Excuse me. They believed "his letters were from God" but the letters carried no authority by virtue of their presence in a book which had been assembled and canonized by the Church and therefore officially designated as inspired by God. The Christians in Corinth were required to make an act of faith in a man and his words. There were undoubtedly many letters exchanged between the various evangelists and nascent Christian communities and Paul's letters were among them.
They knew Paul was putting to paper what he had been teaching orally...Just as this scripture which your religion perverts tells us..
Ahhhh....but it was most certainly not Scripture as you refer to it on this forum. The Christians in Corinth and Ephesus read them as letters from an evangelist. Just as I read a letter from a bishop. Paul's letters gained their authority precisely from who he was and the mission which had been entrusted to him and not from their presence in a sacred book. That is the essential difference.
It was "Paul sez"....and not "da Bible sez..." This is how the Church works, as mentioned above. Through human ecclesiastical authority.
Now that's quite a switch...Usually you guys say no one could read nor write back then so anything written was very rare and scarce...
Ahhhh....but it was most certainly not Scripture as you refer to it on this forum. The Christians in Corinth and Ephesus read them as letters from an evangelist. Just as I read a letter from a bishop. Paul's letters gained their authority precisely from who he was and the mission which had been entrusted to him and not from their presence in a sacred book. That is the essential difference.
Paul was THE apostle...He wasn't a mere bishop...You can bet when churches read his letters, they knew it from the guy doing all the miracles who claimed his oral and written words were from God and you can bet his written words were regarded as something pretty special...