Pauline Epistles

Form:

apostolic letters

Approx. date:

c. 55 CE

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).

• 1Romans — Romans — justification by faith; the universal scope of grace

  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.

  10,390 words
• 21 Corinthians — 1 Corinthians — divisions, the cross, gifts, resurrection

  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).

  10,361 words
• 32 Corinthians — 2 Corinthians — apostolic vulnerability; the new covenant

  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.

  6,743 words
• 4Galatians — Galatians — freedom from the works of the law

  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).

  3,449 words
• 5Ephesians — Ephesians — the cosmic Christ; the unity of the church

  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.

  3,403 words
• 6Philippians — Philippians — the joy-letter; the kenotic hymn

  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).

  2,457 words
• 7Colossians — Colossians — Christ above every principality

  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.

  2,210 words
• 81 Thessalonians — 1 Thessalonians — the earliest extant Pauline letter

  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.

  2,042 words
• 92 Thessalonians — 2 Thessalonians — the man of lawlessness before the End

  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.

  1,165 words
• 101 Timothy — 1 Timothy — the first of the Pastoral Epistles

  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…'

  2,539 words
• 112 Timothy — 2 Timothy — Paul's farewell from a Roman prison

  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).

  1,801 words
• 12Titus — Titus — church order on Crete

  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.

  1,007 words
• 13Philemon — Philemon — the shortest Pauline letter; the runaway slave Onesimus

  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.

  498 words
• 14Hebrews — Hebrews — Christ the high priest after the order of Melchizedek

  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).

  7,679 words

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