There are twenty-seven canonical books that make up the Christian Greek Scriptures. Under inspiration the twenty-seven selected were penned after the death of Jesus by eight men: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, James, Peter and Jude. Not all these men followed Jesus during his ministry; in fact, as far as is known for a certainty, only the three apostles Matthew, John and Peter did. Mark may have been the “certain young man” present at Jesus’ arrest. (Mark 14:51, 52) At Pentecost James, Jude and perhaps Mark were present along with them. (Acts 1:13-15; 2:1) Later the apostle Paul was converted. All these writers became closely associated with the governing body of the first-century congregation in Jerusalem.

In what language were these books originally written? Paul wrote his letter to the Romans in Greek, not in Latin. Peter, who especially worked among the Jews, wrote his two letters in Greek, as also did John and Jude. James the brother of Jesus, who took the lead in the Jerusalem congregation and resided there until his death, wrote his letter in Greek, even though he addressed it to “the twelve tribes that are scattered about” and surely meant to include the natural Jews residing in Judea. (Jas. 1:1) So with the possible exception of the book of Matthew, which was the first of the Christian Scripture writings, thought to have been written originally in Hebrew and later translated by Matthew into Greek, all the other twenty-six books were written in the common (koi·neʹ) Greek, the international language of the day.

Nor was it a mere coincidence that these inspired Christian men, all of them natural-born Jews (Rom. 3:1, 2), had their writings sent out in Greek. These were not private communications, but were intended for wide circulation, to be read and studied by all the congregations. (Col. 4:16; 1 Thess. 5:27; 2 Pet. 3:15, 16) The writers were under divine command to spread this good news and teaching to the most distant parts of the earth, to places where Hebrew and Latin were not read. (Matt. 28:19; Acts 1:8) Even in territories closer to Palestine, there was an increasingly large number of non-Jews coming into the local congregations. Also, when quoting the Hebrew Scriptures, these writers frequently allowed themselves to be influenced by the Septuagint Version, or they directly quoted from that common Greek version of their day.

The books of the Christian Greek Scriptures, listed according to the approximate year (C.E.) written, are as follows: Matthew, 41; 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 50 and 51; Galatians, 50-52; 1 and 2 Corinthians, 55; Romans, 56; Luke, 56-58; Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 60-61; Hebrews, Acts, 61; James, before 62; Mark, 60-65; 1 Timothy, Titus, 61-64; 1 Peter, 62-64; 2 Peter 64; 2 Timothy, Jude, 65; Revelation, 96; John and 1, 2, 3 John, 98. This era of less than sixty years is quite a contrast with the Hebrew writings, which took nearly eleven centuries to complete.

When it came time to combine these books of the Christian Greek Scriptures together into a single volume, they were not assembled in the order in which they were written. Rather, they were put in a logical arrangement according to subject matter, which can be classified as (1) the five historical books of the Gospels and Acts, (2) the twenty-one letters, and (3) the Revelation.

The four Gospels (the word “Gospel” meaning “good news”), written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, give us a fourfold historical account of the life and activity of Jesus, each account being an independent report. The first three of these are sometimes called “synoptic” (meaning “like view”) because they have a relatively similar approach to Jesus’ ministry in comparison with John’s Gospel, yet each reflects individualism on the part of the writer. John’s Gospel fills in certain details omitted by the other three. The Acts of Apostles then follows in logical sequence, carrying the history of the Christian congregation as established at Pentecost on down nearly thirty years after the death of Jesus.

The congregation’s inner workings, its problems, its public preaching, its other privileges and its hopes, are dealt with in the twenty-one letters that follow the historical section. Paul is named as the writer of thirteen letters. The letter to the Hebrews is also generally ascribed to Paul. Following these writings is a group of letters most of which were written to all the congregations in general, by James, Peter, John and Jude. Lastly, and as a delightful climax to the whole Bible, is the Revelation with its preview of profound events of the future.

The writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures directly quoted the Hebrew Scriptures more than 365 times, and made about 375 additional references and allusions to them. Examples are drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures by all the inspired Christian writers. (1 Cor. 10:11) These Christian writers undoubtedly employed the Divine Name Jehovah when they were quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures. These later writers acknowledge and include the Hebrew Scriptures as inspired of God and beneficial for completely equipping the man of God for every good work.—2 Tim. 3:16, 17; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21.

After the death of the apostles, uninspired writers profusely quoted from the Greek Scriptures, just as the inspired Christian Bible writers had quoted from what came before them.

There are, however, more than 13,600 papyrus and vellum manuscripts in whole or in part of the Christian Greek Scriptures available for comparative study, dating from the second to the fifteenth century. Of these, 4,600 are in Greek, 8,000 in Latin, and the remainder in various other languages. More than 2,000 of the ancient copies contain the Gospels, and more than 700, the letters of Paul. While the original writings themselves are not currently extant, copies date back to the second century, which is very close to the time the originals were written. This vast number of manuscripts has enabled Greek scholars in the course of years to produce a highly refined Greek text of the Scriptures, confirming in many respects the dependability and integrity of our present-day translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures.—See MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLE.

This vast mountain of manuscripts caused one authority to remark: “The great bulk of the words of the New Testament stand out above all discriminative processes of criticism, because they are free from variation, and need only to be transcribed. . . . If comparative trivialities, such as changes of order, the insertion or omission of the article with proper names, and the like, are set aside, the words in our opinion still subject to doubt can hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the whole New Testament.” (Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, 1957, pp. 564, 565) To this may be added the observation of Jack Finegan: “The close relationship in time between the oldest New Testament manuscripts and the original texts is also nothing less than amazing. . . . For our knowledge of the writings of most of the classical authors we are dependent upon manuscripts the oldest of which belong to a time between the ninth and eleventh centuries A.D. . . . Thus it is that the certainty with which the text of the New Testament is established exceeds that of any other ancient book. The words which the New Testament writers addressed to their world and time have crossed the further miles and centuries to us substantially unchanged in form and certainly undiminished in power.”—Light from the Ancient Past, 1959, pp. 449, 450.

As an integral part of the written Word of God, the Christian Greek Scriptures are of inestimable value. They contain four accounts of the ministry of God’s only-begotten Son, including his origin, his teaching, his example, his sacrificial death and resurrection. The historic record of the formation of the Christian congregation, the outpouring of the holy spirit, which enabled it to grow so successfully, its problems and how they were resolved—all of this is so essential for the operation of the true Christian congregation today. The separate books that were independently written for particular persons or situations or with a special view and purpose in mind, all merge to form a great unified complete entity with no details lacking, complementing and completing the Bible canon, and presently of universal importance, interest and concern primarily to spiritual Israel, the congregation of God, but, additionally, to all persons who seek the approval of God.

For information on the contents of the twenty-seven books, their writers, the time written, proof of authenticity, see the individual books by name.

CHRONICLES, THE BOOKS OF THE

Two inspired books of the Hebrew Scriptures that were apparently one volume in the original Hebrew canon. The Masoretes regarded them as one single work and they are reckoned as one book in the counts that regard the Hebrew Scriptures as made up of twenty-two or twenty-four books, and as two books in the count that regards the total number of books as thirty-nine. The division into two books seemingly originated with the translators of the Septuagint. In modern Hebrew Bibles the twofold division did not become effective until the sixteenth century. In the Hebrew Bible Chronicles appears at the end of the section called “Writings.” The Hebrew name, Div·rehʹ Hay-ya·mimʹ, means “The Affairs of the Days.” Jerome suggested the name “Chronicon,” from which we get “Chronicles” in the English Bible. A chronicle is a record of happenings in the order in which they occurred. The Greek title (in the Septuagint) is Pa·ra·lei·po·meʹnon, meaning “Things passed over, left untold or omitted” (from the books of Samuel and Kings), but since the Chronicles are by no means a mere supplement to those books, the terminology was inaccurate.

WRITER, TIME, PERIOD COVERED

The Jewish priest Ezra is recognized, for a number of reasons, as the writer. Jewish tradition has long held to this view. It is also supported by the striking resemblance between the writing style of Chronicles and the style of the book of Ezra. Furthermore, there is repetition at the close of Second Chronicles and at the beginning of Ezra that is virtually word for word. Moreover, the statement of Cyrus’ decree found at the end of Second Chronicles is given in full in the book of Ezra, indicating that the writer closed the book of Chronicles with the intention of writing another book (Ezra) that would deal with the decree and its execution more fully. Chronicles was completed about 460 B.C.E. With the possible exception of the Psalms, only three books of the Hebrew canon were completed afterward, namely, Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi.

Aside from the genealogical lists that run from Adam, the Chronicles cover the period from the death of King Saul to the carrying away of exiles to Babylon, with a conclusion telling of Cyrus’ decree at the end of the seventy-year exile.

SOURCES

Ezra assumed his readers to be familiar with the books of Kings and therefore did not try to cover the same ground. The material he used, which in some instances reads exactly or nearly like portions of Kings, is included only in order to retain that which, by its relationship, gives meaning to the additional information in Chronicles. It may be that Ezra used the books of Samuel and Kings as well as some other parts of the Bible as sources, but it seems that in most, if not all cases, he had access to writings not now known to be in existence. Some of these may have been documents of state from both Israel and Judah, some genealogical records, and historical works written by prophets, also documents possessed by tribal or family heads. A portion of the sources used were no doubt the work of professional recorders. (1 Ki. 4:3) In the Apocrypha at 2 Maccabees 2:13 it is said that Nehemiah gathered together books to make a library. If this is true, these books may have been consulted by Ezra, who was not only “a skilled copyist in the law of Moses,” but also a researcher extraordinary.—Ezra 7:6.

There are many documentary sources listed by Ezra. Some believe the sources may have gone as high as twenty-five or more. Sources doubtless included Kings and other canonical books. Ezra names or describes some of the sources he used by the following designations:

(1) The Book of the Kings of Judah and of Israel (2 Chron. 16:11; 25:26)

(2) The Book of the Kings of Israel and of Judah (2 Chron. 27:7; 35:27)

(3) The Book of the Kings of Israel (2 Chron. 20:34) (The above-listed sources may be the same collection of state documents, with varied ways of stating the title, or could possibly refer to the books of Kings in our Bible.)

(4) The Book of the Kings of Israel (evidently a genealogical work) (1 Chron. 9:1)

(5) The exposition of the Book of the Kings (2 Chron. 24:27) (for information on Jehoash of Judah)

(6) The affairs of the kings of Israel (2 Chron. 33:18) (for information on Manasseh)

(7) The words of Samuel the seer and of Nathan the prophet and of Gad the visionary (1 Chron. 29:29) (for information on David) (This may be one work, or two or three; or it may refer to Judges and the books of Samuel.)

(8) The words of Nathan the prophet (2 Chron. 9:29) (for information on Solomon)

(9) The prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Chron. 9:29) (about Solomon)

(10) “Shemaiah . . . wrote” (1 Chron. 24:6) (about David), and the words of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the visionary by genealogical enrollment (2 Chron. 12:15) (about Rehoboam) (perhaps two or three sources)

(11) The words of Jehu the son of Hanani, which were inserted in the Book of the Kings of Israel (2 Chron. 20:34) (Jehoshaphat)

(12) The rest of the affairs of Uzziah, by Isaiah the son of Amoz the prophet (2 Chron. 26:22)

(13) The words of (Manasseh’s) visionaries (2 Chron. 33:19)

(14) Dirges (of Jeremiah, and possibly of singers) (2 Chron. 35:25) (about Josiah)

(15) The exposition of the prophet Iddo (2 Chron. 13:22) (about Abijah)

(16) The account of the affairs of the days of King David (1 Chron. 27:24)

(17) The commandment of David and of Gad and of Nathan the prophet (2 Chron. 29:25) (as enforced by Hezekiah)

(18) The writing of David and of Solomon his son (2 Chron. 35:4) (as referred to by Josiah)

(19) The commandment of David and of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun the visionary of the king (2 Chron. 35:15) (referred to in connection with Josiah’s acts)

(20) The writing of Elijah to King Jehoram of Judah (2 Chron. 21:12-15)

(Some of the above may refer to the same book or to books in our Bible, especially the prophetic works. There are also references in Chronicles to writings, particularly genealogies, that may designate other sources used by Ezra.)

It is evident that Ezra was no inaccurate historian, but that he was extremely careful, doing meticulous research, going through all the documentary sources accessible to him, evidently investigating every document