Jesus and the law in St. Paul's Letters

Abstract

I took a title which is somewhat general because it allows me to combine certain themes and at the same time to treat certain things separately. I would like to begin with the last part of the title: Paul's letters. If I want to study the Law and Jesus, and then the relationship between the two, I first have to determine as best I can what Paul actually wrote. This is not my theme here and so I will treat this very briefly. By and large, Catholic Scripture scholars today would agree that while fourteen pieces of literature in our New Testament have the name of Paul on them, seven are surely Paul's. They are the first letter to the Thessalonians, the letter to the Romans, the letter to the Galatians, the first letter to the Corinthians, the second letter to the Corinthians, Philippians and Philemon. The others that come under greater discussion and draw certain encouragement from some scholars are Colossians and Ephesians. When I search after Paul's thinking, I will concentrate on the letters I think he wrote. The other letters are called deutero Pauline letters; they are written by people greatly influenced by Saint Paul, therefore contain some Pauline theology but they are not written by Paul. Therefore you will find in them developments of Pauline theology by further theologians.