In a move sure to ruffle a few feathers, a group of scholars and religious leaders have added ten new texts to the New Testament. According to the book blurb:
They voted on which should be added, choosing ten new books to include in A New New Testament. Reading the traditional scriptures alongside these new texts—the Gospel of Luke with the Gospel of Mary, Paul’s letters with The Letter of Peter to Philip, The Revelation to John with The Secret Revelation to John—offers the exciting possibility of understanding both the new and the old better.
These scholars represented…
…the Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian Church USA, United Church of Christ, and Reconstructionist Rabbinical movements. Others are best-selling authors. Others are nationally known scholars. Sixteen are Christian, three are non-Christian. Four have had the highest rank possible within their own national or international Christian denomination.
Sounds fine, I suppose. However I see a few PR problems when it comes to selling this to the more fundamental crowd.
Timothy Paul Jones, a Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor says:
“Treating these 10 texts as historical context for the New Testament would be like studying ‘Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’ to understand the historical context of the 13th Amendment.”
Ouch.
The creators of this text are undeterred.
“I see a lot of curiosity among people about documents that didn’t make it into the New Testament,” said Greg Carey, a New Testament professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
The revised New Testament “could serve people a way into exploring the texts,” he said.
The actual list of scholars who worked on this project is quite interesting.
But tampering with the word of god? They’re far braver than I am.
Note: You can check out the New New Testament’s official website here. If you have eye issues, you may burn your retinas. You’ll also need to squint a lot to read, assuming you don’t get a head ache first. If the book is designed like this website, I fear it will most certainly be unreadable.
