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CHAPTER TEN
Writes his Letters
The New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible states:
: "Paul's letters are the oldest Christian documents we have. The
first of them was written within 25 years of Jesus' death, and the
last may have been written before any of the gospels."
It lists the following letters in the New Testament as Paul's:
Romans,
1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
The order of these letters in the New Testament is based on their
length not on chronology.
These are the books:
1. Romans: Προς Ρωμαίους ,Epistula ad Romanos
2. First Corinthians: Προς Κορινθίους Α, Epistula I ad Corinthios
3. Second Corinthians Προς Κορινθίους Β, Epistula II ad
Corinthios
4. Galatians: Προς Γαλάτας, Epistula ad Galatas
5. Ephesians: Προς Εφεσίους, Epistula ad Ephesios
6. Philippians: Προς Φιλιππησίους, Epistula ad Philippenses
7. Colossians: Προς Κολασσαείς, Epistula ad Colossenses
8 First Thessalonians: Προς Θεσσαλονικείς, Α Epistula I ad
Thessalonicenses
9. Second Thessalonians: Προς Θεσσαλονικείς Β, Epistula II ad
Thessalonicenses
10. First Timothy: Προς Τιμόθεον Α, Epistula I ad Timotheum
11. Second Timothy: Προς Τιμόθεον Β, Epistula II ad Timotheum
12. Titus: Προς Τίτον, Epistula ad Titum
13. Philemon: Προς Φιλήμονα, Epistula ad Philemonem
The Epistles are not in any chronological order, but are arranged
according to their significance and magnitude of their circulation,
and by the relative importance of the Church and its people to whom
they are addressed.
The Epistles to the three individuals follow those Epistles to
the seven Churches.
14. The Epistle to the Hebrews is last because it was the last to
be authenticated.
Usually, Apostle Paul's Epistles are separated into two groups:
1) Epistles of a general Christian nature and
2) Pastoral Epistles.
(The Epistles to Timothy and Titus belong here as rules of good
pastorship.)
There are indications to show that some of the epistles are lost
to us. See 1 Cor. 5:9, and Col. 4:16. For example the correspondence
with a philosopher Seneca, brother of pro-consul Gallio (as
mentioned in Acts 18:12) is attributed to Paul.
Higher Criticism
These are the 7 letters that are considered by scholars as
undoubtedly Pauline.
· Romans (ca. 55-58 AD)
· Philippians (ca. 52-54 AD)
· Galatians (ca. 55 AD)
· Philemon (ca. 52-54 AD)
· First Corinthians (ca. 53-54 AD)
· Second Corinthians (ca. 55-56 AD)
· First Thessalonians (ca. 51 AD)
The letters thought to be pseudepigraphic by the majority of
modern scholars include
· Pastoral epistles
o First Timothy
o Second Timothy
o Titus
· Ephesians
The letters on which modern scholars are about evenly divided
are:
· Colossians
· Second Thessalonians
An anonymous letter that nearly all modern scholars agree was
probably not written by Paul is:
· Hebrews
Unlike the thirteen epistles above, the Epistle
to the Hebrews is internally anonymous. Moreover, scholars, have
noted the differences in language and style between Hebrews and the
other Pauline writings.
In considering the authorship we should remember that most of the
time Paul used a scribe to write down what he has to say. As a
result the style and presentation will be the edited by the scribe
and will differ from the personal style of Paul. It was the practice
in that case to add an end greeting by the original writer to give
authenticity. We can see this in 1 Corinthians 16:20-23
"All the brethren send greetings. Greet one
another with a holy kiss. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own
hand. If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our
Lord, come! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you."
This is the reason for most of the critical analysts see
variations in style and dictum. However all through the collection
the underlying theological emphasis are identical.
Then also this could be the result of the school of thought
started by Paul. It is this school that started the movement in the
first place, extending the field of work beyond the Jewish religion
to the Gentile world. So any of these people could as well have
written some of these epistles.
Lost Pauline Epistles
There are some indications that some of the epistles are lost to
us. Here are some.
· The first Epistle to Corinth
referenced at 1 Corinthians 5:9
· The third Epistle to Corinth
called Severe Letter referenced at 2 Corinthians 2:4 and
2 Corinthians 7:8-9
· The Corinthian letter to Paul
referenced at 1 Corinthians 7:1
· The Earlier Epistle to the
Ephesians referenced at Ephesians 3:3-4
· The Epistle to the Laodiceans[5]referenced
at Colossians 4:16
Non-canonical Pauline Epistles
Several non-canonical epistles exist claiming or having been
claimed to have been written by Paul. Most, if not all, scholars
reject their authenticity. They include
· Third Epistle to the Corinthians
(canonical for a time in the Armenian Orthodox)
· Epistle to the Laodiceans (found
in Codex Fuldensis)
· Epistle of the Corinthians to
Paul (addressed to Paul, not written by him)
· Epistle to the Alexandrians
Texts also exist which claim to have been written by (or about)
Paul. These include
· Acts of Paul and Thecla:
· Acts of Peter and Paul
· Apocalypse of Paul
· Coptic Apocalypse of Paul
· Prayer of the Apostle Paul
· Epistle to Seneca the Younger
Some have also postulated the existence of a third epistle to the
Thessalonians (second chronologically) forged in Paul's name, citing
2 Th 2:1-2, 3:17 as evidence.That hypothesis, has not gained
acceptance
((((()))))
Example of Higher Criticism:
Summary of the reasons for thinking
Ephesians is not by Paul
The language and style are different. Ephesians
contains 40 new words, eg 1:3 "heavenly places"; "family, or
fatherhood" (3:15). 1:19 has four different words for "power"; Eph &
Col use a different word for "reconcile" from Paul's word (Col 1:20,
22;
Eph 2:16). And they both use many very long
sentences, eg 1:3-14; 1:15-23; 3:1-7; 4:11-16; 6:14-20. Also Col
1:9-20.
· Ephesians copies Colossians at
many places. Ephesians has 155 verses, 73 of which are copied
from Colossians: eg Ephesians 4:1-2 = Colossians 3:12-13.
Ephesians 5:19-2 = Colossians 3:16-17, Ephesians 6:21-22 =
Colossians 4:7-8.
· Ephesians takes many key ideas
from Colossians. Wisdom, mystery. The word of truth. Gospel of
salvation. Saints of God.
· Ephesians also refers to most of
the other letters of Paul. In many ways it seems like a summary
of Paul's ideas, written by a disciple of his, and brought up to
date for the Church of his own time.
· Metaphors, or illustrations in
Paul are turned into actual objective realities in Ephesians
(and sometimes in Colossians also). Eg faith, gospel, word of
God, reconciliation, salvation, our resurrection and
glorification, the Church as the Body of Christ, Minister,
Saints of God.
· Ephesians shows that the Church
is becoming an advanced and powerful universal institution
(rather like the Church today). In Paul's time there was no
universal Church in that sense, but only informal gatherings of
individual believing communities.
· Ephesians contains no mention of
charismatic gifts. It looks as if they have disappeared from the
church, to be replaced by ordained ministers.
· Ephesians shows Jesus acting on
his own account and by his own authority. In Paul's letters,
Jesus always acts on God's behalf and with God's authority.
Stylometry Analysis
Stylometry is a statistical study of the words used by an author
in In order to discover what word frequency patterns the various
books shared. It was originally conceived in 1900. However with the
advent of computers the analysis has become a powerful tool in order
to establish the possible authorship of various book by an author. I
present the a principal components analysis (PCA) of residuals as
performed by Johan Mchael Linacre.( Who wrote Paul's Epistles?
Linacre J.M. … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 2001, 15:1
p.800 -1)
Figure 1 shows a distinct difference between word
frequencies patterns in the 6 narrative books (Gospels, Acts,
Revelation) and the 21 Epistles. See Fig 1
The 6 narrative books were then dropped from the analysis. There
remained 3400 active words, which were rescored to maintain positive
correlations. Figure 2 shows the second factor in an analysis of
their word frequency residuals.
We can see that all of Paul's Epistles recognized by scholars are
close together within an oval. The two books Colossians and
Ephesians whose authorship are questioned by some also falls within
the oval assuring that it is written by the same person who wrote
the other Epistles of Paul. Outside the oval are Hebrews, 1 & 2
Timothy, Titus which indicates that they were influenced by scribes
who copied the dictation or Paul or written by others in the Pauline
School of thought. However 2 Timothy could be attributed to Paul's
direct authorship.
Chronology of Pauline Epistles
1
Thessalonians
c.52 AD |
From
Corinth, during an 18 month stay, during his 2nd
Journey, after a visit to Athens (3:1-2) |
2
Thessalonians
c.53 AD |
From
Corinth, towards the end of his stay, on his 2nd
Journey |
| 1
Corinthians c.57 AD |
From
Ephesus, near the end of his 3 year stay, during his 3rd
Journey (1 Cor..16) |
2
Corinthians
c.57 AD |
From
somewhere in Macedonia, on his way to Corinth, on his 3rd
Journey |
|
Galatians c.55-57 AD |
From
Ephesus, during a 3-year stay (see Acts 20:31) on his 3rd
Journey (the second official visit to Jerusalem, described in
Galatians 2:1-14, taking place in-between the 2nd and
3rd Journeys c.54 AD) |
|
Romans c.57 AD |
From
Corinth towards the end of his 3rd Journey |
|
Titus c.57-58 AD |
From
somewhere between Corinth and Nicopolis, on 3rd
Journey (Titus was in Crete, having been sent there by Paul from
Corinth - 1:5). Some suggest that this letter was written later,
after Paul's release. |
Ephesians
Phillipians
Collosians
Philemon C AD 60-62 |
From
Rome
Paul was under house arrest for 2 years when he wrote these
letters
|
| 1
Timothy c.57 AD |
From
Corinth on his 3rd Journey, while Timothy was back at
Ephesus (1:3-4) |
| 2
Timothy C AD 64-68 |
From
Rome
Paul was released after his trial before Caesar, during which
time he revisited many of the ecclesias that he had established
on his previous Journey's. He may have visited Spain, which he
had been planning on doing for many years. But he was eventually
imprisoned again, during which time he wrote this final epistle
to his beloved brother and fellow apostle, Timothy. Shortly
after, according to tradition, Paul was beheaded) |
A more accurate description with the possible error of estimation
is given by Kevin P. Edgecomb in Berkeley, California as seen in the
following quote.
Kevin P. Edgecomb in Berkeley, California
Chronology of Paul's Letters gives the
following enlightening chart and correlation;
"The data can be represented by this chart:
http://www.bombaxo.com/paulchron.html
Each time span begins with a black dot
(when the date is known) or a black bar (when only a range of
possible dates are available) to indicate the foundation of a church
or the conversion of an individual. (In the cases of Rome, Timothy,
and Titus, the beginnings of the time spans are off the scale.) The
end of the time span indicates the point at which the letter to the
church or person was written, with the date represented by a black
dot (when the date is known) or a yellow (will appear white in
b/w) bar (when only a range of possible dates are available).
The small red bars (will appear grey at the end of the white bar)indicate
the likely period of Paul's martyrdom. …….."+
"Time spans between founding/conversion and letter-writing:
Galatians
: about 4 years
Philippians: about 8 to 10 years
Thessalonians: a few months
Corinthians: 1: about a year 2: about 4 years
Ephesians: about 6 to 8 years
Colossian: about 4 to 8 years
Philemon: about 4 to 8 years
Romans: about 8 to 26 years (founding date unknown)
1Timothy: about 19 (Johnson's date) or 25 to 27 years
2Timothy: about 27 years
Titus: about 12 to 15 or more years
Some Conclusions
We can gain several things from this information, in connection
with the character of Paul's letters themselves:
1.) Length of time converted corresponds to theological
complexity in the letters:
a.) Romans, the longest and
most theologically complex of the letters, …..
2.) The "problem churches" of Galatians, Thessalonians
and Corinthians are all those with the shortest lengths of time from
their dates of conversion to dates of the letters being written to
them.
a.) The Thessalonian correspondence
occurred very soon after Paul founded the church …. "
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