Tuesday - Paul & Co.

Our second reading for the upcoming Sunday is from 1st Timothy, which seems too late in church organizing to be by Paul, who tradition says was martyred about 62 AD, may be a second century (100-150 AD?) laying down of rules for the by then heavily institutionalizing Christian church - - instructions for teaching and for ordaining bishops and deacons - - presbyters (priests) as the mid-level of ordination may not yet have become the practice (but Titus 1:5?), added later to assist bishops whose tasks had grown too heavy. Church orders for widows (senior widows and young widows -- to be registered, widows have to be over sixty and married only once, young widows should remarry and have children). Do not have women/wives in positions of church leadership (some Christian churches have long canonized this, some in the twentieth century; whether it's politically correct these days seems to depend on which "side" one is on, so-called conservative or so-called liberal, and perhaps on one's experience, background, culture).

Along with other pseudoPauline writings, One-Timothy is a book from which church governances may cherry-pick what they like (only one wife - - or none - - for clergy, no female clergy), and those who maintain inerrancy and literalness for scripture manage, the word is casuistry, to embrace what, suiting their patriarchy, lets them cling to power and authority, and ignore what does not please their fancy: among humans, no one in power and majority willingly lets that slip away, and when majority does slip away finds authoritarian ways to hold on anyway, as currenty is happening in American demographics, on the political landscape. 

There is still, I reckon, a battallion of the ignorant who, for what this book and other not-Paul books say, hate Paul, who, regardless of its pseudonymity, did not write it. 

Nevertheless, notwithstanding, and anyway, on Sunday, some soul will stand up in a church somewhere and, instead of simply "A reading from First Timothy" will grandly proclaim "A reading from Paul's First Epistle to Timothy". When that happens (it happens everywhere that humans stand up and read) I wince inwardly but stare straight ahead and keep my stupid mouth shut.

So anyway, here's my favorite verse from One Timothy, let the literalist inerrantists swallow it -> 5:23 No longer drink only water, but take a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.

And here's our second reading for 22 Sep:

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all -- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Theologically does "himself human" evidence low christology of the letter's author? That's arguable even though simultanteous time and perhaps author with OneTim is Titus 2:13 - - τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ all genitive is it high "the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" or low "the glory of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" -- and John's high christology gospel also would have been written, all a couple centuries before the Council of Nicaea with its battles. 

So then, yes a Week's Mind today, but this is my getting my life back: spending my morning arguing with myself about things that are of no interest or consequence to anyone else under the sun.

RSF&PTL

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