Corpus-Paul

["Brian Tucker" <music AT riverviewcog.org>]

Greetings

Please critique the following argument and add any additional thoughts or 
bibliography to assist me in my research.

Hypothesis: The Philippians correspondence is composed of three fragments.

The letter is actually composed of three letter fragments, accidentally 
saved as it appears and crudely joined together at some later time by those 
who collected the letters of Paul in the name of the Pauline school (Phil. 
4:10-20; 1:1-3:1; 3:2-4:9).

The first two seem to have been written from Ephesus around the time of 
Paul's imprisonment there (ca. 54-55 CE), or five to eight years after Paul 
first established the congregation in Philippi. Epaphroditus had arrived 
with gifts from Philippi for Paul's support, and Paul looked back on 
earlier occasions when the Philippians had sent their gifts to him (Phil. 
4:15-18). Epaphroditus stayed with Paul for a while and suffered an illness 
before Paul sent him back to Philippi with Timothy, bearing a letter of 
thanks (Phil. 2:!9-30).

The third letter fragment is more difficult to place (Phil. 3:2-4:9). The 
address is missing and there is no express mention of the Philippian 
congregation. The situation addressed is also difficult to place, for Paul 
writes against persons who were pestering the congregation with the need to 
be circumcised and perhaps with extravagant views about spiritual 
perfection. It is possible that this third letter fragment was not 
originally addressed to Philippi at all but inserted between the other two 
letter fragments because of the personal tone. In any case, the Philippian 
correspondence is marked by unguarded statements about Paul's personal 
feelings.

Any thoughts?

Thank You
Brian Tucker, M.A.
jbtucker AT driveninc.com
http://www.riverviewcog.org/jbtuckersermons.htm
Riverview, MI