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Pauline epistles

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The Pauline epistles are thirteen letters in the New Testament that most Christians believe were written by Paul the Apostle,[1] and they are the earliest Christian documents.[source?] They show many of the beliefs and controversies within early Christianity,[source?] since most of them are addressed to churches.

The First Epistle to Timothy (1 Timothy), the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy) and the Epistle to Titus (Titus), are known as the Pastoral epistles or Pastorals. These are the most debated epistles other than 2 Thessalonians.[1]

Order and Authorship

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This is the traditional order that they appear in:

Scholars are only confident that seven of these epistles (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon) were actually written by Paul, while there is even divide for two of them (Colossians, 1 Thessalonians).[5] The remaining letters (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, 2 Thessalonians) have the least scholarly support for being written by Paul, and most scholars consider them to be pseudepigraphic.[6]

Notes

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  1. 1 2 While seven of the letters traditionally attributed to Paul (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon) are routinely accepted as authentic in modern scholarship, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, and Titus remain disputed. For a relatively recent overview, see MacDonald, Margaret T. "The Deutero-Pauline Letters in Contemporary Research," in The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 258-279.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Most scholars think this letter was written by Paul.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Scholars do not know if this letter was written by Paul. Many believe, that it was probably not written by Paul; they say the language is very different to that used by Paul. Those who say that Paul was the author say that this letter fits in very well with the other letters written by Paul.
  4. 1 2 Modern scholars do not know if this letter was written by Paul. About half of them believe it was, the other half beileve it was not.
  5. ↑ While seven of the letters traditionally attributed to Paul (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon) are routinely accepted as authentic in modern scholarship, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, and Titus remain disputed. For a relatively recent overview, see MacDonald, Margaret T. "The Deutero-Pauline Letters in Contemporary Research," in The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 258-279.
  6. ↑ While seven of the letters traditionally attributed to Paul (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon) are routinely accepted as authentic in modern scholarship, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, and Titus remain disputed. For a relatively recent overview, see MacDonald, Margaret T. "The Deutero-Pauline Letters in Contemporary Research," in The Oxford Handbook of Pauline Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 258-279.
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