Of Paul’s Letters

The Structure

of

Paul's Letters

Fifth Edition December 2, 2010

by

Robert Arthur Bailey

available at stucture

In memory of my parents, Arthur and Helen, God's evangels to me

Copyright ? 2010 by Robert Arthur Bailey The Structure of Paul's Letters by Robert Arthur Bailey

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved by the author. Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are the author's own translation.

Contents

General Introduction

4

1 Thessalonians

10

1 Corinthians

19

Galatians

52

2 Corinthians

65

Romans

89

Philippians

120

Philemon

131

2 Thessalonians

134

Colossians

138

Ephesians

148

Titus

159

1 Timothy

164

2 Timothy

174

4

General Introduction

Poetic structures of parallelism In an era of virtually no punctuation, not even spaces between words, sentences, and paragraphs,

and when all letters were capital letters, Paul used internal structures of symmetrical parallelism. These structures are like Hebrew poetry, which is not based on meter or rhyme, but on parallelism of clauses, a symmetry of form and sense. They emphasize, organize, and clarify his thoughts. The repetition and emphasis in parallelism are especially helpful in text intended mostly to be heard rather than read, as Paul's letters were. They help listeners to remember and retain the main points of a text they hear read to them and cannot look back on as it is read. They also help a careful reader to see his outline and the units of thought that go together to make a whole structure of thought.

In all of the Pauline letters, structures of symmetrical parallelism (also called chiasmus, symmetrical inversion, or concentric symmetry) are used to organize the entire letter, and also to organize the subdivisions, often to three or more levels. In physics and mathematics, this use of symmetrical parallelism would be known as a "fractal, a geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales" (The American Heritage Dictionary, fourth edition, 2000). An example in nature of a symmetrical parallelism repeated at ever smaller scales is a fern leaf. Many fern leaves consist of a long stem from which smaller leaves extend on both sides. The smaller leaves are an image of the larger leaf. And those smaller leaves also have a stem from which tiny leaves extend on both sides, an even smaller image of the larger leaf. Patterns like that are widespread in nature, science, and art, but the extent of its use in written language in Paul's letters is unusual. Two other examples are shown in the next section.

These structures call for translations, paragraphing, and outlines appropriate to the structures and their themes. But many of them are obscured and unnoticed in popular English translations. This translation follows Paul's word sequences more closely in order to retain more of Paul's structures. Only in Greek could all the details of Paul's structures be seen and shown.

Paul's basic structure and how it is obscured are illustrated by 2 Cor 5:7, "For by faith we walk, not by sight." "Walk" is at the center, surrounded symmetrically by the two alternatives, "by faith, not by sight." But virtually every popular English translation, except the Revised English Bible, rearranges it unsymmetrically, "We walk by faith, not by sight," putting the initial emphasis on "walk" instead of "faith" as Paul wrote it.

The fact that all thirteen of the Pauline letters use similar structures means that if any of the six disputed letters were written by other authors, all of those other authors were aware of Paul's structures and followed them carefully. Two of Paul's undisputed letters, 2 Corinthians and Philippians, may be compilations of more than one original letter. They are his only letters with two main bodies, separated by other subjects that, in his other letters, come at the end of the letter. If any of them are compilations, it means that those compilers were aware of Paul's structures and carefully compiled in a way that would result in the symmetrical structures that Paul used. Four of Paul's undisputed letters, 1 Thess, 1 and 2 Cor, and Phlp, may contain an insert or compilation added by an editor before being released for publication by the recipient church. If so, all of those editors were also aware of Paul's structures, because all of those four apparent inserts attempt to preserve a structure of symmetrical parallelism. In those cases we have explained what the structures are as is, and also what they would have been before any apparent compilation or insert. (It is interesting that none of the six disputed letters of Paul have a widely recognized insert or compilation.)

This work is far from being a complete and perfect identification of the poetic structures in Paul's letters. But hopefully it is a helpful advancement of that project.

General Introduction

5

Two examples of structures of symmetrical parallelism similar to those Paul used:

Psalm 23

(1979 Book of Common Prayer) 7 pairs around a center, arranged 1234567Center7654321

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

An old Swedish grace

arranged ABCCBA

I Jesu namn till bords vi ga valsigna Gud den mat vi fa. Gud till ara, oss till gagn

sa fa vi mat I Jesu namn

In Jesus' name to table we go God bless the food we receive. To God honor, to us gain so receive we food in Jesus' name.

Translation Except where noted, this translation follows Nestle-Aland's 27th edition of the Greek text

(Novum Testamentum Graece, 1993), omitting any words that NA27 placed in brackets as doubtful, but not necessarily following the punctuation proposed by NA27. (Virtually no punctuation was in the original Greek.) It uses a degree of literalness comparable to the King James Version, and, like the KJV, uses italics to indicate text not in the Greek source.

Everything but proper names is translated into English, including "Christ" and "Satan," which, although they are often used as names, are actually titles, like "Lord." It is customary to leave the Greek title, "Christ," untranslated when it applies to Jesus and to translate it when it applies to others. That practice obscures both its meaning and that the same term is also applied to others (see 2 Cor 1:21). "Lord," "holy," and "spirit" are translated consistently regardless of whom those terms may refer to. The use of the definite article, the, before "spirit" and "Anointed" follows Paul's usage as closely as possible.

In the first century, when Paul wrote his letters, all Greek letters were written as capitals. The distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters had not yet been invented. William Tyndale, the

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