How many authors wrote the Bible?

What each book says about who wrote it

Each row names the KJV verse it relies on, and the build script stops if the name isn't in that verse. The traditional author is the one GotQuestions.org lists for the book. Words are King James Version verse words.

A name in a book's opening says whose words or vision it is, not who held the pen: a prophet's opening names the man the word came to, and Jeremiah 36:4 has Baruch writing Jeremiah's words down. That is why 40 plus the 19 silent books is not 66. The other 7 are Psalms (names only in the psalm titles), Ecclesiastes, 2 John and 3 John (a title only: "the Preacher", "the elder"), and Luke, John and Acts (a writer who says "I" without a name).

The book headings in the KJV are not verse text. In the public-domain KJV text counted here, 8 headings put a name on a book whose verses give none. They are Genesis ("The First Book of Moses, called Genesis"), Leviticus ("The Third Book of Moses, called Leviticus"), 1 Samuel ("The First Book of Samuel Otherwise Called the First Book of the Kings"), 2 Samuel ("The Second Book of Samuel Otherwise Called the Second Book of the Kings"), Lamentations ("The Lamentations of Jeremiah"), Matthew ("The Gospel According to St. Matthew"), Mark ("The Gospel According to St. Mark"), 1 John ("The First Epistle General of John").

Who wrote the most of the Bible?

Share of the King James Version's 790,325 words, grouped by the author tradition gives each book.

Moses leads with 22.1% because tradition gives him the five books of the Law and Job; the Law alone is 19.8%. Exodus 24:4, Numbers 33:2 and Deuteronomy 31:9 each say "Moses wrote" a part: the words of the LORD, the stages of the march, this law. Deuteronomy 34 reports his death and burial. History.com notes that the Talmud answered this by saying Joshua likely wrote the verses about Moses' death, and that Joel Baden of Yale Divinity School calls that "one opinion among many."

In the New Testament, Luke's two books, the Gospel and Acts, hold 50,184 words (27.8% of the New Testament). Paul's 13 letters hold 43,321 (24.0%). On the traditional list, Paul wrote the most books and Luke the most words.

What tradition and modern scholars say

The names on the Gospels come from early church writers. Irenaeus of Lyon said Matthew "issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews," Mark was "the disciple and interpreter of Peter," Luke "the companion of Paul," and John "the disciple of the Lord" (Against Heresies 3.1.1). The Gospel texts themselves name no writer, and The Conversation notes that they "weren't attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries."

Most modern scholars read the authorship differently. History.com reports that most scholars today agree the Old Testament's stories and laws were passed down orally and written down by different schools of authors, starting around the 7th century BC. It also reports that scholars agree on the authenticity of only seven letters as Paul's: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon. Those seven hold 32,490 KJV words, 18.0% of the New Testament, against 24.0% for all 13.

So the count depends on the question. The text names 24 writers. Tradition names about 40. A historian can identify fewer, because many books passed through editors and scribes whose names were never recorded.

Tradition also answers a different question. GotQuestions.org says that, above the human writers, the Bible was written by God, who guided them while they used their own styles. The Bible says as much of itself: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God" (2 Timothy 3:16) and "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter 1:21). Counting the people does not settle that either way.

Questions about who wrote the Bible

See every book's chapters and verses on the books of the Bible, or put them in order with the books of the Bible in order. Find the longest book in the Bible, or read who speaks in Proverbs on how many proverbs are there. More counts are on the Bible by the numbers.

Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-23.