We've got FIVE BOOKS to discuss today. FIVE of 'em! Gee whiz. Let's get crackin'.
The epistles to Timothy and Titus are grouped together as the "Pastoral Epistles" because they address "pastoral oversight" of the church. There is also some controversy as to whether or not Paul really wrote them, since they differ stylistically from his other, authenticated letters, and the timeline he provides does not correspond with the one in Acts. Because of this, they are a little hard to date, but scholars generally agree that if he did write them, it was probably towards the end of his ministry (circa 62-67 CE) and if he didn't, they were written at some point between the late 1st century and the early 2nd century. Sounds good to me!
Timothy, as you may remember from Acts, is one of Paul's close pals, and the content of this letter mostly centers around how the church should be run. This, of course, suggests that Timothy has some sort of formal institution up and running. Good for him!
Paul explains how a person might become a "bishop" or deacon in the church, and provides advice on how different groups of people should behave: young men, old men, children, young women, and widows. For the most part, he preaches the standard virtues of self-control, temperance, and charity, although I was amused by his discussion of widows. "No widow," he writes, "may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, and is well known for her good deeds" (1 Timothy 5:9). There's a list?! What is this, a club? Paul goes onto explain that young widows cannot be added to the list because within time "their sensual desires [will] overcome their dedication to Christ [and] they [will] want to marry" (1 Timothy 5:9).
SLUTS!
We also get some nice lines about how slaves should be obedient to their masters -- sorry, Uncle Tom -- and that's that!
The second epistle to Timothy is all about being a good little Christian soldier, espousing virtues of timidity, obedience, and willingness to suffer. Paul seems to know that he will eventually be executed for his shenanigans and bids that his friend "join with [him] in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer" (2 Timothy 2:3-4). Aaaw. How SWEET.
The last of the Pastoral Epistles is addressed to Titus, another one of Paul's friends who lived on the island of Crete; this is, in fact, some of the earliest evidence we have suggesting that a Christian community existed there. In his letter to Titus, Paul describes the duties of elders and bishops within the church, stressing the importance of living a disciplined life.
Paul's letter to Philemon, written when he was imprisoned in Rome circa 61-63 CE, concerns the apostle's runaway slave Onesimus. Although the penalties for escaped slaves were severe, Paul requests that Onesimus be treated kindly since, as a convert to Christianity, his relationship to his master has changed. Okay.
Last but not least we have a letter to HEBREWS, which is actually not much of a letter; my study bible describes it as a "sermonic tract." We know little about the author of Hebrews, and earliest evidence of its use comes from the end of the first century in Rome.
The letter/sermon/book starts off by talking about Jesus's superiority to angels, emphasizing that because he is human and divine, his followers should be able to relate to him: "For this reason," the author writes, "he had to be made like them, fully human in every way... because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:17-18).
After this, we find out that on top of being superior to angels, Jesus is also superior to MOSES, who was a servant to God whereas Jesus is a son. Well, that makes sense, I guess.
Chapter 4 reminds us to rest on the Sabbath, and also establishes Jesus as the new eternal high priest, usurping the role from the Levite tribe. Can zombies sacrifice goats? It seems like sort of a banal task to get stuck with, I would expect Jesus has lots more important stuff to do!
The author goes on to draw parallels between Jesus and some other "eternal" high priest named Melchizedek, who was a contemporary of Abraham and the king of Salem. Why haven't I ever heard of this guy?! Anyway, he was supposedly "without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life" (Hebrews 7:2), which made him more awesome and powerful than the boring old mortal Levite priests. Jesus, the author explains, is just like Melchizedek in this sense.
Chapter 8 talks about the new covenant -- or testament -- that the Christians will make with God, since the "first one [is now] obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear" (Hebrews 8:13). The best part of this chapter was this line -- "This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle" (Hebrews 8:5) -- because I misread it as "This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the snowman."
I don't even know how that happened! There are no snowmen in the Middle East! Only Sandmen!
On that note, I'm going to get some freaking tea, because I swore to myself I wouldn't have any tea until I finished writing this entry and I WANT IT REALLY BAD!!!!!
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