Being raised and having completed all my schooling and even my BTh in Afrikaans, my language skills were fairly underdeveloped when I switched over to writing in English as a post-graduate student. Needless to say, my first journal article needed some TLC. While it was accepted, the journal editor recommended that I send it for external editing. I decided against this, believing that since the time I submitted the article to the time I received feedback (around 12 months), my English improved dramatically and that I had unlearned some of the idiosyncrasies that initially annoyed the reader. This improvement and change in writing style was mainly sparked by my full-time appointment at SATS and the fact that I was surrounded by sharp colleagues who rubbed off on me. So, I simply rewrote my own article (with some cringing at the poor style displayed in the previous version). Upon submission, I received a call from the journal editor. He requested the contact details of my “editor.” He was about to finish his PhD and was so impressed with my so-called editor’s work that he wanted to go the same route. When I explained that I was the mysterious editor, it sounded like he did not believe me. The new and improved article was just too different from the first one.

Now, why am I telling you this story?

This experience dramatically altered the way I approach the issue of biblical authorship. While I heard many people aping arguments against the Pauline authorship of letters like Ephesians, a simple prod at the criteria for doubting proved them to be utterly flawed. Let’s take Paul’s authorship of 1 and 2 Thessalonians as example. While most scholars accept that the Apostle penned the former, many dispute that he wrote the latter. Their central argument: the content and style of the two letters are too different.

Sound familiar?

My article was rewritten twelve months later for the same journal, with the same theological argument, and for the same audience; yet, it was difficult for the editor to believe that I was the rewriter. Paul’s letters span a period of roughly 20 years, written to different congregations in different locations, facing different challenges. Not to mention that Paul had different relationships with each church and that some letters were written to individuals. Finally, Paul’s various contexts and circumstances must have surely rubbed off on him, leading him to focus on different theological truths and to package them differently. Expecting these letters to be similar in order to ascertain Pauline authorship is an unreasonable expectation. Such a view reduces the NT writers to stock characters, one-dimensional and frozen-in-time, only able to pull material from a limited and stagnant repertoire.

So, why does this matter?

While some of the NT letters do not mention their authors by name, many do. When we question authorship claims of a letter in which the writer is explicitly named, we are not merely entering into a robust scholarly conversation about historical accuracy—we are challenging the inspired text, and very often with senseless, anachronistic, and reductionistic arguments like the one detailed above. We are welcoming a hermeneutic of suspicion that sets us up to read the Bible with distrust.

This blog only covers one of the criteria scholars use to read against grain of the text. There are many others; likewise, there are many nuances to the topic of authorship. In Short, rather than approaching the biblical text with a critical eye, let’s begin with an interrogation of the critical scholarship we so often accept without merit. Lest we create a rubric for biblical authors that we are unable to attain.

Short Bio: 

Dr Cornelia van Deventer is the Academic Dean of the South African Theological Seminary. She obtained her PhD in New Testament from Stellenbosch University in 2018 on the Gospel of John. Her research focus centres on the literary dimensions of Johannine literature (John’s Gospel; John’s Letters; Revelation) and the intended rhetorical effect on the reader or hearer. Cornelia serves alongside her husband, Johann, who leads Joshua Generation Church in Worcester, Western Cape. They have three sons, Ezra, Amo, and Ave, and a late son, Ilan.