Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
June 28th, 2008 - June 29th, 2009 was declared by the Catholic Church to be "The Year of Paul." You know you're a pretty big deal when people have to set aside a whole year to celebrate your awesomeness.
Fourteen books of the Bible are attributed to Paul, even though scholars think he only actually for sure wrote seven of those: Romans, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. As for the others? First Timothy, Second Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews were almost definitely not written by Paul. Sorry, guys. The status of Ephesians, Colossians, and Second Thessalonians are in dispute, but these three don't usually get tacked into the Paul column either. (Source, 14)
Paul may have written the most books in the New Testament, but the author of Luke and Acts takes the prize for most total words written. In the King James translation, Paul's authentic letters are just over 32,000 words, while Luke and Acts come in at nearly 50,000. Stop slacking, Paul!
All of Paul's letters were dictated while someone else wrote them down. Romans was actually physically written down by Tertius (16:22). We're hoping he was a good listener.
Paul's given name, Saul, means "asked for" or "prayed for" (source), while the new name he gave himself after he saw the vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus means "small" or "humble" (source.) What a difference a letter makes.