New Testament

The New Testament is a collection of biblical books written by various authors between 45 AD and 140 AD, revolving around the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth, and the apostles he worked with.

The books are traditionally classified into categories:

• The four Gospels (literally "Good news"): varying accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus, consisting of the gospels attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (rather than up to sixteen known others of similar attribution, which were rejected by the early Church).

• The Acts of the Apostles (or just "Acts") (which J. B. Phillips evocatively called "The Young Church In Action,") which concerns the ministry of the Apostles after the death of Christ. It is similar in language and style to, and reads as a continuation of, the Gospel of Luke.

• The Epistles (which J. B. Phillips called "Letters to Young Churches,") Romans through Jude, consisting of fourteen letters attributed to St. Paul and seven by other writers.

• The Book of Revelation (or just "Revelation,") the prophetic book which ends the New Testament. It is also known as "the Apocalypse" (Greek for 'revelation') - though many such apocalyses, both Christian and Jewish, were in fact in circulation at the time. It is somewhat similar in style to the Old Testament book of Daniel (from which it borrows), and tells of the end of the world, including Armageddon, Judgment Day, and the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven, but despite Jesus' thrice repeated promise in it that 'I shall come very soon', opinions vary as to whether it refers to supposedly imminent events set amid the then Roman Empire or to the far future.

As with the Old Testament, the chapter and verse divisions and numbers of the various books are not original, but of purely medieval origin.

Sources

• Cruden, A., Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments (Lutterworth, 1930)
• Cross, C., Who Was Jesus? (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
• The Holy Bible (King James Version)
• James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1953)
• The New English Bible (Oxford & Cambridge University Presses, 1970)
• The New Jerusalem Bible (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1990)
• Lemesurier, P., The Armageddon Script (Element Books, 1981)
• Peake, A. S., Commentary on the Bible (Nelson, 1962)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Authentic New Testament (Dobson, n.d.)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Passover Plot (Hutchinson, 1965)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Pentecost Revolution (Macdonald, 1974)
• Schonfield, H. J., Those Incredible Christians (Bernard Geis, New York, 1968)
• Vermes, G., Jesus the Jew (Collins, 1973)
• Young, R., Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible (Lutterworth, 1939)