The Epistles of Saint Paul the Apostle are works that emerged from circumstances, written over a period of fifteen years (between the years 51 and 66), in which he answered the questions of the newly established churches and confronted some specific deviations, whether they were doctrinal or moral deviations, thus completing his oral preaching.

In ancient Eastern literature, there is a special art known as the art of “message,” which we find both in the Old Testament and directed especially by kings and prophets (1 Kings 21: 8-10, 2 Kings 5: 5-7, 19: 14, 20: 12, Jeremiah 29: 1) And in Egyptian, Babylonian, or Hellenistic literature. The message begins by mentioning the name of the sender, followed by the name of the recipient of the message. Then comes the act of thanksgiving (which is a brief prayer to the gods), and after the sender has done the proper deeds, he addresses the topics he wants to address, and the message ends with wishes and greetings. This is the method that Paul followed in writing down his letters after imbuing them with a Christian color. Also according to ancient custom, Paul did not write his letters by hand, but dictated them to a scribe who accompanied him, and then he would send the letter to the church through someone he trusted.

The writings of Paul the Apostle constitute the bulk of the books of the New Testament. They are writings that are consistent with the overall idea, message, and Christian doctrine, in which he starts from the reality of life after shedding the light of the new gospel on it. He does not base the morality that he talks about on philosophical foundations, but on belief in God. For him, God is the one who establishes moral actions and relationships between humans.

Paul directed his writings to the groups that were gathering to celebrate the sacrament of thanksgiving (the Divine Mass), and those gathered were reciting it in their meetings. The letter to the church of Colossians (4:16) suggests that the churches to which the apostle wrote were exchanging his letters among themselves, and makes us believe that some of his letters have been lost (see also 1 Corinthians 5:9). At the end of the first century, a canonical collection of Paul’s letters appeared, referred to by the writer of the Second Epistle of Peter (3:15-16) and also by Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Ephesians (12:2). The order of the letters in the New Testament is generally due to the length of the letter, and the letters addressed to churches precede the letters to individuals.

Paul wrote the two letters to the Church of Thessalonica around the year 51. They were the first complete text among the texts of the New Testament. In them, the Apostle addresses the major topics of evangelism and lives in hope that Christ will come quickly. True faith is based on Jesus, risen from the dead, whose life is active in us today and is stronger than sin and death.

The two letters to the Corinthians, and the letters to the churches of Galatia, Philippi, and Rome, were written by the Apostle around the year 56-58. The central issue in these books is man's justification (how does man become righteous?) and his salvation. There is no doubt that man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. If a person is united with Christ through baptism, he passes from death to life. Salvation, then, is not achieved by the works of the law, but rather in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, who is always present in his church through his Holy Spirit working in it through his word and sacraments.

The two letters to the churches of Colossae and Ephesus, and the letter to Philemon, were written around 61-63, sent by Paul while he was a prisoner in Rome, and therefore these letters are called “captivity letters.” What is revealed at this stage is the place that Christ occupies in the Church, history, and the world. In Christ, the whole world was reconciled with God, because He is the Son in whom all the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily, and through Him and for Him everything was created, and from Him the life of the world derives a new meaning. Paul (or one of his disciples) also sees in these letters that building the church is an endless work. The body (which is an image of the church) is always growing, and the bond between the groom and the bride (which is another image of the church) is a living bond that knows no stagnation.

Paul wrote the pastoral letters (the letter to Titus, and the first and second letters to Timothy) before the year 67, or a disciple wrote them after his death, dealing with his spiritual will. The concern in these books is one: organizing the churches and keeping the deposit of faith upright. Thanks to the songs I mentioned, these letters enable us to unite in the praise of the early church (Timothy 2:5-6, 3:16, 6:15-16, 2 Timothy 2:8-13).

The Epistle to the Hebrews is in fact a sermon (13:12) written by a disciple of the Apostle around the year 70 and addressed to some Christians of Jewish origin who had abandoned their initial enthusiasm and were longing for Jewish worship celebrations. The writer strengthens these brothers and calls on them to complete the journey of their faith, the content of which is Jesus Christ, the great priest, who entered the Holy of Holies once and for all, and opened the way to the world once and for all after he abolished all rituals with his saving sacrifice, which overthrew all the old barriers and sacrifices and granted forgiveness to the entire world.

The Apostle Paul is our leader if we read him in a comprehensive, personal and scholarly manner, and he is our guide to the depth of Christ’s thought

My parish bulletin
Sunday, March 31, 1996
Issue 13