Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The Myth of the Pastoral Epistles

Search it up on Wikipedia.org and you'll find a brief entry about how 1 and 2 Timothy and the book of Titus (and sometimes Philemon) are referred to as the Pastoral Epistles of Paul the Apostle.

Nevermind that these are not written to Pastors.

Nevermind that Timothy is, like Paul, a travelling missionary and church-planting evangelist.

Nevermind that Titus is also not a pastor but has been "left behind in Crete" to help establish a church community there before he moves on to plant other churches elsewhere.

Nevermind that Philemon isn't anything other than a slave-owner who needs encouragment from Paul regarding treatment of said slave.

Nevermind that both of the epistles to Timothy and the one to Titus deal primarily with the character of elders (plural) within the church community.

Nevermind that the word "Pastor" does not appear in any of these so-called "Pastoral Epistles".

Nevermind that the word "Pastor" only appears once in the entire New Testament.

As long as you can overlook all of these minor details, you should have no problem referring to these as the Pastoral Epistles of Paul.

-kg

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