- 2.3 David Trobisch - On The Origins of Scripture

When was the New Testament actually published? Not written — published. Manuscript scholar David Trobisch, one of the editors of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, argues it appeared as a single, carefully edited four-volume book in the second half of the 2nd century, about 150 years after Jesus.

We talk about why there was never a council that "picked" the books, how a dispute over the date of Easter left its mark on the four gospels, how to hear the editor's voice in the text, why Marcion's gospel may have come before Luke, and who might have edited the New Testament: Polycarp of Smyrna, or Irenaeus.

Watch This Interview Live📚 David's book — On the Origin of Christian Scripture

🎯 CHAPTERS

00:00 The myth of how we got the New Testament

03:45 Start with the manuscripts

06:24 Why some books survive: conflict

09:51 The Easter dispute & four gospels as compromise

13:03 Dating the New Testament to 160–200 AD

14:45 One book, four volumes

21:02 Story vs. history: the trap in NT scholarship

26:28 "There was never a council"

29:24 What other collections teach us

31:04 A hundred 2nd-century books about Jesus

40:45 Hearing the editor's voice in John

48:52 Matthew the tax collector: building credibility

54:23 Miraculous discoveries & provenance stories

56:29 Acts dates itself: literature vs. document

58:47 Marcion's gospel came first

1:05:19 What the editors added

1:13:19 Who edited the New Testament?

1:16:30 The Carpus clue in 2 Timothy

1:19:12 Polycarp or Irenaeus?

1:20:30 Rethinking the synoptic problem

1:26:40 Read your New Testament looking for the editor