Development of the New Testament canon Development of the New Testament canon The canon of the New Testament is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and constituting the New Testament of the Christian Bible. For most, it is an agreed-upon list of twenty-seven books that includes the Canonical Gospels, Acts, letters of the Apostles, and Revelation. The books of the canon of the New Testament were written before 120 AD. For the Orthodox, the recognition of these writings as authoritative was formalized in the Second Council of Trullan of 692. The Catholic Church made dogmatic definition upon its Biblical canon in 382 at
The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past, (Pimlico, 1999), is a book by Thomas L. Thompson, Professor of Old Testament at the University of Copenhagen. Its US title is The Mythic Past: Biblical Archaeology and the Myth of Israel. The theme of "The Bible in History" is the need to treat the bible as literature rather than as history. Danny Yee cites a passage: "The Bible's language is not an historical language. It is a language of high literature, of story, of sermon and of song. It is a