How many books are in the New Testament?

The New Testament contains 27 books in the standard Christian biblical canon. They comprise four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 21 epistles or letters, and the Book of Revelation.

The collection was not assembled all at once. Early Christian communities circulated many writings, and different churches debated the status of books such as Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, and Revelation. By the fourth century, however, the 27-book list had become the recognized New Testament canon in the major Christian traditions.

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, gave the first surviving list exactly matching the modern 27 books in his Easter Letter of 367. Regional councils at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397 also endorsed the same collection. These events helped formalize a process of recognition that had developed over several centuries.

The answer is sometimes confused with other Bible totals. A Protestant Bible has 66 books overall, while a Catholic Bible has 73, but both contain 27 New Testament books. Some Eastern and Oriental Christian traditions have differences in their wider biblical canons, yet 27 is the standard quiz answer for the New Testament.