The Pauline Epistles

Thirteen letters in the New Testament carry Paul's name, and they were written into specific situations rather than composed as essays. Romans was sent ahead of a visit he hoped to make on the way to Spain, and it closes with greetings to a long list of named believers including Priscilla and Aquila, Phoebe, and Andronicus and Junia (Romans 15:23–24; Romans 16:1–16). First Corinthians answers a report from Chloe's people and a letter of questions about divisions, marriage, food offered to idols, the Lord's Supper, spiritual gifts, and the resurrection (1 Corinthians 1:11; 1 Corinthians 7:1). Second Corinthians defends his ministry against those he calls super-apostles, and lists beatings, shipwrecks, and sleepless nights (2 Corinthians 11:5, 23–28).

Galatians is written in alarm that the churches were turning to a different gospel, and recounts how he opposed Peter to his face at Antioch (Galatians 1:6; Galatians 2:11–14). He argues from Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar that the promise came before the law (Galatians 3:6–18; Galatians 4:21–31). Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon are written from imprisonment: he calls himself "a prisoner for Christ Jesus" and sends Tychicus with news, along with Onesimus, the runaway slave he asks Philemon to receive "no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother" (Ephesians 3:1; Colossians 4:7–9; Philemon 1:16).

Philippians thanks a church that sent gifts more than once by the hand of Epaphroditus, who had been ill near to death (Philippians 4:15–18; Philippians 2:25–30). First and Second Thessalonians answer grief and confusion about believers who had died and about the day of the Lord, and tell the idle to work quietly and earn their own living (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18; 2 Thessalonians 3:11–12). Silas and Timothy are named with Paul in the greeting of both (1 Thessalonians 1:1).

The last group is addressed to individuals. Timothy is told to let no one despise him for his youth and to guard the deposit entrusted to him (1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Timothy 6:20). Titus was left in Crete to put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5). In the final letter, written when only Luke was with him, Paul asks for the cloak he left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments, and says that at his first defense no one came to stand by him (2 Timothy 4:9–16).

He signed his letters in his own hand as a mark of authenticity (2 Thessalonians 3:17; Galatians 6:11), dictated at least one to a scribe named Tertius (Romans 16:22), and expected them to be read aloud and exchanged between congregations (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27). Peter later refers to them as writings containing "some things that are hard to understand," and sets them alongside "the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:15–16).