This is an age old question that I will not try to answer, but it really plays well into my real question. Did the Apostle Paul really write most of the New Testament? The short answer is no. However, Paul did write a large majority of the New Testament. I have heard many pastors refer to Paul as the one who wrote most of the New Testament and that really is not the case if you start breaking it down by the numbers. Below are numbers based on the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible.
| Writer(#books) |
Words |
Verses |
% of NT* |
| Luke(2) |
50,184 |
2,158 |
28 |
| Paul(13) |
43,312 |
2,033 |
24 |
| John(5) |
34,197 |
1,415 |
19 |
| ?(Hebrews) |
6,897 |
303 |
4 |
| Many(All of NT) |
181,101 |
7,957 |
100 |
|
|
|
|
| Paul(13+Heb) |
50,209 |
2,336 |
28 |
* The percentages are based on the word count from all books written by a writer divided by the total word count for the entire New Testament.
Based on the numbers, the answer to the original question of “Who wrote Hebrews?” becomes a pivotal point on my real question, “Did the Apostle Paul really write most of the New Testament?” My short answer of “no” can easily be proven with the percentages. Paul ties Luke at 28% of the New Testament.
Paul did write more of the New Testament than any other writer by a whooping total of 25 words if you give him credit for writing Hebrews. If you believe that anyone else other than Paul wrote the book of Hebrews then we have given a solid win to Luke on the question of “who wrote the largest portion of the New Testament?” By combining the totals from Luke and John, we find that approximately 50% of the New Testament was written by these two men.
After hearing about this post, my wife says I have too much time on my hands. I had her going for a minute, when I told her I counted the words. Really I did, but I used some technology to help me. 
