Pauline epistles

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The Pauline epistles are the thirteen or fourteen letters in the New Testament of the Christian Bible traditionally believed to have been written by the apostle Paul. Among them are some of the earliest extant Christian documents. They provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of formative Christianity and, as part of the canon of the New Testament, they have also been, and continue to be, hugely influential in Christian theology and ethics.

The authorship of some of these letters ("epistles") has been called into question particularly by more recent scholarship (these works are marked '(*)' in the list below). Some of those who doubt Paul's direct authorship suggest they were written by some of his disciples, either during or soon after his lifetime.

In the order they appear in the New Testament, the Pauline epistles are:

All of the epistles except the epistle to the Hebrews present Paul as the author. The epistle to the Hebrews is something of a special case, being anonymous. Authorship of Hebrews was disputed from the earliest, and few, if any, modern scholars would attribute it to Paul. Thus some classifications do not include Hebrews as a Pauline epistle, listing it instead with the general epistles.

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Religious classification of the epistles

The signed Pauline epistles may be classified into two types: Paul's letters to new Christian churches of the first century (Romans through Second Thessalonians), and Paul's letters to individuals (First Timothy through Philemon). The former are named after the city or region of receiving church; the latter after the individual to whom they were addressed. When more than one epistle was addressed to the same recipient, they are distinguished by number (i.e 2nd Thessalonians).

Paul's letters to churches are concerned with particular aspects of church doctrine and practice Paul felt to be important to the recipient congregation. In most cases these letters were addressed to churches Paul had founded himself, and he wrote to supply further teaching, or to correct misunderstandings of his doctrine, or to respond to situations that had developed since his last visit. In some cases he answered specific questions put to him by letter or messenger. A prominent theme in many of the letters is controversy over the role of the Jewish Law in early Christianity. Often Paul is responding to believers who argued that adherence to Jewish practices was desirable even for Gentile Christians. Sometimes it appears that teachers arrived after Paul's departure promoting these alternative ideas, or questioning Paul's apostolic authority. While all of the letters are concerned with a variety of topics, this is perhaps a common theme.

The letters to Timothy and Titus are collectively known as the 'pastoral epistles' as they address two of Paul's disciples charged with pastoring churches. Paul wrote to them give advice and commandments for Christian preachers and for the appointing of overseers, elders and deacons. The letter to Philemon is the most personal of all Paul's letters, addressed to a Christian slave-owner on behalf of a runaway slave who had become a believer.

The Pauline epistles are also noteworthy for the personal relationships they mention. Paul greets many individuals by name, often giving details about the value of these friendships and the encouragement they gave him.

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Academic classification of the Epistles

The epistles may also be arranged by the nature of their content

  • Those primarily introducing theology and doctrine
  • Those predominantly addressing the issue of the use of Jewish practices
  • Those acting as personal intercession
  • Those primarily addressing heresy
  • Those primarily correcting readings of other epistles
  • Those addressing the nature of the church (known as the Pastorals)

The letters to Timothy and to Titus bear a remarkable similarity to one another, as does Ephesians to Colossians. This may reflect a practise of mass-mailing, or the desire to re-address issues in earlier letters by repeating them, but expanding on the ideas.

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Authenticity of the epistles

Main article Authorship of the Pauline epistles.

Several of the letters are thought by a majority of modern scholars to be pseudepigraphal, that is, not actually written by Paul of Tarsus even if attributed to him within the letters themselves. Details of the arguments regarding this issue are addressed more specifically in the articles about each epistle.

The 7 letters considered genuine by most scholars (at the time of writing), and doubted by almost none:

The letters thought to be pseudepigrapha by the majority of modern scholars, according to recent standards of analysis and theoretical trends, are:

The letters on which modern scholars are about evenly divided are:

An anonymous letter that nearly all modern scholars agree was probably not written by Paul is:

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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

Texts also exist which, whilst not strictly epistles, nevertheless claim to have been written by (or about) Paul. These include

Paul appears to have written four letters to the Corinthian church, only two of which survived. The first letter is referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9 and a "letter of tears" is referred to in 2 Corinthians.

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See also

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External links

sv:Pauli brev zh:保罗书信

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