<Li> ^ Jump up to: Ethiopic Clement and the Ethiopic Didascalia are distinct from and should not be confused with other ecclesiastical documents known in the west by similar names . </Li> <P> The order in which the books of the New Testament appear differs between some collections and ecclesiastical traditions . In the Latin West, prior to the Vulgate (an early 5th - century Latin version of the Bible), the four Gospels were arranged in the following order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark . The Syriac Peshitta places the major Catholic epistles (James, 1 Peter, and 1 John) immediately after Acts and before the Pauline epistles . </P> <P> The order of an early edition of the letters of Paul is based on the size of the letters: longest to shortest, though keeping 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians together . The Pastoral epistles were apparently not part of the Corpus Paulinum in which this order originated and were later inserted after 2 Thessalonians and before Philemon . Hebrews was variously incorporated into the Corpus Paulinum either after 2 Thessalonians, after Philemon (i.e. at the very end), or after Romans . </P> <P> The New Testament of the 16th - century Luther Bible continues, to this day, to place Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse last . This reflects the thoughts of the Reformer Martin Luther on the canonicity of these books . </P>

On what basis are the letters in the new testament ordered
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