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

by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

Overview

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 (1935-2013), was a  professor of New Testament at the famous École Biblique in Jerusalem since 1967. A frequent lecturer in summer sessions in the United States, he had written widely on Paul's life and theology. In addition to his 1 Corinthians and Becoming Human Together: The Pastoral Anthropology of St.Paul, The Liturgical Press has published his St. Paul's Corinth: Texts and Archaeology, which does for Corinth what this book does for the Pauline letters: reveal their character.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814658451
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	01/01/1994
Series:	Good News Studies , #41
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.29(w) x 8.22(h) x 0.43(d)

About the Author

Jerome Murphy-O'Connor (1935-2013), was one of the world's foremost authorities on the writings of Saint Paul of Tarsus. He had been a professor of New Testament at the École Biblique of Jerusalem since 1967. He was the author of numerous works, including St. Paul's Ephesus, St. Paul's Corinth, and Paul the Letter-Writer, all published by Liturgical Press.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction   vii
1.  Putting Pen to Paper  1
     The Tools of a Writer's Trade  1
     Paul Used a Secretary  6
     First-Century Secretaries and Their Skills  8
        Recorder  8
        Editor  13
        Substitute Author  14
     Collaborators as Coauthors  16
        1 and 2 Thessalonians  19
        First Corinthians  20
        Second Corinthians  24
          The "I" Sections  27
          The "W" Sections  28
          2 Cor 10-13  30
        Other Letters  31
        Coauthorship in Practice  33
     A Pauline Style?  34
     Note-Takers and Church Tradition  35
     Sending a Letter  37
2.  Organizing a Letter  42
     Letters or Epistles?  42
     Address  45
        Sender  45
        Recipient  49
          To A Church  50
          To the Members of a Church  51
          To Individuals  52
        Opening Greeting  53
     Thanksgiving  55
        Greek Papyrus Letters  56
        The Form of the Thanksgiving  57
        Thanksgivings in the Body of the Letter  59
        The Absence of a Thanksgiving  60
        Thanksgivings as Introductions  62
     The Body of the Letter  64
        Rhetorical Criticism of Letters  65
          The Three Types of Oratory  65
          The Rhetorical Classification of the Pauline Letters  69
          The Components of a Deliberative Speech  71
             Exordium  73
             Narratio  73
             Digressio  74
             Propositio  74
             Confirmatio  74
             Peraoratio  77
          The Rhetorical Schema Applied to the Pauline Letters  77
          Misuse of the Rhetorical Schema  79
          The Importance of the Propositio  83
          Chiasm and Concentric Composition  86
             Concentrically Structured Documents  88
             Concentrically Structured Parts of Documents   90
     Epistolary Classification of Letters  95
Conclusion  98
     The Final Blessing  99
     Greetings  102
        The Position of the Greeting  103
        The Source of the Greeting  104
        The Recipients of the Greeting  106
        Greeting with the Kiss  108
     The Peace Wish  109
     Postscripts  110
3.  Collecting the Letters  114
     The Evolutionary Theory  114
     The Big Bang Theory  116
     Was Paul Involved?  118
     The Order and Length of the Letters  120
        The Length of the Letters  120
        The Order of the Letters  122
     Creating the Collection  126
        Collection A  127
        Collection B  128
        Collections A and B  129
        Collection C  129
Abbreviations  131
Bibliography  134  
Indices
     Classical Literature  145
     New Testament  147
     Subjects  149







 

Editorial Reviews

This book is packed with useful information and challenging new proposals that should be carefully considered by scholars.
Journal of Biblical Literature


This book will be a standard for decades.
The Theological Educator


Readers interested in Paul will love this book.
The Bible Today

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