How did the books in the New Testament get their names?

Answer 1

A:The gospel books were originally anonymous and were simply known as gospels, or in some communities "the gospel." Later in the second century the gospels were attributed by the Church Fathers to the apostles they thought most likely to have written them. Thus we have The Gospel According to Saint Matthew and so on.

Acts of the Apostles was the first of an entire genre known as 'Acts'. Because Acts of the Apostles was seen as being a history of the early aposltes, it was natural that it become known by that name, Acts of the Apostles.

The letters or epistles written by Paul or written pseudepigraphically in his name, became known by the community to which he wrote the eipistle. Thus we have Paul's Epistle to the Romans and so on.

The Book of Hebrews was at one stage thought to have been an epistle from Paul to the Jews, and became known for this reason as the Epistle to the Hebrews, although it is clearly not an epistle (it is either a sermon or an encyclical) nor written by Paul. At some stage, a few verses were added to include the names of persons known to Paul, thus reinforcing the impression that this was Paul's epistle.

Letters attributed to James, John, Jude and Peter are named as epistles by those apostles.

Revelation is so named because it is written as a vision or revelation to its author.