BSN: The Authors, Structure, and Books of the New Testament

The Eight Authors

The 27 texts – called “books” – of the New Testament come from eight authors. Some of these authors had help, but there was one lead author for each text. I’ve ordered the eight men according to the number of books each contributed.

Paul (14) – He was an apostle Jesus appointed after His ascension into heaven.
John (5) – He was one of the original twelve apostles.
Luke (2) – He was a helper of the apostle Paul.
Peter (2) – He was one of the original twelve apostles.
Matthew (1) – He was one of the original twelve apostles.
Mark (1) – He was a helper of the apostles Peter and Paul.
James (1) – He was one of Jesus’ four brothers.
Jude (1) – He was another of Jesus’ four brothers.

These were all 1st-century men – that is, all contemporaries of Jesus, part of the generation to which He belonged. Each of the eight knew of, and in most cases, knew personally, the rest of the eight. They said nothing in their writings of the need for a New Testament. On the contrary, their writings indicate that they thought what we call the Old Testament comprised the totality of the Scriptures. Therefore, we should keep in mind that each writing was produced to meet specific needs of a specific time and place.

The Structure of the Collection

The first five books of the New Testament constitute over half its content. These five consist of biographical material primarily about Jesus, but also about the apostles. The remaining 22 books are letters (also called “epistles”) from various apostles to various churches and individuals. Although the historical narratives account for only five of the 27 books, they account for 60% of the words.

The New Testament

Historical Narratives	Letters
Gospels + The Acts of the Apostles	Epistles (including Revelation)
5 books	22 books
60% of the word count	40% of the word count

The authors wrote these books in the 1st century. The collection – or you could say library – of 27 texts was put together by the succeeding generations of believers and finalized by the 4th-5th centuries. The authors are fully responsible for the content of their writings as the succeeding generations did not edit any of them. Rather, the recipients of these writings only gave titles to the collection and the individual books, putting them in the order we find them still today.

The Individual Books

The 27 writings produced by the 8 men can be more finely categorized as follows:

Historical/Biographical Accounts – These are mainly eyewitness accounts which either the author, or someone with whom the author had spoken directly, was the eyewitness.
- Gospels (4) – Four separate eyewitness accounts of how Jesus taught His disciples and ministered to the needs of the crowds that gathered around him as He traveled throughout Israel.
- Acts of the Apostles (1) – This account focuses mainly on the ministries of the apostles Peter and Paul, and only highlights at that. The idea was to use the two as examples of how the gospel spread among Jews (Peter’s portion) and among Gentiles (Paul’s portion) as well.
Correspondence (usually called epistles or letters) – This correspondence was directed to believers through the churches of which they were a part. The content of the correspondence varies greatly and was driven by the variety of needs in the different congregations and the different circumstances they faced. They do not follow any single prescribed pattern.
- from Paul (14) – Paul wrote to Gentile churches and his fellow ministers, and in one case to his fellow Jews (Hebrews).
- from others (7) – These are letters from James, Peter, John, and Jude to various churches.
- The Revelation from John (1) – This was a single letter written for circulation to seven churches in the region we today know as Turkey (Asia Minor).

As you can tell from these descriptions, these texts were not written to convince an unbelieving world of the gospel of Jesus. On the contrary, they were written for the edification and encouragement of those who had believed the preaching of the apostles and were seeking to learn more about the Messiah of Israel who had come to save the whole world.