Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, so we're talking about epistles.
Let me ask you this. Just start by opening up.
What is a letter?
What is a.
Deliverable letter like that you receive in the mail? What is that?
What do you think, Dan?
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Well, form of correspondence or notification or advertisement or.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Okay, good. It's a form of correspondence. What else is it?
What's in a letter?
Communication.
Communication, yes. There's a message, right? Every letter has a message. Okay. And every. Every letter is structured as such.
So in the New Testament, when we approach this genre, it's normally divided into two different kinds. So. So again, As I said earlier, 77. This is 77% of the books of the New Testament. This right here. Okay.
In green, we have what's called the Pauline epistles, which are 13 letters that are attributed to the Apostle Paul. Paul. All right, so what does this consist of? This is Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus and Philemon. All right, that's all of the Pauline epistles.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. I remember in Sunday school growing up, Go Eat popcorn was the acronym. So if you ever get these out of order, just remember, go eat popcorn.
That's our Pauline epistles. Then we have what are considered the general epistles. Sometimes these are called the Catholic epistles. Not Catholic like in Catholic Church, but Catholic as in universal. Okay. This is Hebrews, which.
This is the only one. We're not sure exactly who the author is. We have some good theories as to who it might be, but it's not conclusive. Then you have the Book of James, First Peter, second Peter, First John, second John, third John, and finally Jude. All right, so those are the different books that we're working with in the New Testament. When we talk about epistles or letters, those are all the books we're looking at. Make sense. We have Paul right here. Paul wrote a ton of it. And then we have our general epistles. All right, so a written letter is.
It's a personal form of communication intended to convey information, ideas, requests, instructions, or personal sentiments. Okay, so. So a letter.
Here's what's interesting. Scholars actually make a distinction between letters and epistles, even though for our purposes it's okay to use them interchangeably.
Scholars like to make a slight distinction between the two. And, so what would be the differences here? Well, letters, these are more personal documents intended to address individuals. Okay, so like, knowing that. Knowing that a Letter is perhaps more personal. What would be an example from this list?
Just looking at the board where you could say, okay, I could see how that would be considered more of the letter genre. What would you say?
[00:04:24] Speaker C: James.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: James. Why James?
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Because it seems like it's talking to more on it.
I guess he's not. I just would take it more of an individualistic way that.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: Being spoken to and not to the whole church, where he could be. But I'm not too familiar.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Okay. I don't think James is quite a letter in that sense. Timothy? Yes. Why?
[00:04:53] Speaker B: Because he's talking to Timothy.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Because he's talking to Timothy. Right. Like the opening of it, he's addressing Timothy. He's talking about like, hey, I knew your grandmother.
There's some familial aspects to Timothy. And also Paul directly discipled Timothy. Right. So that would be a great example of a letter. What do you think, Dan?
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Philemon.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Philemon, yes. Philemon's another one.
Philemon is somebody that Paul knew personally. He knew the situation with Philemon and the freeing of the slave Onesimus. Right. So that. That's very personal in nature. Now, epistles, these are considered artistic, literary forms intended for a more public audience. Okay. So like, actually the majority of these general epistles, that's another reason why they're even categorized this way, is because they're speaking more to a broad audience at large. So, like, the book of James opens like this.
It says, James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Okay.
That's pretty general address. Right. Look at the way one Peter opens up first Peter one says, peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiles in the dispersion. And Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Right. So more general audiences are being addressed.
And these are also going to be very heavy on.
I mean, every letter is theological in nature, but like you think about the book of Romans.
Romans is written to Jews and Gentiles in Rome for the sake of their own unity. Right. So a lot of very theological in nature.
But it's important to note, though, that every letter, even the ones that we're talking about that are more general in nature, all of them have this one word in common. It's a word I want you to remember from today.
Occasional. Everyone say occasional.
Okay. What does.
What. What is an occasion? What? Like, what's an example of an occasion?
What do you think, Dan?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: Something. An event that is not within the ordinary time frame.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Event that it's not within the. Or an ordinary time frame.
An occasion is given for a specific purpose. Okay?
So being occasional simply means that every New Testament epistle and letter in their original forms were meant to originally a specific church or churches, a specific people, often addressing specific problems. Okay, so think about First Corinthians, right?
They're a mess.
They're an absolute mess. They're dealing with incest. They're dealing with food sacrifice to idols. They're dealing with infighting and division. They're dealing with questions of spiritual gifts. They're dealing with pride. They're dealing with all kinds of things. And by the way, Paul in First Corinthians is we actually learn that he's responding to a letter that was previously written to him. Okay? So we're. First Corinthians is a response to some complaints from the Corinthian church saying, hey, we're having all this trouble.
We need your help here. All right?
So that's what we mean by occasional, okay? Occasional is something that is specific to every single one of these letters. Even, like in the Book of Hebrews, you have specific situations being addressed where he's talking about, some of you have had your homes plundered and pillaged, right? So there's always specific things happening in each of these letters.
And the reason that's important to note is because a lot of us can approach the epistles and say, okay, where do I learn, like, about, like, the theology of the New Testament? Right? We often, like, consider the book of Romans as the closest thing to a quote, unquote, systematic theology from Paul, which means, like, it's a very. Like, Paul addresses holistically a lot of different subjects in Romans. But it's important to remember that, again, it's not like Paul was sitting down and saying, let me write a letter and just explain everything that I believe about Jesus for you.
It was more of, let me sit down and address some specific concerns that you have. Let me call out some people by name, whether I'm rebuking them or encouraging them. And this is what the Spirit is inspiring me to say specifically to your churches, to the churches in Colossae or Galatia or the church in Ephesus.
All of them have a specific occasional nature to them. Does that make sense?
What's also interesting about a letter is there's some limitations to a letter, right?
I mentioned earlier that in Corinthians, Paul was responding to a letter that he received to them prior to, we don't have that letter. Okay.
Now we can use context clues to help us understand some of the things that they were talking about in that letter, but we don't have it with us. Second Corinthians, Paul is also responding to a second letter that was sent to him later on.
So, like scholars will often say there's really four Corinthian letters. There's A, which we don't have, B, which is First Corinthians, C, which is the response to the First Corinthians letter, and D, which is Second Corinthians. So they kind of said, what we have is B and D, which means that with all of our letters. This is what I'm getting at. With all of our letters, it's almost like a phone conversation where you can only hear one side of the telephone call. Right?
If I were to call Brad right now and just be like this on the phone, y' all could only hear what I'm saying.
The only way you could hear it is if I put it on speaker. And then you could maybe write down exactly what both parties are saying. But with a letter, we just get one side of the conversation, and that's okay.
That's how these letters function.
But the important thing to note is knowing that we're just getting one side of the conversation. Something that's very, very important when we're approaching reading a letter is this word.
Context, context, context, context.
Many scholars say context is king.
In order to begin interpreting a letter, it's very, very important that we get a good background and basis of.
Okay, knowing that all of these were very, very old letters. Right? And we've already established that they're written for a specific audience at a specific time in a specific place. It would probably be helpful to know, all right, who are the Colossians?
Who are the Corinthians? Who are the Galatians?
When was approximately this letter written?
What are some of the things that these churches are dealing with at the time? What's some of the worldview of the Corinthians? Because here's the thing that you're dealing with a different audience, like with the Corinthians than you are the audience of James. James is more of a Jewish audience, whereas. And so is Hebrews, considering the title, right? The Hebrews Corinthians is more of a Gentile Greek audience, which means that they're going to. Each audience is going to value different things in their worldview. The Corinthian people were known to be a very passionate, very sensual people.
They were known to be very pagan and have many different gods. Right. So they're going to be dealing with different aspects of their culture. Depending on what, depending on their context. Okay, so reconstructing the historical context is one of the first tasks we have for interpreting the epistles.
You want to ask questions like what was going on in the community that prompted the letter? Okay.
What is the relationship between the author and his recipients?
What attitudes are reflected in the letter? So did Paul, Has Paul visited this church personally?
Has he already had a personal encounter with them? Or is this a letter that's being written to a church or a people that an apostle hasn't encountered yet? It's important to know these things. Okay, we've already noted, like again, picking on the Corinthians. The they're a young, cosmopolitan, wealthy, religious, sensual city.
And that's going to be reflected as you read first and Second Corinthians. Okay, so number one is context. Reconstructing the historical context. That's what we want to do first.
The second thing we want to do when interpreting these letters is another five dollar word for you called exegesis.
Exegesis.
It sounds very complicated. It's actually not.
Exegesis is simply looking at what the text says and what it meant to its original audience.
That's what exegesis is. You're looking at what the text says and what it specifically meant to the people that the author is writing to. Does that make sense? So you're looking at it specifically from that lens.
So a practical method for doing exegesis starts with just reading. Reading.
What does the text say?
Letters are by their nature meant to be read and were often read aloud to the audiences all in one sitting.
Chapter and verse headings were not added until 12 to 1500 years after the fact. So if you have a letter before you, it's a good idea to. To read the whole thing, even in one sitting, to get a good grasp of the big picture. Okay, so that's the first thing. Read the whole letter. Second thing with exegesis, jot down some notes on what the text is saying.
What is the text saying about the recipients?
Okay, Their background, their problems, their worldviews that we talked about.
What is the author's attitude? Okay, how is the tone of the author coming off?
How does Galatians start?
Does anybody know how the book of Galatians starts?
Pull it up, pull it up. Pull up Galatians 1. See how, see how this starts?
We, we see Paul kind of gives a greeting. Paul an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, and all the brothers who are with me to the churches of Galatia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Okay. Then he says, I'm astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. That's a tone, right? That there is anger, there's frustration, there's rebuke. There you are turning to a different gospel. Notice he doesn't begin like he does some of his other letters, where maybe he'll mention some people by name, maybe he'll express thanksgiving for the church and some of the things they're doing. Well, no, Galatians don't get that.
They get an earnest rebuke.
He gives them a blessing of grace from the Lord, and then he goes right into his rebuke of the Galatians. Again, this is the occasional nature of it, right?
What were the Galatians doing? They were turning to a different gospel.
They were turning to false idols.
They were doing something contrary to what Paul had preached to them. And Paul is upset. Okay, so that's the author's attitudes and responses.
Note specific details mentioned that point to the occasion of the letter. So, like, reports received and questions asked.
So Paul will often say, like in the beginning or end of his letters. I hear that you're doing this. Keep doing that. That's good.
I hear Junia is helping you. She's great.
Keep along in that.
And then the last thing, note the letters. Natural, logical divisions. We'll talk about that more in a second. That's something that Katie mentioned last week when we talked about this idea of a pericope.
These are the letters. Natural, logical divisions. Okay, so that's exegesis. All right.
The next thing you want to do after you've done some exegesis, again, this is consider exegesis, like investigative work. You're looking at what the text says. You're looking at kind of how the author traces his argument. You're looking at the flow of things. The next thing you want to consider is some of these. The literary context of the letter. I'll try a different color here.
Literary context.
Literary.
Literary context. This is.
Again, this is this idea of looking at the different paragraphs of Scripture.
So, like, for instance, today in our activity, I'm Going to give you a specific paragraph or a pericope to study and to look at. All right, Some of the questions you asked with literary context.
What's the point?
What is. Can you. Can you state the content of this paragraph in one sentence? That's a good exercise to do. What's the point of this paragraph? The second one is, how does this contribute to the overall argument? All right, what's the. What's the argument that Paul is trying to put forward, like in. In Galatians when he opens up?
What's he trying to prove here? What's he trying to say?
He's saying, as we've said before. And so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. That's an argument, right?
He's like, so am I seeking now the approval of man or of God, or am I trying to please man? If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
That is, again, these are points that are contributing to an overall argument. Does that make sense?
Let's talk a little bit about word studies and understanding the semantics of words, because within the epistle genre, what you have is you're going to want to read it much slower and carefully than you would a narrative, right? Than you would something like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Those are all historical narratives. The Gospels are historical narratives.
And so what we do often is we want to break down the words of the apostles very, very carefully. Okay?
But we can run into some trouble if we study the like, etymology of a word that in a way that's not careful. There's something called the etymology fallacy. All right, let me just read this, what this is, and then we'll look at an example of that.
This is an interpretive error of assuming that a word's original root or historical meaning is automatically the meaning intended by the biblical author in a particular text.
So the root meaning of a word is of little value in determining its meaning in a specific context. So, for example, the English word nice comes from the Latin, which means ignorant. But that etymology is irrelevant to the meaning of nice, right?
It doesn't. It doesn't make sense.
Here's another one for you. Romans 1:16 is a pretty famous verse.
Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. All right?
So if I were trying to do a good word study there, I would see that he's saying, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, it's the power of God. Okay, let me go see what that word power means. The word power is this Greek word.
Let me see if I have it here.
It's this Greek word, Dynamis. Okay.
The gospel of God is the dynamis unto salvation. What's the first word that you think of when you, like, like, when you connect that to the. Like an English concept? What do you. Dynamite. Right. So I could. I could take that and say the gospel is explosive.
Everywhere it goes, it just blows things up.
That's what Paul means, right?
No, it's not. Why?
Well, for one thing, dynamite didn't exist until, like, the 1800s, right? So Paul couldn't have had that in mind.
Dynamis also, again, you have to look at the meaning of its word in that specific time and context, not its meaning throughout time. Does that make sense?
You want to look at the static meaning of it. So if you were to go to, like, a good Greek dictionary, what you would find is that the word dynamis typically means ability, strength, or power.
Right?
So what you see there is that Paul is saying is that the gospel is the strength and the ability and the power of the Lord unto salvation.
It doesn't have to do with blowing things up. Okay, that's an example of the etymological fallacy.
Another thing about. Another thing about words is, again, this is pretty basic, but it's very important.
Look at the other words around the word that you're studying. Okay, so look at it and it's an immediate paragraph or sentence.
Look and see if the word is used elsewhere within the book.
Okay, that's also helpful. How does Paul use power elsewhere in Romans? Okay, that will help you get a good idea.
Look at it in other writings by the same author. Does Paul use the word power in Ephesians or Colossians or in Timothy?
How is he using it there?
Look at how it's used by other New Testament authors.
The last one is sometimes it can be helpful to reference the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament. This is the Old Testament that the majority of the apostles used and were quoting whenever they quoted Old Testament passages in their letters. So looking at the Septuagint or the Greek Old Testament can be very helpful.
Last thing, when it comes to the importance of usage, understanding, a little bit of grammar is helpful. How many of you like grammar?
I didn't think so. Jenny, you like grammar.
That's awesome.
Dan, I know you love grammar.
Grammar. Grammar's super helpful because Paul, if you ever read Paul Something he's known to do is he has a lot of run on sentences. Okay, Ephesians 1 is basically the whole chapter is like you're out of breath reading it because he's so caught up in. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blesses in Christ with every spiritual blessing that heaven places, even as he blesses in Christ in love. He predestined us for adoption. And so. And you're like, whoa, whoa, put a period there. You know, like, slow down a little bit.
But it's helpful to break down some of the grammar of the. Okay, here's the subject of the sentence. Here's the object, here's the verb. You know, here are the nouns and all of that. Some basic grammar can be very, very useful to you. And that's what I kind of want you to look at. Does everybody have a sheet in front of them? Here, look at the one that says keywords to look for in exegesis at the top.
These are just a few things. I'm taking this.
I kind of constructed this chart from a seminary professor at Southern Seminary, his hermeneutics book.
These are the different kinds of sentences that you'll see in the New Testament. Okay, so look at the first one.
You have sentences of cause. Okay, so effect A is because of B.
Example of that is work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you. Right? That's A. That's a causal sentence. And the key word there is what for. Okay, let's look at result. All right?
That is B is the result of A.
These are going to be words like so that. That therefore your faith in God has gone forth everywhere. Why?
So that we need not say anything. Okay? Very, very popular for Paul to use.
This is all over.
Romans 8, one of the most quoted, kind of considered like a mountaintop verse in all of Scripture.
But the famous one, there is this. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Very, very popular with Paul.
You have purpose, another very popular one. In order that. Or so that. Or to so all Scripture is breathed out by God. Da, da, da, da da. That the man of God may be competent. Right? So again, so that there's a. A purpose for Scripture. What's the purpose?
So that we might be equipped for every good work.
You have conditional clauses.
A is the condition of B. So you look for the words. If you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, okay?
That's a conditional clause.
You have clauses of concession B takes place despite A. So though. Although. Even if who, though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. Okay, he's giving a concession there.
Not, remember, a concession is not a negation. Okay, so he's not negating the divinity of the Son here. He's conceding what the Son is actually doing. I don't want to give too much away there because we're about to look at that text.
Last two, means and Manner A is the means by which B is accomplished.
So for by grace you have been saved through face, through faith. So there's means here. I think Ephesians 2. 8 is like, it's one of the best verses ever. But it's because of those means words. We're saved how?
By grace.
And what means are we saved? Through faith.
And what else that. Not of yourselves. Right. If those words aren't there, we have a completely different version of Christianity right now. Like, I love means because they're so, so important. They're pillars that hold theology together.
Last one, Manner B describes how action A is performed. Our gospel came to you not only in word and spirit, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. This is the manner in which the gospel came about. Okay, so that those are just really helpful clauses and phrases to be aware of when you read New Testament letters. They're very, very important for again, what we're talking about doing, which is exegesis, tracing the author's argument, looking at what he is saying to his original audience.
Let's last thing, couple more things. Turn to the back and look at the structure of an ancient letter.
Scholars have different ways they like to structure out Paul's letter. I like this one because it's the most straightforward and clear. And I think it resembles the pattern that Paul gives in a lot of his letters. So the first one is salutation.
This identifies the sender and recipients, followed by a greeting.
So like we read Galatians 1 earlier.
Simple salutation.
Again, I talked about how usually if Paul's in a better mood, he'll mention some people by name and offer grace and peace to specific people.
So like Romans, I think Romans 1 starts off a little bit.
Is it Romans 1?
Maybe it's 1st Thessalonians.
There is a letter.
Honestly, it might be Philippians.
Yeah. So again, there's going to. He's going to. It's all pretty much the same salutation. Paul loves to use the same two Words, grace and peace.
That is it. That. That's a common introduction for his people. The next thing is Thanksgiving and prayer.
First Corinthians 1:5 through 7. Paul does this.
So you have.
I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him, in all speech and knowledge, even as testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.
So Paul often gives thanks to those whom he's writing to.
Third, the body. This is the main section of the letter. This is where you're going to get the kind of the meat and potatoes of what Paul is trying to say.
Think about, like, my favorite book of the Bible is Ephesians, Ephesians 1 through 3. That's like the main theological body of the text. And then four through six, you have a pivot to number four, which is exhortation and instruction.
So this is more. Think of this as, like, more practical application, specific commands, ethical guidance, obedience. That's stemming from the argument he's already given in the book of Romans. This takes place in Romans 12. There's just a specific pivot that he makes where he says, okay, now that I've given you all of this to, like, set you up. Here's the Christian life. Here's what I'm calling you to do in light of that. So think like Ephesians 4, 5. Ephesians 4 is about unity in the church. Ephesians 5 is about marriage.
Ephesians 6 is about putting on the armor of God. These are all more practical ethical guidance based on 1 through 3, where he's just giving you a lot of enriching theology about salvation and God redemption.
Lastly, conclusion. This is the final section, which can contain a variety of elements.
May include a wish of peace, concluding paragraph, a benediction.
Many of the benedictions that we read on a Sunday morning are at the end of letters, because Paul really knows how to word those well.
And so these will often point back to some of the things that he introduced in the beginning of the letter. He'll just wrap up the concepts. Well, okay, so those are just kind of the basics of how we approach the letters. Again, what we're doing in this class is we have exegesis. What we're doing is the discipline of hermeneutics, which is interpretation. Okay?
So knowing all that, if exegesis is extrapolating what the author meant for his original audience in their day and age, hermeneutics is taking that and saying, okay, cool, we know that now which is important. It's foundational. What does it mean for today? What does it mean for the church today?
Foundational hermeneutical rule. With letters, a text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its original author or readers.
A text cannot mean what it never meant to its original audience. If we're saying that this means something else that it didn't mean to them, we're out of bounds, we're off the rails.
Second rule is, again, this is pretty simple, but it's kind of the opposite side of that is the applying comparable situations. So whenever we share comparable particulars with the first century hearers, God's word to them becomes God's word for us.
Classic example of this. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Does that apply to the Jews and Gentiles and the book of Romans? Check. Does it apply to us?
Yes.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: All right.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Comparable situation.
That is what we want. Or when Paul tells the colossians, in Colossians 3, to put on then as God's chosen one, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience bearing with one another. If anyone has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other, as the Lord is forgiving you, so you must also forgive.
Think that applies to the Colossians? Yes. Should it apply to us? Yes, we should do that.
That is the rule of comparisons.
Some of the problems that arise when we approach New Testament letters is one of them is extended application. So that's. That's taking something.
That's. That's taking something too far.
That, that, that. That was never meant to be taken for its original audience or listeners. Is there anything you can think of that where. Is there a verse that comes to mind that you think the church today has taken too far? Perhaps.
Dan, what do you think? What do you think we've taken too far?
[00:42:43] Speaker B: Not exactly. The church, but society in general tends to take Galatians 6:11.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: They think he's really writing all the letters like.
[00:43:02] Speaker C: This?
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Yes.
So Galatians 6:11 says, See, with what large letters, I am writing to you with my own hand.
If you, if you believe that you should write all of your letters largely like Paul, you're taking it too far. It's a very good example.
Thank you, Dan. Yeah.
Paul, I believe it's in 1st Corinthians 3.
First Corinthians 3:16 says, do you not know that you are God's temple, that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. How do you think we could take that too far?
First Corinthians 3, 16, 17. Let me read it again. Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.
We could read that and say, that's talking about me. That's talking about my body.
But Paul is actually referring to the. You there is plural.
He's talking to the church collectively, saying that you're all the temple of God.
Right?
That whoever destroys God's temple, God will destroy him.
Meaning if somebody. If somebody goes after Christ's bride and his church, God will have his vengeance on that person or those peoples. Okay, so again, this is just. It's. This is why it's helpful for us to not extend application beyond what it originally meant to its original audience. Okay, let me see. Do I want to go into this one? I don't think I want to.
The last problem that we run into with New Testament letters is the problem of what's called cultural relativity. Okay, so is this. There are certain instructions that Paul gives to churches that are only. That we believe a faithful reading of that should only apply to that context in that century. Anyone can think of an example off the top of their head of something like that.
What do you think?
[00:45:56] Speaker C: Women covering their heads.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: That's the exact one, yes. Women wearing head coverings. Again, it's actually. It's more complicated than you think. Thankfully, some good scholars have done some good work for us in studying that passage very, very specifically to see that, like, Paul doesn't have something more universal in mind.
But questions often arise, like, you take women wearing head coverings.
Well, okay, well, why wouldn't that apply when Paul's talking in second Timothy, when he says, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man.
Why would that not be culturally interpreted? Right. You see that your brain starting to go, huh? Why wouldn't it? Well, again, it goes back to this idea of context. Okay, look at. Look at where the author is basing his argument. So I believe it's. What is it first Timothy 2 where Paul says this, I do not promote him in a woman to teach her to exercise authority over man. Rather, she is to remain quiet.
For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Okay, look at. Look at what he's rooting his argument in. He's rooting it in the creation order.
That's something more universal than head coverings. In First Corinthians 11, you see how that works? So you want to always look at the context and say, okay, what is Paul rooting the basis of his instructions in? All right, so that's an example for you.
These are just a few bullet points here that summarize what I said.
I don't know if I want to read all of this because it's just throwing too much at you.
It's important to remember, keep cultural differences between the first and 21st centuries in mind.
Determine the cultural options to a New Testament writer.
Yeah, yeah, this is, this is good, but it's, it's a lot of.
It's too wordy for me.
Here's, here's what I want to do. I want to, I want to make sure we have plenty of time to do our activity for the last 15, 20 minutes or so.
I want you to, at your tables, we're all going to read the same text.
It's. And you can write this down because I didn't write it down on your sheets. It's Philippians 11 through 11, Philippians 1 1, 11.
And then I want you to jump to Philippians 2 1, 11.
Okay? Philippians 11 through 11. And then Philippians 2 1, 11. And here's what I want you to do.
11 through 11, I want you to talk through some of the historical background. Okay? What's going on?
What's the occasional nature of the text? What's the context? 11 through 11 should give you a good idea. An intro and opening. And then two 1 through 11, I want you to do some exegesis. Okay? And again, remember, what we mean by exegesis is we're reading the text and we're considering what this would have meant to his original audience. And we're tracing arguments, we're tracing where we're saying, okay, what, what is Paul getting at in Philippians 2:1 through 11? What is he trying to. What's the message he's trying to communicate to us? Okay, and then we're going to come back together and see what we found. Does that make sense? Any questions?
Philippians 1:1 through 11 to give you a good intro and context. Philippians 2:1, 11, for some exegesis. Okay.
All right. Hey, I want us to, I want us to come, come back together and do some construction here.
What was it like reading the first chapter, verses 11 through 11 what did you learn about this letter and the occasion of it?
He's imprisoned. Okay, good. So we know that he's writing this letter from prison. Very good. What else do we learn?
We know who he's addressing. Who is he addressing, Kendall to?
[00:50:59] Speaker B: The saints or the believers in Philippi? Including the overseers and deacons?
[00:51:04] Speaker A: Yes, yes, with the elders and the deacons that are there. Good.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: We know why he's in prison.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: Okay. Why is he in prison?
[00:51:12] Speaker C: For preaching the gospel.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Yes. How do we know that?
[00:51:17] Speaker C: Verse 5.
[00:51:19] Speaker A: Verse 5.
[00:51:22] Speaker C: Oh, I'm in the wrong thing here.
I don't remember.
Philippians 1.
[00:51:31] Speaker A: Yeah. The verse 7.
[00:51:35] Speaker C: Verse 7.
No, I don't know where it is.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Is.
[00:51:39] Speaker C: I'm sorry.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: Partnership of the gospel from the first day. From the first day until now. From the first day of what?
Yes, of the. From the first day.
That it could mean that. It could also mean from when the church was planted.
We actually have some context of this church in the book of Acts. Anybody know how this church came about? From the Book of Acts?
I believe it is.
It's acts.
The. So what we know. Yeah, it's Acts 16.
We know that Lydia was the first. Was the first convert of this church.
We know that Paul and Cyrus Silas were imprisoned there for doing an exorcism on a demon.
Then they. This is. That's the story of how they proclaim the gospel to the Philippian jailer is after that.
So we have some roots, right, that we. We know some roots from.
Just. Just some. Some. That. That's. That's the historical background that I'm talking about, that we can construct a little bit.
Good. What about Philippians 2? What did you learn from that? And in your exegesis of it, What do you think. What do you think Paul is getting at in that. That short pericope there, that short paragraph? What does he. What does he want? What does he want his audience to?
Humility. Why do you say that?
Because it says so. Show me. Prove it.
Good. Okay. And then he points to Christ as the epitome of that humility. Okay, so what is he doing there?
What does he start tracing there for us?
When he said. He points to Christ as the. As this embodiment of humility. What does he. What does he do?
Look at verse. Look at verse five. He says, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus. Right? What. What. What is this mind? What is this mindset he wants us to have? Jenny just said it.
Humility. Okay?
And then he says, look, who does. He. Who does he point to as the ultimate example of that Jesus. All right, so what is he then? This is often called the Christ hymn because people will take this. They'll take verses 6 through 11 and it's almost as if he's singing.
There's a poetic nature to it. Okay, so look at what he says. Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. All right, so stop there. Picture it.
He's starting. He's starting with the reality that Christ is God. There is a pre incarnate Christ here, okay? He's in the heavens. He is God and he's with the Father. All right, what does he do though? How does he. How does he treat his own equality and divinity with God? He doesn't count it as something to be grasped.
But there's our. There's our contrast. Emptied himself not of his divinity. Okay? He doesn't take off his godness, but he empties himself by what? How does he empty himself?
Taking the form of a servant. By taking the form of a servant. So we're up here and now we're coming down here, right? To where?
Where does Jesus come from? From?
He came from heaven, right?
Comes to earth to show the way. No, we're not going to do that.
Being born in the likeness of men.
Okay, now, and being found in human form, what does he do?
He humbled himself. Okay, so that key word, because he just mentioned it up and before, he said, in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves.
Who did that better than anybody?
Christ.
Right, so he.
He humbled himself by becoming what?
Obedient. Obedient to the point of what?
Death, even. Death on what?
All right, so we're here and now we're getting lower and lower and lower to the point that he dies.
All right, he's become so humble, he has this mindset that he's come all the way from heaven to earth and humbled himself before men and God, that he dies on a cross, that he sheds his own blood. It's the most humble thing that anybody could ever do ever in history because he's God. All right, so he humbles himself to death on a cross and then what does the verse nine say?
Therefore. Okay, good, there's our next clause. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So where are we going now?
We're up. All right, he's exalting him. Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. And in heaven and on earth and under the earth, okay? Meaning that everywhere of this picture we've just described here, heaven, earth, under the earth, and everyone below will what will bow. Everyone.
Everyone, no matter what, will be humbled at the name of Jesus Christ.
One pastor says, you will bow. You will either bow in joy and affection and humility for your Lord, or your knees will be broken to bow, but you're gonna bow.
Everyone will be humbled by the name of Jesus, okay?
And every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Everybody will confess. Everybody will be known to humbly love and confess to the glory of God the Father. All right, so that's the.
What we're doing there. All I just did there was just read the text for you. That text of Jesus. Okay?
That's what he's trying to convey. He's trying to convey. This is the kind of humility I want you to have. This is the mind that I want you to have. That's yours. It's yours in Christ Jesus. What is it?
The gospel.
The story of the gospel. And Amen.
Any questions before we close out on how to trace? What I was teaching you to do? There was just trace the argument again.
This takes time.
We can't do this perfectly all in one sitting.
But all you're doing is looking at those key words that are on your sheet there and then looking at. Okay, what is the author trying to communicate to his audience? What does he want from them? Okay, thank you, guys. That's it.
