Introduction

Everything that has been said so far about Paul's understanding of Jesus has been based on an examination of the seven letters which virtually all scholars regard as unquestionably authentic: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Now in this chapter we must consider the six other New Testament writings which bear Paul's name, but whose actual authorship is in doubt: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. The view adopted here, in agreement with many other scholars, is that all six of these were written after Paul's death. It is probable that 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, the so-called “Pastoral Epistles,” were written by the same person. Three separate auriors seem to have been responsible for Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians. In no case, however, can the real author be identified.

The Question of Authorship

Several different factors have a bearing on the question of authorship. First there is the matter of style and vocabulary. The style of a person's writing – grammar, sentence structure, and so forth – is almost like a signature, distinctive and relatively consistent. In various ways, the six questionable letters depart from Pauline style. In addition, they sometimes use words not found in the unquestionably authentic letters; and, more important, they sometimes use Pauline words in quite non-Pauline ways.

Second, scholars have been led to question the authenticity of these letters because of the various anachronisms they contain or involve. That is, they often presuppose certain events or situations which do not square with what we know to have been the case during Paul's lifetime.