Paul the Letter-Writer

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.

• ContentsIntroduction   vii1.  Putting Pen to Paper  1The Tools of a Writer's Trade  1Paul Used a Secretary  6First-Century Secretaries and Their Skills  8Recorder  8Editor  13Substitute Author  14Collaborators as Coauthors  161 and 2 Thessalonians  19First Corinthians  20Second Corinthians  24The "I" Sections  27The "W" Sections  282 Cor 10-13  30Other Letters  31Coauthorship in Practice  33A Pauline Style?  34Note-Takers and Church Tradition  35Sending a Letter  372.  Organizing a Letter  42Letters or Epistles?  42Address  45Sender  45Recipient  49To A Church  50To the Members of a Church  51To Individuals  52Opening Greeting  53Thanksgiving  55Greek Papyrus Letters  56The Form of the Thanksgiving  57Thanksgivings in the Body of the Letter  59The Absence of a Thanksgiving  60Thanksgivings as Introductions  62The Body of the Letter  64Rhetorical Criticism of Letters  65The Three Types of Oratory  65The Rhetorical Classification of the Pauline Letters  69The Components of a Deliberative Speech  71Exordium  73Narratio  73Digressio  74Propositio  74Confirmatio  74Peraoratio  77The Rhetorical Schema Applied to the Pauline Letters  77Misuse of the Rhetorical Schema  79The Importance of the Propositio  83Chiasm and Concentric Composition  86Concentrically Structured Documents  88Concentrically Structured Parts of Documents   90Epistolary Classification of Letters  95Conclusion  98The Final Blessing  99Greetings  102The Position of the Greeting  103The Source of the Greeting  104The Recipients of the Greeting  106Greeting with the Kiss  108The Peace Wish  109Postscripts  1103.  Collecting the Letters  114The Evolutionary Theory  114The Big Bang Theory  116Was Paul Involved?  118The Order and Length of the Letters  120The Length of the Letters  120The Order of the Letters  122Creating the Collection  126Collection A  127Collection B  128Collections A and B  129Collection C  129Abbreviations  131Bibliography  134  IndicesClassical Literature  145New Testament  147Subjects  149

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