The Pastoral Letters as Composite Documents
The authorship of the Pastoral letters has been a matter of intense scholarly debate for almost two hundred years. The letters clearly purport to be written by Paul, but perceived differences in the literary style, vocabulary and theology of the Pastorals when compared with that of the genuine Pauline letters suggests that this was not so. The arguments have centred primarily on the question of whether Paul or a disciple of Paul – a gifted pseudonymist – composed these letters. It is the 'either/or' nature of the debate that is brought into serious question in this book. Dr Miller argues that the Pastorals reflect a compositional history that was commonplace throughout the ancient Near East. He takes the reader on a wide-ranging tour of biblical and extra-biblical sources, examining their literary histories, and arguing that the Pastorals are composite documents, not unlike many Jewish and early Christian works.
- A major new contribution to a 200-year-long debate about the authorship of the Pastoral letters
- First analysis of the Pastoral letters which puts forward the opinion that they are composite documents
- There is a growing interest in the literary history of many sacred texts, including the Pastoral letters
Product details
October 2005Paperback
9780521020640
228 pages
215 × 140 × 15 mm
0.298kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Religious writings as collections
- 3. I Timothy: a compositional analysis
- 4. II Timothy: a compositional analysis
- 5. Titus: a compositional analysis
- 6. Summary and conclusions
- Appendix A: The Pastorals: compositions or collections
- Appendix B: A formal analysis of the Pastorals
- Letters
- Bibliography.