Introduction

Although the NT begins with the gospels, they were not the earliest NT literature. Paul's letters are, dating from about 50 to 65 CE. And, while Matthew is the first gospel in the Bible, Mark was actually the first gospel to be written. Written at the earliest in 70 CE, Mark was a primary source for Matthew and Luke, which were written about 80 and 90 CE, respectively. The gospel of John was written about 100 CE. Some gospels were probably not written by the persons whose names are ascribed to them, but for convenience we use the names of the gospels as their authors. The author of Luke also wrote the book of Acts, so for that reason we sometimes use “Luke” for the author of Acts.

All NT writers belonged to groups of persons who were devoted followers of christ and committed to faith in him. Eventually such groups were given various names, the best known being church or churches, which is the topic of the next chapter. The first uses of those names are in Paul's letters and Acts, from which we learn other names for Jesus' first followers and beliefs about him. Although Acts was not written before 90–100 CE, it contains information for early followers of Jesus several decades before.

We begin our study of the NT with the Epistles of Paul, as the earliest NT literature, and the book of Acts, with its information for Jesus' early followers.