Canon of the New Testament

The 27 books of the New Testament

The canon ("official list of books") of the New Testament was not settled until 382-419 AD. Up until then, there were disagreements about which books to include and which to exclude from the official list of books inspired by God. It took time for the Church to decide which books to include in or exclude from the New Testament. The Church reached agreement on the four gospels and the seven undisputed letters of St. Paul early in the second century; other books were disputed for the next three centuries.

The first column in this table, the Biblical order of the books, follows the Catholic canon rather than the Lutheran, which puts Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation at the end as apocryphal works.

All of the other columns are illustrative, not definitive. The Church has no dogmatic teachings on the date, author, or genre of the books of the New Testament; scholars disagree on these things. The more you learn about Biblical criticism, the more you may enter into these debates, if you wish to do so. I have followed the Jerome Biblical Commentary and the New American Bible in constructing this table, for the most part.

Biblical order	Date	Author	Genre
00Click on the sort symbols above to sort the table by the values in that column.
01Matthew	1370s to 80s	23 Jewish scribe?	17Gospel
02Mark	0860s	15 disciple of Peter?	16Gospel
03Luke = Luke vol. 1	1470s to 80s	24 Syrian Gentile	18Gospel
04John	2090-100	26 The Beloved Disciple	20Gospel
05Acts = Luke vol. 2	15after Luke	25 author of Luke	19History
06Romans	0657-58	06 Paul	06Epistle
071 Corinthians	0454-57	04 Paul	04Epistle
082 Corinthians	0554-55	05 Paul	05Epistle
09Galatians	0254	02 Paul	02Epistle
10Ephesians	17after Colossians	10 not Paul?	23Treatise?
11Philippians	0354-58	03 Paul	03Epistle
12Colossians	1670-80	09 not Paul?	22Treatise?
131 Thessalonians	0150-51	01 Paul	01Epistle
142 Thessalonians	1851-100?	08 not Paul?	09Epistle?
151 Timothy	26circa 100	12 Author of Titus	25Pastoral epistle
162 Timothy	27circa 100	13 Author of Titus	26Pastoral epistle
17Titus	25circa 100	11not Paul	24Pastoral epistle
18Philemon	0756-63	07 Paul	07Epistle
19Hebrews	10before 70?	14 Jewish Christian?	21Treatise
20James	1960s to 90s?	17 James of Jerusalem	10Epistle
211 Peter	0965?	16 disciple of Peter?	08Epistle
222 Peter	29after Jude	22 Not Peter	15Epistle?
231 John	22circa 100	18 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	11Epistle
242 John	23circa 100	19 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	12Epistle
253 John	24circa 100	20 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	13Epistle
26Jude	28circa 100	21 Not the apostle Jude	14Epistle?
27Revelation	2195-96	27 Not John the Apostle or Beloved Disciple	27Apocalypse

Development of the Canon of the New Testament

Early controversies

• imitations
• counterfeits
• later writings

Sequence of decrees

In 382 AD, Pope Damasus and the Council of Rome (a local, not worldwide or ecumenical council) listed the books of the Old and New Testament exactly as they appear in today's Catholic bibles. This decision was reaffirmed four times over the next forty years and again in two ecumenical councils of the Church.

date	authority
382	Council of Rome under Pope Damasus
393	Council of Hippo
397	Council of Carthage
405	Pope Clement I
419	Carthage
1442	Ecumenical Council of Florence
1546	Ecumenical Council of Trent

Luther's Attempt to Discard New Testament books

Luther treated four books of the New Testament as apocryphal (not inspired by God):

• Hebrews
• James
• Jude
• Revelation

These books were placed at the end of the New Testament, lacked page numbers, and did not appear in the index. This is exactly how Luther denigrated the seven extra books of the Septuagint. Luther's rejection of the Septuagint material caught on with most Protestants; his rejection of the four New Testament books did not.

Early Non-canonical Christian Writings

date	work	comments
1st or 2nd AD	The Didache	"The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." Catechism, Baptism, Eucharist.
	Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians
	The Epistle of Barnabas
	Pseudo-Clement
	The Shepherd of Hermas