The synoptic gospels were written years before the Apostle John wrote his gospel. John was illiterate so he had to dictate his writings. God kept John alive until his old age in order to allow John to write his gospel, his epistles and the book of Revelation which was completed around 95 AD. God allowed time for the first three gospels to circulate among the people and be accepted as truth. John’s gospel tied the other three gospels together and dispelled the false information being circulated about Jesus after the first three gospels were written. By giving his eyewitness testimony about the miracles and resurrection of Jesus John added his confirmation to support the church’s claim of the deity of Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Each of the four gospels looks at the life of Jesus from slightly different points of view and each had a specific audience they were addressing. Matthew presents Jesus as the King, Mark as the suffering servant, Luke as a human being and John as God. The gospels were not exactly the same but many of the stories were overlapping. The gospels when viewed together give a comprehensive description of the life of Jesus.
The book of Acts was written by Luke to record the history of the early history church. The next 21 books of the New Testament are epistles (letters) that were written by church leaders to provide further church doctrine and ethical instructions to the churches. Although usually addressed to individuals or churches the letters were intended to be read and shared with all Christians. Letter writing was a common and accepted method of sharing information in those days. The epistle writers were aware they were writing Scripture that would last for the ages to come.
The first 13 epistles were written by the Apostle Paul. The other eight epistles were written by the Apostles Peter (2) and John (3) plus the brothers of Jesus, James (1) and Jude (1). The writer of the epistle of Hebrews is unknown. Revelations is also an epistle written by John but is usually listed in a category on its own. When thinking about the New Testament think of it as broken up into four categories. We have the four gospels (life of Christ), we have the book of Acts (early church history), we have the 21 epistles (church doctrine and instruction), and finally we have Revelation (end time tribulation) which is the last book in the Bible.
Witnessing for Christ