Monday, February 17, 2020

Did Paul write the pastoral epistles?

I don't find the typical arguments against the Pauline authorship of the pastoral epistles very persuasive. The primary argument is based on some of the vocabulary in the pastorals not being typical of Paul. Just looking at my own vocabulary over the years makes me doubt the validity of this argument. For example, I used to use the word, "presuppose," so much that a friend pointed out to me that I used it a lot. I rarely ever use it these days. Lately, I've been using the word, "ameliorate," a lot, but I used to never use it. And it's not just word choice that has changed, but even the way I say things has changed. For example, I began saying things like, "It turns out that. . ." or "If it turned out that. . ." maybe six years ago, but I didn't talk that way before then. People pick up and drop speech patterns and words all the time. And we even adapt our vocabulary and speech to our audience, so it would make sense for Paul to speak a little differently if writing to an individual church leader than if he were writing to a whole congregation. The same arguments that are used to dismiss the pastoral epistles as Pauline would surely rule out a lot of things I've written as being Samine. So the arguments against the Pauline authorship of the pastoral epistles just don't strike me as being all that persuasive.

See also: Gregisms and Jesusisms

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