New Testament Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Pauline epistles=== {{Main|Authorship of the Pauline epistles}} [[File:PaulT.jpg|thumb|''Saint Paul Writing His Epistles'' by [[Valentin de Boulogne]] (c. 1618–1620). Most scholars think [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] actually dictated his letters to a secretary.]] The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to [[Paul of Tarsus]]. Seven letters are generally classified as "undisputed", expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are the work of Paul: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus.{{Efn|name="Lock, Meinertz p.622"|[[Donald Guthrie (theologian)|Donald Guthrie]] lists the following scholars as supporting authenticity: Wohlenberg, Lock, Meinertz, Thörnell, Schlatter, Spicq, [[Joachim Jeremias|Jeremias]], Simpson, Kelly, and Fee{{sfn|Guthrie|1990|p=621–622}}}} The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is, despite unlikely Pauline authorship, often functionally grouped with these thirteen to form a corpus of fourteen "Pauline" epistles.{{Efn|Although Hebrews was almost certainly not written by Paul, it has been a part of the Pauline corpus "from the beginning of extant MS production".<ref name=hebot01>{{cite web |last=Wallace |first=Daniel B. |url=https://bible.org/seriespage/19-hebrews-introduction-argument-and-outline |title=Hebrews: Introduction, Argument, and Outline |publisher=Bible.org |date=28 June 2004}}</ref>}} While many scholars uphold the traditional view, some question whether the first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles", are authentic letters of Paul. As for the latter three, the "Pastoral epistles", some scholars uphold the traditional view of these as the genuine writings of the Apostle Paul;{{Efn|name="Lock, Meinertz p.622"}} most regard them as [[Pseudepigraphy|pseudepigrapha]].{{sfn|Ehrman|2004a|p=385}} One might refer to the [[Epistle to the Laodiceans]] and the [[Third Epistle to the Corinthians]] as examples of works identified as pseudonymous. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary scholars generally reject Pauline authorship.<ref>{{harvnb|Ehrman|2004a|p=323}}</ref> The epistles all share common themes, emphasis, vocabulary and style; they exhibit a uniformity of doctrine concerning the [[Mosaic Law]], Jesus, faith, and various other issues. All of these letters easily fit into the chronology of Paul's journeys depicted in Acts of the Apostles. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page