A Critical Analysis Of Paul's Letters By Paul Johnson

In chapter five of the book, Literary forms, Johnson mentions the three major issues found when historical analyzes were carried out on Paul 's letters. The issues of literary integrity, authenticity, and difficulty determining the social and historical circumstances addressed by each of the letter was emphasized. According to Johnson, many scholars found interpolations in some of these letters, and others claim that some of the letters are edited composites of other writings brought together (31). Likewise, there is the question of if all of Paul 's Letters were written by him, a late nineteenth-century consensus claims that many scholars today agree that seven of the thirteen letters were written by Paul himself: Romans, 1 and 2

In the eight of the book, Two hidden treasures, Johnson explains that readers can miss other important passages of the New Testament if they only focus on the most read passages such as Paul 's letters, and not on less read compositions that shaped early Christianity such as Hebrews, and the letter of James. Johnson asserts that unlike the letters of Paul, the composition of Hebrews is anonymous, and questions about the author, origin of composition, and the audience can 't be answered (84). However, it Hebrew has been guessed to be contemporary to Paul, or at most a decade later, and it must have been written by an educated author to and educated audience because it is written in the best Greek found in the New Testament (85). The audience can be said to be, ethnically Hellenistic Jews, because the author speaks of a new covenant, the audience received baptism and instruction about Christ, and therefore Christians too. The style of the writing suggest the composition of the books of Hebrews was written from an oral delivery such as a sermon rather than originated written down. Johnson states that being selective "means missing powerful if less-well known literary witnesses from earliest Christianity. Some of the gems in the collection are less appreciated in the present, but in the past had considerable influence in shaping Christian