The New Testament: Gospels, Letters and Revelation

The Christian Bible adds the New Testament, 27 books written in Greek, to the Hebrew scriptures, which Christians call the Old Testament. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, tell the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus; most scholars date them to about 65–100 CE and see Mark as the earliest. The Acts of the Apostles describes the early church's spread. The letters (epistles), many by the apostle Paul, were written to young congregations in the 50s CE and are the earliest Christian writings that survive.

The book of Revelation uses vivid symbolic visions to encourage persecuted believers. The Gospels differ in emphasis and detail, which believers explain as complementary perspectives and historians analyze to understand how traditions developed. The list of accepted books was settled gradually; a list matching today's 27 appears in a letter by Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 CE.