Paul the Letter-Writer: His World, His Options, His Skills

by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

Paul's letters are intensely human documents. In the examination of such basic human questions as What did he write the letters with?" "Did he use a secretary to record them?" and "What was his personal writing style?" much real information can be gathered regarding his thought without intimidating the average reader. Scholar Jerome Murphy-O'Connor has put together such a work, one that, tapping into his knowledge of classical Greek and Latin writings, addresses the physical nature of a first-century letter as well as the actual composition, presentation, and question of authorship collaborative or other of the Pauline letters. The formal features of the letters and their organization show the extent to which Paul adapted current epistolary conventions. At the same time, they draw attention to his mood while writing and his relationship with the recipients. Father Murphy-O'Connor also investigates the question of how these letters, written to widely scattered churches, were brought together to form the Pauline canon. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, OP, has been professor of New Testament at the famous ecole Biblique in Jerusalem since 1967. A frequent lecturer in summer sessions in the United States, he has written widely on Paul's life and theology. In addition to his 1 Corinthians and Becoming Human The Pastoral Anthropology of St.Paul , The Liturgical Press has published his St. Paul's Texts and Archaeology , which does for Corinth what this book does for the Pauline reveal their character. "

Genres: New Testament, Christian, Christianity, Theology

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

In many ways, this is a *really* helpful introduction to the letter writing and collecting behind the Pauline corpus, well designed for an undergrad student of the Bible. It very helpfully, for example, engages some of the main works on scribal practices and epistolary forms that stand behind the letters, drawing on the important works of Richards and Stowers. However, Fr Murphy-O’Connor shows a tendency here to go beyond the evidence in order to button-up holes in various scholarly arguments, rather than leave questions unanswered. This is especially felt in the third chapter related to the collection of the Pauline corpus. This all could probably be overlooked since it’s typical for Pauline studies to speculate on the formation of the corpus, but the other problem with this work is that it is now fairly out of date. Recent years have raised important questions about ancient authorship and scribal practices (most recently Candida Moss’s book regarding enslaved scribes), requiring a fresh evaluation of the evidence. This is felt particularly in discussions around rhetoric in the second chapter, which were good for their time (i.e. taming the excesses of rhetorical criticism in Pauline studies), but now more nuanced approaches exist (e.g., the “compositional criticism” of Parsons and Martin 2018). In sum, I would recommend this for anyone interested in *getting started* with these scholarly issues, but I would recommend moving on to the major sources upon which the text draws and then to more recent discussions.

[Neil Harmon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a secondary text in a New Testament course at Andover Newton Theological School. I wished I could give this book 3 1/2 stars. It was well worth reading and provided a lot of useful background information. It also explored the literary devices used by Paul in some detail. The latter part of the book discussed various theories about how the letters were organized and came to be in the cannon. This section was a little more difficult. It was interesting but tried to pack an awful lot of information into what is a small book. To those like me who are not likely to be doing a thesis on that subject, a higher level discussion would have been more useful. To those who may write that thesis, more was needed. Id vote for a lighter touch in this book and pointers to more information for those who want to dig very deeply. The first part was more like 4 stars and is worth reading.

[Nicholas Quient · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost everything in this book demands a more substantive treatment. As a summary and intro to the issues, it is remarkable and helpful. I know I was challenged by some of his arguments.