Saul, who chose a pagan name, Paul, to extend his church to the gentiles- pagans-, wrote the earliest letter- now called a 'book'- around 67 AD, well before the 'Gospels' were written. Unless the Apostles all lived to be 100+ years old (which would've been a miracle in itself, since the life expectancy of the time was 20 to 25 years) then they obviously weren't the writers of the text but may well have been the first men to tell the stories that were then passed down orally for generations. Can any story passed along orally for so long not be changed with each retelling? Can even a rumor not change from one side of town to the other? I'm not saying the stories told of Jesus were mere rumors, just pointing out that stories told orally change in the telling, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not. Either way, the "facts" in the stories do change to one degree or another.