Was there any controversy around the Pauline letters?

Answer 1

There was and still is much controversy with regards to Paul's letters. Most of the controversy surrounding the Pauline letters is authorship; which letters did he write and which ones are not by his hand? Some scholars say Paul wrote 5 letters, 4 are still being debated, and that 4 letters were written by someone other than Paul:

• Romans- by Paul
• 1 Corinthians- by Paul
• 2 Corinthians- by Paul
• Galatians- by Paul
• Ephesians- still debated
• Philippians- still debated
• Colossians- still debated
• 1 Thessalonians- by Paul
• 2 Thessalonians- still debated
• 1 and 2 Timothy- not by Paul
• Titus- not by Paul
• Philemon- by Paul

N.T. Wright, the Bishop of Durham and one of the most widely read biblical scholars of our day and critical of the 'old perspective' on Paul, says the 'fixed points' of scholarship which, growing as they did out of a very different era to our own, may perhaps have been allowed to remain more by fashion than by solid argument. Take for example the widespread assumption still common in many quarters that not only Ephesians but also Colossians are not written by Paul himself, even if they may contain some material that goes back to him. He says our suspicions ought to be aroused by the fact that such consensus as there has ever been on the subject came from the time when the all dominant power in New Testament scholarship lay with a particular kind of German existentialist Lutheransim for whom any ecclesiology other than a purely functional one, any view of Judaism other than a purely negative one, any view of Jesus Christ other than a fairly low Christology, any view of creation other than a Barthian "Nein" was deeply suspect. Furthermore, the assumption that a high Christology must mean later, and non Pauline, authorship has been brought to the material, not discovered within it.