The New Testament has about 13 letters that tradition accredit to Paul
as the novelist. Scholars have argued this thought looking closely at the
style, message and theology of him that pins down 7 of the letters to be the
authentic letters of Paul. These are called Pauline epistles. Key issues are
addressed in those epistles which are Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians,
I Thessalonians, Philippians and Philemon. These include the imminent second
coming of Christ, the Christology of Paul, and justification by faith, and
Christian conduct as key issues that are discussed in Pauline authentic
epistles.
Many scholars believe that I Thessalonians is the 1st
letter to have been written by Paul to the church in Thessalonica. The message
in this letter is faith, hope and love. The Apostle was inspiring them to
soldier on due to the pressure of persecution that the church was going
through. He encourages them to remain steadfast and gives them some
instructions. Like other churches where some correction needed to be done, this
letter also tries to do the same to the church in Thessalonica. He teaches
about how one has to take a wife which indicates the lines of arguments or
center of controversies that either he heard about or that he wanted to just
clarify to the church. With the Thessalonians it is just a placid letter that
is full of hope and exhortations. There are issues of eschatology that are discussed
in this letter. Paul talks about the second coming of Christ called the Second
Advent or the Parousia (Hu, 2013). Some people were claiming that Christ had
come, some people left occupation and all that confusion, so chapter 5 of I
Thessalonians opens up with signs that will indicate the second coming of
Christ.
Another letter to my confab is the epistle of Paul to the church in
Galatia. Gundry (2012) gives name to the letter to Galatians as the early
letter of Paul. The issue that dominates this letter is Judaizing controversy.
The early church members were Jews and as the Gospel continued to be preached,
more people joined the church including non-Jewish Christians or Gentile
Christians in common term. This brought a conflict as the Jewish Christians
believed on keeping the Laws like circumcision for Christians to be accepted and
be members of the church. This is attested by Galatians 5:2 “Now I, Paul, say
to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to
you”. This is the central debate and theme of the issue in the book to the
Galatians. The calling of Paul is not left out from the skirmish, hence he
opens with a response statement that he was called by God not by men which alludes
that there were conflicts which challenged his apostleship. It is believed that
some superlative apostles came to challenge the apostleship of Paul. In this
letter, he strongly talks against them and the tone is of anger as he refute
their challenge by declaring himself as called by God not by men as in
Galatians 1:1 “Paul an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus
Christ…”. Galatians also addresses the issues of law versus grace, works versus
faith and flesh versus spirit. It is similar to the letter to the Romans hence
some scholars call Romans as Galatians in boom.
The book to the Romans is also one of the major letters that are
authentic to Paul. It has a lot of issues that Apostle Paul is addressing. Some
scholars call this book ‘the Paul’s Testament’ since it has all the theologies
and ideologies of Paul. Some calls it Galatians in boom to mean that it is has
the same ideologies as discussed in Galatians just that it is more detailed in
Romans. The salvation by grace through faith is deliberated in details. It is
clear that Gnosticism teachings which taught about salvation through knowledge (Meyer,
2018) were dominating this area. It had much influence in the church and Paul
had to respond to them though it is believed to be a church he had never
visited nor founded.
Gundry points to justification as the central theme of Romans. The
justification of faith through Abraham in chapter four is covered in details.
The book also addresses morality issues that were said to have dominated the church.
Johnson (2006) posits that Romans is considered as the central writing in the
Pauline corpus because of its subject matter as well as the length, power and
clarity of its arguments. Paul had not been to Rome and this church was not
founded by him but it looks like he was preparing an immediate visit to Rome
(Romans 1:11). There were issues of idolatry and sexual immorality like homosexuality
that prevailed in Rome
The letters to the Corinthians forms
part of what scholars calls the major letters of Paul. The relationship of Paul
with the church in Corinth is worth an observation. There are about 4 letters
that scholars identify to have been written by Paul to the Corinthian church. It
is a letter that was a response to the report by the Chloe’s about quarreling
of brethren (1 Corinthians 1:11). There was division amongst them, some calling
themselves of Paul, some of Apollos, Cephas and some called themselves of
Christ. Paul castigates the division in the church and calls them to unity. The
church was surrounded by the ungodly culture since the city was a center of
trade. There temples of gods and a lot of immoral practices. He also touches in
detail the issues of marriage, divorce and celibacy. He also explains the
conduct of women in church services like the covering of the head. The theology
of Paul on grace by faith to salvation is one major argument of Paul that has a
great impact to present time in the theology of the church. Here he argues
against works but puts more emphasis on grace (Klassek, 2012).
In summary about this book, it can
be said that I Corinthians address the following issues; factionalism, sexual
immorality, lawsuits, marriage and divorce issues, food dedicated to idols, the
bare headedness of women praying and prophesying in church meetings, desecration
of the Lord’s Supper, uncontrolled tongues-speaking which was causing
confusion, denial of a future resurrection, and the business of collecting money
for an offering to the church in Jerusalem. The tone of II Corinthians is a bit
softer than the first one. Paul commends the church for standing with him
against his oppositions and defends his calling which alludes that he was
facing great opposition from other church leaders.
The letter to the Philippians is one of the
authentic epistles of Paul which was written to give encouragement to the
Church in suffering, most likely inspired by his imprisonment. Its audience is
the Church at Philippi. There church was going through persecution from Judaizers.
Paul uses his imprisonment to inspire the church to brave on the hardship they
were going through. The church at Philippi
appears to be Paul’s favorite. This is due to the continued support he got from
the church. It is a thank you note, Paul is just happy about everything about
this church.
The last letter I will discuss is the letter to Philemon. The letter
was written by Paul while he was in prison. It is a personal letter to Philemon
who might be closely related to Paul or a companion in faith. The main theme of
the book is reconciliation (Bailey, 2010). There is an irony where he urge the
slave master Philemon to accept the escaped slave Onesimus and pledge to repay
all the damages yet he is unemployed but in prison. The question that pops up
to a scholar’s mind is how is he going to pay it, but in fact he was
negotiating and talking to a close friend who was going to understand him. He
no longer sees him as a slave but a son of Paul in Philemon 1: 10.
The authentic letters of Paul share some common features; their
messages are almost the same. They were addressing some issues from church to
church but they have the gist of the Pauline theology. They explore much on
grace, the second coming of Christ, freedom from the Law, addressing heresy
teachings like Gnosticism.
Eaglen, J. (2006). The presence of “high” Christology in the
letters of Paul the Apostle. Georgia:
The University of Georgia
Gundry, H. R.
(2012). A survey of the New Testament,
5th Edition. Zondervan
Hu, W. (2013). “Study
of Pauline Epistles in the New Testament Using Machine Learning”
Sociology Mind. Vol.3, No.2, 193-203.
Published Online April 2013 in SciRes
Klassek, J. (2012).
“Five major themes in Paul’s writing compared
with Jesus’ teachings”
Accessed 12 March, 2018 http://www.message7.org/discuss/five-major-themes-of-pauls
Mayer, L. (2018).
“Gnosticism And Its Influence On Christianity”. Accessed March 12, 2018
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| Mr Bongani Mhlanga |
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