3.  Equally appropriate is the order of the two subdivisions of the historic part—­first, the four Gospels, containing the history of our Lord’s life; secondly, the Acts of the Apostles.  In the general arrangement of the epistles, the thirteen which bear the name of Paul stand first in order.  The seven so-called catholic epistles occupy the last place.  Intermediate between these two subdivisions stands the epistle to the Hebrews, which is anonymous, though generally ascribed to Paul.  The epistles which bear the name of Paul fall into two groups—­nine addressed to Christian churches, which occupy the first place; then four to particular persons.  Of these last, the first three, being addressed to Timothy and Titus, the apostle’s companions in travel and in the gospel ministry, are appropriately named from their contents the pastoral epistles.  The letter to Philemon, a private member of the church in Colosse, naturally stands last of all.

    We add from Bleek (Introduc. to New Test., secs. 18 and 254) the
    following additional notices: 

The present order of the Gospels is very ancient.  Only in some manuscripts of the Old Latin version, in one Greco-Latin manuscript (the so-called Codex Bezae or Cambridge Codex), and in the manuscript of the Gothic version, the two apostles Matthew and John stand first; then the two companions of apostles, Luke and Mark, or sometimes Mark and Luke.  In the very ancient Curetonian-Syrian manuscript the order is Matthew, Mark, John, Luke.

    The Acts of the Apostles stand in some manuscripts after the
    Pauline or after the catholic epistles.

In the oldest Greek manuscripts, and generally in the greatest number of Greek manuscripts which contain the whole New Testament, the catholic epistles stand before the Pauline; an arrangement which some modern editors, as Lachmann and Tischendorf, have followed.  In many manuscripts, the oldest Greek included, the epistle to the Hebrews stands after 2 Thessalonians, immediately before the pastoral epistles.  Luther placed together, at the end of his version, the epistles to the Hebrews, the epistles of James and Jude, and the Apocalypse.  But this arrangement rested on no authority of manuscripts.  It was only an expression of his private judgment respecting their canonical authority, which he placed below that of the other books of the New Testament.

4.  We have seen (Chap. 13, No. 4) that in the arrangement of the books of the Old Testament, the order of time is followed only very partially.  The same is true respecting the order of books in the New Testament, a fact which the biblical student ought always to bear in mind.  If we look to the several divisions and subdivisions of the New Testament writings, it is obvious that the arrangement is not chronological.  It is generally admitted that the Gospel according to John was written after the death of Peter and Paul;