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The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle.
There is strong consensus in modern New Testament scholarship on a core group of authentic Pauline epistles whose authorship is rarely contested: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
Several additional letters bearing Paul's name are disputed among scholars, namely Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Scholarly opinion is sharply divided on whether or not Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are genuine letters of Paul. The remaining four contested epistles – Ephesians, as well as the three known as the Pastoral epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus) – have been labeled pseudepigraphical works by most critical scholars.[1] Some scholars have proposed that Paul may have used an amanuensis, or secretary, in writing the disputed letters,[2] although such a solution would not explain the fact that the disputed letters appear to have been written at least a decade after Paul’s death.
There are two examples of pseudonymous letters written in Paul's name apart from the New Testament epistles, the Epistle to the Laodiceans and 3 Corinthians.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is actually anonymous, but it has been traditionally attributed to Paul.[3] The church father Origen of Alexandria rejected the Pauline authorship of Hebrews, instead asserting that, although the ideas expressed in the letter were genuinely Pauline, the letter itself had actually been written by someone else.[4] Most modern scholars generally agree that Hebrews was not written by the apostle Paul. Various other possible authorships have been suggested.[5]
Status | Categorisation[6] | Epistle |
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Undisputed | Authentic Pauline epistles | |
Disputed | Deutero-Pauline epistles; may be authentic |
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Pastoral epistles; probably not authentic |
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Anonymous sermon; not Pauline |
Scholars normally place the thirteen Pauline letters of the New Testament into three categories: The Pastoral Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, which are very widely recognized as having been written by someone other than Paul; the Deutero-Pauline letters of Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians, which are fairly widely as being written by other authors (three different authors; these must be judged as authentic or not on a case by case basis); and the other seven letters, which are called the 'Undisputed Paulines': Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.