Modern scholarship sees some of the letters of Paul as being genuinely written by Paul and others as written later by others.
There is strong consensus in modern New Testament scholarship on a core group of authentic Pauline epistles whose authorship is rarely contested: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon.
Several additional letters bearing Paul's name are disputed among scholars, namely Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Scholarly opinion is sharply divided on whether or not Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are genuine letters of Paul.
The remaining four contested epistles – Ephesians, as well as the three known as the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus) – have been labeled pseudepigraphical works by most critical scholars
I am skeptical about this approach. It has flaws that come with the modern historical method.
The letters in question all have Paul's name on them
Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope;
2 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
The assumption of the modern critical scholars is that the writers of these letters forged Paul's name on them in order to get them accepted. The burden of proof is on the critics and in my view, they have failed to meet that burden.
The Circulation of the Epistles
The Epistles themselves show that they were copied and shared with other churches but this was on an ad hoc basis (Sufficiency of Scripture?). Saint Peter knew of at least some of the Letters of Saint Paul (Saint Peter on Saint Paul - Scripture and Tradition).
The Letters were quoted by the Church Fathers
Polycarp of Smyrna (69–156 AD) not only quoted from 2 Thessalonians but also the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, Acts of the Apostles, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Epistle to the Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, 3 John. (The Development of the Canon of the New Testament)
An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It seems that a better explanation of the lack of quotes from some the earliest Church Fathers that some of the letters were not in circulation as much as others.
The Letters were accepted by the Church as Canonical
All of these matters were adjudicated by the Church. They were much closer in time to the events and had a motive to ensure the corpus was authentic. The tradition of the Church knew the authentic from the inauthentic epistles.
Writings attributed to the apostles circulated among the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating, perhaps in collected forms, by the end of the 1st century AD. Justin Martyr, in the mid 2nd century, mentions "memoirs of the apostles" as being read on "the day called that of the sun" (Sunday) alongside the "writings of the prophets. A defined set of four gospels (the Tetramorph) was asserted by Irenaeus, c. 180, who refers to it directly.
Motives of the Scholars
These scholars have a motive that is so ancient that it is found in the words of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
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