Tuesday Mornings

Tuesday morning Bible study has been going well. Eighteen or twenty folks signed up with the understanding that nobody could come every time and that there always would be several folks away. And that our studies would only be a week or two each so that no one who missed a session or two would feel left behind on returning. Participation has been steady at a dozen round the table, a perfect group. A long, drenching rainstorm this week did keep several more away.

We have been looking at the work of Saint Paul, epistles of the New Testament. Three of them got us started, with two sessions each on Philippians and First Thessalonians, Paul’s loving letters, then Paul’s angry missile, Galatians. Great stuff. For this week we decided to have a look at a letter that internally says it’s from Paul but that many modern scholars say is almost incontestably pseudonymous, not by Paul: Ephesians. The writing style isn’t Paul’s usual. Considering what is known of Church history and the development of the Nicene Creed, the Christology seems post-Pauline into the developing theology of the Church a generation or two later. Nevertheless, as well as reflecting what we Christians believe today, Ephesians is perhaps the loveliest writing in the New Testament. We will continue with Ephesians next Tuesday, probably finishing, and ready to move on to something else the following week. 

Several thoughts have come up in the group as to what to do next. One is to look at several more of the short epistles, those that are short enough to be read and discussed in two sessions (e.g., not Romans, not Corinthians). Another is to compare and contrast the history of Paul as presented in Luke’s book The Acts of the Apostles with Paul’s own statements in his seven undisputed writings. Another that’s always popular but longer is again to read and discuss The Revelation to John, the Apocalypse. That might be interesting as we move toward and into Advent, which itself has the apocalyptic and eschatological tone of the Second Coming.

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