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Sunday, January 27, 2013

Saturday, January 26, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog: Epistle, Hebrews 9:2-14, Psalms 47:2-9, Luke 10:1-9, Saints Timothy and Titus, Pastoral Epistles,Catholic Catechism Chapter 2:3-III Characteristics of Faith

Saturday, January 26, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:


Epistle, Hebrews 9:2-14, Psalms  47:2-9, Luke 10:1-9, Saints Timothy and Titus, Pastoral Epistles,Catholic Catechism Chapter 2:3-III Characteristics of Faith

Good Day Bloggers!  Happy Mardi Gras!
Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!

Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013

P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.

The world begins and ends everyday for someone.  We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will, make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...

"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012


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January 25, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
"Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. May your prayer be as strong as a living stone, until with your lives you become witnesses. Witness the beauty of your faith. I am with you and intercede before my Son for each of you. Thank you for having responded to my call."
 
January 02, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
 "Dear children, with much love and patience I strive to make your hearts like unto mine. I strive, by my example, to teach you humility, wisdom and love because I need you; I cannot do without you my children. According to God's will I am choosing you, by His strength I am strengthening you. Therefore, my children, do not be afraid to open your hearts to me. I will give them to my Son and in return, He will give you the gift of Divine peace. You will carry it to all those whom you meet, you will witness God's love with your life and you will give the gift of my Son through yourselves. Through reconciliation, fasting and prayer, I will lead you. Immeasurable is my love. Do not be afraid. My children, pray for the shepherds. May your lips be shut to every judgment, because do not forget that my Son has chosen them and only He has the right to judge. Thank you."

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Today's Word:  epistle   e·pis·tle  [ih-pis-uhl]


Origin: before 900; Middle English; Old English epistol  < Latin epistula, epistola  < Greek epistolḗ  message, letter, equivalent to epi- epi- + stol-  (variant stem of stéllein  to send) + -ē  noun suffix

noun
1. a letter, especially a formal or didactic one; written communication.
2. ( usually initial capital letter  ) one of the apostolic letters in the new testament.
3. ( often initial capital letter  ) an extract, usually from one of the Epistles of the New Testament, forming part of the Eucharistic service in certain churches.


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Today's Old Testament Reading -  Psalms 47:2-9

2 For Yahweh, the Most High, is glorious, the great king over all the earth.
3 He brings peoples under our yoke and nations under our feet.
6 Let the music sound for our God, let it sound, let the music sound for our king, let it sound.
7 For he is king of the whole world; learn the music, let it sound for God!
8 God reigns over the nations, seated on his holy throne.
9 The leaders of the nations rally to the people of the God of Abraham. The shields of the earth belong to God, who is exalted on high


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Today's Epistle -   Hebrews 9:2-14

2 There was a tent which comprised two compartments: the first, in which the lamp-stand, the table and the loaves of permanent offering were kept, was called the Holy Place;
3 then beyond the second veil, a second compartment which was called the Holy of Holies
11 But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, not made by human hands, that is, not of this created order;
12 and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption.
13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement, may restore their bodily purity.
14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God.


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Today's Gospel Reading -  Luke 10: 1-9


After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting. And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting. Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!" And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you. Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you. Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you."
Reflection

• During the time of Jesus there were several movements which, like Jesus, sought a new way of living. For example, John the Baptist, the Pharisees and others. Many of them formed a community and had disciples. (Jn 1, 35; Lk 11, 1; Acts 19, 3) and they had their own missionaries (Mt 23, 25). But there was a great difference! The Pharisees, for example, when they went on mission, they went already prepared. They thought that they could not eat what the people would offer them, because the food was not always ritually “pure”. For this reason, they took with them purses and money in order to be able to take care of their own food. Thus, instead of working toward overcoming the divisions, this observances of the Law of purity weakened even more the living out of community values.

• The proposal of Jesus is different. He tries to rescue the community values which had been suffocated, and tries to renew and to reorganize the communities in such a way that they could, once again, be an expression of the Covenant, a sign of the Kingdom of God. And this is what is said to us in today’s Gospel which describes the sending out of the 72 disciples:

• Luke 10, 1: The Mission. Jesus sends the disciples to places where he himself has to go. The disciple is the spokesperson of Jesus. He is not the owner of the Good News. Jesus sends the disciples in pairs, two by two. That is useful for mutual help, because the mission is not individual, but rather communitarian. Two persons represent the community better than only one.

• Luke 10, 2-3: Co-responsibility. The first task is that of praying so that God may send workers. Every disciple - ,man and woman – has to feel responsible for the mission. And thus has to pray to the Father to send workers to continue the mission. Jesus sends his disciples as sheep among wolves. The mission is a difficult and dangerous task. Because the system in which they lived was and continues to be contrary to the reorganization of the people in a community of life. The Mission to which Jesus sends the 72 disciples tries to recover four community values:

- Luke 10, 4-6: Hospitality. Contrary to the other missionaries, the disciples of Jesus – men and women – cannot take anything with them, neither purse, nor sandals. They can and should only take peace. That means that they have to trust in the hospitality of the people. Because the disciple who goes without anything, taking only peace, shows that he/she trusts the people. The disciple thinks that he/she will be received, and the people feel respected and confirmed. Through this practice the disciple criticizes the laws of exclusion and recovers the ancient value of hospitality. Greet no one on the road, probably means, that no time should be lost in things which do not belong to the mission.

- Luke 10, 7: Sharing. The disciples should not go from house to house, but should remain in the same house. That is, they should live together with the people in a stable way, participate in their life and in the work of the people of the place and live from what they receive in exchange, because the labourer deserves his wages. This means that they have to trust in sharing. Thus, through this new practice, they recover an ancient tradition of the people, they criticize the culture of accumulation which distinguished the politics of the Roman Empire and announced a new model of living together.

- Luke 10, 8: Communion around the same table. The disciples should eat what the people offer them. They cannot live separated, eating their own food. That means that they should accept the communion and cannot be separated, eating their own food. This means that they have to accept to sit around the table with the others. In this contact with the others, they should not fear to loose the legal purity. Acting in this way, they criticize the laws of purity which were in force and they announce a new access to purity, to the intimacy with God..

- Luke 10, 9a: The Acceptance of the excluded. The disciples should cure those who are sick, cure the lepers and cast out the devils (Mt 10, 8). This means that in the community they should accept those who are excluded. This practice of solidarity criticizes society which excludes and indicates concrete solutions.

• Luke 10, 9b: The coming of the Kingdom. If all these requirements are respected, the disciples can and should cry out in the four directions: The Kingdom is here! Because the Kingdom is a new way of living and of living together with others, according to the Good News which Jesus has come to reveal to us: God is Father and because of this we are all brothers and sisters. In the first place, to educate for the Kingdom is to teach a new way of living and of living together with others, a new way of acting and of thinking.
Personal questions

• Why are all these different attitudes recommended by Jesus signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God?
• How can we practice today what Jesus asks: “do not take with you any purse”, do not move from house to house”, “do not greet anyone on the road”, announce the Kingdom?


Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.



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Saint of the Day:  St Timothy and St Titus


Feast Day:  January 26
Patron Saint: United States Army Chaplain Corps

St Timothy

Timothy (Greek: Τιμόθεος; Timótheos, meaning "honouring God"[1] or "honored by God"[2]) was a first-century Christian bishop who died around the year 97 AD. The New Testament indicates that Timothy traveled with Saint Paul, who was also his mentor. He is addressed as the recipient of the Epistles to Timothy.

Saint Timothy is mentioned in the Bible at the time of Paul's second visit to Lystra in Anatolia, where Timothy is mentioned as a "disciple".[3] Paul calls Timothy his "own son in the faith". Timothy often traveled with Paul. Timothy's mother was Jewish and his father was Greek,[4] but he had not been circumcised, and Paul now ensured that this was done, according to the text, to ensure Timothy’s acceptability to the Jews. According to McGarvey[5] Paul performed the operation "with his own hand", but others claim this is unlikely and nowhere attested.[citation needed] He was ordained[6] and went with Paul on his journeys through Phrygia, Galatia, Mysia, Troas, Philippi, Veria, and Corinth. 

His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, are noted as eminent for their piety and faith,[7] which indicates that they may have also been Christians. Timothy is praised by Paul for his knowledge of the Scriptures (in the 1st century mostly the Septuagint, see Development of the New Testament canon#Clement of Rome), and is said to have been acquainted with the Scriptures since childhood.[8]

That Timothy was jailed at least once during the period of the writing of the New Testament is implied by the writer of Hebrews mentioning Timothy's release at the end of the epistle. It is also apparent that Timothy had some type of stomach malady, owing to Paul's advice in 1 Timothy 5:23, counseling Timothy to "No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments."

Paul commanded Timothy to remain in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1) "I command you to stay there in Ephesus" to prevent heresy from infecting the church in Ephesus. Paul also gave Timothy instructions for establishing Elders and Deacons there. These very guidelines have become the commonly used guidelines among churches across the world to this day. According to later tradition, Paul consecrated Timothy as bishop of Ephesus in the year 65, where he served for 15 years. In the year 97 (with Timothy dying at age 80), Timothy tried to halt a pagan procession of idols, ceremonies, and songs. In response to his preaching of the gospel, the angry pagans beat him, dragged him through the streets, and stoned him to death. In the 4th century, his relics were transferred to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.

Veneration

Timothy is venerated as an apostle, saint and martyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 22 January. The Roman Catholic calendar of saints venerates Timothy together with Titus with a memorial on 26 January. In the General Roman Calendar of 1962, his feast, a third class, is kept on 24 January. Along with Titus and Silas, he is commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church on 26 January. Timothy's feast is kept by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod on 24 January.

References 

  1. ^ MFnames.com - Origin and Meaning of Timothy
  2. ^ Zelo.com - What does the name TIMOTHY mean?
  3. ^ Acts 16:1–2.
  4. ^ Acts 16:1.
  5. ^ McGarvey on Acts 16: "Yet we see him in the case before us, circumcising Timothy with his own hand, and this "on account of certain Jews who were in those quarters".
  6. ^ 1 Timothy 4:14.
  7. ^ 2 Timothy 1:5.
  8. ^ 2 Timothy 3:15.
  • The Life, Miracles & Martyrdom of St. Timothy, Bishop of the Christian Church


Saint Titus


Titus was an early Christian leader, a companion of Saint Paul, mentioned in several of the Pauline epistles. Titus was with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch and accompanied them to the Council of Jerusalem,[1] although his name occurs nowhere in the Acts of the Apostles.

He appears to have been a Gentile – for Paul sternly refused to have him circumcised, because Paul believed Christ's gospel freed believers from the requirements of the 613 Mitzvot — and to have been chiefly engaged in ministering to Gentiles. At a later period, Paul's epistles place him with Paul and Saint Timothy at Ephesus, whence he was sent by Paul to Corinth, Greece for the purpose of getting the contributions of the church there on behalf of the poor Christians at Jerusalem sent forward.[2] He rejoined Paul when he was in Macedon, and cheered him with the tidings he brought from Corinth.[3] After this his name is not mentioned until after Paul's first imprisonment, when he was engaged in the organization of the church in Crete, where Paul had left him for this purpose.[4] The last notice of him is in 2 Timothy 4:10, where he leaves Paul in Rome in order to travel to Dalmatia. The New Testament does not record his death.  According to tradition, Paul ordained Titus bishop of Gortyn in Crete. He died in the year 107, aged about 95.

It has been argued that the name "Titus" in 2 Corinthians and Galatians is nothing more than an informal name used by Timothy, implied already by the fact that even though both are said to be long-term close companions of Paul, they never appear in common scenes.[5] The theory proposes that a number of passages—1 Cor. 4:17, 16.10; 2 Cor. 2:13, 7:6, 13-14, 12:18; and Acts 19.22—all refer to the same journey of a single individual, Titus-Timothy. 2 Timothy seems to dispute this, by claiming that Titus has gone to Dalmatia.[6] The fact that Paul made a point of circumcising Timothy (Acts 16:3) but refused to circumcise Titus (Gal. 2:3) indicates that they are different men.

The feast day of Titus was not included in the Tridentine Calendar. When added in 1854, it was assigned to 6 February.[7] In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church assigned the feast to 26 January so as to celebrate the two disciples of Paul, Titus and Timothy, on the day after the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.[8] The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America celebrates these two, together with Silas, on the same date. The Orthodox Church commemorates him on 25 August and on 4 January.

His relics, now consisting of only his left femur and nostril, are venerated in the Church of St. Titus, Heraklion, Crete to which it was returned in 1966[9] after being removed to Venice during the Turkish occupation.

St. Titus is the patron saint of the United States Army Chaplain Corps. The Corps has established the Order of Titus Award. According to the Department of Defense, the "Order of Titus award is the only award presented by the Chief of Chaplains to recognize outstanding performance of ministry by chaplains and chaplain assistants. The Order of Titus is awarded for meritorious contributions to the unique and highly visible Unit Ministry Team Observer Controller Program. The award recognizes the great importance of realistic, doctrinally guided combat ministry training in ensuring the delivery of prevailing religious support to the American Soldier." [10]

References

  1. Galatians 2:1-3; Acts 15:2
  2. 2 Corinthians 8:6; 12:18
  3. ^ 7:6-15
  4. ^ Titus 1:5
  5. ^ Fellows, Richard G. "Was Titus Timothy?" Journal for the Study of the New Testament 81 (2001):33-58.
  6. ^ cf 2 Timothy 4:10
  7. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 86
  8. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 116
  9. ^ The Orthodox Messenger, v. 8(7/8), July/Aug 1997
  10. ^ Lake Union Journal. http://www.lakeunionherald.org/103/3/41852.html.



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Today's Snippet I:   Pastorial Epistles of St Timothy and St Titus



The three pastoral epistles are books of the canonical New Testament: the First Epistle to Timothy (1 Timothy) the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy), and the Epistle to Titus. They are presented as letters from Paul of Tarsus to Timothy and to Titus. They are generally discussed as a group (sometimes with the addition of the Epistle to Philemon) and are given the title pastoral because they are addressed to individuals with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. The term "Pastorals" was popularized in 1703 by D. N. Berdot and in 1726 by Paul Anton.


The epistles

1 Timothy

The epistle (letter) consists mainly of counsels to Timothy regarding the forms of worship and organization of the church, and the responsibilities resting on its several members, including episkopoi (translated as "bishops") and diakonoi ("deacons"); and secondly of exhortation to faithfulness in maintaining the truth amid surrounding errors (iv.iff), presented as a prophecy of erring teachers to come. The epistle's "irregular character, abrupt connections and loose transitions" (EB 1911) have led critics to discern later interpolations, such as the epistle-concluding 6:20–21, read as a reference to Marcion of Sinope, and lines that appear to be marginal glosses that have been copied into the body of the text.

2 Timothy

In this epistle the author (who identifies himself as the Apostle Paul, see below under 'Authorship') entreats Timothy to come to him before winter, and to bring Mark with him (cf. Phil. 2:22). He was anticipating that "the time of his departure was at hand" (4:6), and he exhorts his "son Timothy" to all diligence and steadfastness in the face of false teachings, with advice about combating them with reference to the teachings of the past, and to patience under persecution (1:6-15), and to a faithful discharge of all the duties of his office (4:1-5), with all the solemnity of one who was about to appear before the Judge of the living and the dead.

Titus

This short letter is addressed to Titus, a Christian worker in Crete, and is traditionally divided into three chapters. It includes advice on the character required of Church leaders (chapter 1), a structure and hierarchy for Christian teaching within the church (chapter 2), and the kind of godly life and moral action required of Christians in response to God's grace and gift of the Holy Spirit (chapter 3). It includes the line quoted by the author from a Cretan source: "Cretans are always liars, wicked beasts, and lazy gluttons" 1:12


For Pauline Authorship

Modern

The traditional view accepts Paul as the author. William Paley wrote in Horae Paulinae (1785),
Both letters were addressed to persons left by the writer to preside in their respective churches during his absence. Both letters are principally occupied in describing the qualifications to be sought for in those whom they should appoint to offices in the church; and the ingredients of this description are in both letters nearly the same. Timothy and Titus are likewise cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions, and in particular against the same misdirection of their cares and studies.
This affinity obtains not only in the subject of the letters, which from the similarity of situation in the persons to whom they were addressed might be expected to be somewhat alike, but extends in a great variety of instances to the phrases and expressions. The writer accosts his two friends with the same salutation, and passes on to the business of his letter by the same transition (comp. 1 Tim. 1:2, 3 with Titus 1:4, 5; 1 Tim.1:4 with Titus 1:13, 14; 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12 with Titus 2:7, 15).
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) gives a date for the First Epistle to Timothy of around A.D. 66 or 67 and says of 2 Timothy, "It was probably written a year or so after the first, and from Rome, where Paul was for a second time a prisoner, and was sent to Timothy by the hands of Tychicus," as the text indicates. Of the Epistle to Titus, Easton's says "Paul's authorship was undisputed in antiquity, as far as known, but is frequently doubted today. It was probably written about the same time as the First Epistle to Timothy, with which it has many affinities."

Adherents of the traditional position date the Epistle to Titus from the circumstance that it was written after Paul's visit to Crete in Titus 1:5. That visit could not be the one referred to in Acts 27:7, when Paul was on his voyage to Rome as a prisoner, and where he continued a prisoner for two years. Thus traditional exegesis supposes that after his release Paul sailed from Rome into Asia, passing Crete by the way, and that there he left Titus "to set in order the things that were wanting." Thence he would have gone to Ephesus, where he left Timothy, and from Ephesus to Macedonia, where he wrote the First Epistle to Timothy, and thence, according to the superscription of this epistle, to Nicopolis in Epirus, from which place he wrote to Titus, about A.D. 66 or 67.

Those who ascribe the books to Paul find their placement fits within his life and work and see the linguistic differences as complementary to differences in the recipients. Other Pauline epistles have fledgling congregations as the audience, the pastoral epistles are directed to Paul's close companions, evangelists whom he has extensively worked with and trained. In this view, linguistic differences are to be expected, if one is to assert Pauline authorship to them. Johnson[2] asserts the impossibility of demonstrating the authenticity of the Pastoral Letters. Donald Guthrie claims that the authorship of Paul is the most likely explanation and the burden of proof now falls to those who would dispute it.

Ancient

Among the Apostolic Fathers, 'a strong case can be made for Ignatius' use of ... 1 and 2 Timothy'.[3] Similarly for Polycarp.[4] The unidentified author of the Muratorian fragment (c.170) lists the Pastorals as Pauline, while excluding others e.g. to the Laodiceans. Origen[5] refer to the "fourteen epistles of Paul" without specifically naming Titus or Timothy.[6] However it is believed that Origen wrote a commentary on at least the epistle to Titus.[7]

Against Pauline Authorship

Modern

On the basis of their language, content, and other factors, the Pastoral Epistles are today widely regarded as not having been written by the Apostle Paul, but after his death.[8] (Although the Second Epistle to Timothy is sometimes thought to be more likely than the other two to have been written by Paul.) Critics examining the texts fail to find their vocabulary and literary style similar to Paul's unquestionably authentic letters, fail to fit the life situation of Paul in the epistles into Paul's reconstructed biography, and identify principles of the emerged Christian church rather than those of the apostolic generation.

P.N. Harrison's "The Problem of the Pastoral Epistle" was the first attempt to disprove Pauline authorship via counting hapax legomena or other vocabulary measures. However, Harrison did not even address the question of statistical validity, nor did he test his basic methods on any undisputed cases. Later work by Yule, Morton, DeRose, Guthrie, and others has shown his methods unreliable, and even his basic counts to be flawed (for example, he counted a word as unique to the Pastorals even when very close cognates occur in the remainder of the Epistles; a particularly unfortunate error for Greek). Yule also pointed out that the Epistles are far too short for most statistical methods to be reliable. He recommended that a sample of at least 10,000 words was necessary for statistical differences to show, whereas the Pastoral Epistles contain less than 4000.[9] Furthermore, Workman has demonstrated that the differences in quantity of hapax legomena between the Pastoral epistles and other Pauline epistles is similar to the differences among Shakepeare's plays.[10]

As an example of qualitative style arguments, in the First Epistle to Timothy the task of preserving the tradition is entrusted to ordained presbyters; the clear sense of presbuteros as an indication of an office, is a sense that to these scholars seems alien to Paul and the apostolic generation. Examples of other offices include the twelve apostles in Acts (an additional apostle was selected to replace Judas Iscariot) and the appointment of seven deacons, thus establishing the office of the diaconate. Presbuteros is sometimes translated as elder; by a longer route it is also the Greek root for the English word priest. (The office of presbyter is also mentioned in James chapter 5.)

A second example would be gender roles depicted in the letters, which proscribe roles for women that appear to deviate from Paul's more egalitarian teaching that in Christ there is neither male nor female. Separate male and female roles, however, were not foreign to the authentic Pauline epistles; the First Letter to the Corinthians (14:34–35) commands silence from women during church services, stating that "it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Similarly, some authors charge that the Pastoral Epistles seem to argue against a more developed Gnosticism than would be compatible with Paul's time; however, more recent scholarship has shown that Gnosticism developed earlier than was previously thought, and this argument, once considered strong, has now faded

Ancient

Ancient criticism of the pastoral epistles includes the Syriac Orthodox church, who for many centuries did not deem the Pastoral Epistles canonical.

Date

It is "highly probable that 1 and 2 Timothy were known and used by Polycarp".[11] Irenaeus made extensive use of the two epistles to Timothy as the prime force of his anti-gnostic campaign, ca. 170 AD. Proposals by scholars for the date of their composition have ranged from the 1st century to well into the second.

The later dates are usually based on the hypothesis that the Pastorals are responding to specific 2nd-century developments (Marcionism, gnosticism). That Marcion (ca. 140) betrays knowledge of a collection of Paul's letters that lack the Pastoral Epistles is another piece of evidence for which any model must account.[12] (This is a separate question to Marcion's "canon", which included only edited versions of Luke and the Pauline epistles; according to Tertullian, Marcion "omitted" the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Pastoral Epistles.)

According to Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament, 1997), the majority of scholars who accept a post-Pauline date of composition for the Pastorals favour the period 80-100. Scholars supporting a date in this mid range can draw on the description in 2 Timothy 1:5 of Timothy's Christian mother and grandmother who passed on their faith, as alluding to the original audience being third generation Christians.

More recently, earlier dates have been argued by scholars who have identified targets of the epistles' criticism among those also known to Ignatius and Polycarp, who died in the early 2nd century.

Within the New Testament, these letters are arranged in order of size, though this does not represent a chronological order.


References

    • ^ Donald Guthrie, (2009), "The Pastoral Epistles," Inter-Varsity Press, ISBN 978-0-8308-4244-5, p. 19
    • ^ Johnson, Luke Timothy (2001), 'The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary', Anchor Bible, ISBN 0-385-48422-4, p.91
    • ^ Paul Foster, "Ignatius of Antioch," in Gregory and Tuckett (eds), (2005), The Reception of the NT in the Apostolic Fathers, OUP, p.185
    • ^ Michael W. Holmes, in Gregory and Tuckett (eds), (2005), The Reception of the NT in the Apostolic Fathers, OUP, p.226
    • ^ Origen on the Canon of Scripture
    • ^ See the writings of Eusebius, Apostolic Constitutions, etc.
    • ^ R.E. Heine, (2000), "In Search of Origen's Commentary on Philemon," Harvard Theological Review 93 (2000), pp. 117-133
    • See I.H. Marshall, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles(International Critical Commentary; Edinburgh 1999), pp. 58 and 79. Notable exceptions to this majority position are Joachim Jeremias, Die Briefe an Timotheus und Titus (Das NT Deutsch; Göttingen, 1934, 8th edition 1963) and Ceslas Spicq, Les Epîtres Pastorales (Études bibliques; Paris, 1948, 4th edition 1969). See too Dennis MacDonald, The Legend and the Apostle (Philadelphia 1983), especially chapters 3 and 4.
    • ^ Anthony E. Bird, "The Authorship of the Pastoral Epistles - Quantifying Literary Style," Reformed Theological Review 56.3 [1997] 132.
    • ^ Workman, "The Hapax Legomena of St. Paul", Expository Times 7 (1896): 418, noted in The Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Epistles to Timothy and Titus".
    • ^ I.H. Marshall and P.H. Towner, (1999), The Pastoral Epistles (International Critical Commentary; Edinburgh: T&T Clark), p. 3, ISBN=0-567-08661-5
    • ^ See, e.g., J. J. Clabeaux, A Lost Edition of the Letters of Paul: A Reassessment of the Text of the Pauline Corpus Attested by Marcion (Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 21; Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association, 1989


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    Catechism of the Catholic Church

    Part One: Profession of Faith, Chapter 2:3-III



    III. The Characteristics of Faith

    Faith is a grace

    153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my Father who is in heaven".Mt 16:17; cf. ⇒ Gal 1:15; ⇒ Mt 11:25Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him. "Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth.'"DV 5; cf. DS 377; 3010

    Faith is a human act

    154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason. Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example, when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of... intellect and will to God who reveals",  Dei Filius: 3: DS 3008 and to share in an interior communion with him.

    155 In faith, the human intellect and will co-operate with divine grace: "Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God through grace."St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II, 2, 9; cf Dei Filius 3; DS 3010.


    Faith and understanding

    156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived".Dei Filius: 3 DS 3008 So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit."Dei Filius: 3 DS 3009 Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".Dei Filius: 3 DS 3008

    157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason gives."St. Thomas Aquinas, STh II-II 171, 5, obj. 3 "Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt."John Henry Cardinal Newman, Apologia pro vita sua (London Longman, 1878) 239.

    158 "Faith seeks understanding":St. Anselm, Prosl. prooem. PL 153 225A. it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. the grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts"Eph 1:18 to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood."DV 5 In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe."St. Augustine, Sermo 43, 7, 9: PL 38, 257-258

    159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."Dei Filius 4: DS 3017 "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. the humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."GS 36 # 1


    The freedom of faith

    160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. the act of faith is of its very nature a free act."DH 10; cf. ⇒ CIC, can. 748 # 2 "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ Jesus."DH 11Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."DH 11; cf. ⇒ Jn 18:37; ⇒ 12:32


    The necessity of faith

    161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation.Cf. ⇒ Mk 16:16; ⇒ Jn 3:36; ⇒ 6:40 et al "Since "without faith it is impossible to please (God) " and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"

    Perseverance in faith

    162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith."1 Tim 1:18-19 To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; Cf. ⇒ Mk 9:24; ⇒ Lk 17:5; ⇒ 22:32 it must be "working through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church. Gal 5:6; ⇒ Rom 15:13; cf. ⇒ Jas 2:14-26

    Faith - the beginning of eternal life

    163 Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".1 Cor 13:12; ⇒ I Jn 3:2 So faith is already the beginning of eternal life:
    When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall one day enjoy. St. Basil De Spiritu Sancto 15, 36: PG 32, 132; cf. St. Thomas Aquinas,
       STh II-II, 4, 1

    164 Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";2 Cor 5:7 we perceive God as "in a mirror, dimly" and only "in part".l Cor 13:12. Even though enlightened by him in whom it believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. the world we live in often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become a temptation against it.

    165 It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope... believed against hope";Rom 4:18 to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked into the "night of faith"LG 58; John Paul II, RMat 18 in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith."Heb 12:1-2. Article 2







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