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we often read Paul's letters in the context of the Bible

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HarperCollins Study Bible

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used to understand the ancient, historical context of the writing of the Bible

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all historical writings have biographies

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where they originated

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where they traveled

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who reads them and where

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how they were interpreted

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circulation of Paul's letters

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written as individual letters aimed at particular communities

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often co-written

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sometimes written by scribe and signed by Paul

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this was a common writing practice of the time

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at some point the letters of Paul became part of a circulating set

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became part of a larger corpus that was understood to have relevance for a broader set of communities

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the earliest manuscripts we have of Paul's letters date to the third century, roughly 150 years after he wrote them

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approximately 800 early copies of the Letters of Paul have survived to the current day

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no two copies are completely identical

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P46 or Papyrus 46

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the oldest collected manuscript of Paul's letters

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dated between 175AD and 225AD

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part is at the University of Michigan and part is in the Chester Beatty Collection in Dublin

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in good shape but the outer pages don't survive

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begins with Romans 4:17 and ends with 1 Thessalonians 5:28

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many pages still have their page numbers

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from this we know there were probably seven missing outer leaves

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scribe miscalculated how many pages were needed

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after half of the book was filled, he began to write more lines per page

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doesn't seem to contain the entire collection ascribed to a standard Bible

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four early codices that date from 4th or 5th century

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not scrolls but codices, or book-like collections of papers bound together

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contain all or parts of Paul's letters

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1. Codex Alexandrinus, 5th century

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one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible

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given to Charles I of England in the 17th century

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until the later purchase of the Codex Sinaiticus, it was the best manuscript of the Greek Bible deposited in Britain.

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today, it is with the Codex Sinaiticus in one of the showcases in the Ritblat Gallery of the British Library

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contains all letters of Paul with only a few pages missing

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2. Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus, 5th century

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originally contained large sections of Old and New Testament

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12th century, ink was washed off

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texts of Christian writer Ephrem were written onto it

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ultraviolet lighting helps us see the palimpsest's original text

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contains portions of every book of the New Testament with the exception of 2 John and 2 Thessalonians

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non of the individual texts within the New Testament is complete

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3. Codex Sinaiticus, 4th century

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contains all the books of the New Testament

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1844 discovered at the monestery of Saint Catherine in Egypt

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1869 given to Russia

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1933 sold to the British Museum

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also has texts that are generally not known in Bibles

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2 Esdras

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Tobit

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Judith

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1 and 4 Maccabees

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Wisdom

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Sirach

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Epistle of Barnabas

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Shepherd of Hermas

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Vaticanus

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4. Codex Vaticanus

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not known where it was found

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1481 recorded in Vatican library

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lacks Timothy, 2 Timothy, titus and Philemon

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by the 3rd century CE, Christians were copying Paul's letters and circulating them

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how did early Christian's evaluate Paul's letters?

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in second century already, some Christian considered Paul's writings to be scripture

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the word "graphas" was used to not only refer to the Jewish writings but Paul's own letters

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people against Paul

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Marcion of Sinope (85AD-160AD)

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a bishop in early Christianity

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completely rejected the existence of the deity described in the Jewish Scriptures

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affirmed the Father of Christ to be the true God

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denounced by the Church Fathers and he chose to separate himself from the Imperial Church

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we know about him mostly from those who hated him

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none of his writings survive

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was wealthy, born into Christian home

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125: moved to Rome, made donation there

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Irenaeus, 180 AD

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lived in Gaul

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referred to Marcion as a heretic

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"he mutilated the Epistles of Paul"

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said he took out all references about the Creator God from the Old Testament and anything about the Jewish prophets

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Tertullian (160AD, 225AD)

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prolific early Christian author from Carthage

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Paul's letters circulated but were also an object of controversy

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it was argued which texts and which parts of the texts were authoritative and useful

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and many agreed that some texts of Paul were sacred, but it was often not agreed which texts those were

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pseudo-Clementine literature

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from Syria, around 200 AD

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this collection shows examples of people who were against Paul and who wanted to discredit him

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letter from Apostle Peter to James, brother of Jesus, or as if it were this

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in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, Jesus names James his successor: "The disciples said to Jesus, 'We know that you will depart from us. Who will be our leader?' Jesus said to them, Where you are, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into existence."

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suggests that Paul was leading early Christians astray

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uses the word Simon as a code for Paul

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reinterpret and question the letters of Paul

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Epiphanius of Salamis (320-403)

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collected heresy texts

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some of these texts suggested that Paul was Greek, not Jewish

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met Jewish girl and became Jewish

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fell out with Jewish girl and rebelled against Judaism

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people who valued Paul

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it is generally agreed that Paul wrote these letters in this order, all in the New Testament:

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1 Thessalonians

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Galations

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1 Corinthians

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2 Corinthians

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Philippians

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Philemon

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Romans

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there are also texts in the New Testament that are about Paul:

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Acts of the Apostles

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written in early second century, roughly 50 years after Paul's last letter was written

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pseudepigraphy

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texts written in someone else's name

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some of Paul's texts were written by others

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in antiquity, it was not uncommon for a student to write in a teacher's name

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it was a common educational assignment to pen a text in a famous writer's style

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we also find letter's written in Plato's name, written after he lived

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2 Thessalonians, for example, imitates 1 Thessalonians yet it indicates a different social setting

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1 and 2 Timothy and Titus

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these are conceived more as a testament to Paul's life, a kind of document of what he would have written as his last words had he been able to do so

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Colossians and Ephesians are called deutro-Pauline materials

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clearly influenced by Paul's thought, but aspects of grammar, vocabulary and theology indicate they were probably written later

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the text of Hebrews sometimes circulated with Paul's letters

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there are pseudepigraphical letters betwen Paul and Roman philosopher and politician Seneca

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fourth century Christians wanted to imagine Paul in contact with a key Roman thinker and writer, Seneca

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had Seneca admit to Paul that Nero persecuted Christians and Jews unjustly

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in 2nd century, stories about Paul called "The Acts of Paul" circulated around the Mediterranean basin

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the way Paul wrote was imitated by many

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e.g. Ignatius assumed that after his death, his letters would be collected and disseminated

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was chosen to serve as the Bishop of Antioch, succeeding Saint Peter and St. Evodius (who died around AD 67).

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en route to Rome, he met his martyrdom by being fed to wild beasts

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Paul's letters and writings which refer to them show us how the early Christian assemblies tried to figure out who they were, how they fit into the broader political, economic, cultural and religious matrix of the Roman Empire, and in doing so, they chose which of Paul's letters and which parts of Paul's letters they wished to use and which they chose to abandon.