AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
Dr. George Challithara

The primary concern of first Christians was preaching the gospel, not writing it. Although the apostles were literate men they were so busy spreading the good news of Jesus Christ by word of mouth that took little or no time to write down.
Whenever and wherever the Christians came together, those who had known Jesus, had heard his preaching and had beheld his miracles would relate to others those things he had said or done. Whatever problem the congregation faced, there was some remembrance of the Lord that would give the answer or direction regarding it. For more than a generation after Jesus death and resurrection, these accounts of his life were circulated by word of mouth. It was not until many years later that men began to write the Gospel. In time, however, the details of his life and teaching were written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
There are our such books, called Gospels and these four constitute a major part of the New testament. The four Gospels tell the story of the life, teaching, deeds, death and resurrection of Jesus. Although they are printed first in the New testament canon, the four Gospels were not the first Christian literature to be written. Most of the books we call Epistles were written before there was a written record of Christ’s life.
The Gospels are followed by the Acts of Apostles, which traces the spread of the God News for some thirty years, from Jerusalem to Rome, the capital of the Empire. The last book in the New Testament is different from all the others. Its teaching concerning the Victory of the kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ is conveyed by means of visions, images, and symbols, many of which are very difficult for the modern reader to understand. But its central message which may also be taken as the theme of the whole New testament, is clearly proclaimed: “the power to rule over the world belongs now to our Lord and his Messiah, and he will rule for ever and ever!” (Revelation 11.15)
The Gospels reveal the life of Christ to us. The Book of Acts presents the historical record of the young church and the Book of Revelation gives a projection of things to come to the church. But it is the collection of Epistles that lets us see the heartbeat of the church: the private joys and sorrows of the writers, and the ups and downs of the congregations. An epistle is simply a letter written by an apostle usually to a church , or a person.
According to the number of books, the Epistles form the greatest part of the new testament. Of its twenty-seven books, twenty-one are epistles written by five apostles and one unknown writer. They range from lengthy treatises (such as Romans and Ephesians) to short personal notes (such as Philemon and lll John ). Some of the epistles were directed to one congregation regarding specific problems (2 Corinthians 7:8) while others were intended for more than one congregation (Colossians 4:15). Still others were General epistles, written for a wide circulation among the believers (James 1:1, 1peater 1:1).
Besides the twenty one epistles of the New Testament, there were many others that were not preserved. It is true also with Gospels. For instance, it is quite evident that Paul wrote four letters to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 5:9) of which only two were preserved for us. Reference is also made to a letter Paul wrote to the Laodicean church (Colossians 4:16) , which is also not preserved in present New Testament.
Besides those epistles written by Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude, early Christian tradition tells of letters from other writers, such as Barnabas and Apollos. Still other letters were written to various churches by leaders whose names do not even appear in the scriptures. We have become familiar with the order in which the epistles appear in the New Testament; but they were not written in that order. It is possibly more beneficial to observe them in their chronological order. In this way we could see the historical development of New Testament thinking.
It is very likely that first epistle written (of those preserved for us) was 1 Thessalonians. It is generally believed that this is the earliest of all New Testament books. The epistle of James too may deserve recognition as the earliest to be written. No one knows for sure, but the first book would almost certainly have been James or 1 Thessalonians.
If were to consider the Epistles in the chronological order in which their authors wrote them, the letters of Paul, with their probable dates, would appear somewhat like this:-
1 Thessalonians –A.D. 50 or 651
2 Thessalonians 50 or 51
1 Corinthians 54 or 55
2 Corinthians 54 or 55
Galatians 56 or 57
Romans 57
Ephesians 61 to 63
Philippians 61 to 63
Colssians 61 to 63
Philemon 61 to 63
1 Timothy 65 to 68
Titus 65 to 68
2 Timothy 65 to 68

The General epistles do not yield themselves to accurate dating and placement. They would therefore follow the Pauline epistles generally as they appear in the New Testament order:-
James About A.D 50
1. Peter 65
2. Peter 66 or 67
Jude 65 to 67
Hebrews 69
1. John 85 to 90
2. John
85 to 90
3. John 85 to 90
the book of revelation was written about the year A.D 95.