Authorship of the Pauline epistles in the context of "Gentile Christianity"

The Epistle to Philemon is a Pauline epistle of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is a prison letter, authored by Paul the Apostle (the opening verse also mentions Timothy), to Philemon, a leader in the Colossian church. Paul does not identify himself as an apostle with authority, but as "a prisoner of Jesus Christ", calling Timothy "our brother", and addressing Philemon as "fellow labourer" and "brother" (Philemon 1:1; 1:7; 1:20). Onesimus, a slave who had escaped from his master Philemon, was returning with this epistle wherein Paul asked Philemon to receive him as a "brother beloved" (Philemon 1:9–17). The letter appeals on behalf of Onesimus, who had subsequently became a Christian through Paul. Paul requests that Philemon receive Onesimus not as a slave but as a beloved brother in Christ, offering to repay any debt Onesimus owes.

Philemon was a wealthy Christian, possibly a bishop of the church that met in his home (Philemon 1:1–2) in Colossae. This letter is now generally regarded as one of the undisputed works of Paul. It is the shortest of Paul's extant letters, consisting of only 335 words in the Greek text.

The Epistle to the Hebrews (Koine Greek: Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, romanized: Pròs Hebraíous, lit. 'to the Hebrews') is one of the books of the New Testament.

The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and some of the Old Latin manuscripts place the epistle to the Hebrews among Paul's letters. However, doubt on Pauline authorship in the Roman Church is reported by Eusebius. Modern biblical scholarship considers its authorship unknown, with Pauline authorship mostly rejected. A minority view Hebrews as written in deliberate imitation of the style of Paul, with some contending that it was authored by Apollos or Priscilla and Aquila.

The authorship of the Petrine epistles (1 Peter and 2 Peter) is a question in biblical criticism, parallel to that of the authorship of the Pauline epistles, in which scholars have sought to determine the exact authors of the New Testament letters. The vast majority of biblical scholars think the two epistles do not share the same author, due to wide differences in Greek style and views between the two letters. Most scholars today conclude that Peter the Apostle was the author of neither of the two epistles that are attributed to him.

Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology (also Paulism or Paulanity), otherwise referred to as Gentile Christianity, is the theology and form of Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Apostle Paul through his writings and those New Testament writings traditionally attributed to him. Paul's beliefs had some overlap with Jewish Christianity, but they deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant and in his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Mosaic Law.

Proto-orthodox Christianity, which is rooted in the first centuries of the history of Christianity, relies heavily on Pauline theology and beliefs and considers them to be amplifications and explanations of the teachings of Jesus. Since the 18th century, a number of scholars have proposed that Paul's writings contain teachings that are different from the original teachings of Jesus and those of the earliest Jewish Christians, as documented in the canonical gospels, early Acts, and the rest of the New Testament, such as the Epistle of James, though there has been increasing acceptance of Paul as a fundamentally Jewish figure in line with the original disciples in Jerusalem over past misinterpretations, manifested through movements like "Paul Within Judaism".

Ephesians 4 is the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Traditionally, it is believed to have been written by Apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome (around AD 62), but more recently, it has been suggested that it was written between AD 80 and 100 by another writer using Paul's name and style. This chapter is a part of Paul's exhortation (Ephesians 4–6), with the particular section about the mutual interdependence of the Christians as the church (verses 1–16) and how they should live in the world (4:17–5:20).

Since the 1970s, scholars have sought to place Paul the Apostle within his historical context in Second Temple Judaism. Paul's relationship to Judaism involves topics including the status of Israel's covenant with God and the role of works as a means to either gain or keep the covenant.

The inclusion of Gentiles into the early Christian movement provoked a controversy between Paul and other Apostles over whether the gentiles' faith in Christ exempted them from circumcision. Paul did not deem circumcision necessary for gentiles, because he thought that God included them into the New Covenant through faith in Christ. This brought him into conflict with the Judaizers, a faction of the Jewish Christians who believed Mosaic Law did require circumcision for Gentile converts. Eventually, adherents of Paul's view became more numerous, and this among other related developments led to the creation of Christianity as distinct from Judaism.