New Testament

===Gospels===
{{Main|Synoptic Gospels}}
[[File:The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel.jpg|thumb|''Evangelist Mathäus und der Engel'', by [[Rembrandt]], 1661]]
Authorship of the Gospels remains divided among both evangelical and critical scholars. The names of each Gospel stems from church tradition, and yet the authors of the Gospels do not identify themselves in their respective texts. All four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are [[anonymous work]]s.{{sfn|Harris|1985|p=501}} The Gospel of John claims to be based on eyewitness testimony from the [[Disciple whom Jesus loved]], but never names this character.{{sfn|Harris|1985|pp=302–10}} According to [[Bart D. Ehrman]] of the [[University of North Carolina]], none of the authors of the Gospels were eyewitnesses or even explicitly claimed to be eyewitnesses.{{sfn|Ehrman|2003|p=235|ps=: "The four Gospels that eventually made it into the New Testament, for example, are all anonymous, written in the third person ''about'' Jesus and his companions. None of them contains a first-person narrative ('One day, when Jesus and I went into Capernaum...'), or claims to be written by an eyewitness or companion of an eyewitness. ... Some scholars abandon these traditional identifications, and recognize that the books were written by otherwise unknown but relatively well-educated Greek-speaking (and writing) Christians during the second half of the first century."}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2004b|p=[https://archive.org/details/truthfictionin00ehrm/page/110 110]|ps=: "In fact, contrary to what you might think, these Gospels don't even claim to be written by eyewitnesses."}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|p=[https://archive.org/details/lostgospelofjuda00ehrm/page/143 143]|ps=: "The Gospels of the New Testament are therefore our earliest accounts. These do not claim to be written by eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus, and historians have long recognized that they were produced by second- or third-generation Christians living in different countries than Jesus (and Judas) did, speaking a different language (Greek instead of Aramaic), experiencing different situations, and addressing different audiences."}} Ehrman has argued for a scholarly consensus that many New Testament books were not written by the individuals whose names are attached to them.{{sfn|Ehrman|2006|p=143}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2009|pp=102–04}} Scholarly opinion is that names were fixed to the gospels by the mid second century AD.<ref name="Nickle2001">{{cite book|author=Nickle, Keith Fullerton |title=The Synoptic Gospels: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5SSytjasmAgC&pg=PA43|date=2001|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22349-6|page=43 }}</ref> Many scholars believe that none of the gospels were written in the region of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]].<ref>Theissen, Gerd (2004). ''The Gospels in Context''. London, ENG: Bloomsbury-Continuum. p. 290.</ref>

[[Christian tradition]] identifies [[John the Apostle]] with [[John the Evangelist]], the supposed author of the [[Gospel of John]]. Traditionalists tend to support the idea that the writer of the Gospel of John himself claimed to be an eyewitness in their commentaries of [[John 21]]:24 and therefore the gospel was written by an eyewitness.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barnes |first=Albert |title=Barnes' Notes on the New Testament |year=1962 |orig-year=1832 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvXCoSQ1y0EC&pg=PA360 |publisher=Kregel Publications |page=360|isbn=978-0825493713 }}</ref><ref name="Henry">{{Cite book|last=Henry |first=Matthew |title=Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible |year=1706 |url=http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/mhm/john-21.html |publisher=StudyLight.org}}</ref> This idea is rejected by the majority of modern scholars.{{sfn | Brown | 1988 | p=9}}{{sfn | Schubert | 2016 | p=16}}

Most{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}} scholars hold to the [[two-source hypothesis]], which posits that the [[Marcan priority|Gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written]]. On this view, the authors of the [[Gospel of Matthew]] and the [[Gospel of Luke]] used as sources the [[Gospel of Mark]] and a hypothetical [[Q document]] to write their individual gospel accounts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/mark.html |title=Gospel of Mark |publisher=Early Christian Writings |access-date=15 January 2008 |last=Kirby |first=Peter}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Achtemeier |first=Paul J. |encyclopedia=The Anchor Bible Dictionary |title=The Gospel of Mark |year=1992 |publisher=Doubleday |volume=4 |location=New York |isbn=978-0-385-19362-7 |page=545}}</ref><ref>Easton, M. G. (1996) [ca. 1897] "Luke, Gospel According To". ''Easton's Bible Dictionary''. Oak Harbor, Washington: Logos Research.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Meier |first=John P. |author-link= John P. Meier |title=A Marginal Jew |publisher=Doubleday |year=1991 |location=New York |volume=2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mentormessagemir00john/page/955 955–56] |isbn=978-0-385-46993-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/mentormessagemir00john |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Helms |first=Randel |title=Who Wrote the Gospels? |publisher=Millennium Press |year=1997 |location=Altadena, California |page=[https://archive.org/details/whowrotegospels00helm/page/8 8] |isbn=978-0-9655047-2-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/whowrotegospels00helm |url-access=registration}}</ref> These three gospels are called the [[Synoptic Gospels]], because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes in exactly the same wording. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, by using a different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the [[Acts of the Apostles]]. Scholars hold that these books constituted two-halves of a single work, [[Luke–Acts]].{{Citation needed|reason=Scholars not named.|date=July 2019}}