Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy
Is that what you meant, Pel?
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Yeah, but to be fair to Sam; I probably take a more "modernist" view than most. It's not really "modern" in the historical sense since it's in fact a very ancient approach to these matters; but that's what most people would call it.
I lean toward the idea that the epistles (and the Gospels for that matter) were written by "schools" rather than individual authors. Though this is not to say that there aren't some passages and even an entire book like Philemon that seem to bear a very personal touch.
Many of the instances where critics of the Bible have complained about "style" differences and such can easily be explained by the idea of a school of writers being behind the work.
Hebrews is perhaps a good example. The traditional view is that Paul wrote it. It does bear his polemic style in places but it bears no intro attributing it to Paul and the Greek is said to be quite different from his more well attested writings. It may well have been that the tradition of Pauline authorship arose from Paul putting a sort of "imprimatur" on a work of one or more of his earlier collaborators with the closing lines concerning Timothy and the saints in Italy.
I confess that I can't actually prove this theory. But it is an approach that takes into account very old traditions and reports while also accepting the serious work of later scholars and investigators. It also gives us a more dynamic understanding of the writing and canon of the Bible.
Acts shows us that the chief players in this drama were interacting, negotiating, seeking a consensus and at times parting under less than amicable terms only to be reconciled later. Their interactions were dynamic. I think a lot of the "hiccups" and bumps that we run into while reading the Bible might be better understood if we remember the friction that existed within the early Christian community and consider that the Bible's books are collaborative works. And I'm talking just about the friction within the "orthodox" community. When we consider the "heretical" groups like the Gnostic communities of a later period we see open rioting and violence emerge.
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