Pauline Letters · Evidence-led guide
The thirteen Pauline letters
The letters are occasional documents addressed to real communities, not detachable sayings; their sequence and attribution require explanation.
Reader question
Where was each letter written, what problem did it address, and why is its authorship accepted or debated?
Seven of the thirteen letters are widely accepted as Pauline; six are disputed to varying degrees. Their dates and writing places combine letter-internal clues with historical reconstruction, and several prison and Pastoral settings are not locations named by the letters.
Where and when each letter was written
| Letter | Date | Written from | Occasion | Journey | Earliest witness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. AD 40–49 | |||||
| Galatians | c. AD 48–49 | AntiochdebatedThe destination decides the date: a southern Galatia reading places it near the first journey, a northern one in the 50s. | To the churches of Galatia — that a person is justified by faith, not by works of the Law. | Conversion and Early Ministry | P46Enter the story → |
| c. AD 50–59 | |||||
| Romans | c. AD 56–57 | Corinth | To believers in Rome he had not yet met — the fullest account of his gospel. | Paul in Ephesus | P46Enter the story → |
| 1 Corinthians | c. AD 54–55 | Ephesus | To a divided, gifted church at Corinth — on unity, love, and resurrection. | Paul in Ephesus | P46Enter the story → |
| 2 Corinthians | c. AD 55–56 | Macedoniaregion, not a single place | A raw, personal defense of his ministry to the church at Corinth. | Paul in Ephesus | P46Enter the story → |
| 1 Thessalonians | c. AD 50–51 | Corinth | To a young church at Thessalonica — comfort about those who have died. | Paul in Athens and Corinth | P46Enter the story → |
| 2 Thessalonians | c. AD 51–52 | CorinthdebatedPlaced with First Thessalonians by tradition; if the letter is not Paul’s, its setting is not his either. | A second letter to Thessalonica, steadying them about the day of the Lord. | Paul in Athens and Corinth | Codex SinaiticusEnter the story → |
| c. AD 60–69 | |||||
| Ephesians | c. AD 60–62 | RomedebatedRome is traditional; Ephesus and Caesarea are argued, and the letter’s destination is itself uncertain. | A circular letter on the church as one new humanity in Christ. | Paul’s Voyage to Rome and Shipwreck | P46Enter the story → |
| Philippians | c. AD 60–62 | RomedebatedThe imprisonment could be at Rome, Ephesus or Caesarea, which moves the date by years. | A thank-you letter of joy to Philippi, written from prison. | Paul’s Voyage to Rome and Shipwreck | P46Enter the story → |
| Colossians | c. AD 60–62 | RomedebatedOverlapping names and circumstances connect it with Philemon, but do not establish a shared imprisonment location or dispatch. | To Colossae — the supremacy of Christ over every power. | Paul’s Voyage to Rome and Shipwreck | P46Enter the story → |
| 1 Timothy | c. AD 62–64 | Writing city unstateddebatedThe letter portrays Paul leaving Timothy in Ephesus and going to Macedonia, but it names no composition city. The date belongs to a traditional post-Acts reconstruction. | A mentor’s charge to Timothy, leading the church at Ephesus. | Paul after Acts and the Tradition of His Martyrdom | Codex SinaiticusEnter the story → |
| 2 Timothy | c. AD 64–67 | RomedebatedA final Roman imprisonment attested by tradition rather than by Acts, which ends before it. | A traditional final prison letter, presenting its speaker near the end of life. | Paul after Acts and the Tradition of His Martyrdom | Codex SinaiticusEnter the story → |
| Titus | c. AD 62–64 | Writing city unstateddebatedCrete is Titus’s recipient setting and Nicopolis is a planned winter destination in Epirus; neither identifies the composition city, and Paul’s location is unstated. | Instructions to Titus, organizing the young churches of Crete. | Paul after Acts and the Tradition of His Martyrdom | Codex SinaiticusEnter the story → |
| Philemon | c. AD 60–62 | RomedebatedOverlapping names and circumstances connect it with Colossians, but do not establish a shared imprisonment location or dispatch. | A personal note asking Philemon to welcome Onesimus, who had been away from him, as a brother. | Paul’s Voyage to Rome and Shipwreck | Codex SinaiticusEnter the story → |
Sigla: P46 is Papyrus 46, copied around AD 200; ℵ is Codex Sinaiticus, fourth century. A manuscript witnesses the text, not the author or the date of composition.
Teaching tools
A short, source-aware way to introduce this letter in a class, study group, or personal reading.
Thirteen letters bearing Paul’s name
The New Testament contains thirteen letters carrying Paul’s name, and scholarship does not treat them as one block. Seven, namely Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians, and Philemon, are accepted as his by nearly everyone. Ephesians, Colossians, and Second Thessalonians are disputed. The three Pastoral Letters are disputed most sharply of all.
This project says letters bearing Paul’s name deliberately. It states the authorship position for each letter rather than flattening the corpus in either direction, because presenting the question as settled would misrepresent the field, and setting the disputed letters aside would discard evidence that early readers plainly valued.
Occasion before doctrine
Each letter answers something. Corinth had factions, a lawsuit, and a dispute about meat. Galatia had teachers pressing circumcision. Philemon had a household problem with a name attached. Reading occasion first does not shrink these letters; it is what makes their arguments legible, because Paul is almost always arguing with someone.
That is why the letters sit beside the timeline and the map here rather than on a separate shelf. A letter written from Ephesus during a three-year stay, or from Corinth just before a dangerous journey to Jerusalem, carries its circumstances in its tone, and those circumstances are recoverable from the same sources that supply the route.
Common questions
Which of the thirteen are undisputed?
Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, First Thessalonians and Philemon are accepted as Paul’s across essentially the whole range of scholarship. The remaining six — Ephesians, Colossians, Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy and Titus — are questioned, and the Pastorals most sharply of all.
What does disputed authorship actually mean here?
It means the vocabulary, sentence construction, church organisation or assumed situation sit at a distance from the undisputed letters that some scholars judge too great for the same author. It does not mean the letter is late, or fraudulent, or outside the canon. This site labels the dispute rather than resolving it.
Where was each letter written from?
Corinth, Ephesus, and Macedonia are supported with varying confidence for several letters. Rome is traditional for the prison letters, while Ephesus and Caesarea are also proposed; First Timothy and Titus do not name a composition city, and Second Timothy’s Roman setting belongs to the letter’s disputed narrative frame.
Why read them in date order rather than the order in the Bible?
Because the canonical order is roughly by length, not by time. Reading in date order puts each letter beside the crisis that produced it, and makes visible how Paul’s argument about Gentile believers develops between the earliest letters and the latest.
Bibliography and sources
- Acts 7–28, World English Bible (public domain). View source
- Romans through Philemon, World English Bible (public domain). View source
- The project’s 67-row chronology, cross-referencing Acts and the letters and labeling debated dates.