What inspired the authors to write the New Testament?

Answer 1

Apart from Hebrews, written by an unknown author, the earliest New Testament books were the epistles of Paul. They were simply letters, and Paul had no way of knowing that they would one day be collated and included in a New Testament. His inspiration was simply to write letters.

We now know that Mark's Gospel was the first New Testament gospel to be written and that the other four gospels were based directly (Matthew and Luke) or indirectly (John) on that gospel. All the gospels were originally anonymous and were only attributed to the apostles whose names they now bear later in the second century. If we can not know who really wrote the gospels, we can not be sure why each author wrote a new gospel, but the authors of Matthew, Luke and John must have felt the need to improve the gospel that was already available to them.

Scholars can readily establish that the letters known as the Epistles of James, John, Jude and Peter were not really written by those persons. With the possible exception of the Epistle of James, they were all written in the second century to address concerns that had arisen in the Church. By using the names of the apostles, the authors were able touse their authority for the messages being conveyed.