06.27. Paul's Epistles--the First and Second Groups

Chapter 26 Paul’s Epistles--the First and Second Groups

We have seen that the first group of Paul’s epistles embraces only the two addressed to the church at Thessalonica, those written by him at Corinth during his second missionary journey. The story of the first is like this: Paul accompanied by Silas and Timothy, and possibly Luke, had founded the church in that city whence, after a brief stay, he had been driven out by persecution, coming down first to Berea, then to Athens and finally to Corinth. On the route, and after leaving Berea as it would appear, he sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to inquire after the welfare of the young church. The report reached him at Corinth, where he addressed this epistle to them (see Acts 17:1-34; Acts 18:1-28), congratulating them on their spiritual state, expressing his love for them, correcting one or two faults into which they had fallen, and especially setting them right on one important doctrinal error, viz.: the relation of the dead and the living saints at Christ’s Second Coming. The genuineness of this epistle has never been seriously attacked. There was a German scholar named Baur, head of what was called the “Tubingen School,” who in the first half of the nineteenth century undertook to do for the New Testament what the rationalistic critics have of late sought to accomplish against the Old, but his efforts were short lived. This critic was about the first whoever raised a word against the genuineness of Paul’s first epistle to the Thessalonians. He thought its contents unimportant, aimless in some parts, also self-contradictory, and so unlike Paul. It is enough to say in the language of one of his compatriots that he has met with nothing but contradiction, and that his so called criticisms only reveal his own ignorance of the epistle; to understand it is the best vindication of its genuineness.

There is a single remark perhaps, that should be added. In the superscription to the epistle found at the close in our King James Bibles, it is stated that it was written from Athens, which is a mistake, as the record in Acts alone would seem to indicate. These superscriptions, it should be remembered, are not part of the inspired record but the work of some human editor, whose research and scholarship are open to investigation the same as that of any ordinary writer of the present day. This cannot be said of the sacred text itself, of course, but only of the superscriptions. The second epistle (II Thessalonians) soon followed the first, being written doubtless from the same city where, as we know, Paul dwelt for eighteen months. Silas and Timothy were still with Paul when he wrote the second epistle, but after the Corinth history (Acts 18:1-28), Silas was no longer the Apostle’s companion. The cause for the second epistle is on the surface. False teachers had entered in|some, indeed, had even dared to forge the name of Paul to a spurious epistle leading astray the young converts on the question of the Day of the Lord and the Second Coming of Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:1-17), whom it was necessary for him to meet and answer. This forgery accomplished some good in a way, in that it caused Paul thereafter to attach a token of validity to all his epistles by which their genuineness might the more readily be established (2 Thessalonians 3:1-18). The external evidence for the genuineness of this epistle, therefore, is the same as that for the former one; while as to the internal, what was said of that may be said of this, that its contents have only to be understood to be accepted as the work of Paul. See Synthetic Bible Studies, “II Thessalonians.” The next group of Paul’s epistles, that associated with his third missionary journey, embraces I and II Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. On this journey Paul had passed three years at Ephesus, the story of which sojourn is found in Acts 19:1-41 (see also Acts 20:1-38). Now Corinth is just across the way from Ephesus, i.e., on the opposite shore of the Aegean Sea, the traffic and travel between the two being about as common as that between Liverpool and New York at the present-time. In the church at Corinth there had been some disorders, |questions of casuistry had arisen, and therefore the proximity of Paul was seized upon to set matters right. Messengers were sent to him with letters asking information, and verbal inquiries, to which he made reply in what we have come to denominate as his first epistle to that church (see 1 Corinthians 1:10-11; 1 Corinthians 7:1, etc.). The genuineness of this epistle is undoubted, the witnesses for it stretching far back into antiquity, even Baur himself, referred to a moment ago, suffering it to go unchallenged. The second epistle (II Corinthians) to this church was written not very long after the first. The Apostle had left Ephesus, however, gone up to Troas, crossed the Aegean at that point, and was somewhere in Macedonia, probably Philippi, en route to Corinth itself. See 1 Corinthians 16:5, for the expression of his purpose to visit that city again by this route; compare also the 2 Corinthians 2:12-13. Paul had enemies in the church at Corinth, opponents of the Gospel as he preached it, and of the ways he used, who were seeking to undermine his authority as an apostle and contradict his teachings. It was to bring these to a more proper understanding that he had planned this second visit; “but that on his arrival he might have less cause for severity, and be better able to unite with them in sincere thanksgiving to God, he anticipates his coming by this epistle.” He reminds them, for example, of “their true relations to himself and to his office,” and explains the occasional severity of his first epistle on the ground of his sincere and loving purpose to bless them in the Gospel of Christ.

Both the external and internal evidence of the genuineness of this epistle are incontestable, although some question has been raised at times as to its unity. A careful reading of the epistle will show the occasion for such a question. There have been those who thought that we had here really two epistles instead of one, although there has not been unanimity among them as to the precise divisions of the two. Some would make 2 Corinthians 1:1-24; 2 Corinthians 2:1-17; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21; 2 Corinthians 6:1-18; 2 Corinthians 7:1-16; 2 Corinthians 8:1-24, and 2 Corinthians 13:11-13, one epistle, and the remaining chapters and verses another.

It is true, indeed, that subjects of a very different character are discussed in it, and that a different kind of spirit seems to pervade the different parts of this epistle, but in the words of a distinguished commentator, all this is sufficiently accounted for by the circumstances under which it was written. “It was composed in the midst of a journey, under overwhelming cares, by a writer of more than common sympathies, and with reference to persons as different in character and spirit as were the sincere but erring brethren at Corinth, and their corrupt and schismatical seducers.” When properly considered these things make for its genuineness not only, but its unity as well. In my judgment, of the two epistles yet to be treated of in this chapter, Galatians preceeded Romans in time. Paul had visited Galatia, a large province of Asia Minor, on both his second and third journeys, and founded a church or churches there, though no mention is made of any particular city or town in which he labored. He is now dwelling for a while at Ephesus (for this epistle was penned before he started for Macedonia en route to Corinth again), and while here reports reach him of false teachers who are disturbing the flock in Galatia as were others at Corinth. Their plan seemed to be much the same in both places, to undermine faith in Paul himself first, and then in the Gospel he preached, seeking to have the latter supplemented by the works of the Jewish ceremonial law. Paul addresses them, therefore, for the purpose of defending his apostolic authority in the first place (Galatians 1:1-24; Galatians 2:1-21), and then that of the Gospel he preached (Galatians 3:1-29; Galatians 4:1-31). The genuineness of this epistle like that of the preceding ones is unquestioned, the whole church being a unit in regard to it.

Paul had not visited Rome up until this time, as is intimated in the first chapter of his epistle to the church at that place, but he had recently completed his epistle to the Galatians in which he had been led by the conditions existing there to open up the great and fundamental doctrine of justification by faith. He seems to have been possessed of a desire to enlarge upon that great truth, and Phoebe, a deaconess, being on her way to visit Rome (Romans 16:1-2), he embraced the opportunity to send a letter of salutation by her using it as a means to speak more fully of that which in the other case he had only touched upon. This is the view of the origin of Romans taken by Dean Alford, in his New Testament for English Readers, and probably as nearly correct as any. I should like to add this, however, that the difference between Galatians and Romans so far as the doctrine of justifying faith is concerned is, that the first reveals that truth from the human side, while the second does so from the divine. From the human side man is justified by believing on Jesus Christ, from the divine side he is justified by receiving as a free gift of grace the righteousness of God the instant he so believes on Jesus Christ. The reference to Phoebe, just above, suggests that this epistle, though following closely that to the Galatians, was nevertheless, not written in Ephesus but in Corinth after Paul’s second arrival there. It not only follows Galatians, therefore, but II Corinthians as well. The evidence for its Corinthian origin is this: In Romans 15:23-28, Paul expresses his purpose to visit Rome after first visiting Jerusalem. This we know to have been his purpose after his second visit to Corinth (Acts 19:21), a purpose subsequently carried out (Acts 24:17). Moreover, he mentions certain persons as being with him at the time of writing the epistle (Romans 16:21-23), the first three of which are known to have been with him at Corinth (Acts 20:4), one indeed, being his host (1 Corinthians 1:14). And finally, Phoebe herself, the bearer of the epistle, was a deaconess in the church at Cenchrea, which was the seaport of Corinth. No serious arguments have ever been presented against the genuineness, i.e., the Pauline authorship of this epistle.