New Testament

The New Testament is a collection of ancient writings put together by Christians and believed by them to describe the foundations of their religion. Which specifics writings should be viewed as "canon," or official, was a matter of great debate in the past, but now, most branches of Christianity agree on a single set of 27 writings. However, as most New Testament scholars now point out, a large portion of these writings are thought to have been modified from their original form, or, in several cases, completely fraudulent.

Criticisms

Authorship

There is much conjecture and debate about the authors of the books in the New Testament canon. Excluding letters attributed to Paul, most of the authors don't identify themselves, but church tradition has assigned authors to each work regardless. Among the 27 books, there are only four distinct authors who explicitly identify themselves, however Christian tradition generally accepts nine, but there is disagreement among the various denominations. Historians, however, have a very different approach to the New Testament, and believe that the majority of the books are not written by either the church-assigned authors or the the authors named in the books, and suggest around 15-20 different authors. The table below lists each book, if the author identifies himself and how they do, the traditionally attributed author, what historians generally say, and, assuming the historians are accurate, what it means for the authorship.

Book	Author From Book	Traditional Author	Historian's Opinion	Verdict
Gospel of Matthew	None	Matthew the Apostle	Unknown, unlikely Matthew	Tradition is probably wrong.
Gospel of Mark	None	Mark the Evangelist, Saint Peter	Unknown, unlikely Mark	Tradition is probably wrong.
Gospel of Luke	None	Luke the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely Luke, probably same author as Acts	Tradition is probably wrong.
Gospel of John	None	John the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely John	Tradition is probably wrong.
Acts of the Apostles	None	Luke the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely Luke, probably same author as Luke	Tradition is probably wrong.
Epistle to the Romans	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
First Epistles to the Corinthians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Second Epistles to the Corinthians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Epistle to the Galatians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Epistles to the Ephesians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Maybe Paul	Maybe a fraud.
Epistle to the Philippians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Epistles to the Colossians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Maybe Paul	Maybe a fraud.
First Epistle to the Thessalonians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Maybe Paul	Maybe a fraud.
First Epistle to Timothy	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Unknown, unlikely Paul	Probably a fraud.
Second Epistle to Timothy	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Unknown, unlikely Paul	Probably a fraud.
Epistle to Titus	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Unknown, unlikely Paul	Probably a fraud.
Epistle to Philemon	Paul	Paul the Apostle	Paul the Apostle	Probably accurate.
Epistle to the Hebrews	None	Paul the Apostle	Unknown, unlikely Paul	Tradition is probably wrong.
Epistle of James	James	James the Just	Several people named James, maybe one.	Maybe accurate.
First Epistle of Peter	Peter	Saint Peter	Unknown, unlikely Peter or author of II Peter	Probably a fraud.
Second Epistle of Peter	Simon Peter	Saint Peter	Unknown, unlikely Peter or author of I Peter	Probably a fraud.
First Epistle of John	None	John the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely John	Tradition is probably wrong.
Second Epistle of John	None	John the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely John	Tradition is probably wrong.
Third Epistle of John	None	John the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely John	Tradition is probably wrong.
Epistle of Jude	Jude	James the Apostle	Maybe Jude	Maybe accurate.
Revelation	Unclear	John the Evangelist	Unknown, unlikely John	Tradition is probably wrong.