-hour) of prayer, the ninth hour” (3:1). The first community lived within the order of Temple worship in Jewish Jerusalem.
c. 34–35
As he was stoned, Stephen called out, “Lord Yeshua(Jesus), receive my pneuma(spirit).” On that day a great persecution arose against the ekklesia in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
c. 34–36
Near Damascus Saul saw a light from heaven and heard a voice addressing him “in the Hebrew dialect” (Acts 26:14). Three years after his conversion he visited Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18).
Early 40s
Those who had been scattered proclaimed the word in Antioch to Greeks as well, and Barnabas and Saul taught there for a whole year. “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
44
Herod Agrippa I “had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.” Peter was imprisoned during the days of Unleavened Bread (12:3–4). Agrippa I died in the same year (12:23, in agreement with Josephus).
c. 49
The apostles and elders resolved not to require circumcision of Gentile believers and to send a letter directing them to abstain from the pollutions of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled and from blood. James gave as the ground of this decision: “For Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who proclaim him, since he is read in the synagogues every sabbaton(referring to every Moed of Leviticus 23)” (15:21).
Acts 15:1–35 · Galatians 2:1–10 (many identify the two accounts)
51–52
During his stay of a year and six months in Corinth, Paul was brought before Gallio, proconsul of Achaia (18:11–17). An inscription discovered at Delphi fixes Gallio’s term of office at about 51–52 and provides the most secure reference point for the chronology of Paul.
c. 57 – 62
Paul went up to Jerusalem in time for Pentecost and was arrested in the Temple (21:27–36). After two years of custody in Caesarea (24:27) he appealed to Caesar and was taken to Rome, where he remained “two full years” in rented quarters, teaching (28:30–31).
Acts 21–28
Acts 13–28
The dates follow the common reconstruction anchored by the Gallio inscription (51–52); individual scholars differ by a year or two.
c. 46–48 · Acts 13:1–14:28
c. 49–52 · Acts 15:36–18:22
c. 53–57 · Acts 18:23–21:17
c. 59–60 · Acts 27:1–28:16
Observance Recorded in Scripture
Acts and the letters of Paul mark the times of journeys and events by the appointed feasts of the Torah and record participation in the rites of purification of the Temple. The quotations below are given verbatim from the Yeshua Literal Version.
AD 33 · Jerusalem
And when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled, they were all together with one mind in the same place,
Acts 2:1
The Feast of Weeks of the Torah (Leviticus 23:15–21). The coming of the Holy Spirit took place on this feast.
AD 44 · Jerusalem
When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also — now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread.
When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.
Acts 12:3–4
Luke marks the time of events by the appointed feasts.
c. 52 · Ephesus
But taking his leave of them and saying, "I will return to you again if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.
Acts 18:21
The Byzantine text, the base text of the Yeshua Literal Version New Testament, adds Paul’s words “I must by all means keep the coming feast in Jerusalem” (δεῖ με πάντως τὴν ἑορτὴν τὴν ἐρχομένην ποιῆσαι εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα); the clause is absent from critical editions such as Nestle-Aland. The present English YLV text of this verse does not include it.
Spring c. 57 · Philippi
We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas within five days; and there we stayed seven days.
Acts 20:6
Even in the Gentile city of Philippi, the journey was reckoned by the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
c. 57 · Miletus
For Paul had krino(decided) to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend chronos(chronological-time) in Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 20:16
c. 57 · The Temple in Jerusalem
take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the nomos(law).
Acts 21:24
The vow involving the shaving of the head is generally identified as the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1–21). On the following day Paul purified himself and entered the Temple (21:26).
c. 57–59 · Before the tribunal at Caesarea
since you can take note of the fact that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.
Acts 24:11
Paul testifies that he had come to bring alms and offerings, and that when he was found in the Temple he had completed the rite of purification (24:17–18).
Autumn c. 59 · Fair Havens, Crete
When considerable chronos(chronological-time) had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, since even the fast was already over, Paul began to admonish them
Acts 27:9
The reference is to the Day of Atonement (10 Tishri) of Leviticus 16:29–31 and 23:27. Luke marks the close of the Mediterranean sailing season by this appointed day.
c. 54–55 · Written from Ephesus
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened; for Messiah(Christ) our Passover has been sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and aletheia(truth).
1 Corinthians 5:7–8
An exhortation addressed to the ekklesia in Corinth, whose members were predominantly Gentile.
c. 54–55 · Ephesus
But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost;
1 Corinthians 16:8
Paul reckons his own itinerary by the appointed feasts.
AD 45–100
The bars show the dates of the traditional view given in the introduction to each book; the dashed lines show alternative dates proposed by some scholars. Most of the Pauline letters and the Synoptic Gospels fall before the destruction of the Temple in 70.
Gospels · Acts
Pauline Letters
Hebrews · General Letters
Revelation
| Book | Date of writing (traditional view · other views) |
|---|---|
| Matthew | c. AD 50s–60s (some scholars date it to the 70s–80s) |
| Mark | Late AD 50s–60s |
| Luke | AD 60s (some scholars date it to the 70s–80s) |
| John | c. AD 85–95 |
| Acts | c. AD 62 (some scholars date it to the 70s–80s) |
| Galatians | c. AD 48–49 or the mid-50s |
| 1 Thessalonians | c. AD 50–51 |
| 2 Thessalonians | c. AD 51–52 |
| 1 Corinthians | c. AD 54–55 |
| 2 Corinthians | c. AD 55–56 |
| Romans | c. AD 56–57 |
| Ephesians | c. AD 60–62 |
| Philippians | c. AD 60–62 |
| Colossians | c. AD 60–62 |
| Philemon | c. AD 60–62 (during imprisonment in Rome) |
| 1 Timothy | c. AD 62–64 (after the first Roman imprisonment) |
| Titus | c. AD 62–64 |
| 2 Timothy | c. AD 64–67 (during the second Roman imprisonment, shortly before his martyrdom) |
| James | Late AD 40s to before AD 62 |
| Hebrews | AD 60s (many date it before the destruction of the Temple) |
| 1 Peter | c. AD 62–64 |
| 2 Peter | c. AD 64–68 (shortly before Peter’s martyrdom) |
| Jude | c. AD 60–80 |
| 1 John | c. AD 85–95 |
| 2 John | c. AD 85–95 |
| 3 John | c. AD 85–95 |
| Revelation | c. AD 95 (under Emperor Domitian; some scholars propose the late 60s) |
The author, date and background of each book are given in the book introductions of the Bible.
03 · AD 62 – c. 100
The leader of the ekklesia in Jerusalem and two apostles were martyred, and at the end of the Jewish war the Temple fell. The latter half of the first century marked a decisive turning point for both the ekklesia and the Jewish people.
Av, AD 70
These are the words of Yeshua concerning the Temple.
And He said to them: "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down."Matthew 24:2
About forty years later the army of Titus set the Temple on fire. With the end of Temple-centred worship, Judaism turned to the synagogue and the rabbinic tradition, while the ekklesia, increasingly Gentile in membership, proceeded on an independent course outside the synagogue.
62
James, the leader of the ekklesia in Jerusalem, was stoned at the instigation of the high priest Ananus (son of Annas) after the death of the governor Festus and before the arrival of his successor Albinus. The event is recorded by Josephus.
Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 20.200 · Galatians 1:19 · Acts 15:13
July 64
Nero laid the blame for the fire on the group called “Christians” and had them put to death with great cruelty, some covered in the skins of animals and torn by dogs, others burned. The account is that of the Roman historian Tacitus.
Tacitus, Annals 15.44
c. 64–67 · Rome Tradition
That the two apostles were martyred in Rome under Nero is a consistent tradition from the letter of Clement of Rome at the end of the first century (c. 96) onward. Peter is said to have been crucified and Paul, a Roman citizen, beheaded. Second Timothy is traditionally regarded as Paul’s last letter (4:6–8).
1 Clement 5–6 · Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.25 · 3.1
66 – 73/74
A revolt that began with clashes in Caesarea and Jerusalem developed into full-scale war. Vespasian began its suppression; after he became emperor, his son Titus laid siege to Jerusalem.
Josephus, Jewish War
c. 66 (estimated) Tradition
According to tradition, the believers in Jerusalem received a revelation before the war and withdrew to Pella beyond the Jordan. Yeshua had instructed that when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies, those in Judea should flee to the mountains (Luke 21:20–21). Scholars are divided on the historicity of this tradition.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.5.3
Av 70 (late August)
The army of Titus set the Temple on fire. Josephus gives the date as 10 Av; rabbinic tradition remembers it as 9 Av (Tisha B’Av), the same day on which the First Temple fell. The sacrificial worship and the priestly order came to an end, and the centre of Judaism moved to the synagogue and to the rabbinic academy at Yavneh.
Josephus, Jewish War 6.250 · Mishnah Taanit 4:6 · Matthew 24:2
73 or 74
The last stronghold of the revolt fell to the Roman army. Its fall is dated either to 73 or to 74.
Josephus, Jewish War 7.252–406
After 70
Vespasian required that the half-shekel formerly paid by Jews to the Temple be paid to the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome. The question of whom the Roman authorities regarded as Jewish thereby arose, and many scholars hold that it affected the boundary between the synagogue and the messianic communities.
Josephus, Jewish War 7.218 · Suetonius, Domitian 12
AD 70s–80s · Yavneh — shortly after the destruction of the Temple
What it is — a prayer of malediction placed as the twelfth benediction of the daily synagogue prayer, the Eighteen Benedictions (the Amidah, Shemoneh Esreh). Birkat ha-Minim means “the benediction concerning the heretics (minim)”; in substance it is a curse upon them. The Talmud records that Samuel the Small composed it at the request of Rabban Gamaliel II.
When — after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, in the 70s and 80s, when the rabbis gathered at Yavneh and reordered synagogue worship, it began to be placed in the synagogue prayer.
What followed — Jewish believers in Yeshua could not join in this prayer in synagogue worship, and one who omitted this benediction when leading the prayer fell under suspicion. From this prayer, which kept believers in Yeshua from coming to the synagogue, the believers began to be separated gradually from the synagogue. In the mid-second century Justin records that the Jews “curse in your synagogues those who believe in Christ,” and in the fourth century Jerome and Epiphanius report that the synagogues cursed the “Nazarenes” (notzrim). (The original wording of the malediction and its scope remain under scholarly discussion.)
Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28b–29a · Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 16, 96 · Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 5.18–19 · Epiphanius, Panarion 29.9
From the AD 70s–80s — gradually
From the 70s and 80s, when the curse was placed in the synagogue prayer, believers in Yeshua drew gradually further from the synagogue, and the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–135 widened the distance. Jewish believers lost their place both in the synagogue and in an ekklesia now largely Gentile, and Gentile leaders began to define the Sabbath, the feasts and the Torah as “Jewish” (Ignatius, the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin). The single community that Acts records meeting in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, and hearing Moses read in the synagogues every Sabbath was thus divided into two paths.
Acts 2:46 · 15:21 · 18:4 · Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 47 · Epiphanius, Panarion 29
c. 95
John “came to be on the island called Patmos on account of the logos(word, message) of God and on account of the testimony of Yeshua(Jesus) Messiah(Christ)” (Revelation 1:9). Irenaeus states that the revelation was seen toward the end of Domitian’s reign. Whether the persecution of this period extended throughout the empire is disputed.
Revelation 1:9 · Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.30.3
04 · 2nd–3rd centuries
After the Bar Kokhba revolt Jerusalem became a Gentile city, and the writings of Gentile leaders began to draw boundaries with the synagogue over the Sabbath and Passover, the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures. Persecution continued at the same time.
c. 107 (under Trajan) Tradition
Simeon son of Clopas, the second bishop of the ekklesia in Jerusalem, was martyred (according to Hegesippus), and Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, left seven letters on his way to Rome under guard before his martyrdom. Another view places Ignatius later, in the mid-second century.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.32 · 3.36
c. 107–110
Ignatius wrote to the church at Magnesia that believers should “no longer keep the Sabbath but live according to the Lord’s day,” and warned that “it is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ and to Judaize.” This is an early record of a Gentile leader defining the Sabbath and Jewish practice as foreign to the community.
Ignatius, To the Magnesians 9.1 · 10.3
c. 70–135 (commonly c. 130)
The letter asserts that the covenant belongs not to the Jews but is “ours” (4.6–8), interprets the dietary laws allegorically (ch. 10), and states that instead of the seventh day “the eighth day,” on which Jesus rose, is kept with rejoicing (15.8–9). It is not regarded as the work of the apostle Barnabas.
Epistle of Barnabas 4 · 10 · 15
132–135/136
Rabbi Akiva hailed the leader of the revolt, Simon bar Kosiba, as “son of the star” (Bar Kokhba), that is, as the Messiah. Jewish believers who confessed Yeshua as Messiah could not follow him, and Justin records that Bar Kokhba had them severely punished unless they denied Yeshua.
After suppressing the revolt, Hadrian refounded Jerusalem as the Roman colony “Aelia Capitolina,” barred Jews from entering it, and renamed the province of Judea “Syria Palaestina.” From this time the bishops of the Jerusalem ekklesia were of Gentile origin, beginning with Marcus.
Cassius Dio, Roman History 69.12–14 · Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.6 · Justin, First Apology 31.6 · Jerusalem Talmud, Ta‘anit 4:5
c. 144 · Rome
Marcion held the God of the Hebrew Scriptures to be a deity other than the Father of Yeshua and rejected the whole of the Old Testament and the Torah. He compiled a list consisting only of an edited Gospel of Luke and ten letters of Paul; this is the earliest known list of a New Testament canon. The church at Rome excommunicated him, but the discussion of the canon gained momentum in the course of opposing his influence.
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.27 · Tertullian, Against Marcion (c. 207–208)
c. 155–160
Justin argued that circumcision, the Sabbath and the feasts were given on account of the hardness of Israel’s heart (chs. 18–23). At the same time he held that Jewish believers who kept the Torah would be saved provided they did not impose it on Gentiles, and he reports that some Christians refused even to associate with them (ch. 47).
Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 18–23 · 47
c. 155 · c. 190–195
The churches of Asia Minor, following the precedent of John and Philip, commemorated the Passover on 14 Nisan. Polycarp of Smyrna and Anicetus of Rome acknowledged each other’s practice about 155 and parted in peace. In the 190s, however, Victor of Rome sought to impose Sunday observance and to excommunicate the churches of Asia; Polycrates of Ephesus replied that they kept “the fourteenth day according to the Gospel,” and Irenaeus urged Victor to desist.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.23–25
c. 160–170
Melito, a Quartodeciman bishop, interpreted the lamb of the Exodus as a type of Christ in his Passover homily and charged Israel with having “murdered God” (96). The work is regarded as the earliest explicit statement of the deicide charge.
Melito, On the Passover 72–99
Late 2nd – early 3rd century
Old Latin versions (the Vetus Latina) came into use in North Africa, and Tertullian of Carthage (c. 155–220) became the first major author to write theology in Latin. Terms of later Western theology such as trinitas originate with him.
Tertullian, Against Praxeas, and other works
c. 240–245 · Caesarea
A parallel Bible arranged in six columns: the Hebrew text, its transliteration in Greek letters, Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint and Theodotion. It was a monumental collation of the Septuagint used by the church with the Hebrew text, yet Origen’s exegetical method consolidated the tradition of figurative (allegorical) interpretation.
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.16
250 · 257–258
Decius required every inhabitant of the empire to sacrifice to the gods and obtain a certificate (libellus). Under Valerian, Cyprian of Carthage was martyred (258).
Letters of Cyprian · libelli recovered in Egypt
303–311
The first edict, of February 303, ordered the demolition of church buildings and the surrender and burning of the Scriptures. This persecution, in which many manuscripts were lost, ended with the edict of toleration of Galerius in 311. At about the same time the Council of Elvira in Spain (c. 306) forbade believers to eat with Jews (canon 50).
Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 12–13 · 34 · Council of Elvira, canons 49–50
05 · 313 – 476
Within less than a century the persecuted community became the state religion of the Roman Empire. Councils and imperial laws fixed the day of worship and the reckoning of the feasts, and the list of twenty-seven New Testament books and the Latin Vulgate were established in this period.
October 312 · 313
Victorious at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine together with Licinius established in 313 freedom of religion for all, Christians included, and the restitution of confiscated property. (The measure is commonly called the “Edict of Milan,” but it was in fact a letter implementing an agreement between the two emperors.)
Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors 48 · Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 10.5
March 321
Constantine promulgated a law directing magistrates, city dwellers and craftsmen to rest on “the venerable day of the Sun.” It was the first law to make the first day of the week a public day of rest.
Codex Justinianus 3.12.2
325
Alongside the Arian controversy, the council addressed the date of Easter and resolved that all churches should keep it on the same day without following the Jewish reckoning of Passover. Constantine’s letter announcing the decision urged, “Let us have nothing in common with the Jews.” Thereafter the observance of 14 Nisan was treated as a heretical practice.
Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.18–20 · Synodal letter of the council to the church of Alexandria
May 330
Constantine dedicated Byzantium as the new capital. About the following year he commissioned Eusebius to produce fifty copies of the Scriptures for the churches of the new capital.
Eusebius, Life of Constantine 4.36
c. 363–364 (date estimated)
“Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day; rather, honouring the Lord’s day, they shall rest, if they can, as Christians. If any are found to be Judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” The same council also forbade keeping feasts with Jews and receiving unleavened bread from them (canons 37–38).
Council of Laodicea, canons 29 · 37 · 38
367
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was the first to set out a list corresponding exactly to the twenty-seven books of the present New Testament.
Athanasius, Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter
February 380
Theodosius I, with his co-emperors, decreed that all peoples should follow the faith taught by Damasus of Rome and Peter of Alexandria. Christianity of the Nicene faith became the state religion of the empire, and in 391–392 pagan sacrifice was prohibited.
Codex Theodosianus 16.1.2, Cunctos populos
381
The council determined that the bishop of Constantinople, as “New Rome,” should hold the prerogative of honour after the bishop of Rome (canon 3). Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon (451) reaffirmed this.
Council of Constantinople, canon 3 · Council of Chalcedon, canon 28
386–387 · Antioch
John Chrysostom delivered eight homilies sharply rebuking believers in Antioch who attended the synagogue and kept the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. They attest that a considerable number of believers were still keeping the biblical feasts at the end of the fourth century.
John Chrysostom, Homilies against the Jews 1–8
382 – c. 405
Commissioned by Damasus, Jerome revised the Latin text of the Gospels (c. 384) and, in Bethlehem, translated the Old Testament afresh from the Hebrew (c. 390–405). His translation, grounded in the “Hebrew truth” (Hebraica veritas), drew the concern of Augustine and others who regarded the Septuagint as inspired Scripture.
Augustine, City of God 18.43 · Correspondence of Jerome and Augustine
393 · 397
Councils in North Africa confirmed a list of the Scriptures that included the twenty-seven books of the New Testament.
Council of Carthage (397), canon 47
410 · 476
The Visigoths under Alaric sacked Rome (410), and in 476 Odoacer deposed the last Western emperor. In the West the bishop of Rome increasingly became the centre of authority amid the political vacuum.
The Movement of Languages
Each time the language in which the Scriptures were read and interpreted changed, the nuances carried by their words shifted as well.
The Eastern Branch — Ancient Versions Translated from the Greek
How a Word Crossed the Languages
Instruction → Law
After the Septuagint rendered torah as nomos, Latin and the vernacular languages inherited words of the “law” family.
Assembly → Church
The Septuagint frequently rendered qahal as ekklesia. The English word “church” derives not from ekklesia but from the Greek kyriakon (“the Lord’s [house]”).
06 · 476 – 1453
The West took its course around the bishop of Rome and the Latin Vulgate, the East around Constantinople and the Greek liturgy. The copying of the Greek New Testament continued in the East.
590–604
Gregory I reorganized the administration, liturgy and missions of the West around Rome. Thereafter the claim of the bishop of Rome (the pope) to primacy, continuing a development that began with Leo I (440–461), was strengthened throughout the Middle Ages.
637–642
Jerusalem (637/638), Antioch (637) and Alexandria (641/642) came under the rule of the Arab Muslim forces. Of the five patriarchates, only Rome and Constantinople remained within Christian states.
800
Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor. The event furthered the establishment of Latin, the Roman liturgy and the Vulgate as the standard throughout Western Europe.
9th century (earliest dated example 835)
The Greek-speaking church centred on Constantinople copied the New Testament without interruption. In the ninth century the script changed from majuscule to a joined minuscule (the earliest dated minuscule manuscript is the Uspensky Gospels of 835, no. 461), and lectionaries arranging the readings for worship by date came into wide use. The great majority of surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts belong to this tradition, which underlies the Byzantine Text and the Majority Text.
From 863
Cyril and Methodius, sent from Constantinople, devised a Slavonic script and translated the Scriptures and liturgical books into Slavonic. The Eastern church maintained the tradition of worship in the language of each people.
July 1054
The papal legates and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, excommunicated one another. Among the points of dispute were papal primacy and the addition of the Filioque (“and from the Son”) to the Nicene Creed. The mutual excommunications were lifted in 1965.
1096–1099 · 1204
The First Crusade captured Jerusalem in 1099; on its way the Jewish communities of the Rhineland were massacred (1096). The Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople in 1204 and deepened the rift between the Eastern and Western churches.
Early 13th century
The chapter divisions added to the Latin Vulgate by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, became the basis of the chapter divisions of the Bible in use today.
1397 · 1438–1439 · May 1453
The Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras began teaching Greek in Florence (1397), and Eastern scholars brought manuscripts to the Council of Florence (1438–1439). When the Ottoman Empire took Constantinople in 1453, further scholars and manuscripts moved to Italy, laying the foundation for the return of Western humanists to the Greek original of the New Testament.
07 · 1453 – 1648
Printing disseminated the Greek original and vernacular Bibles on a large scale. The humanist call to return to the sources (ad fontes) reopened the question of several terms of the Latin translation.
c. 1454–1455
The first major book printed from movable type, at Mainz, was the Latin Vulgate Bible.
1516
The first published Greek New Testament, issued by the Froben press in Basel. It was based on a small number of medieval Byzantine minuscule manuscripts and printed with a parallel Latin translation. Erasmus pointed out that the Vulgate’s rendering of the Greek metanoeite (μετανοεῖτε, “repent”) in Matthew 4:17 as paenitentiam agite (“do penance”) departed from the sense of the original.
New Testament Manuscripts, “History of Printed Editions”
1517 · 1522
In 1517 Luther addressed the meaning of repentance in the first of the Ninety-Five Theses, and in September 1522 he published a German New Testament based on the edition of Erasmus.
1526
The first printed English New Testament translated directly from the Greek. Tyndale rendered ekklesia not as “church” but as “congregation.” He was burned at the stake in 1536.
1546
The Catholic Church declared the Vulgate the “authentic” text for public reading, disputation and preaching.
1551
The present verse numbers first appeared in the fourth edition of the Greek New Testament published in Geneva by Robert Estienne (Stephanus).
1611 · 1633
The translation rules of the King James Version stipulated that “the old ecclesiastical words” be retained and that “church” not be translated “congregation” (Bancroft’s rule 3, 1604). The name “Received Text” (Textus Receptus) derives from a phrase in the preface of the Elzevir edition of 1633.
08 · 1648 – present
1844 · 1859
Tischendorf found a fourth-century majuscule manuscript at the Monastery of St Catherine at Sinai and made it known to scholarship. Thereafter critical texts giving priority to the earliest manuscripts gained ground.
1881 · from 1898
The text of Westcott and Hort (1881), which gave priority to Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, became the foundation of later critical editions. The Nestle edition (first edition 1898) continued as the Nestle-Aland edition, whose twenty-eighth edition (2012) is the scholarly standard; most modern translations take this line of text as their base.
1882 · 1887 · 1900 · 1911
The Gospel of Luke by Ross and McIntyre (1882), the complete New Testament Yesu Seonggyo Jeonseo (1887), the Sinyak Jeonseo (1900) and the complete Bible including the Old Testament, the Seonggyeong Jeonseo (1911), were published in succession. These were followed by the Korean Revised Version (1938), the Revised Korean Version (1961) and the New Korean Revised Version (1998).
From 1947
Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dating from the third century BC to the first century AD were discovered at Qumran, providing direct evidence of the biblical text and the religious world of the land of Judea in the time of Yeshua.
1965
Rome and Constantinople lifted the mutual excommunications of 1054, and the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”) stated that the death of Jesus cannot be charged against all Jews, either of that time or of today.
1991 · 2005 · 2018
A Greek New Testament edited by Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont on the basis of the Byzantine manuscript tradition (first edition 1991; revised 2005 and 2018). It has been released into the public domain and is the base text of the Yeshua Literal Version New Testament.
The Movement of the Church’s Centres
The sequence “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the farthest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8) unfolded in history as well. Yet with each shift of the centre, Jerusalem, the point of departure, and the Jewish roots receded further.
The Transmission of the New Testament Text
No autograph survives. The New Testament of today has come down through manuscripts copied by hand, through the printed editions compiled from them, and through translations based on those editions.
The Legacy of History
The factors below rest on documented writings and decisions. The purpose is not to assign blame to any tradition but to identify the layers that lie between the present-day reader and the text of the first century.
Yeshua and the apostles spoke Hebrew and Aramaic; the New Testament was written in Greek; and the Western church read the Scriptures in Latin for more than a thousand years. In this process Hebraic concepts were rendered into the theological vocabulary of Greek and Latin. Torah (instruction) became “law” by way of nomos and lex, and metanoeite (“repent”) in Matthew 4:17 was read in Latin as “do penance.”
Acts and the letters of Paul record a community that kept the feasts and the rites of purification. From the second century onward, however, the writings of Gentile leaders and the councils of the fourth century defined the Sabbath and the Passover reckoning as “Judaizing” and institutionalized the separation.
Marcion rejected the Hebrew Scriptures; the church condemned him, yet read the Old Testament chiefly in the Greek Septuagint and in Latin versions. The deicide charge of the second century and the canons enjoining separation from Jews widened the distance between the synagogue and the ekklesia.
After 313 the church changed from a persecuted minority into an institution under imperial patronage, and in 380 it became the state religion. The episcopal hierarchy, conciliar decisions and imperial laws determined the forms of faith and worship.
In the West, from Tertullian and Augustine to scholastic theology, the Latin Bible and Latin theology shaped the framework of interpretation. The Bibles of the Reformers were likewise translated within this terminological system.
Translations inherit the vocabulary of earlier translations. The King James Version was required to retain the old ecclesiastical words, and most present-day translations take the critical editions of the nineteenth century and later as their base. Which text is translated, and in what vocabulary, determines the New Testament the reader encounters.
The Way Back
So that present-day readers may encounter the word that the ekklesia of the first century read and kept in its original character, this ministry translates directly from the Hebrew and Greek sources and sets the words of the original languages alongside the translation. The Yeshua Literal Version translates the Old Testament from the Hebrew text and the New Testament from the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform.
Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common Salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the holy ones.Jude 1:3 · Yeshua Literal VersionRead the Yeshua Literal Version
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