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Pauline Texts: Location II (Non-exhaustive)
Previously
January 8
Continued
First Thessalonians
Dates (Earliest Pauline works with Galatians)
1 Thessalonians, Robert Gundry, 50-51 A.D. (page 364).
2 Thessalonians, Robert Gundry, 50-51 A.D. (page 364).
Galatians, Robert Gundry, 49 A.D. (page 364).
F. Roy Coad, 48-49 A.D. (page 1416).
Paul wrote the letter from Corinth. Dunnett (42).
Second Thessalonians
Corinth. Dunnett (42).
Galatians
Corinth. Dunnett (55).
Prison Epistles
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
Philimon
Likely, Rome.
Biblica
Cited
'That Colossians is a genuine letter of Paul (1:1) is usually not disputed. In the early church, all who speak on the subject of authorship ascribe it to Paul. In the 19th century, however, some thought that the heresy refuted in ch. 2 was second-century Gnosticism. But a careful analysis of ch. 2 shows that the heresy referred to there is noticeably less developed than the Gnosticism of leading Gnostic teachers of the second and third centuries. Also, the seeds of what later became the full-blown Gnosticism of the second century were present in the first century and already making inroads into the churches.
Consequently, it is not necessary to date Colossians in the second century at a time too late for Paul to have written the letter. Instead, it is to be dated during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome, where he spent at least two years under house arrest (see Ac 28:16–31). Some have argued that Paul wrote Colossians from Ephesus or Caesarea, but most of the evidence favors Rome as the place where Paul penned all the Prison Letters (Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon). Colossians should be dated c. a.d. 60, in the same year as Ephesians and Philemon (see chart, p. 2261).'
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Pastoral Epistles
First Timothy
Second Timothy
Titus
Debated locations.
Bible Hub.com: Pastoral Epistles
Cited
Schaff
pp.327-329.
Cited
'The Pauline Authorship.
'There never was a serious doubt as to the Pauline authorship of these Epistles till the nineteenth century, except among a few Gnostics in the second century.'
Cited
'But there are certain internal difficulties which have induced a number of modern critics to assign them all, or at least First Timothy, to a post-Pauline or pseudo-Pauline writer, who either changed and adapted Pauline originals to a later state of the church, or fabricated the whole in the interest of Catholic orthodoxy. In either case, the writer is credited with the best intentions and must not be judged according to the modern standard of literary honesty and literary property.'
Browning opines that the balance of evidence is that the Pastoral Epistles are pseudonymous. (184). As in supposed to be written under a false name.
Cited
Schaff:
'The objections against the Pauline authorship deserve serious consideration, and are as follows: (1) The impossibility of locating these Epistles in the recorded life of Paul; (2) the Gnostic heresy opposed; (3) the ecclesiastical organization implied; (4) the peculiarities of style and temper. If they are not genuine, Second Timothy must be the oldest, as it is least liable to these objections, and First Timothy and Titus are supposed to represent a later development. [1196]'
Cited
'The Pastoral Epistles, like Colossians, oppose the Gnostic heresy (gnosis pseudonumos,1 Tim.6:20) which arose in Asia Minor during his first Roman captivity, and appears more fully developed in Cerinthus, the contemporary of John. This was acknowledged by the early Fathers, Irenaeus and Tertullian, who used these very Epistles as Pauline testimonies against the Gnosticism of their day.'
Cited
'In conclusion, while we cannot be blind to certain difficulties, and may not be able, from want of knowledge of the precise situation of the writer, satisfactorily to explain them, we must insist that the prevailing evidence is in favor of the genuineness of these Epistles....'
Gnosticism may have very well been discussed in Colossians:
Colossians 2:16-19
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
16 Therefore no one is to [a]act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath [b]day— 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the [c]substance [d]belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep [e]defrauding you of your prize by delighting in [f]self-abasement and the worship of the angels, [g]taking his stand on visions he has seen, [h]inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and [i]ligaments, grows with a growth [j]which is from God.
Oxford Biblical Studies Online
Browning
Cited
'Although Gnosticism was most fully manifest in the 2nd cent. CE, traces of it are already evident earlier, and some detect it as the false teaching which the epistle to the Colossians seems to reflect. '
'Along with visionary experiences Gnostics promoted an extreme asceticism and distrust of the material world, so that some scholars regard the epistle’s discouragement of self-abasement and the worship of angels (Col. 2: 18) and the concept of pleroma (Col. 1: 19) as references to Gnosticism. '
Some within scholarship suggest that the views of Judaizers may have been the Colossian heresy.
Possibly a combination of early Gnosticism and forms of Judaism?
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I have noted previously on my websites that the Apostle Paul may have used a scribe (s) to write some of his later works. This would maintain the texts as obviously humanly different, but also Pauline and reasonably, inspired Scripture.
BIBLICA (2018) Colossians, Colorado Springs.
Biblica. https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/intro-to-colossians/
BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
COAD, F. ROY (1986) 'Galatians' in F.F. Bruce (ed.), The International Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
DUNNETT, WALTER M. (2001) Exploring the New Testament, Wheaton, Crossway Books.
GUNDRY, ROBERT (1981) A Survey of the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
SCHAFF, PHILLIP (1882((2018) History of the Christian Church, Volume I,union Theological Seminary, New York. http://biblehub.com/library/schaff/history_of_the_christian_church_volume_i/section_99_the_pastoral_epistles.htm
