Who wrote Paul's letters

[KevinH]

In the homily I heard today (24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), the priest stated that Paul did not write the letters that bear his name. Rather, they were written much later, after 100 AD, by one of his followers. This is the first I’ve ever heard this, although I’ve heard plenty of times that Gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Anyone else ever heard of this (regarding Paul)? Anyone know where this kind of thinking originated?

Kevin

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

KevinH:

In the homily I heard today (24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), the priest stated that Paul did not write the letters that bear his name. Rather, they were written much later, after 100 AD, by one of his followers. This is the first I’ve ever heard this, although I’ve heard plenty of times that Gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Anyone else ever heard of this (regarding Paul)? Anyone know where this kind of thinking originated?

Kevin

It’s too bad that your pastor thinks that he knows better than the Catholic Church which holds that St. Paul wrote the letters that bear his name if not by his own hand, then by someone who was his companion, a secretary in a sense, while Paul was still alive.

Anyone know where this kind of thinking originated?

With Protestant “Scripture experts”

 

[JimG]

I think Paul wrote Paul’s letters and Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare’s plays.

 

[JimG]

Notice from the year 2510: It has been determined by a group of scholars familiar with early 21st century internet history that “Karl Keating” did not actually write any e-letters. This pecular form of missive was actually composed by a school of his followers much later, probably in the late 22nd century.

 

[whowantsumadebo]

There are only 7 letters that everyone on earth agrees Paul himself wrote. 1 and 2 Corinthians can be dated approximately. Since then, some have attempted to suggest that he didn’t write the pastorals, Ephesians! 2 Thessalonians! and such. Most of their reasoning comes from first: Denying that Paul wrote them, and then: finding some minute statement and suggest that that proves it.
In 2 thessalonians Paul warns the church in Thessolonica of a foney letter an imposter send to them, claiming to be from Paul.
Not only do I find this humorous, that is the false letter, I find the notion that this must mean 2 Thessalonians is a false letter aslo humorous. The idea is that before Paul’s death he wasn’t a big enough star for people to make fake letters attributed to him. But after his death maybe. It pretty much gets down to this. The whole tone of the rest of the letter however, I believe, would suggest that it is genuine.
This is a tough battle, but scripture is on our side.

 

[metal1633]

KevinH:

In the homily I heard today (24th Sunday in Ordinary Time), the priest stated that Paul did not write the letters that bear his name. Rather, they were written much later, after 100 AD, by one of his followers. This is the first I’ve ever heard this, although I’ve heard plenty of times that Gospels were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Anyone else ever heard of this (regarding Paul)? Anyone know where this kind of thinking originated?

Kevin

Tell your Pastor to leave theological speculation OUT of his homilies. Tell him to PLEASE stick to what the Church teaches.

 

[Faithful_2_Rome]

Of course we know Paul didnt write his letters…and Matthew is simply Q… we’ve had 2000 years of human “evolvement” to think otherwise.

C’mon… we have the astute opinions from learned men OF OUR TIME, who’s Degrees could fill entire WALLS…and we all know how much emphasis the Lord puts on highly educated learned and wise men… they have studied the scriptures…do we not hold THEIR theories in this marvelous age of enlightenment to the respect that which they deserve?

…or do we take dangerous chances and rely on the “alleged” writings of those who lived 2000 years ago?.. all they can claim is to have directly lived, talked and walked with the Lord…or at “best” didnt get to speed in Christianity until 5 to 15 years AFTER Jesus rose from the dead? 5 - 15 years AFTER? How in the WORLD can we even begin to take them seriously?

Why…if it wasnt for our scholary theologians of TODAY and studying the fine art of Liberalism, whos to say where the Catholic Church would be in terms of her doctrines?

Just talking about it all makes me shiver to think we barely made it thru 2000 years of simplistic “ghost writings”

Why…I say…GOD BLESS those brave and wise educated Priests and Bishops who come foreward to announce the New Testament as well as the Old…may not be EXACTLY as written and authored!

They are the NEW John the Baptists! Calling us to truth, Justice and the heretical way!

 

[mikeabele]

Br. Rich SFO:

It’s too bad that your pastor thinks that he knows better than the Catholic Church which holds that St. Paul wrote the letters that bear his name if not by his own hand, then by someone who was his companion, a secretary in a sense, while Paul was still alive.

Anyone know where this kind of thinking originated?

With Protestant "Scripture experts"

I’ve never heard this from any Protestant. I hope you mean agnostic or humanistic “Bible” scholars, there are plenty of those but they also deny the deity of Christ. They’d love for Him to be but a prophet and not the Son of God, Savior of sinners. I am shocked as well that someone in a teaching authority could have such a distorted view of Scripture.

 

[asteroid]

There are certainly Protestants who deny the Pauline authorship of some of Paul’s epistles.

While at college I had to write an essay with the simple title “Discuss the Authorship of Ephesians”. I thought the answer was quite obvious but some scholars don’t. I got so annoyed that, for the fun of it, I wrote a very long essay arguing, quite convincingly, that Paul didn’t write Ephesians. The lecturer then accused me of turning into a liberal!

Anyway, one commentary (I think it was the one by C. Leslie Mitton but can’t be sure now) concludes that Ephesians, rather than being written by Paul, was actually written by Onesimus, the slave mentioned in Philemon.

His argument (which I think is utter rubbish) is that since Ephesians is very similar to Colossians and since Colossians was written by Paul, that means Ephesians wasn’t written by Paul but be someone copying Paul. Personally I think that one man might write similar things to two different churches. The funny thing is, in his commentary on Colossians, the same author argues that Colossians wasn’t written by Paul. Which in itself would destroy his argument about Ephesians.

 

[Zooey]

There is a very liberal school of “thought” which says that Paul didn’t write his letters. I personally feel that this is an attempt to down play the importance of what he wrote, because it makes the far left uncomfortable. (They might actually have to take the Bible seriously, for a change.)
I agree with the poster who pointed out that these are generally humanists/agnostics. Yes, some of them are associated with various Protestant churches. If you don’t blame me for them, I will promise not to blame you for:bigyikes: Andrew Greeley…

 

[JimG]

Re: Who wrote Paul’s letters?

Oh wait, maybe it was Mary Magdalene.