4. Authorship and Dating of the NT (4)

☼ Exhibit #13: Authorship and Dating of Paul’s Letters

The earliest written books in the New Testament are the letters written by Paul to the churches he established and to some of his personal disciples. The gospel documents give us many details about Jesus’ ministry and teachings, but Paul’s letters corroborate the main events we know of Jesus: His birth and genealogy through His crucifixion and resurrection.

Paul contributed 13 epistles to the NT, undisputed through most of Christian history. Modern – more skeptical – scholarship has aimed at Paul’s work, claiming some of the letters might have not been written by Paul himself, but a close associate.[25] Virtually non-disputed are 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians and Philemon.

A brief overview of external and internal evidences:

External evidences:

• Clement of Rome testified ca. 95-97 AD: “Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects.”[26]
• Ignatius wrote to the Romans ca. 105-107 AD: “I may be found a sacrifice to God. I do not, as Peter and Paul, issue commandments unto you. They were apostles of Jesus Christ, but I am the very least [of believers]: they were free,”[27]
• Polycarp in his letter to the Philippians ca. 115 AD: “For neither I, nor any other such one, can come up to the wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul. He, when among you, accurately and steadfastly taught the word of truth in the presence of those who were then alive. And when absent from you, he wrote you a letter,”[28]

Internal evidences:

• The opening verses in each letter claim to have been written by Paul the apostle.
• 2 Peter 3:15-17: “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.” If Peter was the author of 2 Peter, this letter is to be dated before 65 AD. Most liberal scholars date 2 Peter in the early second century and consider it the last NT book written. They believe an unknown author claimed Petrine authorship to give his work the authority and tradition of a revered Christian leader.[29]

As we examine the evidence that the Bible, and especially its claims about Jesus of Nazareth, are historically reliable and trustworthy, our discussion will focus on the four letters that provide facts and evidence for this cause. These are:

1 Thessalonians: Paul identifies himself as the author (1 Thessalonians 1:1, along with Silas and Timothy), writing this letter from Corinth during his second missionary trip. His authorship is not disputed. The broad acceptance of the letter as genuinely Pauline, the content of the letter itself, and the date of Paul’s encounter with Gallio in Corinth combine to validate a date for 1 Thessalonians of 50 or 51 AD. [30]

Galatians: Galatians 1:1 identifies Paul as the undisputed author. The exact date of this letter has drawn a large variety of scholarly opinion ranging from 49 AD even to the end of his missionary travels about 59 AD. Most likely Galatians was written from Antioch on the eve of the Council of Jerusalem, usually dated 49 or 50 AD.[31]

1 Corinthians: Extensive evidence for Christ’s life and resurrection comes from this letter which provides rock-solid, early dated undisputed claims for the resurrection, as we will discuss in later chapters. Its importance cannot be overstated. This letter is one of the undisputed documents written by the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 1:1, together with Sosthenes). In Ephesus during his third journey (53-56 AD), hearing disturbing news about the church in Corinth he visited a year or two earlier, Paul wrote a number of letters to Corinth . The first letter is believed to be lost, making 1 Corinthians actually his second letter, written 54 or 55 AD.[32]

Romans: Romans was written by “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). Through Acts we learn that it was composed between the time when Gallio was proconsul at Corinth (Acts 18:12, 14, 17) and the replacement of Felix by Festus as procurator in Palestine (24:27). This places Romans between 54-58 AD with a likely date of 56 AD.[33]

 

Dating of the Books of the New Testament

 Read on about: The Lost Books of the New Testament.

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