Loading...A few days ago I published a post trying to show why many critical scholars do not think Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians even though its author claims to be Paul. It’s pretty easy to put the matter in simple, easy-to-understand terms for non-experts: all you have to say is that the writing style, theology, and presupposed historical circumstances don’t match up with what we know about Paul otherwise. But, well, that’s really not very convincing. It’s just informative.
So I provided a few of the details connected with writing style and theology, but tried to do it still in fairly simple terms. As I’ve done sometimes before, I thought it might be useful to (some of?) you to see how I would argue that for scholars without having to mince words, just so you can see how it might be done. To do it fully would take many pages, but here is the discussion I devote to the matter in my academic book Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deception in Early Christian Polemics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
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As with every instance of forgery, the case of Colossians is cumulative, involving multiple factors. None has proved more decisive over the past thirty years than the question of writing style. The case was made most effectively in 1973 by Walter Bujard, in a study both exhaustive and
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Do you think Paul was aware of Jesus’s prediction that the temple would be destroyed within the lifetime of his disciples, and that this contributed to Paul’s belief in an imminent end? And do you think later Christian authors, writing after the destruction of the temple, lacked that same sense of urgency because the event had already taken place?
I don’t think there’s any way to know if Paul knew Jesus had predicted the temple’s destruction. He never speaks or hints about it. Some later authors almost certainly started thinking they were in it for the long haul; others continued their enthusiasm. And some/many still do!
Question:
In Matthew 15:32 (NRSVUE) (Feeding the Four Thousand) Jesus “took the seven loaves and the fish, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples”. Was “giving thanks” the same as praying? If so, does that mean that Jesus broke his own commandment (Matthew 6:6) against public prayer? Or is this simply a case of Jesus not having to follow his own commands?
Ah, good question. He does not actually condemn public prayer. He condemns praying in public in order to draw attention to one’s piety. That’s not hte same as thanking God for the food he has provided.
That’s an argument I’ve heard before, but he makes this statement in Matthew 6:6:
“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” That seems to be an absolute command (“WHENEVER you pray”), with no room for exceptions.
Right! But in the context he is contrasting this kind of prayer with the sort he opposes. Instead of THAT do THIS. He’s not saying that prayers can never be spoken in front of others (since otherwise there could be no public actds of worship). He’s opposing those who want to show off their righteousness publicly.
Out of Paul’s disputed letters, which one do you think could most plausibly be attributed to Paul?
Maybe you could write a blog post addressing the question?
I suppose 2 Thessalonians. I’ll be posting on the authorship question soon….
Colossians 4:18, 1611 KJV (salutation, ο ασπασμος )
Were the drug addicted Oracles of the Greeks huffing sulfuric volcano cave gas and opium medically diagnosed by Luke, Paul’s physician, to be having drug induced epileptic seizures (spasms, σπασμος) when doing pagan Oracle things?
Paul is not having uncontrollable epileptic seizures, this would be the opposite of that as a controlled form of handwriting and waving at people. Paul wrote the salutation, while the epistle was written by Tychicus and Onesismus from Rome.
1611 KJV final footnote “written from Rome to the Colossians by Tychicus and Onesismus.” Not only had the now ancient English Bible translators suspected that Paul did not write it, but they even had the authors precisely figured out.
This all reminds me of the write a short story like Hemingway competition.
Dr. Ehrman, do you think you could win a write a letter like Saint Paul contest?
(in Greek, of course)
Depends on my competition. 🙂
In the case of all the percentages you say that Bujard found from his research into the use of conjunctions, infinitives and the like, did he subject his findings to statistical analysis and if so did they all reach an acceptable level of significance?
Off hand I don’t recall how sophisticated the statistical analysis was in terms of margin of error etc.
Hi Bart,
The main weakness of your argument is:
merit of ideas doesn’t come into consideration.
For its size, Col 3:9-17 is (I argue) the finest piece of writing on Ethics ever produced (see an email I will send soon). Who else but St Paul to write it?
The quality of ideas, and quality of their expression, points to extra effort (by St Paul) in editing / revising. I argue that this caused uncharacteristic word choices. Which in turn causes the letter to be rejected as inauthentic. Ironic indeed!
Are the uncharacteristic word choices of Colossians objectively driven by the ideas being expressed, or subjective habit of the writer?
As you believe the latter, then I give this challenge: Produce a revision of Colossians 3:9-17 that has (a) word choices close to those you deem characteristic of St Paul (b) loses none of the meaning and tautness of the original (Check carefully against “The Text in Detail” in email to be sent soon). TAKE YOUR BEST SHOT!
I don’t see why an excellent piece of writing tells you who the author was.
I’ve got a paper submitted to a journal right now rebutting this view 😉. Forgery and Counterforgery is a great book though and is one of the most cited in discussing these issues!
samsmith21, what’s the rebuttal? (I realize you can’t lay out every argument in detail, but surely you can give something like the abstract)