paul

Thumbnail image for A Trustworthy Word (2 Tim 2.11-13)

A Trustworthy Word (2 Tim 2.11-13)

2 April 2010 Biblical Studies

Earlier this week, I briefly discussed the poem in 2 Tim 2.11–13 in my post about parathēkē. Here, I’d like to explore this passage a bit more, line-by-line. First, let’s set the context. The purpose for 2 Timothy, predominantly, is to encourage a co-worker in Christ to continue to preach boldly the gospel, and to avoid apostasy at all cost.

Tagged as: 2 timothy, apostasy, apostate, couplet, faith, hymn, pastoral epistles, paul, poetry, theology

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Parathēkē: The Beautiful Thing Entrusted to You (Part Two)

31 March 2010 Biblical Studies

In a previous post, I made the point that the parathēkē (παραθήκη), the beautiful thing that God has entrusted to us (in the parlance of the epistles of to Timothy), is not necessarily the Gospel, but really a certain kind of doctrine or orthodoxy — right teaching. First, in order to understand this, we must understand the difference between Gospel and Orthodoxy or Gospel and Teaching.

Tagged as: 2 timothy, bible, New Testament, pastoral epistles, paul, timothy

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Thumbnail image for <em>Parathēkē</em>: The Beautiful Thing Entrusted to You (Part One)

Parathēkē: The Beautiful Thing Entrusted to You (Part One)

14 March 2010 Biblical Studies

Whatever your opinion of the authorship of the pastorals, there is no doubt that the letters to Timothy paint an interesting picture of discipleship for us. Looking specifically at 2 Timothy, we find a word that is not often used in the New Testament: parathēkē (παραθήκη) — “deposit; thing entrusted to someone.” As far as I can tell, this word appears only in these letters to Timothy. Check out 2 Tim 1.12 and 1.14.

Tagged as: 2 timothy, bible, New Testament, pastoral epistles, paul, timothy

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Thumbnail image for Turn:Serve:Wait :: Faith:Love:Hope

Turn:Serve:Wait :: Faith:Love:Hope

28 December 2009 Biblical Studies

Yesterday, Jack Wisdom preached a challenging sermon at Ecclesia. With his usual comedic bravado and bluster, Jack laid out Paul’s situation and the situation of Thessaloniki at the time of the writing of 1 Thessalonians. He then looked at 1 Thessalonians 1:2–10, focusing on three action verbs found in vv. 9 and 10: ἐπιστρέφω, δουλεύω, ἀναμένω — turn, serve, wait.

Tagged as: 1 thessalonians, bible, ecclesia, faith, hope, jack wisdom, love, New Testament, paul

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Thumbnail image for ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ — Romans 1:1 (Part 4)

ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ — Romans 1:1 (Part 4)

2 March 2009 Biblical Studies

When last we looked at Romans 1:1, we saw that Paul presents himself immediately as a “slave” (δοῦλος). We explored that confounding Bob Dylan idea: “you gotta serve somebody.” In the words of the frog-throated cultural prophet: “it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord…but we all gotta serve somebody.” Here, Paul is telling us who he serves: Christ Jesus.

Tagged as: paul, romans

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Romans 1:1 (Part 3)

15 June 2007 Biblical Studies

ΔΟΥΛΟΣ — “slave” The first two words of Romans are: ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ΔΟΥΛΟΣ—”Paul slave”. Today, we often consider Romans to be the Magna Carta of the Christian faith because it is the closest we get to a system of theology from a New Testament work. If we are going to take this seriously, then let’s seriously [...]

Tagged as: paul, romans

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Romans 1:1 (Part 2)

16 April 2007 Biblical Studies

ΠΑΥΛΟΣ The first word of Romans is “Paul.” It can be so easy to gloss over this name and think nothing of it. After all, we all know who Paul is, right? This idea that Paul is someone that we “get”—someone that we know—is increasingly being challenged. In recent years, Paul has received a great [...]

Tagged as: paul, romans

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Thumbnail image for Introduction — Romans 1:1 (Part 1)

Introduction — Romans 1:1 (Part 1)

13 April 2007 Biblical Studies

ΠΑΥΛΟΣ ΔΟΥΛΟΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΚΛΗΤΟΣ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΟΣ ΑΦΩΡΙΣΜΕΝΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΕΥΑΓΓΕΛΙΟΝ ΘΕΟΥ An Italian philosopher named Giorgio Agamben wrote an interesting book called The Time That Remains. In this particular work, Agamben focuses on each word in Romans 1:1, believing that it holds the key to the interpretation of Romans. After reading the works of Barth and [...]

Tagged as: paul, romans

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