Development of the New Testament canon writers. (Books not attributed to these three are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, James, and Jude. The authorship of Hebrews has long been disputed.) Many modern Protestants point to four "Criteria for Canonicity" to justify the books that have been included in the Old and New Testament, which are judged to have satisfied the following: The basic factor for recognizing a book's canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration, and the chief test for this was apostolicity. The term "apostolic" as used for the test of canonicity does not necessarily mean apostolic authorship or derivation, but rather "apostolic authority". "Apostolic
Matthew 3:1 Matthew 3:1 Matthew 3:1 is the first verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. This verse takes up the narrative some thirty years after beginning the description of Jesus' ministry. This verse introduces the figure of John the Baptist. In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads: The World English Bible translates the passage as: For a collection of other versions see here: Unlike the infancy narrative this verse begins a section that is closely paralleled in Mark 1 and Luke 3. According to the theory of Markan Priority both