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The Pauline epistles typically refers to the fourteen New Testament books which have been traditionally ascribed to The Apostle Paul . Among them are some of the earliest extant Christian documents. They provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of formative Christianity and, as part of the Canon of the New Testament, they have also been, and continue to be, hugely influential in Christian theology and ethics. In the order they appear in the New Testament, the Pauline epistles are:
All of the epistles except that to the Hebrews present Paul as the author. The Epistle To The Hebrews is something of a special case, being anonymous. Authorship of Hebrews was disputed from the earliest, and few modern scholars would attribute it to Paul. Thus some classifications do not include Hebrews as a Pauline epistle, listing it instead with the General Epistles . RELIGIOUS CLASSIFICATION OF THE EPISTLES The Pauline epistles are also noteworthy for the personal relationships they mention. Paul greets many individuals by name, often giving details about the value of these friendships and the encouragement they gave him. AUTHENTICITY OF THE EPISTLES Main article Authorship Of The Pauline Epistles Several of the letters are thought by a majority of modern scholars to be Pseudepigraphal , that is, not actually written by Paul of Tarsus even if attributed to him within the letters themselves. Details of the arguments regarding this issue are addressed more specifically in the articles about each epistle. The 7 letters considered genuine by most scholars, and doubted by almost none: The letters thought to be pseudepigrapha by the majority of modern scholars, according to recent standards of analysis and theoretical trends, are: New Testament Letter Structure , from Catholic Resources by Felix Just, S.J.
The letters on which modern scholars are about evenly divided are: An anonymous letter that nearly all modern scholars agree was probably not written by Paul is: NON-CANONICAL PAULINE EPISTLES Several non-canonical epistles exist claiming or having been claimed to have been written by Paul. Most, if not all, scholars reject their authenticity. They include
Texts also exist which, whilst not strictly epistles, nevertheless claim to have been written by (or about) Paul. These include
Some have also postulated the existence of a third epistle to the Thessalonians (second chronologically) forged in Paul's name, citing 2 Th 2:1-2, 3:17 as evidence; that hypothesis, though, has not gained mainstream acceptance. REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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