Almost from the very beginning, the effect and knowledge of Paul's letters spread far beyond the immediate circle of those who received them, and it is of interest to inquire as to how this wider distribution came about.
The high esteem in which Paul was held would go far towards assuring acceptance of those all too brief records which have been preserved for us. The attitude of the early church towards the apostle and his work is nowhere better expressed than in the words of Eusebius, that great Christian historian of the fourth century: "Paul . . . who surpassed them all in vigour of expression and in richness of thought, committed to writing no more than the briefest epistles" (Ecclesiastical History, III, xiv, 3).
One might suppose that the epistles to individuals such as Timothy, Titus, or Philemon would be limited in their appeal or application, but even such personal notes contain advice of permanent and universal value, as where the apostle writes to Timothy, "I will therefore that men pray every where" (I Tim. 2:8), while the exhortation to the same correspondent that he should prove himself "a good minister of Jesus Christ" by putting "the brethren in remembrance of these things" (4:6), could most readily be put into effect by reading the letter in public. Then, too, it seems clear that the letters of the apostle were passed around from church to church, thus ceasing to be regarded as of merely local importance. It may be observed that this was done at Paul's own suggestion, for we find him writing to the Colossian church in the following terms: "When this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea" (Col. 4:16).
