Hi folks.

First, a big thanks to all who read or aggregate this blog. Thanks for your support.

PastoralEpistles.com has always been a merging of personal interests of mine: technology/programming and study of the Pastoral Epistles. I actually wrote the code that makes this site work.

However, things are changing. I've always thought it would be good to have multiple contributors, and in the past week someone has approached me about becoming an blogger for the site, and I'm sure he'll make a great addition.

This is good, but it means many changes. First, the way this site works on the back end is a bit byzantine. I wouldn't want to subject anyone to it, and I don't have the time (or desire) to really make it something that people who aren't me could use.

That means the whole site will be changing. I'll be installing new software (dasBlog 1.9) that supports team blogging. It means some of the interconnectedness that the site used to offer (e.g. the indexes in the sidebar) will go away, but it also means that people who aren't me can use the site.

So now it's time to make a call for participants. Are you interested in blogging regularly about the Pastoral Epistles? I'm not concerned about your perspective. I'd love to have contributors/authors here who see the PE as Pauline, and those who see them as pseudepigraphal, and those who see them anywhere in the spectrum. I think the resulting dialogue will be fun and instructive.

Posts can be book reviews, mentions of or interaction with articles or conference papers, pointers to web sites or blog posts that you think are somehow relevant, exegesis of particular passages, articles on larger topics related or ancillary to the PE ... really, as long as you can somehow work it back to the PE, then it can likely be posted.

If you're interested in making regular posts — minimum of one per week, let's say — then please contact me via email. Tell me a bit about yourself, point me to anything you've written (be it on the PE or not).

And keep your eyes on the site. Thanks again for those who regularly read the blog and correspond with me.

Rob Bradshaw of BiblicalStudies.org.uk sent me the following note:

Thought that you would like to be the first to know about this article: The Pastoral Epistles and the Mind of Paul by Donald Guthrie.

This is an excellent short monograph from Guthrie that interacts with P.N. Harrison's view of the authorship of the Pastorals. It is hard to find in print (ask me, I know) so do please check it out.

FWIW, I have an entry for the monograph in the Bibliography (Books) section.

This sample covers 1Ti 5.17-19.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. (1Ti 5.17-19, ESV)

I'm almost hesitant to post this as my thoughts on this section are far from resolved. I'm most confused by the concept of "double honor". Does it involve monetary compenasation?

Also, what really was the structure of the church at this point? How do overseers (ἐπίσκοπος) and elders (πρεσβύτερος) relate to each other? Are all overseers elders, but not all elders overseers?

You'll see that I have many notes to myself in the footnotes, and I discuss sorts of things that I don't typically discuss in these studies. This is just me working through issues on paper, much of it will likely be cut in future revisions that are more "word study" focused.

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

This sample covers 1Ti 5.9-10 and 1Ti 5.11-16:

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows. (1Ti 5.9-16, ESV)

This is actually covered as two parts (vv. 9-10 and vv. 11-16) of a larger section (vv. 3-16).

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

None of the essays in New Testament Greek and Exegesis directly concern the Pastoral Epistles, but at least one of the essays may be helpful in a specific area. One image used twice in the Pastoral Epistles is that of the "snare of the devil" (παγίδα τοῦ διαβόλου .

The essay in question is Finding the Devil in the Details: Onomastic Exegesis and the Naming of Evil in the World of the New Testament by Douglas L. Penney. In discussing how adjectives describing things at times end up becoming names (particularly in the realm of angels and demons), Penney discusses Ps 91.3-6, which mentions "the snare of the fowler". Penny refers to Akkadian magical texts that discuss "net-demons":

The phrase "snare of the fowler," although admittedly cumberson in the Hebrew poetry, nevertheless reflects a well-attested Mesopotamian belief in net demons. (p. 48)

After about a page of this discussion, Penny continues:

The words, phrases, and images employed in the magical literature are very long-lived. In spite of the dearth of Semitic magical texts from the Roman period and especially from Second Temple Palestine, many words, phrases, and motifs appear in Aramaic magical texts from the Islamic period almost unchanged from their antecedents in the Akkadian texts. This longevity points to a continuous surviving tradition of magical texts in spite of the paucity of archaeological finds. The concept of nets and net demons also follows this pattern. Later Aramaic and Greek magical texts continue this tradition, speaking of nets as demonic weapons. The same concept lies behind the NT metaphor "snare of the devil." [cf. 1Ti 3.7; 2Ti 2.26] The invisible demonic nets may cause physical or intellectual stumbling. Even in relatively recent times the net as a metaphor for the devil's tool or agent continues. (pp. 49-50)

This book is a re-working of Holmes' PhD thesis. Holmes considers traditional interpretations of 1Ti 2.9-15 and their reliance on passages such as Ge 2-3; Gal 2.28; 1Co 11.3-16; 1Co 14.34-35 and finds them all exhibiting some degree of inadequacy. Holmes writes in his preface:

The research had its genesis in the painfully slow realization that my understanding of 1Ti 2.9-15 was more the result of supposition than of what the Greek text and context actually specify. As I explored the literature, I discovered that, generally speaking, the syntactical peculairities and semantic ambiguities of the passage are not so much explained as explained away. That is to say they are interpreted by some combination of: other problematic passages ... not always convincing historical backgrounds; speculation; and unsubstantiated assertion. No interpretation I was able to find struck me as altogether compelling.

When I heard about this book from a friend (who let me borrow his copy) my initial reaction was "Hoo-boy, yet another book and perspective on 1Ti 2.9-15 ... ". But after reading the preface and introduction, I'm encouraged. Even if I don't end up agreeing with Holmes' perspective, I think I'll appreciate his argument.

This short article by T.C. Skeat examines 2Ti 4.13:

When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. (2Ti 4.13, ESV)

Skeat offers the suggestion that perhaps μάλιστα, here translated above all, should be instead translated as namely. He writes:

My own suggestion is that μάλιστα in this passage, instead of differentiating the βιβλία from the μεμβράναι, in fact equates them, at least to the extent of defining or particularizing the general term βιβλία, and that an idiomatic English translation would be 'the books — I mean the parchment notebooks'. (Skeat, 174).

Skeat's suggestion has other implications, notably in 1Ti 4.10, which in the ESV reads:

For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. (1Ti 4.10, ESV)

Skeat discusses this instance of μάλιστα as well:

On my hypothesis this should be rendered 'God, who gives salvation to all men — that is to say, to all who believe in Him'. This in fact gives better sense, since although God is the potential Saviour of all, He can only be the Saviour of those who accept him. (Skeat, 174-175).

As much as my Calvinist leanings like this because it makes this text much easier to deal with, there are problems with Skeat's approach. Vern Poythress provides a critical review of Skeat's postulation in a later edition of JTS.

Both articles are worth reading, particularly when dealing with 1Ti 4.10.

Between August 2003 and May 2004 I worked my way through all of the nouns, adjectives and verbs in the Pastoral Epistles.

I wrote a little program to help me keep track of my notes on each word, and reference words back to their first occurrence (in the Pastorals) as that is where the primary notes for the word are located. My examination of each word consisted of summarizing the BDAG entry very briefly (typically looking at the extended definitions and glosses). I also examined LSJ and added notes where I thought relevant. A third field included my own thoughts on the instance in question. Finally, I also ascribed a Louw-Nida domain and article number to the instance of the word.

This data should be used with caution, I have not proofread it at all. There are things in there that I know are wrong. There are other areas where I have since changed my mind and would write differently. I do not plan on updating this data any time soon, but I am using it (and modifying, and rewriting, and expanding it) as I work through the text again in the process of writing more coherently on the topic. Samples from this work will be posted for evaluation on this website at a later date.

I offer the Vocabulary Notes here in case they are useful for some. Here is a sample from 1Ti 4.7, word #8: γύμναζε:

• 4.7 Word #8: γύμναζε (LN 88.88)
• BDAG: BDAG glosses as ‘to train’, ‘undergo discipline’.
• LSJ: LSJ, of course, begins with the classical sense of the word: ‘train naked’, ‘train in gymnastic exercise’. Originally γυμνάζω had to do with training the body. As time progressed, γυμνάζω began to be used of ‘training’ or ‘practice’ in general.

• Comment: The proper translation here is train. Note that while γυμνάζω applied to both physical and mental training at this point, the original connotation of "gymnastic" training would not be lost. Indeed, that is the very reason why the word is so appropriate — it conjures up images of hard physical training so that one knows he must enter into similarly rigorous training of the mind and body for godliness.