Stylistic Diversity in the Corpus Ciceronianum and in the Corpus Paulinum

Stylistic Diversity in the Corpus Ciceronianum and in the Corpus Paulinum: A Comparison and Some Conclusions, in: Journal for the Study of Paul and his Letters 9 (2019) 118-157:

„The stylistic diversity in the Corpus Paulinum is not greater than that in Cicero’s oeuvre. In contrast to the Corpus Ciceronianum, however, the style differences in the Corpus Paulinum are less easily explained by a gradual stylistic improvement of the apostle Paul. The other scholarly explanations for the style differences in the Corpus Ciceronianum are better applicable to the style differences in the Corpus Paulinum. The different communication situations, the different types of texts, and the different addressees can plausibly explain many stylistic differences among the four Pauline letter groups. As scholarly explanations for the style differences in Cicero’s work imply, the different styles in the Corpus Paulinum need not be attributed to multiple authors. (Otherwise, Pauline scholars would have to argue against the scholarly consensus and claim that a substantial part of Cicero’s oeuvre is in fact pseudepigraphical.)“