Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:1 (Mar 2022)
Article: The Bookends Of The Pauline Corpus
Author: Gregory Goswell

JETS 65:1 (March 2022) p. 111

The Bookends Of The Pauline Corpus

Gregory Goswell*

^* Gregory Goswell is Academic Dean and Lecturer in Biblical Studies at Christ College, Sydney, 1 Clarence St., Burwood, NSW 2134, Australia. Christ College is an affiliated college of the Australian College of Theology.

Abstract: Romans at the head of the Pauline corpus and the Pastoral Epistles at or near the end act as bookends and provide a missional frame around the epistolary collection. Though the order of the letters appears to be due to the mechanical principle of decreasing length (Romans is the longest letter) and the (somewhat) arbitrary division made between letters to churches and to individuals, the position of Romans and the Pastoral Epistles at either end of the collection of Paul’s letters makes sense, given the general and comprehensive character of Romans and the probable setting of the Pastoral Epistles late in Paul’s missionary career as he contemplates his removal from the scene. Influenced by Romans, the reader of the letters that follow is alerted to when and how Paul sets his doctrinal and ethical instructions in a missional frame. Similarly, the Pastoral Epistles suggest a missional reading of the earlier letters. The letter to the Philippians is used as a test case for the influence that Romans and the Pastorals bring to bear on the reading of the intervening letters.

Key words: Pauline corpus, canon, mission, Romans, Pastoral Epistles, Philippians

The canonical presentation of the letters of Paul as a collection invites readers to compare the individual letters, such that the primary context of Philippians, for example, is not the original situation at Philippi (in so far as it can be recovered) but the fact that it now comes within a collection of thirteen letters by Paul.1 Though the contents of Paul’s letters were originally evoked by contemporary and contingent factors in the life of particular churches (e.g., the problem of disunity in the church at Philippi, including the dispute between Euodia and Syntyche [Phil 4:2–3]),2 their gathering into an epistolary corpus means that they are no longer being viewed as occasional letters, and the positioning of the individual letters within the canonical collection (Sitz im Kanon) is an important index of their meaning. As well, the position of each letter in a corpus provides a counter to overdependence upon the postulated historical background, the reconstruction of which is in large measure based upon an attempt to read between the lines of the letter itself with the

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