Paul and his letters: occasion, authorship and order

Program / Course 7: New Testament Theology and History / Lesson 5.1

What you will learn

• Describe the form of an ancient letter and how Paul used it.
• Name the seven undisputed letters, the disputed letters and the Pastorals, and state the arguments about authorship.
• Place the main letters in a probable order and explain the occasion of each.
• Explain why reading a letter as an occasional document changes how its teaching is understood.

The big idea

Paul’s letters are real letters, written to particular churches and people about particular situations. They are not systematic textbooks of theology, though they contain deep theology. Seven letters are accepted by nearly all scholars as his, and six others are disputed to varying degrees. Knowing the occasion of each letter, its order and its authorship helps a reader see what Paul was answering and why he said what he did, and keeps the reader from treating a single sentence as if it stood alone.

Key terms

Epistle

A letter. The word is used especially for the letters of the New Testament.

Occasional writing

Writing that is prompted by a particular occasion or problem, as opposed to a general treatise.

Amanuensis

A secretary who wrote down a letter at the author’s dictation. Tertius identifies himself in Romans 16:22.

Pseudepigraphy

Writing attributed to someone other than the actual author. Scholars debate whether some letters in Paul’s name are of this kind, and how the ancient world understood the practice.

Deutero-Pauline

A scholarly term for letters in Paul’s name whose authorship is disputed: usually Ephesians, Colossians and 2 Thessalonians. It means secondary Pauline.

Pastoral letters

1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus, so called from the 18th century because they address church leaders (pastors). Most critical scholars doubt that Paul wrote them directly.

Prison letters

Letters written while Paul was imprisoned: Philippians, Philemon, and traditionally Ephesians and Colossians.

Background

Letters were a main way the early church kept in touch. Paul founded churches in cities and then wrote to them from a distance, advising, correcting and encouraging. Ancient letters usually followed a pattern: the sender and the recipient, a greeting, a thanksgiving or blessing, the main body, instructions and final greetings. Paul adapts this pattern, filling it with Christian content. His greeting ‘grace and peace’ joins the Greek and Hebrew greetings.

Paul often used a secretary and added a line in his own hand (Galatians 6:11, 1 Corinthians 16:21). Some letters were lost, such as an earlier letter to Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:9). The letters were read aloud in the churches (1 Thessalonians 5:27) and shared (Colossians 4:16). By the early second century they had been gathered, and the author of 2 Peter 3:15 and 16 speaks of them as having things hard to understand, which people twist as they do the other Scriptures.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The seven undisputed letters

Nearly all scholars accept Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon as written by Paul. They agree in style, vocabulary and thought, and the situations they address fit the mid first century. A probable order is 1 Thessalonians (about 50 AD, perhaps the earliest Christian document), Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians and Philemon (written from prison, though the place is debated), and Romans (about 56 or 57 AD). Scholars disagree about the placing of Galatians and Philippians.

Each has its occasion. 1 Thessalonians comforts a young church about those who have died. Galatians fights a demand that Gentile converts be circumcised. 1 Corinthians answers a series of problems in a divided church. 2 Corinthians defends Paul’s ministry. Philippians thanks a church for a gift. Philemon asks a slave owner to receive back a runaway slave, Onesimus, as a brother. Romans introduces Paul to a church he had not founded and sets out his gospel.

Step 2: The disputed letters

Colossians, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians are in Paul’s name, but many scholars doubt that he wrote them. Arguments concern vocabulary and style, theology (for example the more developed view of the church in Ephesians, and the stress on present resurrection life in Colossians), and in 2 Thessalonians a different view of the end from 1 Thessalonians. Colossians is held by a majority of scholars to be less certain than Ephesians to be non-Pauline. Defenders reply that a change of subject, a secretary or a later stage in Paul’s thought can explain the differences.

The Pastoral letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) are doubted by most critical scholars because of their vocabulary, their picture of church office, and their different treatment of themes like faith and law. Some argue that they are the work of a follower writing in Paul’s name after his death, perhaps using fragments of his letters, and others defend Pauline authorship through a secretary. Hebrews was attributed to Paul in some ancient churches, but nearly all modern scholars, and Origen long ago, doubted it.

Step 3: Pseudonymous writing

Scholars disagree whether writing in another’s name was an accepted practice, a form of respect for a teacher, or an act of deception. Some early Christians rejected a book after finding it falsely attributed, as Tertullian reports of a priest who wrote the Acts of Paul and Thecla out of love for Paul and was removed from office. Others argue that a disciple could write in the name of a master as part of a school. The question is serious for those who believe Scripture is true, because truthfulness is at stake.

Churches hold different positions. Conservative Protestants usually defend Pauline authorship of all thirteen. Critical scholars, including many Catholic and Protestant ones, accept that some letters come from Paul’s followers. The Catholic Church has not required that each letter be directly by Paul’s hand, though it holds them as Scripture.

Step 4: Reading a letter

To read a letter well, the reader asks: Who is writing and to whom? What has happened? What is Paul answering? Reading 1 Corinthians as a general statement on spiritual gifts misses the way Paul is correcting a church that was proud of them. Reading Galatians as a general attack on ‘works’ misses the specific issue of circumcision and Gentile membership.

This does not mean that the letters have nothing to say beyond their first setting. The churches have always read them as Scripture for all times. But the teaching is understood best when its first setting is understood. It is like overhearing one side of a phone call, and reconstructing the other side with care.

1. How does the pattern of an ancient letter shape the way Paul opens Romans and Galatians?
2. Why would it matter to know which church received a letter and what problem it faced?
3. What reasons do scholars give for doubting the Pauline authorship of some letters, and how do defenders respond?
4. Would a letter written in Paul’s name after his death by a follower be a deception? Why or why not?
5. How should a church use a letter such as Philemon, which deals with one case?
6. What is lost when a verse from a letter is taken out of its argument?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic view

The Catholic Church receives all thirteen letters in Paul’s name, and Hebrews, as inspired Scripture. Catholic teaching has traditionally spoken of Pauline authorship, while Catholic scholars today are free to discuss the authorship of the disputed letters.

Orthodox view

The Orthodox Church reads fourteen letters as Paul’s in its liturgical tradition, including Hebrews. Orthodox scholars take part in critical debates, while the church’s usage treats the whole Pauline corpus as the apostle’s teaching.

Protestant view

Evangelical Protestants commonly defend the authorship of all thirteen letters, while many mainline Protestant scholars hold that some are by followers. Reformation writers like Luther doubted Hebrews, James and others but accepted the thirteen letters in Paul’s name as his.

Critical scholarly view

Most critical scholars hold seven letters as certainly Paul’s, regard Colossians, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians as disputed, and generally regard the Pastorals as later. Scholars note that the question concerns historical authorship, and not the value of the letters for the church.

Why it matters

Paul’s letters make up about a quarter of the New Testament and shape much of Christian theology. Reading them well depends on seeing them as letters. This lesson prepares the study of Paul’s main ideas in the lessons that follow.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. Which of Paul’s letters have you read most, and what setting did you assume for it?
2. How does it affect your reading to know that a teaching is a response to a problem?
3. What do you think of the idea that a disciple might write in a teacher’s name?
4. Which question would you ask Paul about a letter if you could?

Independent assignment

A letter in its setting

In your own notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Choose one of the seven undisputed letters. Read it through once in one sitting, then write who the recipients were, what problem prompted it, what Paul asks them to do and one verse that you now read differently. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study

• F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? Read the chapters on Paul’s letters from a traditional viewpoint.
• Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament Read selectively on the collection of Paul’s letters and the disputed books.
• Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics Read for an early writer’s view of apostolic teaching and the churches Paul founded.
• 1 Thessalonians 1:1 The opening of what may be Paul’s earliest letter.
• Philemon 1:16 Onesimus as a brother.
• 2 Peter 3:16 An early comment on Paul’s letters.
• Romans 16:22 Tertius, who wrote the letter.