There is treasure hidden in Paul’s thirteen letters, but the path to find it is not obvious. Here is a tip: in the Bible, Paul’s letters are not sequenced in chronological order. The Bible rarely gives us specific dates about events it addresses, which can be frustrating for modern readers. As an example, this is a very brief timeline of the first four decades of Christianity that is probably correct to within a few years: 27 AD to 30 AD: Ministry of Jesus 30 AD to 39 AD: Death and resurrection of Jesus; Christianity spreads among the Jews 40 AD to 48 AD: Christianity spreads increasingly to non-Jews 48 AD to 57 AD: Paul’s three missionary journeys 58 AD to 70 AD: Paul’s imprisonment; Paul’s death; Temple destroyed Paul wrote his letters within the two decades of 48 AD to 68 AD. His thirteen generally accepted letters are arranged in the New Testament in two blocks: the nine written to churches, then the four written to individuals. The nine written to churches are generally placed in order by length. (This also assumes Hebrews was not written by Paul.)
