The New Testament
[ grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, ]transl.
Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the
Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
, as well as events in
first-century Christianity. The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the
Old Testament, which is based primarily upon the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
; together they are regarded as
sacred scripture by Christians.
The New Testament is a collection of Christian texts originally written in the
Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different
Christian denominations, the
27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity since at least
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...
. Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books:
* 4
canonical gospels
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
(