How much of the New Testament was written by Paul?

“A Christian pastor said, I’ve never liked Paul. What are his epistles? They are just letters to people. We only have the one side of them, so we have to guess what he’s talking about anyway.”

If he believes what he’s saying, this man just placed himself above the Scriptures, teaching something seemingly in violation of John 1.1-3, 2 Timothy 3.16, and especially James 4:11 which reads,

Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of [his] brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.(James 4:11)

Table of Contents

The New Testament and the Apostle Paul

These professing Christians who are so quick to throw out and malign the Apostle Paul are everywhere, in every supposedly conservative Bible-believing denomination. It got me wondering, just how much of the New Testament are they pooh-poohing?

Here’s the answer: 28 percent of the New Testament was written by the Apostle Paul.

That’s a big chunk of the Bible to be throwing in the garbage. Another gospel? Maybe so. What do you think?

The numbers

How much of the New Testament scriptures were written by the Apostle Paul?

Based on the word counts of the 1769 edition of KJV from Bible stats, here’s how it works out:

Paul wrote 50190/179011 or 28% of the NT.

 Book            | Words      |
-----------------|------------|
 Romans          | 9422 words |
 1 Corinthians   | 9462 words |
 2 Corinthians   | 6046 words |
 Galatians       | 3084 words |
 Ephesians       | 3022 words |
 Philippians     | 2183 words |
 Colossians      | 1979 words |
 1 Thessalonians | 1837 words |
 2 Thessalonians | 1022 words |
 1 Timothy       | 2244 words |
 2 Timothy       | 1666 words |
 Titus           | 896 words  |
 Philemon        | 430 words  |
 Hebrews         | 6897 words |

Total words written by Paul: 50,190 words Total words in the New Testament: 179,011

So Paul wrote 50190/179011 or 28% of the NT.