Reading the Letters of the Apostle Paul - Part 1

This article is taken from Issue 1 of NT Magazine, 2013.

You wouldn’t think that the act of writing a letter was particularly dynamic, would you?    But the art of written communication is changing all the time.  If you’re under 30, do you know when the convention is to sign off a letter with “yours sincerely” or “yours faithfully”?  (Which one you choose tells you something interesting about the relationship between the author and the recipient of the letter.)  In the French language, the rise of communicating by tweets and texts has contributed to the use of the informal “tu”, in situations where the formal “vous” would have been used in the past; and let’s not get into talking about “txting”!

If things have changed over the last 30 years, imagine how much things have changed in the 2,000 years since the apostle Paul wrote his letters!  Even Peter said at the time that what Paul wrote could be difficult to understand - so modern readers need all the help they can get to really get to grips with them.  So, in 2013 NT’s , we’re going to be taking a closer look at Paul’s letters.

Professor Richard Longenecker points out that there are three ways to approach what Paul wrote:

1) Devotionally – this is something that you’ve been doing since you became a disciple and it’s vital in helping you to learn more about God and how He wants you to live, amongst other things.  But reading this way can have its dangers; for example if you take verses out of context and incorrectly apply them (deliberately or accidentally!) to force-fit your own situation and/or what you might like to hear.

2) Homiletically –if you’ve ever sought to explain Paul’s writings to a person, either in a public forum or privately, then you have likely taken this approach, perhaps without knowing it.  Reading to distil a message in a homily for others can give very different results - you might try to boil the content down to an essence and/or find creative ways to slice and dice it for easy digestion.  Every Christian needs this skill, for each of us have a responsibility to preach; but there are dangers here also, especially if you cut corners and over-simplify, build flawed explanatory models or fail to practice what you preach!

3) Academically – some Christians frown on an academic reading of Paul’s letters and even view it as unnecessary, pointing to the Reformers teaching on 1) “perspicuity” of Scripture (i.e., that Scripture is clear in its basic message and can be understood by everyone as to the essential content of that message; that Scripture is lucid and understandable, even to those of limited intellect and different cultures), and (2) the effectiveness of the Spirit in illuminating the Scriptures and witnessing to Christ. While these are true, an academic approach can greatly enhance the other two approaches – in fact, employing all three is important to get the most from Paul’s writings when looking to transition from “milk to meat”.

It is the academic approach to Paul’s letters that will be the primary focus of this series – or at least the merest taste of just one or two of a series of distinct disciplines that, overall, aim to help with the following:

·         the history of interpretation – how have Christians interpreted the letters down the ages?

·         understanding epistolary structures and conventions (i.e. the art of letter-writing)

·         spotting modes of presentation and persuasion (e.g. the use of rhetoric)

·         unlocking the meaning of words, phrases, idioms, expressions and sentences in the text (philology)

·         comparing and contrasting with Jewish and Greek culture and literature

·         identifying early church “confessional” material  in the text

·         tracing the development of thought and expression on a topic in Scripture

·         supporting the authenticity and the accuracy of scripture translations

Of course, an academic approach should also be approached with caution – it should never be an end in itself nor is priding oneself on one’s knowledge is ever acceptable; there is also a risk of futile research that becomes so arcane as to be of no practical use!  Next time we will take a look at the opening and closing of Paul's letters.