Paul, in his own handwriting

Paul is the most argued-over writer in the Bible, and he tells us what he thought he was doing more plainly than most readers notice.

Here is the claim, dropped into the middle of a chapter about orderly worship, aimed at people who considered themselves spiritually advanced:

What I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. Not Paul’s opinion, not apostolic advice. A command, in a letter, and the test of a man’s spirituality is whether he recognizes it as one.

That is a large claim to make about your own mail. And Paul makes it while being scrupulous elsewhere about the difference:

Hold those two together, because together they are more convincing than either alone.

In chapter 7 he distinguishes carefully — to the rest I say this, I and not the Lord — and a few verses earlier, not I, but the Lord. A man inventing authority does not build in that distinction. Then in chapter 14 he says the whole letter carries the Lord’s command.

And then there are the physical details, which are the most human thing in the New Testament and quietly the most useful.

He took the pen from the secretary and finished it himself, and the letters got big. Whether that is failing eyesight, a workman’s hand unused to fine script, or emphasis, Paul thought it worth mentioning.

A signature in his own hand, in every letter, given as the distinguishing mark — because forged letters were already circulating. He says so earlier in the same letter.

So he authenticates. He signs. And he gives instructions about circulation — read this letter to all the brothers, and when this letter has been read among you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans.

None of that is the behavior of a man writing private correspondence. It is the behavior of a man who expects his letters to be copied, carried between cities, read aloud to assemblies, and imitated by forgers.

And it is worth stating what all this does and does not establish. Paul’s claim about his own letters is his claim; the church’s recognition of it is a separate question with its own history, and Athanasius’ letter at the top of this week is one milestone in it. What this day establishes is the writer’s own testimony — which is exactly what this slot exists to gather, week after week.

The apostle wrote occasional letters to real congregations about real problems, in a hurry, with a secretary, and signed them himself. And he says what is in them is the Lord’s command.

Paul used secretaries, and one of them signs his own name: I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. The practice was standard, and it explains both the personal handwriting notes and some of the stylistic variation across the letters.

The forgery problem is stated outright in 2 Thessalonians 2:2, where Paul warns them not to be shaken by a report or letter seeming to be from us. The signature convention in 3:17 is his answer to it.

Colossians 4:16 is the earliest evidence of letters being exchanged between churches — and it mentions a letter from Laodicea that we do not have. Whatever became of it, the verse shows circulation was expected from the beginning.

1 Thessalonians 5:27 puts the reading under solemn charge: I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers. Public reading was not optional or incidental; it was commanded in the document itself.

The distinction Paul draws in 1 Corinthians 7 has sometimes been read as marking parts of his letter as merely human advice. Read in context he is distinguishing between cases where Jesus had given explicit teaching during His ministry and cases where He had not; Paul then answers the second kind as one who has the Spirit and expects to be obeyed, ending the chapter with exactly that claim.

Galatians 6:11 is the only place Paul comments on the size of his own handwriting, and the standard explanations are eyesight weakened by illness, hands calloused by manual labor, or deliberate emphasis in a heated letter. The text does not say, and honest commentaries list all three.

Look it upG1785 ἐντολή entole, command · G4592 σημεῖον semeion, sign, distinguishing mark · G1121 γράμμα gramma, letter of the alphabet, writing · G1992 ἐπιστολή epistole, letter or epistle

Then read 2 Peter 3:15–16, where Peter refers to Paul’s letters, admits some things in them are hard to understand, and calls them Scripture alongside the rest. One apostle placing another’s working correspondence in that category, inside the New Testament itself.

Where this touches1 Corinthians 7:10–12; 14:37 · Galatians 6:11 · 2 Thessalonians 2:2; 3:17 · Colossians 4:16 · 1 Thessalonians 5:27 · Romans 16:22 · 2 Peter 3:15–16. Jeremiah, Luke, John, Revelation, Peter and Moses gave their accounts in earlier weeks.