"The Preachers chiefly shall take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching, which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe, but that which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament and the New, and that which the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Bishops have gathered out of that Doctrine." A proposed canon of Elizabeth I, 1571
I am a presbyter in the diocese of Fort Worth, Texas (Anglican Church in North America). I serve as Chaplain at St. Vincent's School and as a canon of St. Vincent's Cathedral Church in Bedford, Texas. In addition to my parish duties and teaching Religion classes in the school I am also the Middle School Social Studies teacher.
My adult Vacation Bible School class this year is over the Pastoral Epistles.
I have taken the opportunity also to introduce my students to the history of early Christian worship in general.
The class has been well attended, and we have had great participation.
posted by Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) | 9:29 PM
4 Comments:
Do you present the epistles as authentically Pauline or do you present them as pseudonymous -- a bridge between say Philippians & the Corinthian epistles and the Apostolic Fathers?
IMHO they are authentic to Paul, though there may well be the hand of an amanuensis (Luke?) working under Paul's instruction visible in some of the atypical vocabulary. I see no reason to date them from later than 65AD (I believe many of the "standard" historical-critical reasons for dating the PE later reflect unsound assumptions about how the Church developed), so I have no reason to doubt the PE originated in the Apostle himself.
Well, for what it's worth, I agree with you on the dating issue of the epistles -- I think that in terms of church governance, the very early Church was not as undeveloped as many historical-critical scholars assume (for example, Philippians mentions bishops/overseers and deacons) and the Pastorals not nearly as developed (bishops/overseers and presbyter/elders still seem to be largely interchangeable titles).
Well, FWIW, I agree with about 90% of NT scholars in thinking the PE are deutero-Pauline, but that is most definitely NOT because I share the aversion of some German Lutherans to that dreaded thing: "early Catholicism" (Bultmann, Kasemann etc.). It's worth noting that even such conservative scholars as +N.T. Wright and I. Howard Marshall see the PE as coming from a generation after Paul. See Marshall's massive ICC commentary, or even better, the fine commentary on the PE by evangelical James Dunn in the New Interpreter's Bible.
However, regardless of who wrote it or when, it's the Word of God. And unfortuantely, the three little books to Timothy and Titus are all too often neglected or ignored.
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