the last of them, which is always the shorter, should determine their place in the series.  Where the epistles are about equal in size, it seems to have been the design to arrange them chronologically.  The catholic epistles are arranged upon the same plan.  The epistle to the Hebrews, as being anonymous, now stands after those which bear the name of Paul.  But in many Greek manuscripts it is placed after 2 Thessalonians, consequently between the epistles addressed to churches and those to individuals.

The student of these epistles should carefully note the chronological order, because, as Wordsworth remarks (Preface to Commentary on the Epistles), the mutual illustration which the Acts of the Apostles and the apostolic epistles receive from each other “is much impaired if the apostolic epistles are not studied in connection with and in the order of the apostolic history.”  The following is the chronological order of the epistles, as far as it can be ascertained, though (as will hereafter appear) some uncertainty exists in respect to several of them: 

1 Thessalonians . . . about A.D. 53 2 Thessalonians . . . about A.D. 53 Galatians . . . . . . about A.D. 56 or 57 1 Corinthians . . . . about A.D. 57 2 Corinthians . . . . about A.D. 57 Romans . . . . . . . about A.D. 58 Ephesians . . . . . . about A.D. 62 Colossians . . . . . about A.D. 62 Philemon . . . . . . about A.D. 62 Philippians . . . . . about A.D. 63 Hebrews . . . . . . . uncertain. 1 Timothy . . . . . . about A.D. 65 Titus . . . . . . . . about A.D. 65 2 Timothy . . . . . . about A.D. 66

Arranged according to the order of time the thirteen epistles which bear the name of Paul naturally fall into four groups:  (1) the two epistles to the Thessalonians, written during the apostle’s second missionary journey recorded Acts 15:36-18:22; (2) the epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans, written during his third missionary journey, Acts 18:23-21:15; (3) the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians, written during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, Acts 28:16-31 (some suppose the first three to have been written during his imprisonment at Cesarea, Acts 23:35-26:32); (4) the pastoral epistles, the first and third probably written after his recorded imprisonment in Rome, and the second during a second imprisonment after the publication of the Acts of the Apostles, and which ended in his martyrdom A.D. 67 or 68.

The epistles of Paul will now be considered in the usual order, except that the three to the Ephesians, Colossians. and Philemon, which are contemporaneous, will be taken together.

I. EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.