Explicit references would be mentioning the text or letter by name, or a recognizable form of that text. This consists of references, again either explicit or implicit, to the text, especially during earliest times by those who had access to reliable sources now lost. For example, because the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews never identified him or herself, scholars as early as Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century suspected that Paul was not the author. This evidence is important in spite of its problems. This consists of what the author tells us about himself in the letter, either explicitly – the author clearly identifies himself – or implicitly – provides autobiographical details. The primary methods used for Paul's letters are the following: Scholars use a number of methods of historiography and higher criticism to determine whether a text is properly attributed to its author.
Various other possible authorships have been suggested. Most modern scholars generally agree that Hebrews was not written by the apostle Paul. The church father Origen of Alexandria rejected the Pauline authorship of Hebrews, instead asserting that, although the ideas expressed in the letter were genuinely Pauline, the letter itself had actually been written by someone else. The Epistle to the Hebrews is actually anonymous, but it has been traditionally attributed to Paul. There are two examples of pseudonymous letters written in Paul's name apart from the New Testament epistles, the Epistle to the Laodiceans and 3 Corinthians. Some scholars have proposed that Paul may have used an amanuensis, or secretary, in writing the disputed letters. 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. Scholarly opinion is sharply divided on whether or not Colossians and 2 Thessalonians are genuine letters of Paul. Several additional letters bearing Paul's name are disputed among scholars, namely Ephesians, Colossians,Ģ Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. There is nearly universal 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.
The Pauline epistles are the fourteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle, although many dispute the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews as being a Pauline epistle.