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Posted on Nov 02, 2024 by Mike LeDuke

Who wrote more books of the Christian Scriptures than anyone else?
The answer is Paul the apostle, who wrote 13 of the New Testament books, or 14 if you include the book of Hebrews. For the most part, this attribution is fairly simple: Paul put his name at the beginning of all of these letters (except for Hebrews). For example:

• Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God….
• 1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus....

Some might question whether Paul was a real person or if someone simply invented him at some point and then forged numerous letters. If the latter were the case, however, the forgery would have been remarkable. All of the early Christian writers recognized Paul as an historical person. In some of these cases, he helped found the churches where they worshiped. Clearly, Paul was real, and his letters bear witness to his life and his work.

Considering what he discusses, and the information given about him in the book of Acts, Paul was alive and preaching during the reign of the emperor Claudius (Acts 18:4), who ruled Rome from 41–54 C.E. His work spreading Christianity lasted through his first appearance before another emperor, most likely Nero, and then, later, a second appearance before Nero (2 Timothy 4:16). Most likely, Nero executed Paul around 64 or 65 C.E. Thus, everything that Paul wrote was written around the time period probably between 40–65 C.E.

The Christian Scriptures also contain other books, not written by Paul. We’ll consider the gospels and Acts in the next post, but the other letters have a similar story to that of Paul’s letters. Each of them attribute the letter to an important early Christian figure, all of whose historicity is supported by early Christian writers. All of these, except for the book of Revelation, were also written around the same time that Paul was writing his letters.

Thus, unlike the Hebrew Bible, a large portion of the Christian Scriptures came together within a generation. In many cases, the writers knew one another and discussed things with one another.

Yet the gospels are somewhat more tricky. None of them reference an author. None of them give any indication of when they were written — however, they contain the narratives of Jesus, both his death and resurrection, the counterpoint of Christianity.

In in our next post, we’ll examine the gospels and attempt to understand when they were written and by whom.