Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Allen: the Gospel according to St. Paul

Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Meditation:
    As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ," he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
    —Acts 17:2-4 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The first Epistle [to the Thessalonians] was written about a year after St. Paul’s first preaching in the city, where, according to Prof. [William] Ramsay’s calculation, he had laboured for only five months. Thus his stay had not been long enough for him to do more than teach the fundamental truths which seemed to him of the first importance: all the circumstances of his visit were still fresh in his memory and he was recalling to the minds of his readers what he had taught them by word of mouth. Now in that Epistle we get an extraordinarily clear and coherent scheme of simple mission-preaching not only implied but definitely expressed. [Continued tomorrow]
    ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 68 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, the simplicity of Your word persuades Your people.
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1 Comments:

Blogger E.W. Rodgers said...

According to the late Bo Reicke, Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians first from Athens and sent it with Silas and Timothy, who later came to join him in Corinth with financial support from Thessalonica (cf. Acts 18:5 and 2 Corinthians 11:9). Then as a follow-up and encouragement, he wrote 1 Thessalonians and sent it again with the same two partners in ministry.

Reicke's book _Re-Examining Paul's Letters_ is short and easy to read (and I have terrible ADD). It really is worth reading, especially if you want the point of view of a conservative Pauline scholar other than F.F. Bruce. I like Bruce a lot, but it never hurts to read other research.

Pax Christi, y'all!!

October 7, 2009 at 11:23 PM  

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