The New Church (Swedenborgian) among the books of the New Testament includes only the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and the Book of Revelation. Only these books contain an internal symbolism in a series, and are thus divinely inspired. Although this leaves out the Book of Acts and the letters of the apostles, the New Church holds them in esteem similar to that of the Jews for the Writings of the Old Testament. Swedenborg stated that these books were included as an act of divine providence, as books explaining Christian doctrine were needed for the general public. Paul's letters, although not containing a
New Testament people named John among Jews of the time. He is usually identified with the Mark mentioned in various epistles, and with Mark the Evangelist. This John is occasionally proposed as author of some of the Johannine works as well. Tarazi even goes so far as to attribute to him the Gospels of both Mark and John and all the other Johannine books. Five canonical books of the New Testament are ascribed to John and thus called collectively the "Johannine literature": Only in Revelation does the text itself name its author as John; the other Johannine works are ascribed to John only through their