Some time ago I was at a lecture given by Bart Ehrman, who claimed all the books of the new testament were forgeries, except seven Letters of Paul and the Apocalypse/Revelation.
I considered he was only expressing views to get a negative reaction from the audience.
What do you think, who (other than the Holy Spirit) wrote the NT?
Being somewhat simple-minded, myself, I tend to assume that the name given in the first paragraph or in the title of the work is the name of the person who wrote it, or who was responsible for its content.
Like you, I am baffled by the idea that someone other that St. Paul would write to Timothy and speak about events they shared together, without actually being the man himself, or his secretary.
At the same time, I’m sure that the modern theologians and scholars have some reason for believing that at least some of what was written in St. Paul’s name may have been penned after his death. What I would consider is, what indications are there in the writing itself that St. Paul either did or did not write the work?
If someone other than St. Paul was writing to St. Timothy, did St. Timothy know who the person was, and was that the person with whom he shared these various experiences that are being described in the book?
I am aware that in art, during the Renaissance period, students and other workers followed the plan given to them by the artist, such that, say for example, Leonardo Da Vinci might never have touched “The Last Supper” but it is attributed to him, because he is the one who hired the workers and took on the students who actually did the work, and gave them the plan to follow. The lonely artist in his studio doing everything himself is a much more modern phenomenon, beginning with the Impressionists.
So, it’s
possible (I don’t consider it likely, considering that a great deal of his writing was done in prison, and it strikes me that one does not bring one’s staff to prison, generally) that St. Paul had a staff of writers and students who were sending out letters to the churches, and continued to do so even after his death.
The strikes against this include the above-mentioned point that, most of the writing was done from prison, and also the fact that, there isn’t actually that much of it. You can read through the letters of St. Paul in just a few hours; there would have been very little for a large staff of writers to do - one week, and the whole thing would have been completed. So, it doesn’t seem very likely, but it’s one idea.
Perhaps there were also admirers of St. Paul who kind of took on his “persona” after his death, and wrote according to how they thought he would write (like Elvis impersonators, who pride themselves on singing in exactly the same style as Elvis Presley) - if Timothy was aware that the impersonator was adding details from his personal experiences to add an air of authenticity to the work, he would have accepted it as a compliment to his mentor. If it is in fact true that someone else wrote the letters of St. Paul to Timothy, this is the scenario that makes the most sense to me.
I still don’t consider it likely, however.
) the Scriptures into the Latin Vulgate. St. Jerome’s text is good enough for me. I mean, why would he make this up?