When you flip through a Bible, you’re basically walking through a library. If you hit the New Testament, you can’t throw a stone without hitting something written by a guy named Paul—or at least, someone claiming to be him. Honestly, the question of which books did Paul write is one of those things that seems simple on Sunday morning but gets incredibly messy once you start looking at the ink and the Greek syntax.
Paul was a traveler. He was a tentmaker. He was, by all accounts, a bit of a firebrand who didn't mind a good argument. Because he was constantly on the move establishing communities from Ephesus to Rome, he had to communicate via mail. These letters, or "epistles," make up a massive chunk of the Christian canon. But here’s the kicker: scholars don’t all agree on the list. While tradition says he wrote 13 books, modern historians usually split them into "undisputed" and "disputed" categories. It’s a bit like a literary detective case.
The Seven You Can Take to the Bank
If you ask a secular historian or a critical scholar at a place like Harvard or Oxford, "Which books did Paul write for sure?" they’ll give you the same seven names every time. These are the undisputed letters. The vocabulary is consistent, the theology is classic Paul, and the personality is unmistakable.
Romans is the big one. It’s the heavy hitter. Paul wrote this to a church he hadn't actually visited yet, which is why it reads like a massive theological manifesto. It’s dense. It’s complex. It’s basically his "greatest hits" album where he explains everything he believes about faith and law. Then you’ve got 1 and 2 Corinthians. These are different. They’re messy. They’re essentially Paul’s attempt to manage a church that was spiraling into chaos, dealing with everything from lawsuits between members to people getting drunk at communion. You can feel his frustration through the page.
Galatians is even more heated. Paul is actually angry in this one. He skips the usual polite greetings and goes straight to the point because he thinks the Galatians are being misled. It’s short, sharp, and intense. Then we have Philippians and 1 Thessalonians, which are much warmer. They feel like letters to old friends. Finally, there’s Philemon. It’s tiny. It’s a personal note about a runaway slave named Onesimus. It’s the most "human" of the bunch, showing Paul navigating a very awkward social and legal situation.
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The "Disputed" Letters: Why the Debate?
Now, this is where things get spicy. There are six other books usually attributed to Paul: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. If you grew up in a traditional church, you were likely taught Paul wrote all of them. No questions asked. But if you look at the Greek text, things start to look a little... off.
Scholars like Bart Ehrman or the late E.P. Sanders have pointed out that the writing style in Ephesians is totally different from Romans. The sentences are way longer. The vocabulary includes hundreds of words Paul never uses anywhere else. Because of this, many experts think these were written by Paul’s students or followers after he died. In the ancient world, writing in the name of your teacher wasn't always seen as "forgery" in the way we think of it today; it was a way to honor their legacy and apply their teachings to new problems.
Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are the "maybe" books. They’re close enough to Paul’s style that some scholars defend them, while others stay skeptical. It’s a tug-of-war. 2 Thessalonians, for example, talks about the end times in a way that seems to contradict 1 Thessalonians. Was Paul just changing his mind? Or was someone else trying to clarify his views? We’ll probably never know for certain, but the debate is half the fun.
The Pastorals: A Different World
When we talk about 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, we call them the Pastoral Epistles. They’re called that because they’re written to individuals (pastors) rather than whole churches. Most critical scholars are pretty convinced Paul didn't write these.
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Why? The church structure described in these letters feels a bit too "evolved." In Paul’s undisputed letters, the church is a loose, charismatic movement. In the Pastorals, you’ve got formal roles like bishops and deacons. It feels like a second-generation organization. Also, the way the author talks about women and church order feels distinct from the radical "neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female" vibe of Galatians.
What About Hebrews?
Let’s clear the air on one thing: Hebrews. For centuries, people slapped Paul’s name on it. King James Bibles often title it "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews."
But honestly? Almost no one thinks Paul wrote it anymore. Even early church fathers like Origen said, "Who wrote the epistle, in truth, God knows." The style is sophisticated, polished, and reads more like a sermon than a letter. It doesn't start with Paul’s signature "Grace and peace" greeting. It’s a masterpiece, sure, but it’s an anonymous one.
The "Lost" Letters
Did Paul write more than 13? Almost certainly. In 1 Corinthians, Paul actually mentions a previous letter he wrote to them that we don't have. In Colossians, he mentions a letter to the Laodiceans. Those are gone. Lost to the sands of time or sitting in a jar in a cave somewhere waiting to be found. It’s wild to think that some of the most influential writing in history might only represent about 60% of what the guy actually sent out.
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Why Does It Even Matter?
You might be thinking, "Who cares if Paul wrote it or his best student wrote it?" For some, it’s about the "authority" of the text. For others, it’s about understanding the timeline of history. When we know which books did Paul write, we get a clearer picture of the man himself—his anxieties, his travels, and his evolving thoughts on how to live a good life in a chaotic empire.
Paul wasn't a systematic theologian sitting in a library. He was a guy on the road, probably writing by candlelight in a cramped room, sometimes while he was in prison. When you read the undisputed letters, you're hearing a raw, authentic voice from the first century. When you read the disputed ones, you're hearing how that voice echoed through the next generation. Both are valuable, but they tell different stories.
How to Use This Information
If you're looking to study Paul's actual thoughts without the filter of later traditions, start with the "Big Seven." It changes the way you see the New Testament.
- Read Galatians and Romans back-to-back. You'll see the core of his argument about freedom versus law.
- Compare 1 Thessalonians with 2 Thessalonians. Look for the subtle shifts in how they talk about the future.
- Look at the vocabulary. Notice how personal Philemon feels compared to the formal "churchy" tone of 1 Timothy.
- Check the footnotes. Most modern study Bibles (like the NRSV or NIV) will actually mention in the introductions if a book's authorship is debated. Don't skip those intros!
The best way to understand Paul isn't just to list his books, but to read them as the urgent, occasional, and deeply personal documents they were always meant to be.