330 ilaria l. e. ramelli
instance in 2 cor 5:11 (cf. rom 3:18; 11:21; φοβοῦ, sc. god). a christian would
have easily spoken, not of horror, but of timor Dei or Domini.
according to Pascal, the forger of this pseudepigraphon read seneca’s
literary works and possible resemblances between the letters ascribed to
seneca in the correspondence with Paul and his authentic works should
be attributed to the forger’s knowledge of seneca’s authentic letters. in
order to prove this, Pascal compared seneca’s Epistulae ad Lucilium with
Letter Xi (Xii barlow) of our correspondence. Pascal’s examination thus
suggests that a forger composed Letter Xi basing himself on authentic
texts of seneca. The parallels indicated by this scholar seem to be con-
vincing, but Letter Xi does not belong to the original correspondence, as
recent research has definitely confirmed;36 it must be eliminated from the
rest of the correspondence in that it is certainly false and was added after-
wards (albeit not so late as Letter XiV was).37
Intertextual Considerations
besides the research into bilingualism, a different, intertextual investiga-
tion has also been conducted in recent years and has brought to light
surprising elements, which call for an explanation, and which, at the
same time, confirm that Letters Xi and XiV do not belong to the origi-
nal correspondence, but were added subsequently.38 indeed, philologi-
cal, linguistic, historical, and literary reasons already suggested that these
two letters had to be separated from the original corpus as later forger-
ies, very probably added at different times.39 more recently, a systematic
investigation into the allusions to the new Testament to be found in the
whole of our pseudepigraphon has definitely confirmed that Letters Xi
and XiV are a subsequent addition to the original correspondence. These
two letters refer to later new Testament books, while the correspond-
ence in its original form only echoes letters that modern critics recognize
as written by Paul himself. moreover, among these, the letters that are
36 ramelli, “L’epistolario apocrifo,” 1–12; and (with further arguments of intertextual
nature) ilaria ramelli, “a Pseudepigraphon inside a Pseudepigraphon? The seneca-Paul
correspondence and the Letters added afterwards,” JSP 22 (2013): forthcoming.
37 Pascal, “La falsa corrispondenza,” 137–38 points to parallels with Ep. ad Luc. 91 on the
fire of Lyons; the examples of persecutors that Letter Xi lists are indeed among seneca’s
preferred.
38 ramelli, “The apocryphal correspondence,” and ramelli, “a Pseudepigraphon inside
a Pseudepigraphon?”
39 ramelli, “L’epistolario apocrifo,” 1–12.