The Bible, as we have been discussing, is made up of 2 testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is important to remember that between the last prophet of the Old Testament (Malachi) and the coming of John the Baptist, the forerunner for the Messiah, Jesus, there were 400 years. These are sometimes called the silent years because during them, God was silent. He did not speak through any prophets, dreams or visions that are recorded for us.
The New Testament is also divided into sections which are:
- Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)
- Early Church History (Acts)
- Paul’s Epistles [Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews (maybe*)]
- General Epistles [Hebrews (maybe*), James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1,2 & 3 John, and Jude)
- Revelation of Jesus Christ (Revelation)
There are only 27 books in the New Testament compared to the 39 in the Old. There are 9 or 10* authors compared to 30 authors of the Old Testament. It was also written over a much shorter period of time than the Old Testament.
*Paul is believed by some, but not all, to be the author of Hebrews.
