What is the earliest known mention or reference of any book of the New Testament?
by admin ~ June 20th, 2008 . Filed under: Religion & Spirituality .
Jeremiah asked:
I’m talking about extra-biblical sources.
I’m talking about extra-biblical sources.
I’m looking for specifics- the date, the writer’s name, the New Testament book mentioned or quoted from, etc., etc.
Thank you.
P.S. I have no tolerance for point phishing. If you don’t have an answer, then do not respond or I will flag & report you.
Clifton Adelstein
June 24th, 2008 at 4:02 am
Josephus…First century historian…His works are regarded as the closest to the Bible…
June 25th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
The answer above is wrong; the Muratorian Canon is one rather early listing of Old and New Testament books, but it is not the earliest, and it doesn’t quote from them. The earliest quotes from New Testament books might possibly be found in 1 Clement (about 96) or in Ignatius’ writings (he died about 120). The Didache was also written around that time (late 90s). It would be wonderful if we had Papias’ writings, since he had written commentaries on the “Logoi” of Jesus, but his work has been lost, and only tiny quotes were preserved in Eusebius, who was writing much later. I’m afraid I haven’t committed the specifics to memory beyond that, so these three sources might quote more/less than what I remember, but I believe they variously quote from some of Paul’s works, parts of the Gospels, and the book of Hebrews.