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Connecting Acts with Paul's Letters
We made it! Today is our final day in what is called the "historical narrative" genre of the New Testament. It's been a long road - since January we've covered all four Gospels and Acts, and now we move on to the letters of Paul!
This is going to be a pretty big transition in style, but a good one I think. I've really enjoy taking a look at Acts, the first history book of the early Church. As we move into Paul's letters, I want to do some connecting. As I mentioned way back in our first post, it can sometimes be confusing reading the NT because the books aren't arranged in chronological order. Rather than arranging letters by the date they were written, they are arranged together by writer, then by size. There are some practical reasons for that historically, but it DOES make it a little more confusing for us. That being said, I want to give you an idea of the chronology of Paul's writing and connect it with Acts while it's still fresh in our minds. There are slightly differing ideas about when some of the letters are written, but here's a good chart that I think is pretty accurate as far as we can tell:
Connecting Acts with Paul's Letters
We made it! Today is our final day in what is called the "historical narrative" genre of the New Testament. It's been a long road - since January we've covered all four Gospels and Acts, and now we move on to the letters of Paul!
This is going to be a pretty big transition in style, but a good one I think. I've really enjoy taking a look at Acts, the first history book of the early Church. As we move into Paul's letters, I want to do some connecting. As I mentioned way back in our first post, it can sometimes be confusing reading the NT because the books aren't arranged in chronological order. Rather than arranging letters by the date they were written, they are arranged together by writer, then by size. There are some practical reasons for that historically, but it DOES make it a little more confusing for us. That being said, I want to give you an idea of the chronology of Paul's writing and connect it with Acts while it's still fresh in our minds. There are slightly differing ideas about when some of the letters are written, but here's a good chart that I think is pretty accurate as far as we can tell:
Book Galatians 1 Thess. 2 Thess. 1 Corinthians 2 Corinthians Romans Prison Letters Colossians Ephesians Philemon Philippians 4th Missionary Journey 1 Timothy Titus 2 Timothy | Date 48 50 50 55 56 57 early 60's early 60's early 60's late 62-63 63 (or later, 64 but before 68) | Place of Writing Syrian Antioch Corinth Corinth Ephesus Macedonia Corinth Rome Rome Rome Rome Macedonia Ephesus (?) Rome | Relation to Acts 14:28; 15:2 18:5 19:20 20:2 20:3 28:30-31 After Acts [1] |
Hopefully this helps piece things together a little better as we move forward. Starting Romans tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[1] Robert James Utley, vol. Volume 8, Paul Bound, the Gospel Unbound: Letters from Prison (Colossians, Ephesians and Philemon, Then Later, Philippians), Study Guide Commentary Series (Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International, 1997), 5.