Letters from Paul

by Shervin Youssefian 

Paul wrote 13 letters in the New Testament, but they don’t appear in the Bible in chronological order.

The Bible arranges them by length — longest to shortest — in TWO GROUPS.

GROUP 1 — Paul’s Letters to Churches (in canonical order — by length)

• Romans — 7,111 words

• 1 Corinthians — 6,830 words

• 2 Corinthians — 4,477 words

• Galatians — 2,230 words

• Ephesians — 2,422 words

• Philippians — 1,629 words

• Colossians — 1,582 words

• 1 Thessalonians — 1,481 words

• 2 Thessalonians — 823 words

GROUP 2 — Paul’s Letters to Individuals (in canonical order — by length)

• 1 Timothy — 1,591 words

• 2 Timothy — 1,238 words

• Titus — 659 words

• Philemon — 335 words

It’s not the order he wrote them. It’s the order of the scroll lengths. But what happens when you read them in the order Paul actually wrote them?

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The Letters of Paul, in Chronological Order

Here are Paul’s letters, in the order he actually wrote them:

1. Galatians — ~AD 48-49

2. 1 Thessalonians — ~AD 50-51

3. 2 Thessalonians — ~AD 51-52

4. 1 Corinthians — ~AD 54-55

5. 2 Corinthians — ~AD 55-56

6. Romans — ~AD 56-57

7. Ephesians — ~AD 60-62

8. Philippians — ~AD 60-62

9. Colossians — ~AD 60-62

10. Philemon — ~AD 60-62

11. 1 Timothy — ~AD 62-64

12. Titus — ~AD 63-65

13. 2 Timothy — ~AD 66-67

Almost twenty years of writing.