200 HORJE PAULI"Nifi. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE SUBSCRIPTIONS OF THE EPISTLES. 



Six of these siibscrij^tions are false or improbable ; that 

 is, they are either absolutely contradicted by the contents of 

 the epistle, or are difficult to be reconciled with them. 



I. The subscription of the first epistle to the Corinthians 

 Btates that it was written from Philippi, notwithstanding 

 that in the sixteenth chapter and the eighth verse of the 

 epistle, St. Paul informs the Corinthians that he will "tarry 

 at Ephesus until Pentecost ;" and notwithstanding that he 

 begins the salutations in the epistle by telling them, "the 

 churches of Asia salute you :" a pretty evident indication 

 that he himself Avas in Asia at this time. 



II. The epistle to the Galatians is by the subscription 

 dated from Rome ; yet in the epistle itself St. Paul expresses 

 bis surprise "that they were so soon removing from him that 

 called them ;" whereas his journey to Rome was ten years 

 posterior to the conversion of the Galatians. And what, I 

 think, is more conclusive, the author, though speaking of 

 himself in this more than any other epistle, does not once 

 -nention his bonds, or call himself a prisoner ; which he had 

 not failed to do in every one of the four epistles written from 

 that city, and during that imprisonment. 



III. The first epistle to the Thessalonians was written, 

 the subscription tells us, from Athens ; yet the epistle refers 

 expressly to the coming of Timotheus from Thessalonica, 

 chap. 3:6; and the history informs us, Acts 18:5, that 

 Timothy came out of Macedonia to St. Paul at Corhith. 



IV. The second epistle to the Thessalonians is dated, 

 ftnd without any discoverable reason, from Athens also. II 

 t be truly the second — if it refer, as it appears to do, chap. 

 2 : 2, to the first, and the first was written from Corinth, the 

 place must be erroneously assigned, for the history does not 



