The Core New Testament

About this book

The Core New Testament (CNT) offers a concise foundation of apostolic Christianity as attested by Luke and Paul.Comprising three scriptural volumes, The Gospel to Theophilus gives a reconstructed text of Luke's Gospel with selected passages from Acts, restoring the earliest attainable form of the Lukan narrative from the oldest known manuscripts. The Book of Paul brings together excerpts from Acts and Paul's epistles in a single, unified account of the apostle's life, mission, and teaching. The Kerygma (Core Gospel Message) distills the earliest recoverable apostolic proclamation into two chapters: the first drawn from the kerygmatic material of Luke's Gospel and the apostolic speeches of Acts, the second from the confessional and kerygmatic content of Paul's letters, organized by epistle.The set opens with a detailed preface laying out the rationale and methodology behind the CNT, which treats Luke and Paul as a self-contained apostolic canon grounded in the historical and textual reliability of the Lukan witness.The Core New Testament is intended for devotional and practical use. It is meant to be read, prayed over, taught from, and lived out. A new believer will find an uncluttered introduction to Jesus and the apostles; a seasoned reader will encounter familiar Scripture afresh.Before the 27-book canon of later tradition took shape, the foundations of apostolic Christianity lived in the preaching of the apostles. The CNT recovers that core according to the oldest manuscript witnesses, with the Kerygma standing as the confession of faith at its center.For the scholarly case behind The Core New Testament, see the companion volume, The Case for the Core New Testament.