CHURCH ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE BIBLE COMPILED

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Introduction

Most Christians, especially Catholics, it remains a historical and theological fact that the Christian Church existed for decades before the New Testament was written and for centuries before the Bible was officially compiled as a single book. So how Church came first?

Church to Bible

In this series, ecclesiology is not central in this topic series as we focus on the bible. For short details, the Church was established at Peter's Confession(Matthew 16:18) and Pentecost (c. 33 AD), when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. The Gospel was spread primarily through preaching and oral teaching from those who had witnessed Jesus’ life directly. It's earliest writing after church established and oral tradition(2 Thessalonians 2:15) during the apostolic or early church era.

Early Christians practiced their faith through specific structures that predate the written New Testament is the Baptism, Eucharist, Creeds, and etc. Historically, the Church is viewed as the "mother" of the New Testament rather than its child.

The Church operated for over 300 years before the 27 books of the New Testament and official 73 books of the compiled bible were officially canonized at the Council of Rome (382 AD) and subsequent councils like Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD). 

Reference

Reece, B. (2022). Hurstbourne Christian. Hurstbourne Christian. https://doi.org/108162073/unsplash-image--uj3Y7r1BeM

The Body of Christ. (2026). Anglicanhistory.org. https://anglicanhistory.org/usa/congress/5/04.html

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