Week 50

Reading

Day 1: Philemon 1:1-25, Philippians 1:1-2:11

Day 2: Philippians 2:12-4:23

Day 3: James 1:1-3:18

Day 4: James 4:1-5:20, 1 Timothy 1:1-2:15

Day 5: 1 Timothy 3:1-6:10

Day 6: 1 Timothy 6:11-21, Titus 1:1-3:15, 2 Timothy 1:1-18

Day 7: 2 Timothy 2:1-4:18

Preview

Hard Questions

1. (1 Tim. 2:11-15) “Let a woman learn in silence (hesuchia) with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence (hesuchia). For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” What’s going on here? Duane Litfin says that the word for quietness indicates not silence by order, in the sense of not being unruly (Bible Knowledge Commentary 735). My personal view—a wife shouldn’t be her husband’s teacher or hold authority where she controls him. Howard A. Kent, Jr. notes that the infinitive verb didachein likely means “to be a teacher,” rather than “to teach.” And the word for man here is the word more often used for a specific man, and especially for a husband.
2. “Saved in childbearing?” Four views: (1) physical salvation in childbirth—safely bearing children, not dying in pregnancy. Unlikely, as Christian women do die sometimes in childbirth. (2) Spiritual salvation through childbirth. Highly unlikely. Childbirth is not salvific; only Christ’s life is. (3) Spiritual salvation in the home—women fulfilling a God-given role as wives and mothers. Unlikely. (4) Spiritual salvation through the incarnation of Christ—with the context of Eve, with salvation coming through the birth of the Child, and women continuing in their faith. Most likely, but no one really knows. (Homer A. Kent’s commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, 112-116).
3. (1 Tim. 5:3-16) Managing the widows? Part of the situation here is that women were frequently left without a career or way of supporting themselves if their husbands died, and the church could very quickly become an easy way for lots of women to see themselves looked after, which is not the primary reason the church exists. There needed to be an order to make sure that women that the church took responsibility for didn’t have another way to make a living, or a family, or a marriage prospect—or the church simply wouldn’t be able to deal with the quantity of widows in the culture. The church didn’t exist to support women who wouldn’t find a way to make a living or keep themselves usefully occupied.
4. (5:24-25) “Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. Likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden.”
5. (Titus 1:14) “not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.” Jewish fables?

Review