The study of the New Testament may be pursued several different ways, and although benefits may be derived from any one of these ways, no one method is better than the others. For example, reading the books of the New Testament in the order in which they are now assembled means starting with the Gospel of Matthew. However, the Gospel of Matthew was not the first gospel to be written; because Matthew was regarded as the most important of the Gospels, it was placed first in the New Testament. Understanding the contents of this gospel is difficult if not impossible until one relates it to the other Gospels and to the historical situation from which it was produced. One needs to know the sources from which the author obtained his materials and the scheme that he followed in the materials' selection and organization. It is also essential to know the purpose that the author had in mind and the way in which his materials were used for the accomplishment of that purpose. Elements in the Gospels that appear to be in conflict with one another can scarcely be understood until one becomes familiar with the background from which each of them was derived. These difficulties, along with many others, are necessarily involved in the use of this method.
Another way of studying the New Testament consists of putting together all of the material found on a given subject in any of the writings. If this method could be done successfully, one might speak about the New Testament teachings on such subjects as money, divorce, Sabbath observance, spiritual gifts, and many other topics. Aside from the fact that an inquiry of this kind would be practically endless because of the number of topics that are mentioned, a more serious difficulty is fitting together the statements made by different persons under different circumstances and from different points of view. Nor can it be assumed without supporting evidence that different writers thought alike about any given subject.
