How many undisputed pauline letters

Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, , 2. Lightfoot points out that Ephesian Christians are actually mentioned in a number of Pauline letters, namely, Romans , 1 Corinthians ; , 19 , 2 Corinthians , and 1 and 2 Timothy, both of which he believed were genuine.

However, W. One need not conclude that there were several letters of Paul to the Philippians known to Polycarp. See discussion in A. Lightfoot, Philippians London: Macmillan, , — However, see W. See the tables throughout Barnett, Literary Influence. See Barnett,Literary Influence,x. Some scholars are prepared to argue that the Pastorals are cited or alluded to in1 Clementand Ignatius. However, Barnett Paul,—83 argues that, in the case of Polycarp,Phil,it is much more likely that the Pastorals are dependent on Polycarp cf.

I believe Polycarp and the author of the Pastorals are citing widely attested maxims. See M. Dibelius and H. Finally, it should be noted that Barnett does not register the possible citation of passages from the Pastorals in the apologists Theophilus Letter to Autolycus3.

For texts, seeANF2. He gives as an example of the use of traditional material Ignatius,Eph Lindemann, Paulus , Harnack argued that the thirteen-letter Pauline corpus was available to Polycarp.

Barnett contends that Ephesians was written as the preface of a nine-letter collection, and that the author of the Pastorals knew a ten-letter Pauline corpus Literary Influence , 2—3, For an overview of the evidence for the knowledge of Pauline letters in each writer, see Dassmann, Stachel , 79—83 Clement , —35 Ignatius , —55 Polycarp , —48 Justin , —51 Athenagoras , —54 Theophilus.

See A. See also Epiphanius, Panarion See Tertullian, Marc 5. Epiphanius, Panarion Williams [trans. See further B. Lincoln Ephesians[WBC 42; Waco: Word Books, ], 14 , seeking to make sense of the difficult syntax of the superscript, argues that the letter might have been originally written for congregations in Hierapolis and Laodicea. Tertullian suggests that Marcion rejected the letters because he did not believe that Paul wrote to individuals. According to W. Harvey see Dassmann,Stachel, , there are citations of Paul inHaer.

Thessalonians and Philemon are not extant in the papyrus either. See discussion in F. For a rejection of the argument that the absence of the Pastoral Epistles in the papyrus indicates a lack of their wide acceptance in the church of ca. Hebrews was accepted by gnostic exegetes as a letter of Paul. Indeed, E. Pagels The Gnostic Paul[Philadelphia: Fortress Press, ], 5 surmises that q 46 exactly corresponds to the Valentinian canon of Pauline letters as deduced by the usage of the Pauline corpus in Valentinian writings.

Each one concludes with blessings in the plural. See also M. Aune ed. Wikgren Leiden: Brill, , Eusebius,Hist eccl6. Pantaenus also believed that Paul wrote Hebrews. Origen leans towards Luke or Clement of Rome as author see alsoHist eccl3. Eusebius,Hist eccl3. Gaius of Rome was one who disputed Pauline authorship of Hebrews Hist eccl6. When I first learned the scribal practices of the amanuensis, I realized the stylistic differences in the different Pauline epistles were easily resolved.

One may see stylistic differences even among the undisputed letters of Paul for the same reason. An amanuensis was a scribe who penned a letter as the author was dictating the message to him.

The amanuensis would read back the letter to the author to ensure the message was as the orator desired. Scholars have noted that amanuenses were often allowed some liberty in the structure of their writing so long as the message was preserved. Take Romans, for instance. Paul authored the letter while Tertius was the amanuensis.

Paul dictated the information to Tertius, who wrote down the message of Paul and read it back to Paul to ensure that it encapsulated the message desired. In my humble opinion, I think the practice was used by the Holy Spirit to make the epistles even better than they would have been if only one hand was involved. Evidences for the amanuensis imprint are found in 1 Corinthians and 1 Corinthians , 2 Corinthians , Ephesians , Colossians , among many other places.

The Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence. The so-called problem with the historical differences between the disputed epistles and the book of Acts is easily solved when one realizes that Luke did not provide an exhaustive history of the church in his sequel. That is to say, Luke did not document every event that took place in early church history. In like manner, the Gospels do not provide an exhaustive biography of the life of Jesus.

As one of my former professors, Dr. When one examines Acts with the epistles, there is no problem so long as the two do not contradict each other. The early church unanimously accepted all thirteen letters as authentic. Space will not allow a full treatment of this issue. Early church leaders unanimously endorsed the letter as authentically Pauline.

Irenaeus endorsed it in Against Heresies 3. Evidence for Deacons and Elders in Undisputed Letters. Concerning the development of elders and deacons in the church, one must consider the role of leadership in the earliest church.

Jesus himself divided his disciples into various groups. Concannon is assistant professor of religion at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on Paul, early Christianity, and Roman history and archaeology.

Attributed authorship. A categorization in which people or other objects are ranked relative to each other, some higher and some lower. The third division of the Jewish canon, also called by the Hebrew name Ketuvim. The other two divisions are the Torah Pentateuch and Nevi'im Prophets ; together the three divisions create the acronym Tanakh, the Jewish term for the Hebrew Bible.

Site HarperCollins Dictionary. People Home Paul and Authorship. Add this:. Ask a Scholar. Sexual Ethics in the Bible Jennifer Knust on the contradictory evidence regarding procreation and sex in the Bible. What are the deutero Pauline letters? The letters in question—2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus—are often called the Deutero-Pauline letters, meaning secondary letters, or pseudo-Pauline, meaning false letters of Paul.

Is Colossians an authentic Pauline letter? In the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians purport to be from the hand of Paul 2 Thes ; Col ; ; Eph , and the tradition has regarded them as authentic Pauline writings e.

He writes letters as a mechanism for further instructing them in his understanding of the Christian message. The collection of letters, known to scholars as Papyrus 46, is believed to be the oldest known surviving copy of the Letters of St. Out of the page collection, 30 leaves reside here in Ann Arbor, 56 leaves reside at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin and 18 are lost. Paul, Krodel, Gerhard: Amazon.

Philemon was a wealthy Christian, possibly a bishop of the house church that met in his home Philemon —2 in Colossae. This letter is now generally regarded as one of the undisputed works of Paul. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum.