Irenaeus John the Apostle, and that the Gospel of Luke was written by Luke, the companion of Paul. Scholars contend that Irenaeus quotes from 21 of the 27 New Testament Texts: Matthew ("Book 3, Chapter 16") Mark ("Book 3, Chapter 10") Luke ("Book 3, Chapter 14") John ("Book 3, Chapter 11") Acts of the Apostles ("Book 3, Chapter 14") Romans ("Book 3, Chapter 16") 1 Corinthians ("Book 1, Chapter 3") 2 Corinthians ("Book 3, Chapter 7") Galatians ("Book 3, Chapter 22") Ephesians ("Book 5, Chapter 2") Philippians ("Book 4, Chapter 18") Colossians ("Book 1, Chapter 3") 1 Thessalonians ("Book 5, Chapter
New Testament the Anchor Bible Dictionary), may be the earliest known New Testament canon attributed to mainstream Christianity. It is similar, but not identical, to the modern New Testament canon. The oldest clear endorsement of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John being the only legitimate gospels was written "circa" 180 AD. A four gospel canon (the "Tetramorph") was asserted by Irenaeus, who refers to it directly in his polemic "Against the Heresies", "It is not possible that the gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live,