What light do the writings of early church leaders shed on the Bibles accuracy?
1. Manuscripts of the writings of church leaders who lived in the early centuries of the church (often referred to incorrectly as the Apostolic Fathers) contain numerous quotations from the New Testament. So numerous are their scriptural references that if all the New Testament was lost, we could reassemble it in almost its entirety from just their quotations! 2. Some of the earliest of these writings were from Clement of Rome (about 96 AD.);Ignatius (died 107 AD.), Polycarp (a disciple of John the Apostle, died 155 AD.), Justin Martyr (died 165 AD.), Irenaeus (a disciple of Polycarp, died 200 AD.), Clement of Alexandria (died 220 A.D.), Tertullian (died 220 A.D.), Origen (died 254 A.D.) and Eusebius (died 339 A.D.). 3. The New Testament quotations from just seven of these early church leaders actually total more than 36.000 quotations!! THE-ORIGIN & HISTORY OF THE BIBLE—PART TWO III. The Old Testament Canon—How Was it Developed? A. What is meant by the terms canon and “testament?”
