Only his friends could reach him in Caesarea so it is likely that Ephesians was written during the Roman imprisonment as well where he had a constant stream of visitors as the letter implies where he mentions his continual proclamation of the Gospel within the imprisonment. Ephesians and Colossians seem to be written at the same time, it is unlikely that Paul wrote from his Ephesian imprisonment. Reasons to believe Rome is where Colossians was written include: Onesimus was more likely to flee to Rome to conceal his identity, Luke's presence with Paul within Colossians agrees with Luke's accompanying Paul to Rome in Acts, and the doctrinal ephesus between Colossians and the letters to the Galatians, Romans, and Corinthians where he strongly emphasizes freedom from Mosaic law that suggests it having been written later such as the period of Roman imprisonment. The theory of Colossians being written during an imprisonment in Caesarea is more likely because of how it is smaller than Rome but it is more unlikely because of Paul's expectations involving his release do not tally with the Caesarean imprisonment. Philemon and Colossians share many links, such as duplications of names, that it is highly likely that they were written from the same place at the same time, even though the ancient Marcionite prologue to Colossians has Ephesus listed as the place of Paul's writing and that Philemon was written in Rome. Traditional views set all of the prison letters having been written during Paul's Roman imprisonment. Paul's goal was to strengthen the Roman Christians in their faith and to win their financial support for his projected mission to Spain after his Journey through Rome.Įphesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon were written while Paul was imprisoned but it is not entirely clear as to which letters were written during which imprisonment. Purpose: Paul wrote Romans to prepare the believers who were living in Rome for his first visit to their city. Place: Romans was written by Paul in Corinth. Time: Paul wrote Romans on his third missionary journey.
Purpose: 2 Corithians was written to express relief and joy at the positive response from the majority of Corinthian Christians, to stress the need for collection that he wanted to gather from the church for the Christians in Jerusalem, and to defend his apostolic authority in order to still the recalcitrant minority. Place: 2 Corinthians was written from Macedonia. Time: 2 Corinthians was also written during Paul's third missionary journey. Paul wrote this letter to solve the aberrant beliefs and practices that were flourishing in the Corinthian Church.
Purpose: Demonstrates that lamentable conditions in the church do not characterize the postapostolic church alone. Place: First Corinthians was written from the city of Ephesus. Time: First Corinthians was written during Paul's third missionary Journey. But even then it is possible for the South Galatian address combined with being written at a later date to be more correct, this hybrid would accurately represent Paul's most likely route in his travels and the similarity between Galatians to Romans. An argument not in favor would be that he makes no mention of the decree which is an unlikely omission to have been made implying that the address was written after. An argument for this and the early date is that if it were to have been written after the Jerusalem Council, Paul probably would have capitalized on the decree made by the council that favored Gentile Christian freedom from the Mosaic law. As a result the visit to Jerusalem in Galatians 2 is referring to the famine relief visit of Acts 11:27-30 and not the Jerusalem Council. *According to the South Galatia address theory Paul addressed his first letter to the churches of South Galatia just after the first missionary journey but before the Jerusalem Council. This is thought to be because Acts 16:6 is more likely to be referring to the southern territory and going north would have taken a large detour. Reasons against the North address theory are that Luke does not suggest that Paul Evangelized north of Galatia and it is even doubtful that Paul ever visited this territory on his second journey. This late dating is proved by the original restriction of the word Galatia to the Northern territory and the similarity of the statements by Paul about justification by faith to what he says to Romans. Arguments for the North Galatian address theory consist of its late dating. *The North Galatian address theory is that this address by Paul could not have been Written until after the beginning stage of the second journey.