The Authorship of New Testament Books

New Testament Books	Traditional Authorship Attribution	Conclusion Based on Critical Research	Main Reasons Why Result of Critical Research Does no Agree with Tradition
1. Matthew	Matthew	False	The obvious dependence of this gospel on the gospel of Mark (who is a non eye-witness)means that it could not have been written by Matthew, who would have been an eyewitness to most of the events.
2. Mark	Mark	False	The John Mark referred to in Acts 12:12 could not have made the geographical mistakes committed by the gospel (Mark 7:31, 5:1-13)
3. Luke	Luke	False	The internal evidence points towards a late date of composition, circa 100 CE. Certain historical errors in Luke-Acts made it unlikely that Luke was the author.
4. John	John the Son of Zebedee	False	Presence of Greek philosophy, mysticism and dogma that could not reasonable be expected of an unschooled Galilean peasant (Acts 4:13).
5. Acts of the Apostles	Luke	False	Same reason as Luke.
6. Romans 7. I Corinthians 8. II Corinthians 9. Galatians	Paul	True	-
10. Ephesians	Paul	False	Style is sluggish, unlike Paul's violatile one.
11. Philippians	Paul	True	-
12. Colossians	Paul	Doubtful	Difference in style and vocabulary
13. I Thessalonians	Paul	True	-
14. II Thessalonians	Paul	Doubtful	Difference in style and vocabulary
15. I Timothy 16. II Timothy 17. Titus	Paul	False	The existence of a highly organized church (I Tim 3:15), with definite creeds (I Tim 1:13, 4:6), and written gospels (I Timothy 3:16) seem presupposed in these three epistles.
18. Philemon	Paul	True	-
19. Hebrew	Paul	False	No internal evidence suggest Pauline authorship.
20. James	James the brother of Jesus	False	The cultured language of the epistle could not have been derived from a Palestinian with a humble background. It is unlikely that a Jew, whose mother tongue was Aramaic, could write the polished literary Greek of the epistle.
21. I Peter 22. II Peter	Peter	False	Author exhibits an extensive knowledge of Greek and Greek philosophical ideas. Highly improbable for an uneducated Galilean peasant. (Acts 4:13)
23. I John 24. II John 25. III John	John the son of Zebedee	False	Author introduces himself in II John and III John as John the Elder, a different person from John the son of Zebedee.
26. Jude	Jude the brother of Jesus	False	Based on literary style a mid-second century document.
27. Revelation	John the son of Zebedee	False	No internal claim that the author is John son of Zebedee. John was a very common Hebrew name.

Note the consensus above. According to the experts eighteen out of the twenty seven books had false attribution of authorship. Two more are doubtful. This leaves us with seven books, all of which are epistles of Paul, in which we know the author with some certainty. This has important implications which will be explored when we look at the true origins of Christianity.

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References

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