NEW TESTAMENT ｜ 新约

ENNEW TESTAMENT. The term; contents; twenty-seven books; unanimous acceptance. The fourfold Gospel: four Gospels, and their characteristics. (Special topics treated in The Bible Work, Vols. X and XI: the Trinity; the Person of Christ; Prophet, Priest, and King; the world before and at Messiah's advent; Christ's doctrine of the Kingdom; the Second Coming; the miracles of Christ; the Temple, Synagogue, Scribes, and Pharisees; Christ the center of Christian theology; Christianity as history, as truth, as life; its three great opponents; the inspiration of the Scriptures; the Church; Christian missions.) [The Old Testament and the New present two successive stages in the progress of the Divine work of redemption. Part First contains the story of the Divine religion in its earlier, incomplete, typical form, and as confined mainly to a single people—the Jews. Part Second contains the story of that Divine religion in its later and complete form, as given to all the world, represented especially by Jew, Roman, and Greek—the type-races of mankind. The Old Testament presents the successive failures of the Theocracy and the Theocratic Monarchy, and of the outward and material forms and glories, and leaves the restored remnant of God's people waiting at Jerusalem as a world-center—under the rule of the great Oriental monarchies, and under the guidance of the Law and the Prophets—for the coming of Messiah and the setting up of His spiritual kingdom, as the only hope of deliverance.

BSBHebrews 1:1, 2 1 On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. 2 But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

中新约。此名的由来；内容；二十七卷书；被一致接纳的历史。四重的福音书：四卷福音书及其各自的特色。（作者注释书《The Bible Work》第十、十一卷中所论的专题包括：三位一体；基督的位格；先知、祭司与君王；弥赛亚降临前与降临时的世界；基督论国度的教训；第二次降临；基督的神迹；圣殿、会堂、文士与法利赛人；基督为基督教神学的中心；基督教作为历史、作为真理、作为生命；它的三大对手；圣经的默示；教会；基督教宣教。）〔旧约与新约呈现出神圣救赎工作进程中先后相继的两个阶段。第一部分记述神圣宗教较早、尚不完全、带预表性的形态，且主要限于一个民族——犹太人。第二部分记述这同一神圣宗教后期完全的形态，赐给全世界——尤以犹太人、罗马人、希腊人为代表，他们是人类的三大典型种族。旧约呈现的是神权政体与神权君主制的接连失败，以及外在物质形式与荣耀的接连失败；它把神子民中归回的余民留在耶路撒冷这一世界中心等候——处在东方诸大帝国的统治之下、在律法与先知的引导之下——等候弥赛亚的来临与他属灵国度的建立，因为这是拯救唯一的盼望。

ENThe advent of the Messiah introduced the New Dispensation, the beginnings, development, and prophetic anticipations of which are embodied in the New Testament. The New Testament is to be viewed as God's giving of the Divine religion of salvation to all the world in the form of the Gospel: it is the record of the beginning, progress, and final triumph of the Kingdom of God. As presented in the Sacred Scriptures, the work of the New Dispensation—like all other great Divine works—proceeds by stages. The movement of the Divine religion in the New Testament embraces two stages. First stage: the historical introduction of the Gospel into the world—recorded in the Four Gospels. Second stage: the Divine development and triumph of the Gospel in the world—recorded in the remaining books, in three phases: I. In the outward life and history of the Church, or Kingdom of God, in connection with the three world-races: in the Acts of the Apostles. II. In the scheme of Divine doctrines, as the basis of salvation and of the religious and churchly life: in the Epistles. III. In the revelation to faith of the future conflicts and triumphs of the Kingdom of God: in the Revelation of John, the one prophetical book of the New Testament.]

中弥赛亚的降临引入了新的时代（New Dispensation）；这新时代的开端、发展与预言性的展望，都体现在新约之中。新约当被看作：神以福音的形式，把这拯救的神圣宗教赐给全世界；它是神国之开端、进程与最终得胜的记录。正如圣经所呈现的，新时代的工作——如同其他一切伟大的神圣工作——是分阶段推进的。神圣宗教在新约中的推进包含两个阶段。第一阶段：福音在历史中被引入世界——记于四福音书。第二阶段：福音在世界中神圣的展开与得胜——记于其余各卷，分三个层面：一、在教会（即神的国）与三大世界种族相关的外在生活与历史中：见于使徒行传。二、在作为救恩、宗教生活与教会生活之根基的神圣教义体系中：见于书信。三、在向信心所作的、关于神国将来争战与得胜的启示中：见于约翰的启示录——新约唯一的预言书。〕

EN[The origin of the Gospels. In connection with His death, Christ issued to His Apostles the Great Commission: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." They entered upon the work of carrying out that commission; it embraced in its scope the world—Jew, Roman, and Greek—of that age. The Apostles went forth preaching the Gospel like common-sense men, presenting Jesus to each of these three great types or races of mankind in the way best suited to the end in view: to lead those races to submit to Him as the Divine Saviour and Lord. The same presentation would not equally commend Him to all these races: each had its peculiarities that had to be taken into account; each its own characteristic views of life, of the evils in the world, and of the qualities of the needed and longed-for deliverer—of which, so far as it was right, the Gospel must take advantage. Those early preachers took wise account of all this, and preached to the Jew, to the Roman, and to the Greek in a form suited to their natures and needs. Before the Apostles passed away, there arose among these peoples a desire to have the Gospel that had been preached to them embodied in permanent form; and, as a matter of history, the Four Gospels originated in this way.

BSBMark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

中〔四福音书的成因。基督在临死之际向使徒们颁下大使命：『你们往普天下去，传福音给万民听。』他们就着手执行这道使命；其范围涵盖那个时代的世界——犹太人、罗马人、希腊人。使徒们出去传福音时，像通情达理的人那样行事：他们向人类这三大典型（种族）中的每一个，以最合乎目的的方式把耶稣呈现出来，为要引这些种族降服于他，认他为神圣的救主与主。同一种呈现方式，不可能同样有效地把他荐介给这三个种族：每一族都有必须顾及的特点；每一族对人生、对世上的诸恶、对他们所需所盼之拯救者应有的品质，都有自己独特的看法——只要是正当的，福音就必须善加利用这些看法。那些早期传道人对这一切都作了明智的考量，就分别以合乎犹太人、罗马人、希腊人本性与需要的形式向他们传讲。在使徒们离世以前，这些民族中间兴起一个愿望：希望把已经传给他们的福音以持久的形式固定下来；而按历史事实，四福音书正是这样产生的。

ENThis desire expressed itself among the Jews, and Matthew by Divine inspiration gave them his Gospel to meet it. It was the Gospel that his long preaching to the Jews—the chosen people of God, possessing the oracles of God, the Divine religious forms, and the promise of the Messiah—had already thrown into the form best suited to commend to their acceptance Jesus as the Messiah. The same desire expressed itself among the Romans, and Mark by Divine inspiration gave them his Gospel. It was the Gospel that Peter, by his preaching to the Romans—the men of power and action, of law and universal empire—had already thrown into the form best suited to commend to their acceptance Jesus as the Almighty worker and deliverer of men. The same desire expressed itself among the Greeks, and Luke by Divine inspiration gave them his Gospel. It had its basis in the Gospel that Paul and Luke, by their long preaching to the Greeks—the men of reason and universal humanity—had already thrown into the form best suited to commend to their acceptance Jesus as the perfect Divine man. All these three missionary or evangelistic Gospels were given their final shape before the fall of Jerusalem, probably between 50 and 70 A.D. The result was the calling out from the three races of a multitude of those saved by the grace of God, who constituted the Church, in which the race relations gave place to the Christian relations. It was later that the longing came, in the Church, for a spiritual Gospel that should help the Christian to develop, strengthen, and perfect the life already begun; and John by Divine inspiration gave his Gospel to meet this longing. It was the Gospel the materials for which he had gathered in the more intimate communion with his Master, and which, by his long preaching to Christians—the men of faith and of a Divine life—had been thrown into the form best suited to commend to the faith of Christians Jesus as the light and life of all who believe. D. S. Gregory.]

BSBJohn 20:31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

中这愿望首先在犹太人中间表达出来，马太便受神默示，把他的福音书给了他们，以应此需。那正是他长期向犹太人传道所结成的福音——犹太人是神的选民，拥有神的圣言、神所定的宗教形式、以及关于弥赛亚的应许；他早已把福音铸成最适于向他们荐介『耶稣就是弥赛亚』的形态。同样的愿望在罗马人中间表达出来，马可便受神默示，把他的福音书给了他们。那正是彼得长期向罗马人传道所铸成的福音——罗马人是重权力与行动、重法律与普世帝国的民族；他早已把福音铸成最适于向他们荐介『耶稣是全能的行事者与人类的拯救者』的形态。同样的愿望在希腊人中间表达出来，路加便受神默示，把他的福音书给了他们。它的根基是保罗与路加长期向希腊人传道所铸成的福音——希腊人是重理性与普世人性的民族；他们早已把福音铸成最适于向他们荐介『耶稣是完全的神圣之人』的形态。这三卷宣教性（布道性）的福音书都在耶路撒冷陷落之前定型，大约在主后 50 至 70 年之间。其结果是：从这三个种族中召出了大批蒙神恩典拯救的人，他们构成了教会；在教会里，种族的关系让位给了基督徒的关系。后来，教会中又生出一个渴望：盼望有一卷属灵的福音书，帮助基督徒去发展、坚固、成全那已经开始的生命；约翰便受神默示，写下他的福音书以应此渴望。那正是他在与主更亲密的相交中所积聚的材料所成的福音；他长期向基督徒——那些有信心、有神圣生命的人——传讲，早已把它铸成最适于向基督徒的信心荐介『耶稣是一切信者之光与生命』的形态。格雷戈里（D. S. Gregory）〕

EN[The story of the New Testament is to me the truest history in the world. Beyond every other, it is self-verifying: by the utter natural simplicity of its style while setting forth the most astonishing facts—such facts as fancy or fiction would inevitably have treated with artificial ostentation, in a labored, stilted and hysterical fashion; by the freedom with which commonest incidents and familiar talk are set side by side with superlative marvels; by the inimitable perfection with which the four primary narratives unite in exhibiting a wholly transcendent character and life, which had had no precedent and could have no parallel; by the spirit of vigilant yet impassioned sincerity which breathes through all the consenting histories; and by their progress through miracle and theophany toward a climax not of visible victory, but of unanticipated wounds and death. The contemporaneous acceptance of this astonishing record by men like Paul—acute, disciplined, unbelieving at first, who had personally known the historians, who sacrificed everything for his conviction and flung his whole life into incessant victorious contest for the truth of the Gospel statements—becomes a significant witness to them. They afford the only possible basis for the establishment of the Church, coming out from the midst of a hostile theocracy, infused with a wholly peculiar life, and expecting to conquer an inimical world by the sublime story of advent, cross and resurrection, which was its only earthly instrument. It was thus attested, afterward, by the martyrs in the Church, who had heard and who believed it with a faith which dungeon and stake, arena and cross, could no more conquer than they could break sunbeams. The moral demonstration of it is thus builded, fundamentally, into the new civilization of the world: it is at the base of all our letters, arts, freer governments, finer humanities. If anything, therefore, is true in the past, this must be true; and the unwasting benign force which it still exerts on multitudes uncounted, of noblest minds, hearts and lives, becomes an argument for it of absolutely imperative power. R. S. Storrs.]

中〔在我看来，新约的记事是世上最真实的历史。它比任何别的历史都更能自我印证：其一，在陈述最惊人事实的同时，其文体却极其自然朴素——若换作幻想或虚构，处理这类事实时势必用矫饰的排场、写成刻意、做作、歇斯底里的文字；其二，最寻常的琐事、最家常的谈话，竟与至高的奇迹并肩而列，行文却毫无拘束；其三，四份主要叙事以无可摹仿的完美彼此契合，共同展示出一个全然超绝的品格与生平——它前无先例，也不可能有并肩者；其四，贯穿这些彼此印合之记事的，是一种既警醒又炽热的真诚气息；其五，它们经过神迹与神显，推进到的高潮，不是看得见的胜利，而是意料之外的伤痕与死亡。像保罗这样的人对这惊人记录的同时代接纳——他敏锐、受过严格训练、起初并不相信、亲身认识那些记事者、为自己的确信舍弃一切、把整个生命投入为福音陈述之真实性所作的不断得胜的争战——本身就成了对这些记录有分量的见证。这些记录为教会的建立提供了唯一可能的根基：教会从一个敌视它的神权体制中间出来，被注入一种全然独特的生命，并指望仅凭降临、十字架与复活这个崇高的故事——它在地上唯一的凭借——去征服一个与它为敌的世界。此后，教会中的殉道者又如此印证了它：他们听见了、也信了；那信心是地牢与火刑柱、竞技场与十字架所无法征服的，正如它们无法折断阳光。这样，它的道德明证就从根本上被建造进了世界的新文明之中：它是我们一切文学、艺术、更自由的政体、更精细的人文之根基。所以，若说过去有什么是真的，那么这一件必定是真的；而它至今仍向无数最高贵的心思、心灵与生命所施加的那股不衰的良善之力，就成了支持它的、具有绝对强制力的论据。斯托尔斯（R. S. Storrs）〕