The New Testament refers to the part of the Bible that includes books written after the birth of Jesus Christ. For an Orthodox person, the New Testament corpus of the Bible is the most important among all the books of Holy Scripture.
The canon of the books of the New Testament was documented at the local Laodicean Council in 360. At the 6th Ecumenical Council in Constantinople (680), the canon of the books of the New Testament was given an ecumenical character.
The canonical books of the New Testament include 27 works. All these books of Holy Scripture can be divided into historical, law-positive, teaching, and one prophetic.
The basis of the New Testament is the four Gospels of Mark, Luke, John and Matthew. The authors of these works were the apostles. These books are law-positive. They talk about the life, teaching, miracles, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The four Gospels are called the law-positive books of the New Testament.
After the Gospels, the corpus of the New Testament books contains the Acts of the Apostles under the authorship of the Evangelist Luke. This is a historical book that tells about the formation of the Christian Church.
The New Testament includes seven conciliar epistles (the Apostle Peter - two epistles, the Apostle John - three epistles, the Apostle James - one epistle, the Apostle Jude - one epistle), as well as the fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul to various Christian churches. These books are called teaching. In them, the apostles give advice in Christian life, interpret the teachings of Christ.
The final book of the New Testament is the Revelation of the Apostle John the Divine (Apocalypse). This is the only prophetic New Testament book. It tells the story of the end times.
