Historical background of the New Testament that the Temple would not be rebuilt in their lifetimes, Christianity reflected the acknowledgment of early Christians that the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth was not to happen in their lifetimes. The critical analysis of the Gospels involves, at least in part, a consideration of how these concerns affected the Gospels' accounts of Jesus. According to historian Paula Fredriksen (1988: 5), critical scholars rely on four basic criteria for extrapolating an "authentic" historical account of Jesus out of the New Testament sources: As Fredriksen observes, these criteria do not guarantee an accurate historical
Development of the Old Testament canon of the Catholic Church. All of these we also judge to be Canonical Books, and confess them to be Sacred Scripture. Not all books of the Old Testament are covered in the "Prophetologion", the official Old Testament lectionary: "Because the only exposure most Eastern Christians had to the Old Testament was from the readings during services, the Prophetologion can be called the Old Testament of the Byzantine Church." Development of the Old Testament canon The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian Biblical canon; the second section is the New Testament. The Old Testament includes the books