{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "pauline-epistles", "name": "Pauline Epistles", "stream": "greco-christian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "apostolic letters", "tradition": "Christian", "author": null, "year_approx": 55, "note": "The fourteen letters traditionally ascribed to Paul, including Hebrews (authorship disputed). Romans, 1 + 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 + 2 Thessalonians, the Pastoral Epistles (1 + 2 Timothy, Titus), Philemon, and Hebrews. ASV (1901).", "books_slug": null, "books_slugs": null, "has_project_translation": false, "steiner_loci": [ "GA 142: The Bhagavad Gita and the Epistles of St Paul (1912)", "GA 198: Healing for the Social Organism — Pauline lectures" ] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "new-testament", "name": "New Testament", "url": "/sources/new-testament/" } ], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "romans", "title": "Romans", "words": 10390, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/romans/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/romans.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Romans — justification by faith; the universal scope of grace", "blurb": "Paul's most systematic letter, addressed to a church he had not yet visited. The full exposition of justification by faith apart from works of the law; the Gentile-and-Jew structure of God's saving purpose (chs 9-11); the great moral exhortation of chs 12-15. The doctrinal foundation-text of Western Christianity." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "1-corinthians", "title": "1 Corinthians", "words": 10361, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-corinthians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-corinthians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "1 Corinthians — divisions, the cross, gifts, resurrection", "blurb": "Paul to the divided Corinthian church. The famous chapters: 1 (the cross as foolishness to Greeks); 11 (the institution of the Lord's Supper); 12 (the body of Christ with many members); 13 (the hymn to charity); 15 (the resurrection of the body and the *spiritual body* doctrine)." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "2-corinthians", "title": "2 Corinthians", "words": 6743, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-corinthians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-corinthians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "2 Corinthians — apostolic vulnerability; the new covenant", "blurb": "The most personal of Paul's letters. The catalogue of apostolic sufferings; the contrast of the old and new covenants (ch 3); the new creation and the ministry of reconciliation (ch 5); the thorn in the flesh and the doctrine *my grace is sufficient for you* (ch 12). The letter of apostolic *weakness*." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "galatians", "title": "Galatians", "words": 3449, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/galatians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/galatians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Galatians — freedom from the works of the law", "blurb": "Paul's most polemical letter — written to the Galatian church to repel the *Judaizing* teaching that Gentile converts must be circumcised. The autobiographical chapters (1-2) including the confrontation with Peter at Antioch; the *justification by faith* argument (3-4); the fruit of the Spirit (ch 5)." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "ephesians", "title": "Ephesians", "words": 3403, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/ephesians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/ephesians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Ephesians — the cosmic Christ; the unity of the church", "blurb": "The most cosmic of the Pauline letters. Christ as head over all things; the gathering up of all things in heaven and on earth in him (1:10); the breaking down of the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (ch 2); the great armour-of-God passage (ch 6). A circular letter, perhaps intended for several Asian churches." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "philippians", "title": "Philippians", "words": 2457, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/philippians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/philippians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Philippians — the joy-letter; the kenotic hymn", "blurb": "Paul's most affectionate letter, written from prison to the church at Philippi which had supported him materially. The famous *kenosis* hymn (2:5-11) — Christ who 'emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.' *Rejoice in the Lord always* (4:4); *I can do all things through him who strengthens me* (4:13)." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "colossians", "title": "Colossians", "words": 2210, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/colossians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/colossians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Colossians — Christ above every principality", "blurb": "Written to the Lycus-valley church to counter a syncretistic teaching mixing Jewish and proto-gnostic elements. The supremacy-of-Christ hymn (1:15-20) — the image of the invisible God, in whom all things were created, things visible and invisible. The earliest sustained Christological hymn outside John 1." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "1-thessalonians", "title": "1 Thessalonians", "words": 2042, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-thessalonians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-thessalonians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "1 Thessalonians — the earliest extant Pauline letter", "blurb": "Likely Paul's earliest surviving letter (c. AD 50). To the newly-founded Thessalonian church, mostly Gentile converts. The eschatological teaching of ch 4 — the parousia, the dead in Christ rising first, those alive being caught up to meet the Lord in the air. The first Christian eschatology in writing." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "2-thessalonians", "title": "2 Thessalonians", "words": 1165, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-thessalonians/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-thessalonians.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "2 Thessalonians — the *man of lawlessness* before the End", "blurb": "Pauline (or deutero-Pauline) follow-up correcting an over-eager eschatological expectation. The famous *man of lawlessness* passage (ch 2): the parousia will not come until the *apostasia* and the revealing of the man of lawlessness, who is now restrained by something that will eventually be taken out of the way." }, { "num": 10, "slug": "1-timothy", "title": "1 Timothy", "words": 2539, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-timothy/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/1-timothy.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "1 Timothy — the first of the Pastoral Epistles", "blurb": "First of the three Pastoral Epistles addressed to Timothy at Ephesus. Church order: bishops, deacons, widows. Warnings against the speculation of the false teachers. The famous mysterion-hymn (3:16): 'manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels…'" }, { "num": 11, "slug": "2-timothy", "title": "2 Timothy", "words": 1801, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-timothy/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/2-timothy.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "2 Timothy — Paul's farewell from a Roman prison", "blurb": "Of the Pastoral Epistles the most personal — Paul's farewell to his disciple from a Roman imprisonment from which he does not expect to be released. *I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith* (4:7). All Scripture is breathed-from-God (3:16)." }, { "num": 12, "slug": "titus", "title": "Titus", "words": 1007, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/titus/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/titus.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Titus — church order on Crete", "blurb": "Third of the Pastoral Epistles. Paul to Titus on Crete: appoint elders, oppose the false teachers, exhort the various age- and station-groups of the church. The great Christological summary (2:11-14): the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all." }, { "num": 13, "slug": "philemon", "title": "Philemon", "words": 498, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/philemon/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/philemon.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Philemon — the shortest Pauline letter; the runaway slave Onesimus", "blurb": "A personal letter to Philemon at Colossae, accompanying the runaway slave Onesimus whom Paul is sending back. Paul's diplomatic plea that Philemon receive Onesimus 'no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.' The shortest Pauline letter, and the most directly social-ethical." }, { "num": 14, "slug": "hebrews", "title": "Hebrews", "words": 7679, "url": "/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/hebrews/", "api": "/api/sources/new-testament/pauline-epistles/hebrews.json", "project_translation": false, "subtitle": "Hebrews — Christ the high priest after the order of Melchizedek", "blurb": "Anonymous in form (traditionally grouped with Paul but distinct in style). Christ as the great high priest *after the order of Melchizedek*; the obsolete-ness of the old covenant in the new; the Christian eschatology as *we have here no abiding city, we seek the one to come*. Closes with the great cloud-of-witnesses chapter (11)." } ] }