New Testament the Anchor Bible Dictionary), may be the earliest known New Testament canon attributed to mainstream Christianity. It is similar, but not identical, to the modern New Testament canon. The oldest clear endorsement of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John being the only legitimate gospels was written "circa" 180 AD. A four gospel canon (the "Tetramorph") was asserted by Irenaeus, who refers to it directly in his polemic "Against the Heresies", "It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live,
Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament of Moses. Other quotations are sometimes made directly from the Hebrew text (e.g. , , ). When the New Testament was written, the Old Testament was not divided into chapters and verses, and there is therefore no uniform standard for these quotes and the authors had to provide contextual references: Quotations from the Hebrew Bible in the New Testament There are in all two hundred and eighty-three direct quotations from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in the New Testament. In about ninety instances, the Septuagint is literally quoted. In around eighty further instances, the quote is altered in some way.