DATES OF THE LETTERS

There are many scholarly theories as to the 'when' and 'where' of the individual letters, but a possible dating might be:

There are thirteen Pauline letters, even if not all of them were physically written by Paul. The Letter to the Hebrews does not claim to be written by Paul, nor does the Church state that it is written by him. Stylistically and theologically it is altogether different from Paul; for example, in its interest in the sacrificial cult and high priesthood.

LOST LETTERS

The 'canon', or authorized list, of Paul's letters was established some time in the late first or early second century. We do not know when, where or by whom this was done, but some body or bodies collected whatever writings of Paul, to churches or to individuals, that were available. Already by this time some of Paul's letters had been lost. For instance, in Colossians 4:16 he mentions a letter to the Laodiceans, which we do not have. And while we know of two letters from him to the Corinthians, it seems that he sent them at least two other letters that we do not have: a letter on the subject of immorality (1 Cor 5:9); and a certain 'tearful letter' which had caused the Corinthians much pain (2 Cor 2:4, 7:8).

THE LETTERS WE HAVE

Paul may have written many more letters than those which we have, especially by way of 'occasional correspondence', i.e. short letters concerning specific practical affairs, which in our days would be done by an  email or a voice mail. The one Pauline example is his short, 25-verse letter to Philemon. The second and third letters of John are other examples

LETTER TO PHILEMON

Paul asks Philemon to treat mercifully his slave Onesimus, who had been staying with Paul while the apostle was in prison, had meanwhile become a Christian and is now being sent back to Philemon. This little letter shows us a Paul who is full of Christian love and care and concern for people, and sensitive to the demands of justice and courtesy. It is only a little letter, but it tells us a huge amount about the practical pastoral Paul.

LETTERS TO THE THESSALONIANS

The market-place in ancient Thessalonica
 

1 and 2 Thessalonians, written in 51 - 52, are Paul's earliest letters and the earliest documents in the New Testament. They were written in response to pastoral problems, particularly the question of what happened to those who died before the second coming of Christ: would they lose out on the resurrection? Paul answers 'No' to their worry, and states that while Christ's second coming is going to happen unexpectedly, like a thief in the night, it is not going to happen so soon.

LETTERS TO THE CORINTHIANS

Corinth

1 Corinthians, perhaps written in 56 - 57, consists entirely of response to problems in, and questions from, the Corinthian Christians, which Paul heard of in letters they sent him, or by word of mouth from those who visited him. The problems included the existence of factions and faction-fighting; whether Christians should eat food that had been offered to idols; Christians taking other Christians to law in pagan courts; behaviour at the Lord's supper; and our understanding of the resurrection.

2 Corinthians, perhaps written in 57, is much less specific, and quite diffuse writing, but contains here and there useful insights on the nature of Christian life and ministry, on authority and on true apostleship.

LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Roman Province
of Galatia
25 BC - 137 AD

Galatians, written around the same time, appears to be directed at a group of churches in Galatia, precisely where we are not sure. Paul is hardly able to hold back his disappointment and sadness: 'I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel ...' (1:6). They had perhaps been turning to Hellenistic mystery religions. 'O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you...?' (3:1). In this letter we hear Paul for the first time talking about justification - man being made 'at rights' before God.

LETTER TO THE ROMANS

The Roman Forum

By the time Paul writes his Letter to the Romans, perhaps in 57 - 58, he has therefore written several major letters. He has never been to visit the Christian community in Rome. He did not found it, and his usual principle, he tells us at 15:20-24, is not to visit churches founded by others. Against this usual principle, he is writing to the Romans in advance of going to visit them, because his future missionary plans are to launch into Spain and the Western Mediterranean region and for that mission Rome will serve him as a useful operations base.

Because he is something of an unknown entity to the Roman Christians, he gives them in Chapters 1 - 8 a presentation of the Gospel that he preaches. This is only one of the things that makes Romans different from his other letters - apart from the fact that he is writing to people who, for the most part, he does not know. Romans 1 - 8 is sometimes referred to as 'the Gospel according to  Paul'.

'Justification', man being made righteous by God and before God, is one of Paul's main categories of presentation in Romans 1 - 8. It might puzzle us why Paul should use this terminology, which would not be our natural choice of word to describe what God has done for each of us in Christ, but there is evidence that justification was a hotly disputed issue in Jewish circles in Paul's day.

Paul's answer is a radical one, which would have been shocking to his Jewish contemporaries: that a person's justification, his or her right standing before God, is not acquired by self-accumulated merit in obeying the many precepts of the Old Testament, but by faith in God. This would have been a body-blow against the whole spirituality and system of salvation of contemporary Judaism. We are asked in the Psalms: 'Who can justify the ungodly?' But Paul announces confidently that God can, and does, justify the ungodly, the pagans, even those who have hitherto lived without any moral code.

In Romans 9 - 11, Paul tackles the question of the relationship of Israel, the people of the Old Covenant, to the New Covenant in Christ. It is the only place in the New Testament where an ordered explanation of this problem is attempted, and it would be the last Christian treatment of this issue for quite some time.

Here Paul speaks from the heart of his pain about his brothers in Israel who have not turned to Christ. And he tells the Gentile Christians in Rome that they are to regard themselves as a wild olive shoot that has been grafted, transplanted onto the natural olive plant that is Israel.
 

THE 'CAPTIVITY LETTERS'

The 'Captivity Letters', written while Paul was imprisoned, are those to Philemon, and to the Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians.

LETTER TO THE PHILIPPIANS

The theatre at Philippi

Philippians is the happiest of all Paul's letters, the 'letter of joy'. He shares with the Philippians his thoughts about his imprisonment and future fate. It seems that he has no fault to find with them, either ethically or doctrinally, but merely urges them to a greater unity among themselves and to joy in the Lord.

LETTERS TO THE EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS

The aqueduct at Ephesus

The site of Colossae

Ephesians and Colossians are quite similar, Ephesians being the longer of the two. Both are written in a hymnic style, and present the 'cosmic Christ', through whom and for whom all things were created , who has reconciled all things on earth and in heaven by his death, and is supreme over all things. Colossians 2:16-23 suggest that the addressees' faith is at risk from the promotion of competing religious systems.

Because the hymnic writing style of Ephesians and Colossians is so different from that of the known Pauline letters, and because of the absence therein of favourite Pauline terms and themes, some scholars suggest that they were not written by Paul, but by later writers from churches founded by Paul, familiar with his theology and thought. To write in Paul's name, to apply his way of thinking to new situations and new dangers, might not have been considered as fictitious and deceptive in the ancient world as it might be to us. Another theory, less heard nowadays, is that Paul may have genuinely written Colossians, while the similar but longer letter to the Ephesians was written by a later writer.

It is, of course, quite possible for a writer to change and to write differently in altered internal or external circumstances, and it is well known that computer analyses of word-usage and style of some of the Shakespearian plays are supposed to have proved that Shakespeare never wrote some of his best loved plays. With St Paul, we have the difficulty that we do not know whether he was put to death following what is recounted in Acts 28:30-31, as many of today's scholars suppose; or whether he was released and able to continue his apostolic ministry for some years to come and able to write further letters.

THE 'PASTORAL LETTERS'

LETTERS TO TIMOTHY AND TITUS

This same question applies to the 'Pastoral Letters', which are the two letters to Timothy, and the one to Titus. Timothy is represented as appointed by Paul as his representative in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete. These three letters show marked differences in outlook from the major letters of Paul.

Belief in an imminent second coming of Christ has faded. 'The faith' appears now as a solid body of beliefs; 'keep the faith' is something the author says often. The Church appears to be now an established institution, and descriptions or criteria are given to the offices of bishop (or 'overseer'), presbyter and deacon (or 'minister'), although dividing lines between the first two offices are not clear.

'These ministries are post-Pauline' many scholars would say, replacing the more 'charismatic' patterns of ministry outlined by the real Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and Romans 12:3-8, as the Church became more institutionalised and the original apostles and evangelists died off. 'These letters are therefore deutero-Pauline' they would say, belonging to the generations after Paul.