Perry wrote:
> For what it is worth, Paul wrote more books of the NT
> than any other, but Luke actually wrote more words in
> his two books than Paul did in all of his writings.
> So, technically, when you account for the other writers,
> Paul actually penned much less than 50% of the NT.
Interesting comment, Perry. I had never examined this before, so you
provoked me to do some homework to check out your assertion here.
Instead of using books, chapters, or verses, I used the number of words
in the KJV to compute some statistics. The author of Hebrews is
disputed. If we exclude it from analysis, we get pretty much what you
stated above. If we include Hebrews as a book of Paul's, then Paul
would be the primary author, barely besting Luke by 0.1%. Following are
my computations. I have not had time to double check my work so don't
publish this anywhere without double checking it. Nevertheless, the
statistics below certainly shine a light upon the answer to the question
of what percentage of the New Testament was written by whom.
There were 9 authors of the New Testament, 3 were part of the twelve
apostles who ministered with Jesus, 6 were not of the twelve.
Authors who were of the twelve apostles:
---------------------------------------
Matthew 23,684 words 13.3%
John 34,224 words 19.2%
Peter 2,041 words 1.1%
---------------------------
59,949 words 33.6%
Authors who were NOT of the twelve apostles:
-------------------------------------------
Mark 15,171 words 8.5%
Luke 50,194 words 28.1%
Paul 43,393 words 24.3%
Author of Hebrews 6,913 words 3.9%
James 2,309 words 1.3%
Jude 613 words 0.3%
-------------------------------------
118,593 words 66.4%
Total number of words in the New Testament: 178,542
Peace be with you.
David Miller, Beverly Hills, Florida.
----------
"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you
ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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