Did Paul ever imagine his letters would become the Canon of Scripture?
Paul had no expectation that his epistles would be collected as the Canon of Scripture. He simply wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired him, sent letters to churches by courier, and would have been aghast to see what his writings became down through history. He had no idea of their future role.
Les explains that Paul did not know his letters would become the Canon of Scripture. Paul wrote as the Holy Spirit inspired him, fired letters off to various churches by courier, and had no idea this would become what we call Canon. For example, Romans was sent to Rome from Corinth with Phoebe, and others traveled with friends like Titus and Timothy. Les says Paul would have been aghast if he could have seen down the corridor of history what his writings would become. Whether he knew it or not, Paul put his material out under the format of first doctrine, then reproof, then correction, and then instruction in righteousness. Les then begins a timeline of Paul's epistles, starting with letters written during his early missionary travels, when he left Antioch and went into Asia Minor, to Antioch of Pisidia, Derbe, and Lystra, and later on his second journey over to Greece, Athens, and Thessalonica. That began about 40 A.D., after Paul came back from three years of instruction with the Lord at Mount Sinai. These letters become Romans, the Corinthian letters, and Galatians.
More Questions
Did Paul know he was writing Scripture when he wrote his letters?
Paul did not sit down and deliberately engineer the structure of his letters, and he did not even realize he was writing Scripture — which shows how beautifully the Book is put together.