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Authorship of Pauline epistles revisited
Author(s) -
Savoy Jacques
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.24176
Subject(s) - authorship attribution , philosophy , computer science , rendering (computer graphics) , cluster analysis , theology , interpretation (philosophy) , literature , artificial intelligence , linguistics , art
The name Paul appears in 13 epistles, but is he the real author? According to different biblical scholars, the number of letters really attributed to Paul varies from 4 to 13, with a majority agreeing on seven. This article proposes to revisit this authorship attribution problem by considering two effective methods (Burrows' Delta, Labbé's intertextual distance). Based on these results, a hierarchical clustering is then applied showing that four clusters can be derived, namely: { Colossians ‐ Ephesians }, {1 and 2 Thessalonians }, { Titus , 1 and 2 Timothy }, and { Romans , Galatians , 1 and 2 Corinthians }. Moreover, a verification method based on the impostors' strategy indicates clearly that the group { Colossians ‐ Ephesians } is written by the same author who seems not to be Paul. The same conclusion can be found for the cluster { Titus , 1 and 2 Timothy }. The Letter to Philemon stays as a singleton, without any close stylistic relationship with the other epistles. Finally, a group of four letters { Romans , Galatians , 1 and 2 Corinthians } is certainly written by the same author (Paul), but the verification protocol also indicates that 2 Corinthians is related to 1 Thessalonians, rendering a clear and simple interpretation difficult.