who were the writers of the new testament? There are 9 authors who wrote the 27 books that became known as the New Testament, and in this article, John Whittaker describes what we know about these authors.
When reading the Bible, it is important to remember that it did not fall from the sky. It was written by real people with unique backgrounds and personalities, and God used them to communicate his word to his people. So who were the authors of the New Testament books?
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many of the books tell us exactly who wrote them, like the letters from paul, james and peter, for example. the gospels are technically anonymous, but the earliest church testimony indicates who wrote them. the book of Hebrews is the only one whose author is unknown.
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here is a brief biography of each of the authors of the new testament.
1. matthew
Matthew was one of the original 12 apostles and thus was an eyewitness to the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. matthew, who was also called levi, was a jew who lived in capernaum. he worked for the Romans as a tax collector, which means he was a rather shady businessman who would have been looked down upon by his fellow Jews. in fact, he was working in his tax box when jesus called him to follow him (mark 2:13ff).
2. mark
mark’s full name is john mark and he had close connections to the apostles and the early church. His mother’s name was Mary, and his home was one of the main meeting places for the first church in Jerusalem (Acts 12:12). Mark was also a cousin of Barnabas, another key leader in the early church (Col. 4:10), and traveled with Barnabas and Paul during part of his first missionary journey. Toward the end of Paul’s life, he asked Timothy to bring him a mark because he was “useful” (2 Timothy 4:11). Early church tradition says that the apostle Peter was the main source of the gospel that Mark wrote.
3. luke
lucas is the author of lucas and facts. he was a close colleague of the apostle paul. traveled with paul from troas to filippi on paul’s second missionary journey (note “we” in acts 16:11ff), stayed there for a few years, met paul at end of third missionary journey (acts 20:5-6 ), and stayed with him for the next four years while Paul was in prison. Luke was a physician by training and, in Colossians 4, he is included among Paul’s Gentile colleagues, which means that it is very likely that he is the only Gentile author in the New Testament.
4. John
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john (who wrote the gospel of john, the 3 letters of john, and the revelation) was one of the original 12 apostles and an eyewitness to the ministry, death, and resurrection of jesus. He grew up in a family of commercial fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, and when Jesus called him and his brother James to follow him, they left the family business to become his disciples. When he was young, it seems that he and his brother had a bit of a fiery side, being nicknamed “the sons of thunder” because of that (Mark 3:17; cf. Luke 9:54). in his gospel, john calls himself the “disciple whom jesus loved”, suggesting that he had a particularly close friendship with jesus, and jesus entrusted john to the care of his mother mary while hanging on the cross (john 19:26-27). John outlived the other apostles (his later life was spent in Ephesus) and his writings are probably the last of the New Testament.
5. paul
paul is the author of 13 letters in the new testament. he grew up in a conservative Jewish home and was trained in the way of the Pharisees. His hometown was Tarsus (born Roman citizen), a large Greco-Roman trading city in the southeastern corner of present-day Turkey, but at some point he moved to Jerusalem to study (Acts 22:3). He studied with one of the greatest rabbis of his day, Gamaliel, and was distinguished by his zeal and learning (Galatians 1:14). His zeal was so intense that it led him to persecute Christians.
However, the rare combination of Jewish learning, Roman citizenship, and Greco-Roman city life made Paul uniquely equipped to make disciples throughout the Roman Empire. So, to bring Paul to himself, Jesus appeared to him as Paul was on his way to arrest the Christians in Damascus (you can read the story in Acts 9). once paul surrendered to jesus, he applied the same zeal to making disciples of jesus that he once had to persecute them. Paul’s ministry spanned about 30 years until he was finally beheaded for his faith in Jesus in Rome in the mid-1960s.
6. james
the author of james was (probably) james the brother of jesus. According to the order in which the siblings are listed in Matthew 13:55, James is the next oldest son of Joseph and Mary after Jesus. During his ministry, James (and his other brothers) misunderstood Jesus’ purpose and mistrusted him (John 7:5). But after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:7), and this led James to believe in him. He became a key leader in the Jerusalem church (eg, Acts 12:17; Acts 15). Paul even calls it one of the “pillars” (gal 2,9). According to early church tradition, James’s leadership and faithfulness earned him several nicknames. he was called james the just and also “camel knees” because he spent a lot of time on his knees praying for the jews. he was stoned in jerusalem in d.c. 62.
7. peter
Peter was one of the original 12 apostles and an eyewitness to the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, he and his brother Andrew were two of Jesus’ earliest followers (John 1:40-41). his hometown was bethsaida, and he and his brother were commercial fishermen on the sea of galilee. His real name was Simon, but Jesus gave him the nickname “Peter,” which means “rock.”
His strong and bold personality resulted in him becoming the leader of the apostles, although it sometimes led him to say or do some silly things. Despite this strong personality, Peter denied Jesus three times the night of his arrest. Peter wept bitterly over this failure and after his resurrection, Jesus reassured Peter by commissioning him to the ministry (John 21:15ff). Peter became the key leader and spokesman in Jerusalem when the church began, boldly proclaiming Jesus even to the very leaders who had crucified him. Pedro was sentenced to death for his faith in Jesus in the mid-1960s, and tradition says that he was crucified upside down because he did not feel worthy to die in the same way as Jesus.
8. jude
The author of the brief letter of Judas was Judas, brother of Jesus. Like his older brother James, he misunderstood Jesus’ purpose and was skeptical of him during his ministry (John 7:5). But after the resurrection of Jesus, Judas was gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem with the believers (Acts 1:14). Judas identifies himself in his letter as “James’s brother,” apparently content to be known as the brother of a more well-known church leader.
9. Hebrews
There has been no shortage of speculation about who wrote Hebrews. Suggestions include people like Paul, Apollo, Luke, and Barnabas. whoever wrote it had a good command of the Old Testament and a very polished Greek writing style. but the fact is that the origin of the early church father was right when he said, as to who wrote hebrews, “god only knows”! that was true when he said it around a.d. 200 and it’s still true today.
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