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corpus-paul - Date of collection(s) of Paul's letters

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  • From: plstepp AT juno.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Date of collection(s) of Paul's letters
  • Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 17:49:00 GMT


What is the current critical opinion regarding the date and paths by which
Paul's letters were gathered into a single (or even several) collection(s)?

Murphy-O'Connor (*Paul the Letter-Writer*) suggests that by 80 a couple of
collections were circulating in the (pauline?) churches of the major cities,
and that the full corpus (the 13 canonical letters plus Hebrews) was
circulating as a unit by 100. He proposes:

1. First (in the seventies), a Corinthian collection was made, containing the
letters Paul wrote to Corinth (edited for pertinence to the church at large),
Romans (written from Corinth), and Galatians (brought by Paul to Corinth,
used by Paul as a resource [not quite an outline] for portions of Romans.

2. Independently and at about the same time, a collection of the (edited)
letters from Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and Colossae was made.

3. Later (85-ish?), through a link bewteen Corinth and the churches of
Macedonia, the two collections were merged--now a collection with nine
letters (Rom, 1-2 Cor, Gal, "Eph", Phil, Col, 1-2 Thess).

4. In Ephesus, associated with both Philemon (through Onesimus) and Timothy
(Murphy-O'Connor contends that 2 Timothy was authored by Paul), the final
four letters ("letters to individuals") were added to the collection in the
90's. Presumably, 1 Timothy and Titus had been composed by this time in
imitation of 2 Timothy (again, assuming one accepts Murphy-O'Connor's view of
2 Tim.)

How plausible? And what alternative views are currently circulating?

PLStepp




Perry L. Stepp,
Ph.D. candidate, Baylor University
"We can only possess what we experience: Truth, to be understood, must be
lived." --Charlie Peacock


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