The first time anyone said that there even was a collection of letters of a "Paul" was 150 years after he *supposedly* wrote them.
There is a Latin document (165-185 CE) called the Muratorian Canon, a list of Christian writings. Thirteen Pauline letters appeared in the list.
There are a number of theories proposed by scholars about how these came about, and no firm concensus. The theories are fairly complicated, but it was not until (according to one major theory) late in the 1st Century that verious communities looked for and started sharing latters which were written to individual churches. Just like Deuteronomy just happened to be "found" during a temple remodeling, there are no firm dates or archaeology to prove what's in the Pauline literature is actually from whom they say it is, and the fact that some known letters are included we know he didn't write, makes then all suspect, as far as I'm concerned.
There is a Latin document (165-185 CE) called the Muratorian Canon, a list of Christian writings. Thirteen Pauline letters appeared in the list.
There are a number of theories proposed by scholars about how these came about, and no firm concensus. The theories are fairly complicated, but it was not until (according to one major theory) late in the 1st Century that verious communities looked for and started sharing latters which were written to individual churches. Just like Deuteronomy just happened to be "found" during a temple remodeling, there are no firm dates or archaeology to prove what's in the Pauline literature is actually from whom they say it is, and the fact that some known letters are included we know he didn't write, makes then all suspect, as far as I'm concerned.
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