Paul's Greek
Mark Wilson
emory2oo2 at hotmail.com
Thu Aug 1 16:11:58 EDT 2002
Noel:
I wrote:
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>"I am not aware of any NT document written by Paul
>personally. I suppose one could speculate that he
>wrote one or more, but it would be just that, speculation".
You wrote:
-------
>The Letter to Philemon may have been personally written by
>Paul. EGW PAULOS EGRAYA TH EMH XEIRI (19). Fitzmyer in
>"The Letter to Philemon" (p 118) notes that "the whole of this
>short letter may be an autograph" as claimed by Jerome,
>Lightfoot, Benoit and Stuhlmacher. It is difficult to envisage that
>their studies were merely speculation.
------
In both of your statements above, you say "MAY have been
personally written" and "MAY be an autograph." That much we
can all agree upon. What my point was is that no one knows
what went on in the privacy of Paul's scripture writing. He
very well may have written ALL of Philemon; we can't be sure,
and to insist IT WAS personally handwritten by Paul is speculation
and poor scholarship.
I simply demonstrated that Romans, which is directly said to
be from Paul, was not WRITTEN BY HIM PERSONALLY. But I really
do not think I have said anything of interest. Paul surely was
overseeing the content of what was written, whether by
dictation as Carl suggests (which is very possible but equally
as speculative as an opposite view), or by granting literary
and personal freedom to his secretary (which for what it is
worth would be the position I think most likely, but equally
as speculative as any other view).
I applaud your pointing our this passage in Philemon 19. But
the fact that Paul feels compelled to indicate when he is
personally pushing the ink pen (or whatever they used) is
I think noteworthy. Since Phi 19 is obligating Paul to
a financial agreement, it would make sense for him to grab
the pen and so indicate that he is now personally guaranteeing
this commitment. I suppose one could even argue that christians
of the first century knew that Paul used a secretary, and
since that was common knowledge, Paul found it necessary to
personally write a word or two when dealing with topics he
wanted to personalize. Again, this is all speculation.
I really don't think HOW the words got on the paper is critical.
But this is also important in dealing with Textual Criticism and
the supposed non-Pauline writings. Any statement that some of
the Pauline writings do not appear Pauline are sheer speculation,
and even working under a very difficult persuppositon to support,
namely that Paul is directly writing or dictating his letters.
This actually adds speculation on top of speculation.
Thanks for the interaction.
Mark Wilson
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