

The last book in the New Testament is Revelation, a Christian apocalypse. Thirteen of these books claim to be written by Paul (though, as we will see, New Testament scholars doubt the reliability of some of these claims).

Most of these New Testament books are records of correspondence between a church leader and a Christian community the New Testament epistles address issues of Christian belief, practice, and ethics. Following Acts are 21 epistles or letters. Acts of the Apostles, written by the author of the third Gospel ("Luke"), describes the spread of the Christian church from Jesus' death to the death of the apostle Paul. The Gospels were written anonymously and came to be ascribed to disciples (Matthew and John) and associates of apostles (Mark and Luke) sometime in the second century. These books tell the stories about Jesus' life, ministry, and death. The New Testament contains 4 Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It can be divided into 4 groups: Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles, and Apocalypse. The New Testament contains 27 books written in Greek by 15 or 16 different authors between 50 C.E and 120 C.E. The New Testament: Some Basic Information The New Testament is important for students to study because it has stood at the center of Western civilization and, thus, it has affected all of us-whether or not we consider ourselves Christians. The Old Testament contains 39 books (24 in Hebrew) that were more or less a fixed collection about a century after Jesus lived. Christians consider the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible/Jewish Scriptures) and the New Testament to be the sacred canon of Scripture. The New Testament is the second half of the Christian Bible. What is the New Testament? Chapter Summary:
