#pauline epistles

[biblebloodhound]

Raised Into a Spiritual Body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49)

Death will give way to life.

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  Not all flesh is the same: People have…

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#1 corinthians #1 corinthians 15 #apostle paul #belief #changed life #christ is risen #christian belief #christian faith #christian hope #christian life #christianity #eastertide #faith #first corinthians #hope #immorality #new life #pauline epistles #resurrection #spiritual body #spiritual life #spiritual transformation #truth

[virtualcoach-blog]

Pray for Power to Stand Firm

Having the Scriptures at hand offers us hindsight. Our hindsight has us looking down on folks in the Bible. Our holy hindsight has us speculating on the saints of God of the past.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Ephesians 6:10 (KJV) Paul was in prison. It was around AD 62 while he was in prison in Rome when he wrote to the believers in Ephesus. It is one of his Pauline Epistles. It is one of his Prison Letters. It was around the same time that he wrote to believers in Colosse (Colossians) and to an individual believer…

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#Apostle Paul #church #Ephesians #help #ministry #pauline epistles #Philemon #prayer challenge #prison #relationship #satanic attack #spiritual warfare

[siena-sevenwits]

Gushing about what I've learned on my deep dive on the Letter to the Romans to my brother as though it were fandom, and he's okay with it.

#I don't know if I'm pleased with myself or not - I set a goal to reread all the Pauline epistles this year and I was getting along fine but #then Romans came along and demanded I spend more time on it and I've chewed on it with commentaries and cross referencing and #prayer for months now and not moving on to the rest because I just want to keep understanding Romans better #(although it's got me reading lots of the literary and prophetic literature as well as the Pentateuch as references to them keep on arising #I highly doubt I will hit my original goal but hopefully this is good #less of a Goodreads challenge approach to it and more of letting it move in and live in my house for a good half year? #recovering reader #faith #sacred #coreander's old books

[taste-of-marrow]

not to use my religious upbringing for evil but omhhhh

#nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #palamedes sextus #camilla hect #pauline epistles skdjfksjbks #tlt #the locked tomb

[brontes]

trying to experience the joys (reading for Bible study and learning more about God) but held back by the horrors (the patronizing school tone and thick Christianese of the text is making me grind my teeth)

#samantha.txt #to be clear this is not an actual dig at the author #this is my CONSTANT struggle with study books that aren’t just like…the text #and sometimes I struggle with this in the pauline epistles too #like it’s a me problem and part a pride problem but also partly just a #my brain does NOT work like a normal persons and it makes me grind my teeth over really dumb stuff

[mourning-again-in-america]

i continue to be surprised by the levels of insanity of the third reich.

#who knew they had takes on the pauline epistles!!

[tgirlsaintlawrence]

St. Paul’s letters have good conclusions but bad logic. This is evidence of how the Holy Spirit guided his writing.

#to be clear I am a heretic on this #I believe that there is a significant difference in authority that the different sections of books in the Bible have #so for example #the gospels acts and revelations are the most important to Christian teaching #then are the epistles of St. Paul #and I treat these not as being the final word #but as early and most likely the intended interpretations and commentary on them #they are the Angel we have to wrestle with #same goes for the non-Pauline letters but with even less authority #the Old Testament tells us who God is and what he has done #sometimes he’s an asshole. sometimes he’s a really nice guy. depends on the day #I think becoming human really helped with that #the apocrypha I take with a pinch of salt #I also include Shepherd of Simion with my apocrypha #I have confused feelings about the Qu’ran #I have read it and heard a voice that was distinctly not my own #and it was speaking Arabic but I understood it somehow #and instinctively I knew it was my grandfathers #and I was sober #so…

[justana0kguy]

2023 JUNE 21 Wednesday

"Brothers and sisters, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work."

~ 2 Corinthians 9:6-8

#bible #scripture #bible verse #first #reading #second #letter #Paul #pauline #epistle #Corinthians #brothers #sisters #sows #reaps #sparingly #bountifully #do #without #sadness #compulsion #God #Lord #Jesus #Christ #loves #cheerful #giver #grace #abundant

[biblebloodhound]

Learn by Example (1 Corinthians 10:6-13)

Let angry people endure the backlash of their own anger; if you try to make it better, you’ll only make it worse. (Proverbs 19:19)

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day 23,000 of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by…

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#1 corinthians #1 corinthians 10 #angry #apostle paul #christian life #disobedience #example #first corinthians #following jesus #insecure people #learning #pauline epistles #responsibility #spiritual warning #stubborn #upset #warnings

[peacefuldwellings]

@worship.today

#2 corinthians 9:8 #bible verse #new testament #pauline epistle #faith #hope #grace #YHVH #scripture #encouragement

[pastordude87]

Doors

Doors I was pondering doors in the Bible. Doors are mentioned over 180 times in Bible – throw in gates, entryways, etc, that number just goes up. Doors can be literal – Door to the Ark, Passover Door, Lot’s house door in Sodom, Temple Doors and so on. They can be symbolic – Door to Heart, Door to Worship, Heaven’s Door (maybe literal?) and so forth. The Bible talks of open doors, closed doors –…

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#Doors #Pauline Epistle

[opencommunion]

Hello, I really don’t want to be rude or anything like that but I would love to know any more information about the Christians in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria like, is it true Gaza had family lineages dating back to Jesus Christ? Asking because Ziocucks love making it seem as if Christians don’t exist over there

omg not rude at all, actually this is my favorite thing to talk about (it was a major focus of this blog prior to Al-Aqsa Flood) it's a huge topic so I'll link a ton of resources, but to answer your main question: yes, many Palestinian Christians in Gaza and elsewhere can trace their family history with Christianity back to the 1st century. the Christian community in Gaza is said to have been founded by the apostle Philip. the first bishop of Gaza was the apostle Philemon, the recipient of a Pauline epistle. a core zionist myth is the idea that contemporary Palestinians only arrived in Palestine in the 7th century or even the 20th century (see the links for debunking). but there's plenty of documentation of continuous Christian (and Jewish) presence in Palestine before, during, and after the emergence of Islam. Palestinians (and Levantine ppl more generally, but esp Palestinians because of the totality of their colonial dispossession—stories are often literally the only heirlooms refugee families have) typically have very strong family oral histories going back many centuries, so if a Palestinian tells you their family has been Christian since the time of Christ, take their word for it. community continuity is also about more than family trees—even if someone's family came to Christianity later, they're still part of the continuous living heritage of their community. the continuity of Palestinian Christianity is also evidenced by Palestinian holy sites. because Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire until Constantine took power, dedicated churches weren't built until the 4th century, but many of these churches were built around existing sites of covert worship—for example the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem was built around a grotto that was already venerated as the site of Jesus' birth, the Church of St. John the Baptist in 'Ayn Karim (a forcibly depopulated suburb of Jerusalem) was built over a 1st century rock-cut shrine marking the site of John the Baptist's birth, and the Church of the Multiplication in Al-Tabigha (a destroyed and forcibly depopulated village on the shore of Lake Tiberias) was built over a limestone slab believed to be the table were Jesus fed the multitude. throughout the Levant there are also many ancient shrines (maqamat) that are shared sites of prayer for both Christians and Muslims; in Palestine many of these sites have been seized by the occupation and Palestinians are prevented from visiting them.

Palestinian Christian communities who are able to travel to the villages they were expelled from in the Nakba will sometimes return there to celebrate weddings and holidays in their ancestral churches, e.g. in Iqrit and Ma'alul (x, x). of course because the occupation heavily restricts Palestinian movement this isn't possible for most refugees.

here's some resources to get you started but feel free to hmu again if you have any more specific questions! Zionism and Palestinian Christians Rafiq Khoury, "The Effects of Christian Zionism on Palestinian Christians," in Challenging Christian Zionism (2005) Mitri Raheb, I am a Palestinian Christian (1995) Mitri Raheb, Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible Through Palestinian Eyes (2014)

Christ at the Checkpoint: Theology in the Service of Justice and Peace (2012) Faith and the Intifada: Palestinian Christian Voices (1992) The Forgotten Faithful: A Window into the Life and Witness of Christians in the Holy Land (2007) Faith Under Occupation: The Plight of Indigenous Christians in the Holy Land (2012) Palestinian Christians: The Forcible Displacement and Dispossession Continues (2023) Donald E. Wagner, Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost to 2000 (2003)—can't find it online but worth checking your library for

Pre-Zionist History James Grehan, Twilight of the Saints: Everyday Religion in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (2016) Ussama Makdisi, Artillery of Heaven: American Missionaries and the Failed Conversion of the Middle East (2008) Kenneth Cragg, The Arab Christian: A History in the Middle East (1992) Christopher MacEvitt, The Crusades and the Christian World of the East: Rough Tolerance (2007) John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: The Monasteries of Palestine 314-631 (1996) Derwas Chitty, The Desert a City: an Introduction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism Under the Christian Empire (1966) Aziz Suryal Atiya, A History of Eastern Christianity (1968) Michael Philip Penn, When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam (2015) Early Christian Texts The Acts of the Apostles (1st century, Palestine. yes I'm recommending the bible lol but I promise I'm not trying to evangelize, it just really paints a good picture of the birth of Christianity in Jerusalem and its early spread) The Didache (1st or 2nd century, Palestine or Syria—the earliest known catechism, outlining how Christians were supposed to live and worship) Cyril of Scythopolis, The Lives of the Monks of Palestine (6th century) Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers (early Christian monastics)

for more resources specific to my tradition, the Maronite Church, see this post. for other misc Syriac tidbits see my Syriac tag. this is just scratching the surface so again, if you (or anyone else who sees this post!) have more specific interests lmk and I can point you in the right direction

#palestine #history #church history #library

[wolfythewitch]

Opinions on Paul??? Because I've heard that feminists don't like him and I get it but he's still one of the most influential writers of the Bible and probaly thats why the church nowadays is what it is...

Uhhh I don't really have much opinions on him haha. I think him being really sex repulsed but realizing that not everyone hates sex, and using marriage as like a compromise is hilarious. Honestly, (might be wrong, it's been a while since I read the pauline epistles) the books he wrote seem pretty egalitarian in how he talks about men and women, at least in terms of worship. There are some later books with some questionable writing, that almost contradicts the earlier ones, and I've seen some theories that Paul himself didn't write but other men did other his name? Books like 1 and 2 Timothy (?)

There are some scholars who think he wrote around 7 of the 13 letters so dunno! That kind of deep dive is probably for someone more learned in them history stuff

#wolfy tedtalks #wolfy religious tedtalks #anon

[beguines]

While the Historical Paul has been subject to a dizzying array of historical reconstructions, what is rarely questioned is the assumption that whatever Paul is historically reconstructed via these operations will serve as a foundational figure for ethics, morality, politics, and theology. Cut away some pseudepigrapha here, contextualize an embarrassing statement over there, build a few analogical links between his context and ours, and we will get a Paul that can ground our ethics. Of course, not everyone in the field is invested in Paul's continuing relevance, but I think most Pauline scholars are interested in him because, at some level, they are convinced that a properly historicized Paul has something to say to their corner of (post)modernity.

A good example of how this process works is Eric C. Smith's recent monograph Paul the Progressive? Smith, a historian of early Christianity, writes for a progressive Christian audience while drawing from the rhetorical techniques of historicism to transform Paul into a modern progressive ally: "After years of studying Paul within the academic field of biblical studies, I have come to see [Paul] as one of the most misunderstood figures of the Bible and the Christian tradition. . . . The Paul that is revealed in careful study of his letters is nothing like the person so many progressive Christians hate, and, in fact, he shares many progressive Christian values".

[ . . . ]

Take, for example, Smith's chapter on Paul and slavery. He is at pains to absolve Paul of criticism for the historical support that the apostle's archive has given to slavery, ancient and modern. His approach takes several steps, some of which follow his scholarly "ground rules." First, he subtracts from Paul any references to slavery that come from deutero-Pauline literature (notably Ephesians, Colossians, and the pastoral Epistles). This gets rid of the most baldly pro-slavery passages in the Pauline archive. Turning to the uncontested letters of Paul, Smith argues that Paul's advice to slaves in 1 Corinthians 7 to remain in their state is much more ambiguous than most modern translations suggest and that Paul might be encouraging slaves to take the opportunity to gain their freedom if the possibility presents itself. But even this reading of Paul's advice hardly counts as "progressive." Manumission was a regular part of ancient slavery, something many slaves could count on and expect. Manumission was also used by ancient slavers as an inducement to good behavior that ultimately served as a means of maintaining the system itself, a point made forcefully by Jennifer Glancy. Paul's advice to slaves, charitably read, was to work within the system as it was set up.

[ . . . ]

We might think that accepting the institution of slavery would disqualify Paul as a progressive, but this is where Smith's rhetorical moves subtly shift the goalposts. First, he compares his pared-down Paul with the worst excesses of the American slave system, which gives the impression that Paul was not that bad. Pointing to the explicitly pro-slavery statements in the deutero-Paulines, Smith concludes that "it was not Paul's writings that were to blame, or Paul himself, but it was the misuse of Paul, both deliberate and accidental," that put him on the side of slavery as an institution. Smith assumes that the Christian texts written after Paul in his name represent a betrayal of Paul's theological vision. He does not entertain the possibility that these later devotees of the apostle saw him as an ally in their support for the ancient status quo and not as a problematic progressive needing to be contained.

Second, Smith recontextualizes Paul so as to take away the blame somewhat for his acceptance of slavery. He does this by claiming Paul believed that the world would soon end, thus making him less likely to try to overturn accepted social institutions. Paul's world was one in which slavery was normal, and he should not be blamed for accepting slavery as a given. Finally, Smith can conclude that Paul was not a "slavery apologist," which is the question that frames the entire chapter. What is so rhetorically clever here is that the entire chapter sets the goalposts in the most convenient location for Smith: Paul is absolved of being a full-throated supporter of slavery. What Smith has shown is that Paul accepted slavery as normal; he even felt comfortable enough playing with the terminology of human enslavement in his own self-descriptions. This hardly strikes me as an argument that Paul ought to be reclaimed as a progressive.

Even Smith seems somewhat abashed at making such an argument: "With the help of modern biblical scholarship we can recover a Paul who is far from a slavery apologist, and who might even be an ally in the struggle for emancipation". Smith's tepid endorsement of a Paul who "might even be an ally" should force us to ask the question, At what cost have we paid for Paul's own emancipation from his entanglement with slavery? Smith has pared Paul down, recontextualized him, lowered the bar, and still can't produce a Paul who can say that slavery is wrong, full stop. What are we saying to readers who have lived with the historical weight of the Pauline archive's support of slavery when we ask them to welcome someone who only "might" be an ally in their struggle? This strategy is what Joseph Marchal has recently called "pinkwashing Paul," in which a progressive figuration of the apostle is offered, "while ignoring or downplaying his letters' ambivalences, complicities, and recapitulations of imperializing and sexual naturalizing trajectories." More to the point: Why is Paul's purity so important? Why does he have to be the hero of our historical work? Must we value (or revere?) the corpora we study?

Cavan Concannon, Profaning Paul

#cavan concannon #profaning paul

[soldier-poet-king]

Ok not gonna actually put my replies on someone's post bc that's RUDE (and it's not borne out of ill will I genuinely like discussing this stuff but idk if that is appropriate here!! I don't know this person!! I am bad at knowing when to open my mouth!) but I really liked the theology of vespertine? I didn't take it as things done in the Lady's name are Valid Religious Actions, nor did I take it that both good and evil come from the Lady. Its clearly based off of Christianity, and i thought the questions it asked about theodicy were quite interesting (and perhaps my favourite bit of the book, and why I found it so moving).

It was less that the Lady causes xyz bad thing to happen, and more that the Lady /allows/ xyz bad thing to happen only so that ultimately some good can be brought out of it. Which, imo, is very in line with a Christian view of theodicy, esp in the Pauline epistles (and Job, and obvs the Gospels). Evil is brought into the world by human action, but that human action is allowed to happen (BC free will) and ultimately is transformed toward the Good. That doesn't mean that ppl aren't shitheads who claim that their evil is divinely sanctioned, nor that hurt people do not (understandably) blame the divine and lash out in their hurt. But that ultimately, for whatever ineffable reason the inexorable will of god PERMITS evil to occur, knowing in divine wisdom and grace it will be transformed to the Good.

That's not a comfort. Not really. I think it is frightening and terrifying and awe-inspiring and horrible all at once. I have my own personal feelings on the subject. I just think it's an important distinction, and fwiw much closer to my own reading of the book. Its the same sort of troubling not-answers to questions of divine providence, grace, and the will of god that the sparrow duology examines (in a much less harrowing way, albiet, the sparrow is heavy).

Idk man I think I'm just fascinated by theodicy and conceptions of evil in non dualistic universe where evil exists despite an omnipotent and all-good divinity. I think the Augustine Brainrot got me.

#i am only mutual in laws with this person and idk if theyre comfortable with me randomly saying shit #and so!!! i will go on my little theodicy rambles on my own #idk man. i just really loved vespertine. one of the top books i read this year #i found it incredibly comforting and also incredibly disquieting #that sense of divine providence that is both suffering and grace #i didn expect it to wrestle with that #and i dont think it did it in a way that's really incompatible with christianity tbh #but maybe i have greek philosphy brainrot and a lot of weird thoughts and feelings abt theodicy more generally speaking #i know my opinions arent often mainline wrt faith #regardless. i adored vespertine. i wish other ppl of faith felt the same!! #its not really a big deal im just. thinking my silly lil thoughts all the time