Pauline Epistles

What these are

Real letters to real congregations, most of them written to address specific problems. They are the earliest Christian documents we have — several predate the written Gospels — and they show a new movement working out what it actually believes, under pressure and in public.

Nine are addressed to churches, four to individuals. Romans is the most systematic; Philemon is a personal note about a single runaway slave.

How to read them

Remember you are reading one side of a correspondence. Paul answers questions we cannot hear, which is why some passages feel abrupt. Establishing the occasion of the letter — what went wrong in Corinth, what was being taught in Galatia — resolves a great deal of apparent difficulty.

Traditions differ on the authorship of some of these letters and on how certain passages apply today. This site follows traditional attribution and leaves the interpretive questions where they belong: with the reader and their church.