To whom were the Epistles of St. Paul written? Why were they written? Which of these are considered authentic?

That’s a really big question–I will at least outline the basics for you!

The letters of St. Paul (also known as the Pauline epistles or the Pauline corpus) are the 13 letters attributed to Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. They are arranged in the Bible by length, not by date–the first letter chronologically was probably 1 Thessalonians. Although some considered the Letter to the Hebrews to be a work of St. Paul, its authorship is unknown so it is usually not grouped in the Pauline corpus any longer.

The letters of Paul were written to the various communities of early Christians around the Greco-Roman world. Each was written for a unique purpose–we won’t go into the details of each one here, but most of them were written to address particular needs of that community. For example, one theme of Galatians was the importance of salvation through grace because the Galatian Christians thought they needed to copy the observance of Jewish laws. As another example, in 1 Corinthians Paul talks about Christian morality because there were many problems of immorality in the community there (even at Mass!). The letters also speak about Paul’s journeys, his prayers and “fundraising” for the different churches, defenses of his own theological positions, his personal testimony, and more. The Pauline letters are invaluable for us to understand the life of the early Church across the world.

As for what letters are considered authentic, none of them have been proven to not be from Paul. However, there are 7 which are considered “undisputed” because most scholars agree without a doubt that they come from Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. The others may be from Paul, but it is more difficult to prove for certain. If they were not written by Paul, they may have been written by one of his disciples. But even if Paul didn’t write them, they are still a part of our Sacred Scripture and inspired by the Holy Spirit!

This is a little irrelevant, but a friend once told me a funny trick to remember the order of the Pauline letters in the Bible. Just group them in threes:

Ro-Co-Co, Gal-Eph-Phi, Col-Te-Te, Tim-Tim-Ti–and Phil.

…It sounds better out loud! Anyway, now I don’t have to keep flipping back and forth trying to find the right letter!