Paul's Greek
Michael Holmes
holmic at bethel.edu
Wed Jul 31 17:09:27 EDT 2002
1) Re the role of an amanuensis in the writing of Paul's letters:
the foundational book is E. Randolph Richards, The Secretary in the Letters of Paul (1991). He investigates the practice thoroughly in light of whatever is known about ancient custom and practice of the use of secretaries--amanuenses--in the ancient world.
2) The role of a secretary in writing a document could vary widely, from taking down dictation verbatim (for which some utilized a form of shorthand) to composing a letter on behalf of someone.
3) With regard to Gal 6:11, this almost certainly reflects the custom of the sender of a letter adding a signature (and sometimes a few lines) at the end of a letter dictated to an amanuensis. Thus Paul's comments about "large letters" likely reflect the contrast between the clear, controlled script of the scribe and the less-practiced "scrawl" of Paul. For an example, see the picture (in Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity [Eerdmans, 1987; revised since then], p. 95 in the first edition) of a papyrus letter: the top 3/4 of it is in a very clear majuscule script, while the bottom 1/4 looks like the proverbial prescription written by a doctor--a nearly unreadable cursive scrawl.
4) What role did an amanuensis--such as Tertius, in the case of Romans--play in the composition of the Pauline letters? On the basis of evidence in the letters themselves, such as the occasional grammatical slip, sentences (typically longer ones) that start out with one way grammatically but end up some other way (i.e., the syntax of the end of the sentence doesn't follow the syntax of the beginning), etc., most scholars who have studied the matter have concluded that Paul most likely dictated his letters, with the amanuensis having little role beyond that of a recorder.
5) Stylistic differences between some of the letters attributed to Paul--such as the differences between the Pastorals and the "undisputed" letters--are sometimes attributed to the influence of an amanuensis. For example, C. F. D. Moule suggested that in the case of the Pastorals, Luke (cf. 2 Tim 4:11) served as the scribe, with Paul, due to difficult circumstances, giving him more freedom than usual to work up his ideas into a letter.
6) In summary, the considered consensus--is that the majority of the Pauline letters--and certainly the "undisputed" ones-- present the voice and style of Paul, rather than the amanuensis who did the writing.
Mike Holmes
Bethel College
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