From time to time people tell me they want to start reading the Bible, and they almost always share the same question… “Where do I start?” Last week we looked the way the Old Testament is organized, the purpose of the writings, and the topics covered. This week we’ll focus on the New Testament.
The first four books of the New Testament make up The Gospels (“gospel” means “good news.”) These books cover the life of Jesus, but they aren’t biographies you and I are used to. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the “synoptic gospels” because they are so similar in the content the events they cover, but each writer arranges the events in a different order so the story had the greatest impact on their original audience (very common to the writing style of the time.) John uses a different approach than the others for the same reason. All four books give us the details of Jesus’ ministry on the earth.
The book of Acts is written by Luke, the same man that wrote the Gospel of Luke. It’s a continuation of the Jesus story and it includes details about Jesus’ last days on earth, then covers the beginnings and spread of the first church. We see events and history recorded about the other writers of the New Testament, as well as read many stories of how early Christians cared for one another and were so dedicated to Christ that they were willing to face death because of their faith.
The Pauline Epistles is a fancy way of saying “Paul’s Letters.” These were letters written by Paul, an apostle that we first meet in Acts, to various churches that he worked with in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, two letters to a young preacher named Timothy, and a letter written to a man named Philemon.
The General Letters function much the same way as Paul’s letters, they just weren’t written by Paul. These writings include an anonymous letter called Hebrews, a letter from James, the earthly brother of Jesus, two letters from the apostle Peter, and three from the apostle John.
The final book in the New Testament is the book of Revelation where the apostle John recounts a vision that he had from God. He writes specific warnings from Jesus for seven churches in Asia, as well as a very apocalyptic description of God’s ultimate victory over evil, as well as a beautiful description of Heaven.
Hopefully these past two posts have given you some insight into the organization of the writings contained in the Bible. “So where do I start?” Well, it depends. If you have never read the Bible before, I always recommend The Gospel of John near the beginning of the New Testament. John does a fantastic job of sharing the life of Jesus with his readers.
If you’re looking for specific answers to questions you have, you can use this summary to look on your own, do a search on BibleGateway, or you can always email me.
Next time we’ll discuss if the Bible can be trusted.
Living in the Word 
I don’t think it matters where you start reading scriptures, God just wants us to read His word.
I agree Desiray! I was doing mission work in Germany many years ago and was having a discussion with a man about “Luke.” When he went home, he got confused and wound up reading Leviticus instead of Luke. Unfortunately this caused his view of Christianity to be “too hard to follow…too many rules.” John is easy to follow, easy to understand, and not easily confused with Leviticus! Blessings to you!
Love this article, there is a lot of questions about this and you gave a brilliant answer!
Thanks! If you ever have questions I’m happy to try to answer. Blessings!
Thank you, I appreciate it as I do have. Wil get in contact with you. Thank you again
There is one questions I have I don’t want to take up to much of your time. Thank you. The 1st question is when Jesus was sweating blood, was is real blood? ( I believe that when the bible says blood it is) just want your thought on it. 2nd question do you get female angels? Thank you