Why are all Pauline letters in the Bible?

jamiec

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Is that called controlling the narrative by claiming God controlled the narrative in order to make the narrative of the controllers unquestionable?
No. It is a statement of the relative importance of the (secondary) human authors & the (Primary) Divine Author.
 
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timothyu

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Who being gentiles and building the religion in their own image as suggested in the op while also building a kingdom not of God's opposing Kingdom, one would still have to assume there was an agenda behind a controlled narrative. Religion is not as pure as some would like to make out simply because self serving man is involved.
 
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klutedavid

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Most scholars agree that not all of Paul's epistles were written by Paul. Almost all scholars think that Hebrews wasn't written by him, even Luther and Calvin believed it wasn't written by Paul. Luther thought it was written by Apollo.

So if most agree that Hebrews was forged by someone claiming to be Paul, why is it in the Bible?

The argument can be "it is inspired by God even if it wasn't written by Paul", but then again, I could argue that many apocryphal books could be included in the Bible based on that argument, for example, we know that 1 Enoch wasn't written by Enoch and many say it was Spin-off literature from ancient times, however, it is referd to by some of the authors of the NT, so, who is then to claim that its not inspired? or The Gospel of Thomas, it also wasn't written by Thomas and has a protognostic vibe, could be inspired thou....

But the biggest problem I see is: how can a letter be inspired by God if someone is comitting fraud by claiming he is Paul? and Hebrews is not the only letter in dispute...

I like the idea from early Christianity that the letter was written by Paul in hebrew and translated into greek by Luke, but still, many say that the letter is very different from Luke's other work.

Or maybe Paul told one of his disciples to write a letter whilst giving him some pointers on what the letter should cover.

Thomas Aquinas defended Paul's authorship, and some (very few) modern scholars claim it was written by Paul.

Either way, it is something that makes me doubt the infalibility of the Bible.
The author of Hebrews is not mentioned in the letter. So we don't know who wrote it. That does not mean it is a forgery or that it is not inspired.

Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles and the letter of Hebrews is directed to Jews. So it is unlikely that Paul penned that letter.

The question is not so much about the infallibility of the Bible. Rather, the importance of the Bible is that it contains the testimony of the disciples. They witnessed the death and resurrection of the Christ. This is the critical event, the death of Jesus and His resurrection. Jesus shed His blood, the perfect sacrifice by which we are forgiven and reconciled to God. The resurrection is the hard proof that death has been conquered.

The entire Old Testament pointed directly to the approaching messiah and the advent of the church. How accurate any letter or book is in the Bible is not an issue, never was. It is the over-arching truth, the TRUTH contained in the scripture of the revelation of the Christ.
 
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klutedavid

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Which Jesus said was the return of God in governance over mankind. (but we like to make it all about us in diverse ways)
That is a side issue. The death and resurrection of the Christ is ground zero in the scripture.
 
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timothyu

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The death and resurrection of the Christ is ground zero in the scripture.
No, in the religion. The Messiah and governance of God was what the Jews expected and got even though they rejected it. They didn't build the temple on resurrection but rather reunification with God.
 
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Philip_B

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Why do people, with no fear of God before their eyes, love to pervert the names of God’s holy apostles and prophets, just to sound “intelligent”?
I don't think you have understood what @Paidiske was saying. In no way was she perverting the names of God's Holy Apostles.
 
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WintersDust

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Most scholars agree that not all of Paul's epistles were written by Paul. Almost all scholars think that Hebrews wasn't written by him, even Luther and Calvin believed it wasn't written by Paul. Luther thought it was written by Apollo.

So if most agree that Hebrews was forged by someone claiming to be Paul, why is it in the Bible?

The argument can be "it is inspired by God even if it wasn't written by Paul", but then again, I could argue that many apocryphal books could be included in the Bible based on that argument, for example, we know that 1 Enoch wasn't written by Enoch and many say it was Spin-off literature from ancient times, however, it is referd to by some of the authors of the NT, so, who is then to claim that its not inspired? or The Gospel of Thomas, it also wasn't written by Thomas and has a protognostic vibe, could be inspired thou....

But the biggest problem I see is: how can a letter be inspired by God if someone is comitting fraud by claiming he is Paul? and Hebrews is not the only letter in dispute...

I like the idea from early Christianity that the letter was written by Paul in hebrew and translated into greek by Luke, but still, many say that the letter is very different from Luke's other work.

Or maybe Paul told one of his disciples to write a letter whilst giving him some pointers on what the letter should cover.

Thomas Aquinas defended Paul's authorship, and some (very few) modern scholars claim it was written by Paul.

Either way, it is something that makes me doubt the infalibility of the Bible.
I listened to an interview an atheist had on his YouTube blog with fellow atheist and new testament scholar Bart Ehrman.
During that interview he was asked why a new testament contained in majority letters,epistles, written by a man who never heard Jesus speak nor saw him in the flesh. And how do we even know Paul wrote those letters?

Ehrman's answer? Because he signed them.

It's called faith. Not fact.

Think of all those scrolls not considered worthy of entering the canon. All those scrolls found years after the canon was established.

All of nature is proof of God....

God is bigger than any tome that professesses itself to be ''his'' one and only message to the world.

God is all. Eternally.
 
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