3. The Pauline Epistles and the Ep. to the Hebrews.—One of the characteristics of the NT,
as compared with all other sacred books, is the ereiary character of a large part of ite contents. * though most of the Epistles were written at an earlier period than the Gospels in their present form, they represent in general a more advanced stage of Christian theology. They give us the fruits of from twenty to fifty years’ reflexion on the cardinal facts and truths contained in the Synoptic Gospels, and are the chief source of Christian doctrine on such subjects as the Trinity, the relation of Christ to the human race and to the Church, the Atonement, Justification by faith, and Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. They con- tain more explicit claims, in varying modes and forms, to divine inspiration and authority, than the Gospels or the Bk. of Acts; but, while largely doctrinal in character, most of them were written for the purpose of dealing with questions of a practical nature, and are enlivened with many personal allusions.
What has just been said is especially true of the Epistles of St. Paul. While bearing evidence in many passages of being written more or less under the conscious influence of the Holy Spirit, they had their rise in the special needs and circumstances of the various Churches to which they were addressed. They are thirteen in number, and may be divided into four groups, extending over the last fifteen years or more of the apostle’s life, and exhibiting, amid many similarities and correlations, a well- marked development of thought: viz. (a) 1 and 2 Th, which were written about A.D. 53 (Turner, 50-52], at least sixteen years after the apostle’s con- version, and turn largely on questions relating to Christ’s Second Coming. (4) 1 and2 Co, Gal, and Ro, which were written during his third missionary journey (A.D. 57-58 (Turner, 55-56 for 1 and 2 Co and Ro, date of Gal he leaves undecided]), and were mainly designed to vindicate his apostolic autho- rity and preserve the gospel from the inroads of Judaism. (c) The Epistles of the Imprisonment, viz., Ph, Col, Philem, and Eph (the last named being in all probability a circular-letter, identical with ‘the epistle from Laodicea’ referred to in Col 4:5), which were written from Rome about A.D. 62-63 [Turner, 59-61], and range from the humblest personal details to the loftiest speculations regard- ing the being and destiny of the Church. (d) The Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, which are distinguished from all the others by their want of historical agreement with any period in St. Paul’s life as recorded in the Bk. of Acts, and also by their strongly-marked individuality alike in style and substance. These circumstances have given rise to serious doubt of their genuineness, which is largely obviated, however, by supposing them to have been written after the imprisonment recorded in the closing chapter of the Acts, and in the last year of the apostle’s life—say A.D. 67-68. It is worthy of note that the Epistles in the second group are almost universally admitted to be zenuine, which is a most important admission rom an evidential point of view, as they contain many allusions to detailed matters of fact men- tioned in the Gospels, and prove that the story of Christ’s death and resurrection as told in the ee Gospels was the chief theme of St. Paul’s pan
ing. The evidence is all the more valuable because it is indirect, the letters having manifestly been written without any such object in view, and being addressed to several independent communities far removed from one another. Having regard to the tone of sincerity, tempered with sobriety of judg-
* It contains twenty-one letters by six differentauthors. Nine of these are address! to individual Churches, viz. 1 and 2 Th,
1 and 2 Co, Gal, Re, Ph, Col, 2 Jn; five to individual persons, viz. Philem, 1 and ἡ Ti, Tit, 3 Jn; two to Heb, Christians, viz He and Ja; the retaining five being of a more or leas gener’
nature, viz. Eph, laud’ P, 1 Jn, and Jude. i
NEW TESTAMENT
NEW TESTAMENT
ment, which characterizes these Epistles, as well as to the early association of the writer with the Jewish authorities at Jerusalem, and the oppor- tunities he had for ascertaining the real facts of | the evangelic history, we are led inevitably to the | conclusion that St. Paul’s Gospel had the same historic groundwork of essentia! and well-attested facts regarding Christ's life and teaching as we | find recorded in the four Gospels, See separate | arts. on these various Epistles.
As regards the Ep. to the Hebrews, which has always been closely associated with the Pauline Epistles, there is evidence that from the latter half of the 2nd cent. it was assigned by the Eastern
Church to the Apostle Paul, although some of the most competent judges were constrained by internal evidence to depart somewhat from the traditional view, their idea being that St. Paul might have written the original, and one of his disciples have translated it into Greek, or that the apostle a6: have supplied the thoughts, and one of his dis- ciples have put them into words. In the Western Church, on the other hand, opinion was for a long time adverse to the Pauline authorship; and it was not till the close of the 4th cent. that the Ep. was acknowledged to be a writing of St. Paul’s. This view has now been generally abandoned, as the result of a closer study of the style and strue- ture of the book ; and for the same reason, the idea that it may be a translation of a work by the apostle is also admitted to be untenable. At the same time there seems no reason to doubt that it was written by one of St. Paul’s school. Luke, Clement, Apollos, Barnabas, have all been sug- gested, the latter two being those in whose favour most can be said. As to the destination of the Ep., various allusions show that it was not in- tended for Heb. Christians in general, but for some definite community. Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Rome, have each had their advocates ; but the position of Christians in Jerusalem or in some other part of Palestine seems to answer best to the situation which the writer has in view. ag caer the date of composition, the mention of Timothy’s liberation (He 13%), which took place presumably at Rome, whither he had been summoned by St. Paul in his last imprisonment, points to a time shortly anterior to the destruction of Jerusalem—an inference which is confirmed by other expressions in the Ep., referring to the decadence of the Jewish Dispensation. The great theme of the τὶς is the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, which it attempts to prove, not so much by minimizing the old covenant (as St. Paul had been obliged to do in vindicating the freedom of his Gentile converts) as by ἘΠΕ ΤΣ πὶ the new as a fulfilment of the old. See, further, (EPISTLE TO).