What have the Pastoral Epistles ever done for us?
Gerald Bray is Research Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity Schoolhouse in Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama. He has recently published the International Theological Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles with T and T Clark. I asked him nearly the contribution of the Pastorals to our understanding of Paul, theology and ministry building.
IP: The and so-called Pastoral Letters of Paul are often marginalised, both in the church and in scholarship, in part because they are perceived to exist at some distance from the 'centre' of Paul's thought. What do y'all recollect the Pastorals add to our understanding of Paul and his view of ministry?
GB: The common search for a 'center' to Paul'due south thought is rather unfortunate, in my opinion. Paul was not then much a theologian as a correspondent, sending letters every bit and when they were needed to meet various circumstances. It is just natural that those circumstances should vary from time to fourth dimension and from place to identify. If we take the view that the letters were part of his ministry, and so information technology seems to me that it is that ministry building which is their proper 'centre', and if that is the case, the Pastorals take at least some claim to beingness the about fundamental messages of all.
The Pastorals are addressed to individuals rather than to churches, although information technology is clear from their contents that they were meant to exist read to the churches too. They show that the campaigner envisaged a structured ministry in the congregations that he founded, and that the master duty of that ministry was to remain faithful to the original message of the gospel. They demonstrate that Paul was not a hit-and-run evangelist, only someone with a clear strategy who looked towards the future as well every bit dealing with the nowadays. They as well show that he was concerned with every aspect of congregational life and believed that he had a message for all the unlike groups that could be constitute in a local church.
IP: Historically, academic scholarship has been sceptical almost Pauline authorship. What do you think are the main arguments for these messages as genuinely written by Paul? Are these arguments at present gaining traction in the academy?
GB: Historical doubts nearly the authorship of the Pastorals go dorsum no farther than Friedrich Schleiermacher, who claimed that 1 Timothy was pseudepigraphal. Earlier that time their authenticity was never questioned, and they are quoted or alluded to equally early on every bit the second century, well earlier most of the other New Testament books.
Doubts about Pauline authorship are based on their mode, which is rather unlike from most of the other Pauline letters, and their content, which is said to reflect a post-churchly phase of the church'south evolution. It is also claimed that there are a number of words in them that were not in apportionment in the first century, though that is hard to prove and epigraphical bear witness has shown that this is not really the case. Virtually of the vocabulary is now known to take been in utilize in Paul'due south day, fifty-fifty if it is not present, or non very frequent, in literary texts of that menses. The ancient literary tradition is mostly conservative, then we must not take the offset appearance of a word in a detail text every bit an indication that the discussion did not exist before then.
The arguments for Pauline authorship are many. First, the fact that the letters differ to some caste from the other Pauline writings may either point that Paul was using a different secretary (amanuensis) or that he was writing them himself – my preferred solution. A pseudepigrapher would take care to sound equally Pauline as possible, and would probably avoid such obvious giveaways as writing to individuals instead of to churches, every bit Paul mostly did. It is also difficult to see why a pseudepigrapher would become to the trouble of writing three split up letters, instead of just i. one Timothy and Titus, in detail, are like plenty that it seems strange that anyone would indulge in such unnecessary repetition. There is too the fact that the letters were written at a time when the organisation of local churches had not progressed across what the apostles themselves knew. If they had been written at a later fourth dimension their anachronisms would have been obvious to the recipients. The situation described in them would either take been of post-churchly origin (and known to be so) or no longer relevant, which would take removed any purpose in writing the way Paul did.
If the messages did not circulate before the second century it might be possible to debate that the commencement readers were distant from the time of Paul himself and ignorant of the circumstances in which he ministered, but what about Timothy and Titus? In that location would surely have been many people still alive who would have known them, and been able to vouch for the authenticity (or otherwise) of the letters. The texts themselves bespeak to a much earlier date than has generally been accepted, and of form, the further back this date is pushed, the more likely it is that Paul himself was their author.
The academy has been dull to get to grips with the problem of authorship and for the most part, New Testament surveys are content just to repeat the received 'consensus'. But those who have studied the texts nigh closely – William Mounce, Luke Timothy Johnson and Philip Towner – all agree on Pauline authorship, despite their different approaches and backgrounds. It is not too much to say that those who accept worked most closely with the texts are the ones who are virtually convinced of their Pauline origin. The 'academy', however i defines information technology, ought to take note of that.
IP: Ben Witherington makes the example, on the basis of mode and grammar, that Luke had a hand in the writing of these letters. Do you recall that this is a persuasive suggestion? Why (non)?
I am doubter about this, for the simple reason that there is no evidence one fashion or the other. Luke and Paul worked closely together at different times, so Luke may well have been involved in writing the Pastorals. Who tin can say? Style and grammar are difficult to use as 'proof', partly because of the agent question and partly considering colleagues often cease up talking much like each other, especially when they are together for months and even years on end. I am inclined to doubt Luke's authorship (assuming they are pseudepigraphal) because Luke would not have needed to hide his identity in that way. In the Acts of the Apostles he did not hesitate to tell the world what Paul said, thought and did, so why could he non but have said something similar: 'Before he died, Paul told me this…' and gone on from in that location?
IP: Evangelical interpretation of 1 Tim 2:xi-15 has been deeply divided for some time. What are the principal interpretive problems here? Do you recall there is a possibility of rapprochement for interpreters on either side of the carve up?
GB: Evangelical interpreters have been divided since the 1970s (or so), merely virtually entirely because of the issues raised by feminism and women's ministry in today's church building. Some are prepared to say that Paul (or more probable the pseudepigrapher) was simply wrong nearly women and tin can be ignored on the subject. Others think that he was a man of his fourth dimension and writing for people who shared his full general outlook on life, but that this is no longer where nosotros are today and so we must read the text in the low-cal of wider developments foreshadowed though not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament, which they call its 'trajectory'. Their favourite comparison is with slavery – nosotros do not advocate that today, but (usually) accept that it was a reality in ancient times that the apostles had to live with, even if they might have preferred something else. Then, of grade, there are those who cling to the traditional line and continue to interpret the text every bit it has been read for centuries.
My view is that the text must be read every bit it stands, whether we like what it says or not. Paul'southward view of the relationship betwixt men and women is based on two theological principles. The showtime of these is creation and the second is the autumn. The man was created before the woman and the adult female was the musical instrument Satan used to deceive the human being. This is directly out of Genesis ii-three and should not occasion any disagreement. The male is given certain leadership responsibilities, but (as the fall demonstrated) he is weak in some ways, particularly in his susceptibility to the female person, and he must be protected against this. The Bible is total of examples of swell men brought downwardly by the seduction of women – Samson, Solomon, Ahab and so on. Once once again, this seems incontrovertible to me.
The real question is whether, or in what way, this teaching should apply to the church's ministry today. We must recall that if we dissent from Paul's teaching on the subject, we are rejecting the Biblical world view of creation and the fall, and if nosotros practice that, we are denying the gospel of salvation too, because conservancy is the remedy for the fall and operates inside the context of creation.
I do not know what chance there is of a reconciliation betwixt the opposing sides on the estimation of this text, but I would propose that unless we start with a dispassionate exam of what it says, we shall never get anywhere. The theological principles undergirding it need to be brought dorsum to the fore, hard equally that may exist. We likewise have to get abroad from the emotionally-charged problems surrounding the role of women in the church building, which is non easy either.
IP: Your commentary is in the T and T Clark 'International Theological Commentary' series. What is contributed by a 'theological' interpretation of Scripture, and in item of the Pastorals?
GB: 'Theological commentary', rather like 'Biblical theology', ways unlike things to unlike people. To me, it means that at that place is a coherent mind and bulletin in the Biblical texts, and that particular passages reveal 1 or more aspects of that. The Pastoral Messages cannot exist interpreted on their own, as if the rest of the Bible did non be. Paul was obviously basing himself on the Old Attestation and even says and then explicitly (ii Tim iii:16). A theological interpreter must therefore seek out what the universal world view of Scripture is and interpret detail texts in the light of that. (Come across my remarks on 1 Tim two:11-15 above for an case of what that entails.) He or she must also remember that God is eternal and that his mind does non alter. This means that before generations of commentators have a right to be heard – reliable estimation did not begin with the Enlightenment. Information technology also means that there must be a level of understanding that is nevertheless meaningful today and that volition remain and then until the end of time, since past, present and futurity are one in the heed of God. Finally, theological interpretation must consider the texts equally divine revelation and accept that in the terminal analysis, God is revealing himself in and through them. That is the perspective that I accept tried to maintain in my commentary – to know God and to make him known.
IP: What are the detail letters that the church building needs to hear from the Pastorals in our current context? What did you learn most from writing this commentary?
GB: The church today needs to remember that it is a fellowship of those who have been called to the marriage feast of the Lamb, for which we are being made ready. We are children of God, born over again into a new world in which the old homo mode of thinking has been overturned. There are different roles in the church and godly gild requires them to be played by the right people, but ultimately the criteria for all church building members are basically the aforementioned. Nosotros are all called to be godly men and women, living in a manner that does justice to our profession of faith. Paul does not talk almost the overseer (episkopos), the deacons or even the widows in terms of their office, but puts the emphasis on their spiritual character, which is substantially the aforementioned in all cases. They must be the right kind of people, and if they are, God tin can and volition use them equally he sees fit.
The church must likewise recollect that information technology is liable to exist led astray by skillful (merely secondary) matters just every bit much every bit past openly false teaching. Genealogies were important to Jewish people and so it is not surprising to find them mentioned in the Pastorals, but they were a distraction from the principal bulletin and giving people a false sense of 'learning' when they were ignorant of the about bones truths of the gospel.
The church must also acquire that its duty is to 'guard the deposit' handed downwardly to us from the apostles, and not motion off in new directions that were unknown to (and would have been repudiated by) them. We do not accept to be dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists, only neither can we throw the baby out with the bathwater. We have to remember that in every generation there will be those who volition try to pervert the gospel from inside and we must stand against them. The traumas of the electric current church situation are besides obvious to need rehearsing here, and we must stand up firm against every temptation to dilute the bulletin of salvation. Our numbers may driblet equally a consequence, but as Gideon discovered, it is better to have 300 crack troops than m who are not prepared to wage the spiritual warfare that is our earthly calling.
What have I learned from the Pastorals? Then many things! But I retrieve the almost important of them is that God cares well-nigh every church member considering nosotros all belong to him. Considering of that, nosotros also belong to one another. The apostolic educational activity binds us together and liberates u.s.a. for the tasks at paw. As a child of God I may be called to perform different functions in the church building, only I take no right to call up that I am amend than anyone else, no correct to lord information technology over them and no right to shirk my duty because I somehow imagine that I take been fabricated for better things. To sum information technology all up, I accept learned that the Pastorals are to a considerable degree an extended application of the principles enunciated in i Corinthians 12-fourteen, and it is in the calorie-free of them that I try to interpret the plan of God, both for me and for my brothers and sisters in his family the church building.
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