• DOI:10.1017/S0028688500024656
• Corpus ID: 170672600

Positional Stylometry Reassessed: Testing a Seven Epistle Theory of Pauline Authorship

@article{Mealand1989PositionalSR,
  title={Positional Stylometry Reassessed: Testing a Seven Epistle Theory of Pauline Authorship},
  author={David L. Mealand},
  journal={New Testament Studies},
  year={1989},
  volume={35},
  pages={266 - 286},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:170672600}
}

• D. Mealand
• Published in New Testament Studies 1 April 1989
• Philosophy

It is well known that earlier ways of measuring the style of Paul's epistles have in recent years been supplemented by specific tests based on calculations of the frequency of certain particles, sentence lengths, use of the subjunctive, use of specific tenses and the like. Two prominent works using such methods reach very different conclusions. In an important recent book Anthony Kenny puts forward a conclusion phrased in terms which reflect the judicious caution of one well versed in… 

It is well known that earlier ways of measuring the style of Paul's epistles have in recent years been supplemented by specific tests based on calculations of the frequency of certain particles, sentence lengths, use of the subjunctive, use of specific tenses and the like. Two prominent works using such methods reach very different conclusions. In an important recent book Anthony Kenny puts forward a conclusion phrased in terms which reflect the judicious caution of one well versed in philosophy. He does not boldly assert that it is probable that Paul wrote twelve of the surviving epistles, merely that on the evidence which he collected he saw ‘no reason to reject the hypothesis that twelve of the Pauline epistles are the work of a single, unusually versatile author’.