Origen of Alexandria was an early Christian ascetic, bible scholar, and theologian who lived from 184 to 253 AD, spending much of his life in Egypt. He was a prolific writer and one of the most influential figures in early Christianity. Origen is also an early witness to what books were included in the Bible, especially the New Testament. Around 250 AD Origen wrote:
“But when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, whose arrival that prior son of Nun designated, he sends priests, his apostles, bearing “trumpets hammered thin,” the magnificent and heavenly instruction of proclamation. Matthew first sounded the priestly trumpet in his Gospel; Mark also; Luke and John each played their own priestly trumpets. Even Peter cries out with trumpets in two of his epistles; also James and Jude. In addition, John also sounds the trumpet through his epistles [incl Revelation], and Luke, as he describes the Acts of the Apostles. And now that last one comes, the one who said, “I think God displays us apostles last,” and in fourteen of his epistles, thundering with trumpets, he casts down the walls of Jericho and all the devices of idolatry and dogmas of philosophers, all the way to the foundations.” (Hom. Jos. 7.1)
Curious Christian 