QUESTION: 

What lost early Christian books would you most like to have discovered?

 

RESPONSE:

Ah, this is a tough one.   There are lots of Christian writing that I would love to have discovered – all of the ones that have been lost, for example!

But suppose I had to name some in particular.   Well, this will take several posts.  To begin with, I wish we had the other letters of Paul.   Let me explain.

In the New Testament there are thirteen letters that claim Paul as their author.   But scholars since the nineteenth century have argued that some of these do not go back to Paul.  There is no absolute consensus on the issue of course; fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals argue that all thirteen go back to Paul; some critical scholars agree (not many!); others think that ten go back to Paul.  But the most widespread view is that six claim to be written by Paul even though he didn’t write them.

The six are …

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