1. The books of the New Testament may be divided according to their general character into the historical and the epistolary. The historical include the four Gospels and the Acts. The epistolary include those written to the churches, those written to Christians generally, called the “Catholic Epistles,” those written to Timothy and Titus, who had the oversight of churches, called the “Pastoral Epistles,” and those written to private individuals. The purpose of the Gospels is not to give a full account of all that Jesus did, but to record those facts that manifest his nature, and the object of his earthly career. The Acts is intermediate between the Gospels and the Epistles, showing the growth and character of the church. The chief purpose of the Epistles was to give instruction to the churches in order that they might be edified, showing them the nature of Christ, the nature of the Christian, the ground of the Christian's hope, his relation to Christ, to the world and to other Christians. It will be seen that each Epistle has a special object in this general purpose.

2. The time of writing the different books cannot be absolutely determined, though there is general agreement in regard to most of them. An advantage will be gained from studying the books, especially the epistles of Paul, in their chronological order. The following arrangement may be accepted as probably correct:

• James, 44 or 60 A. D.
• 1 Thessalonians, 53–54 A. D.
• 2 Thessalonians, 53-54 A. D.
• Galatians, 55 A. D.
• Matthew, 50–60 A. D.
• 1 Corinthians, 57 A. 1).
• 2 Corinthians, 57 A. D.
• Romans, 58 A. D.
• Ephesians, 62-64 A. D.
• Colossians, 62–64 A. D.
• Philemon, 62-64 A. D.
• Mark 60-70 A. D.
• Philippians, 63 A. D.
• Luke, 63 A. D.
• Acts, 64-65 A. D.
• 1 Peter, 63–66 A. D.
• 2 Peter, 63-66 A. D.
• Hebrews, 62–67 A. D.
• 1 Timothy, 65 A. D.
• Titus, 65 A. D.
• 2 Timothy, 66 A. D.
• Jude, 70-80 A. D.
• John's Gospel, 75–85 A. D.
• 1 John, 75–85 A. D.
• 2 John, 75-85 A. D.
• 3 John, 75-85 A. D,
• Revelation, 94–95 (or 68–69?) A. D.