The Pastoral Epistles
Dear Bible Challenge participants,
We've begun reading the letters in the New Testament called The Pastoral Epistles. Attributed to Paul, they focus more on aspects of spiritual leadership, rather than on individual faith.
For a number of reasons, including the advanced level of "institutionalization" of the Church, vocabulary, and theological development, many scholars hold that these letters were written by disciples of Paul at a later date.
As an aside-- I've been willing to buy this idea, and was reminded why when I read I Timothy 1:20 in which the author surrenders Hymaneus and Alexander over to Satan... just didn't sound like Paul to me...
This is a very complex epistle. Six brief chapters, that hold treasures and puzzles both...
We read about church leadership in new ways, of "over-seers" (epi-scope!) and more about deacons, and presbyters, and qualifications for leadership (a bishop shall have one wife... ), and it's clear that the church is becoming more of an institution.
There are beautiful beautiful verses about prayer, including those for secular leaders, "that we may live peaceful and quiet lives..." and some admonitions that seem very personal "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses." (5:23)
Parts of this epistle may be puzzling... the piece on women being silent (and watch out for those braids!), widowhood, or slavery, for example. It's helpful to remember the context of this first century letter, and how different their world was from ours, including gender roles, and the "normalcy" of slavery as a part of the social order and economy.
Translation is an issue, again, in 1 Timothy, as it was earlier in our reading in Deuteronomy 23:17 (and also in 1 Corinthians 6:9), as we have another "random sodomite," ie., the KJV translators used the word "sodomite," when the word in Hebrew or Greek is not related to "Sodom," nor necessarily its namesake act, and that interpretation has become a tradition with some modern translators, despite the Ancient Greek linguistic evidence. The following may be more than you wanted to know about Ancient Greek vocabulary, but for those interested...
In 1 Timothy and in 1 Corinthians, the word in question is arsenokoitai-- a compound word (made up of "man" and "bed") it appears that Paul made up the word in writing 1 Corinthians 6:9, and that Paul or his disciple used in 1 Timothy 1:10. The significance is that no other ancient Greek author contemporary to Paul, or to his later disciple, uses this word. Paul is the first. And since the word is not used in a defining or descriptive way, but rather in a list, we haven't context in which to derive accurate meaning. (Think of some of the compound words in English that mean something different than the sum of their parts: ladykiller, ladybug, mandate, butterfly, chairman, flywheel...) When the word is used later, it is translated as "temple prostitute," or "cultic prostitute" and occasionally used regarding heterosexual relations. There are plenty of words in use at Paul's time that he could have used if he was specifically condemning homosexuality in this passage-- but he doesn't. And so this is a mystery to be held lightly and humbly, because while we might have ideas, we really don't know what Paul was referring to exactly. The Good News Bible's translation "sexual pervert," or the Message's, "the irresponsible, who defy all authority, riding roughshod over God, life, sex, truth, whatever!" while being more general, are in many ways more honest about what we know and what we don't know about Paul's intended meaning.
Meanwhile, we continue on in Isaiah. It's both fascinating and powerful, I think, to read familiar passages that we hear in church during Advent--and to read them in their context within Isiah. In Isaiah we get a bit of theo-geo-politics... We see the theology arising from Israel, the Adonai-loving nation, that is located in the strip of fertile land between super-powers Assyria and Egypt, with Babylon looming near by. How to make sense of their reality in the midst of these battling forces? "You'll get yours/We'll get ours because we trusted in political alliances instead of trusting in God..." Isaiah and the Deuteronomist have a very similar way of looking at the world.
A ever, thank you for being on this journey!
Peace,
Paige+
