hatsoff

It is often said that the literary style of the Pastorals is distinctly different than the other Paulines, while among the three being quite unified. To quote Richard Heard:

The style of the letters is exhortatory and rather monotonous. As compared with the other Pauline epistles, the Pastorals contain more abstract formulations and fewer images and metaphors; conjunctions occur less frequently. The thought is not sustained beyond the limit of the individual paragraph. The letters to Timothy begin with the unusual formula of salutation ‘grace, mercy, peace’, and only II Timothy contains the prayer of thanksgiving with which all the Pauline letters (except Galatians) begin.

As for the vocabulary of the letters, it is ‘absolutely homogeneous’ (Morgenthaler). The three letters contain 3,482 words and employ a vocabulary of 901 words. This vocabulary includes 306 words not found in the other Pauline epistles (thirty-three per cent, considerably higher than any other letter) and 335 words not found elsewhere in the New Testament, again a high proportion. The ‘new’ words generally reflect a level of literary culture higher than that found either in the other Pauline epistles or in the rest of the New Testament. In the Pastorals we find a quotation from Epimenides (Tit. 1:12) and possible allusions to Euripides, Pindar, and Menander. (Furthermore, in I Timothy 5:18, Luke 10.7 seems to be regarded as scripture [cf. I Cor. 9:14, however, for an allusion to the same oral tradition]; Luke used Mark, and Mark was written after the death of Paul but the quotation may not be from Luke.)

source

Reading this immediately raises several questions. What are these 306 unique words? More importantly, what are these "'new' words [which] generally reflect a level of literary culture higher than that found either in the other Pauline epistles or in the rest of the New Testament"? And while allusions to pagan philosophers are present in the Pastorals, are they lacking in the seven universally-accepted Paulines?

DCHindley

I have to assume that some such list of words unique words are generally available, even online. It looks as though the author is implying that the Pastorals show a greater level of sophistication than do the undisputed letters, and this supports the supposition that they are later in date.

I find that this kind of thinking ignores the difference in genre between instructional treatises and personal letters. It simply does not surprise me that an author's personal letters exhibit a different vocabulary than his instructive letters. You write to your audience, don't you? If Paul is pushing his agenda to common city folk (mostly slaves, tradesmen and lower-level retainers of the wealthy), I would expect him to speak to them on a level they can understand, no matter how sophisticated he may personally be.

Was Paul a more-or-less sophisticated kind of Jew? If he was himself associated with a Herodian household, as I suspect he was, he may well have received a better than usual secular education, or at least heard works by Euripides, Pindar, and Menander being recited in the agora. I'd see it as Paul speaking more freely with his associates (Timothy or Titus), which suggest that these associates were similarly sophisticated.

DCH

Steven Avery

In my experience (discussions of similar issues on JesusMysteries and XTalk) they have not been found, simply the claim was used from a scholar. I would not even assume that the paper itself that makes the claim so delineates. And of course this leads to questions of methodology, such as what to do with two related words in different forms. Is the later one considered "new" ? And is there in fact a consistent methodology used in these studies ?

And also any such numbers should express how many "new" words are in other letters by the author or in other examples by other writers. I remember seeing cases where the differential was small, there was no there there. And what is the nature of the particular writing is also the issue, not simply the author.

To take a more recent example it is quite likely that Samuel Clemens writing about his travels in Israel (Palestine at the time) used a different vocabulary than when he wrote Huckleberry Finn or his essay on Shakespeare or a letter to his publishers. So ? How easily can you tell which one is latest chronologically, or written by another author, or edited or written by a friend or helper, based on such numbers ? Any such analysis should tend to be very much subordinate to internal historical and authorship indicators.

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Originally Posted by DCHindley It looks as though the author is implying that the Pastorals show a greater level of sophistication than do the undisputed letters, and this supports the supposition that they are later in date.

This "late date" is commonly a post-Pauline composition view. That is, a forger claiming to be Paul (the skeptics are more accurate in their terminology for this theory than those who are purported to accept the Bible but sugar-coat their forgery view with fancier terminology or slippery writing. Bruce Metzger writing similarly about 2 Peter would be an example of the forgery view being expressed in a more genteel manner).

Quote:

Originally Posted by DCHindley I find that this kind of thinking ignores the difference in genre between instructional treatises and personal letters....

Amen. Exactly.
Very well expressed and explained.

Shalom,
Steven

Amaleq13

Sounds like a good starting hypothesis for a published paper, Steven. It would be interesting to see if it holds up.