; in Horne's Introduct., vol. 4, pp. 490-495;
in Conybeare and Howson, vol. 2, Appendix 2; and in the
commentaries of Hackett, Alford, Wordsworth, etc.

6. As the epistles of Paul stand in the New Testament, they are not
arranged in chronological order. The principle of arrangement seems to
have been, first, those to _churches_, then, those to _individuals_; the
further order being that of _relative size_, with this modification;
that two epistles addressed to the same church should stand together,
and that the last of them, which is always the shorter, should determine
their place in the series. Where the epistles are about equal in size,
it seems to have been the design to arrange them chronologically. The
catholic epistles are arranged upon the same plan. The epistle to the
Hebrews, as being anonymous, now stands after those which bear the name
of Paul. But in many Greek manuscripts it is placed after 2
Thessalonians, consequently between the epistles addressed to churches
and those to individuals.

The student of these epistles should carefully note the
chronological order, because, as Wordsworth remarks (Preface to
Commentary on the Epistles), the mutual illustration which the
Acts of the Apostles and the apostolic epistles receive from
each other "is much impaired if the apostolic epistles are not
studied in connection with and in the order of the apostolic
history." The following is the chronological order of the
epistles, as far as it can be ascertained, though (as will
hereafter appear) some uncertainty exists in respect to several
of them:

1 Thessalonians . . . about A.D. 53
2 Thessalonians . . . about A.D. 53
Galatians . . . . . . about A.D. 56 or 57
1 Corinthians . . . . about A.D. 57
2 Corinthians . . . . about A.D. 57
Romans . . . . . . . about A.D. 58
Ephesians . . . . . . about A.D. 62
Colossians . . . . . about A.D. 62
Philemon . . . . . . about A.D. 62
Philippians . . . . . about A.D. 63
Hebrews . . . . . . . uncertain.
1 Timothy . . . . . . about A.D. 65
Titus . . . . . . . . about A.D. 65
2 Timothy . . . . . . about A.D. 66

Arranged according to the order of time the thirteen epistles
which bear the name of Paul naturally fall into _four groups_:
(1) the two epistles to the Thessalonians, written during the
apostle's _second_ missionary journey recorded Acts 15:36-18: