ࡱ> $&!"# YbjbjT~T~ 066QL L     $A"C"E"E"E"E"E"E"$$J'^i" i"  ~">>>R  C">C">>V @ AYS.S /""0"_ T'>' '  X>i"i">"'L : How to start reading the Bible Session 5: New Testament The Epistles St Bartholomews Church, Sydenham; 2nd December 2008 Introduction to reading epistles The epistles comprise the main section of the New Testament after the Gospels and Acts. Rather than an account of the life of Jesus and his disciples, they are a series of letters sent in the time of the early church. The first thing to say about them is that they show great variety, and this has to be taken into account in the way we read and interpret them. Most of the epistles are open letters to specific churches about specific issues. They are often a written response to a problem that has been discussed or a question that has been raised earlier. Some of them are more individual than others e.g. the letter to Philemon compared with the letter to the Romans. Some are of very general application indeed e.g. the letter of James is one of the so-called pastoral epistles, as it is addressed to the church as a whole. A reminder, in order, of what we have to consider in this section: NameTraditional authorTypePossible date(s)RomansPaulGeneral571 and 2 CorinthiansPaulGeneral54/55 & 56/57GalatiansPaulGeneral46-49 or 57EphesiansPaulGeneralEarly 60sPhilippiansPaulGeneral54/56-7 or 62ColossiansPaulGeneralEarly 50s or (more likely) 61-631 and 2 ThessaloniansPaulGeneral1st letter possibly 41, more likely 49/50, 2nd letter 49/50/511 and 2 TimothyPaulPastoralmid 60s or several decades later1 and 2 TitusPaulPastoralmid 60s or several decades laterPhilemonPaulPastoralEarly 60sHebrewsPaul (doubted)PastoralLate 60sJamesJamesPastoralLate 60s1 and 2 PeterPeterPastoralmid 60s and around 801, 2 and 3 JohnJohnPastoralEarly 90sJudeJudePastoralAround 80 Some of the epistles are the earliest written documents of the New Testament. There is debate about which are the very earliest, but 1 and 2 Thessalonians may have been the first to be written. Dating the epistles depends partly on retracing Pauls steps on his journeys to the early churches as described in Acts and from the references he makes in his own writings, and this cannot be done with complete certainty. Thus for many of his epistles we have several possible dates years apart, depending on e.g. references to journeys or imprisonment may refer to more than one possible situation. Interpreting the epistles When we want to interpret the epistles we need to understand their historical context: what is the problem or question that has caused this letter to be written? Of course, one problem is that we usually dont know the answer to this for certain, so we have to interpret in the light of what we think is the most likely reason. We also analyse the structure of the letter its sections and paragraphs. Bear in mind, as with all other texts of the bible, that the epistles were not originally divided into the chapters we have today, nor into numbered verses. The logical sections may vary slightly from the chapter divisions and a bible that has section headings or at least paragraph divisions will be helpful here. As a basic rule, a text cannot mean something completely different from its meaning to its original audience. Beware of very stretched and far-fetched allegorical readings such as those popular in Mediaeval times. A possible second rule is that a comparable situation to the one provoking the original text should lead to comparable advice today. Be cautious about extending or comparing situations in the early church with those today, however. Always recollect that the epistles are task theology that is, a practical theology for a specific problem, not the writer setting out his entire world view or even his whole view of a subject, and it is taken for granted that the original subjects knew that. The Pauline epistles St Paul If you look at the New Testament you will find that a large amount of it appears to have been written by one person, St Paul. There are several reasons why he is so important, and why so much of the material we have today comes from him. Our information about the man and his life comes from two sources: There is an account of the main events in his spiritual life in Acts. This explains that he was once an ardent Pharisee who was given authority by the Jerusalem temple to persecute Christians. He suddenly had a conversion experience on the road to Damascus, in which he was temporarily blinded and heard Jesus speaking to him. From that moment on he was as fervent a devotee of Jesus and the new Way as he had been a scrupulous and learned Jew beforehand. It was soon revealed to him that his own specific area of mission would be the conversion of Gentiles outside Jerusalem. This entailed setting up and monitoring a huge network of churches and church workers. He travelled both to take the Way to new territories and to revisit those he and others had already established, so Acts includes accounts of his great missionary journeys. Because of his far-flung network of responsibilities, Paul frequently had to write letters to churches in other cities, as missionaries and letters from the churches themselves told him news of developments or asked him to settle questions of doctrine and church life. These letters are not dated as such, but sometimes they have enough information in about Pauls situation, e.g. he will refer to the fact that he is writing from prison, or from a city, so that we can piece together when they were written. You will have noticed from the table of dates above, though, that there is still a lot of doubt about some of them. Pauls letters will also frequently include a list of people he is working with, or a list of requests or orders to individuals in charge at the church he is writing to. As with the life of Jesus, we cannot reconstruct his every movement. We also think some letters he wrote are missing, e.g. the letter to the Corinthians that we call the first may in fact have been the second. Pauls main ideas Paul was a highly educated and devout Jew, who also had a considerable education in the Greek thought and debating style of the time, due to his position in a well-off family of Pharisees in Tarsus with exposure to both Jewish and Greek ideas. However, he never wrote a complete account of all his views in the form of a straightforward explanation. He usually answered specific questions from his churches and wrote about specific concerns. Although his letters were addressed to e.g. the Ephesians, he would have expected the elders at the churches to read them out to the assembly, and also for copies to be passed on to other churches that would find the teaching in them useful. There are some exceptions to this, such as the letter to Philemon. Here we have to admit that Pauls thought is complicated, and that there has been ardent debate throughout the history of Christianity about what exactly he meant by various concepts, and how the different ideas should be balanced with each other. This biblical reinterpretation was one of the main drivers of the Reformation, besides a desire to reform some of the corrupt practices of the church at the time, so we should not expect a one-line summary of his thought, and should perhaps be wary of sects and churches that claim to have one. Paul grew up a devout Jew of the Pharisee camp, so he felt he knew everything there was to know about Judaism. Once he converted, he criticized the Jewish religion as not being enough, not being able to get us closer to God, and setting people on a path that they could never follow perfectly. He thought that God had nurtured the Jewish religion as a necessary step along the way, but now that Christ had come, there was a new way of living and worshipping that could bring us salvation. Justification, grace, faith and salvation One of the famous catchphrases in Paul is justification by grace through faith. At one point sin entered the world, and now humans are tempted to do things we should not, and there is conflict and crime in the world. We know God wants us to be perfect and we usually have a fairly good idea how we should behave in most everyday circumstances. (Of course, there are ethical dilemmas, such as questions of when or whether self-defence or going to war are right.) The problem with all the Jewish laws was that no-one could follow them perfectly, he said. In fact, the effort of trying, and the constant reminder of all the things one should be doing, or avoiding, made it more likely people would be obsessed with a particular sin (compare this with the dont think of purple tigers paradox you almost certainly werent thinking of them until someone mentioned them) or would look at the long list of things they couldnt do and give up. Paul concluded that we cannot be good enough through our own efforts. Fortunately, Jesus has solved this problem for us. By his incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection he has somehow reconciled us to God, so that God will consider us to be good enough despite our own failures. This process is itself mysterious and how it works is still subject to fierce debate, but the end result is a state called atonement, or putting us at-one with God. We know it works because God has said so, and we know that the process of trying to be perfect by our own behaviour, or works, never succeeds. If we accept what Jesus has done for us, we will be considered OK, or justified. This will lead to our salvation. Because of Gods grace, he accepts us even though we have not done anything or not much, anyway, we have just accepted Jesus, versus having walked all the way to Jerusalem and given a billion pounds to the church. God has come all the way to meet us, we have not had to take a step towards him, rather to listen to any inkling in our hearts that he is there and wanting to save us. This does not mean we should not worry about our behaviour, or our thoughts and attitudes, and Pauls letters are full of practical details that make that very clear. Other ideas in Paul Some interpreters believe that there are other major themes in Paul besides the constant refrain of justification by faith. One of these is salvation through history, which its proponents are keen to point out as a counterbalance to sometimes rather negative attitudes towards Jews that are read into Paul. As more researchers work closely with Jewish theologians and rabbis it is clear that there is not such a gulf between Christian ethics and Jewish law, and that historically Christians have failed to see that the main and proper motivation for Jews to keep the law is love of God, not petty rule-keeping. Jews and Christians both regard the covenant as Gods free and one-sided expression of his love for us, not just a quid pro quo. Paul saw Christianity as a development and completion of Judaism and that is why he did not want his congregations to go backwards and try and integrate the new with the superseded parts of the old way. For some theologians, justification by faith was not even a main theme in Pauls thought, but subsidiary. In this view, the main driver of Pauls mission was a sense that the end of time and the coming of the kingdom was imminent. This depends on the relative weight we give to early letters like Thessalonians vs the later material. Also, Paul uses the phrase in Christ throughout his work, early and late, in important arguments. This appears to mean that by accepting Christ we are partly identified with him and this effects a transformation in our lives. Thus we are a new Adam or a new kind of humanity, which has started to change as a result of being remade by Christ and by the Spirit that now dwells within us. So we relate fully and properly to Christ and from him to the Father instead of being cut off in our sin. Extracts from Galatians Galatia was a large Roman province in what is now central Turkey. We have records of Paul being there whilst he was ill, and also of the churches he founded further south in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, although we do not know exactly which church is the intended recipient for this letter. Here Paul is writing a much more aggressive letter than usual, as he wishes to shock the Galatians out of their complacent acceptance of some false teaching. Paul has already told them that they do not need to follow the Jewish law to be Christians, but they have now been told that they do need this. The problem is that they cannot just add observance of the Jewish law to the one true gospel they already have. The whole point of Jesus life, death and resurrection is to make Christians safe without their having to observe the law. If they try to add the law to this, they will be rejecting what Jesus has done for them. Try looking at Pauls argument about the free and slave children of Abraham, and how Abraham was justified by his faith four hundred years before the Jewish law was instituted. There is also a discussion of how all are equal in the sight of God, which is part of the argument against the law but is often taken to promote greater equality in the churches in the world. Note also the early summary of Pauls discussions with Peter and other key apostles resolving the issue of unclean foods and the rest of the Law. Extracts: Ch 2: 15-21; Ch 3: 6 14, 23 29; Ch 5: 2 6 13 16, 22 25. Extracts from Romans The letter to the church in Rome is Pauls longest and has the most complete summary of his thought. There was a large Christian community in Rome, but a slightly beleaguered one, in that Nero had blamed the Christians for the burning of the city and instituted persecutions that probably eventually included the execution of both Peter and Paul. The overall theme of Romans is faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus as the only consideration in acceptance by God. This is one of the places where we see most clearly Pauls argument about the freely offered grace of God enabling us to make a fresh start, without the impossible demands of perfect obedience to the law. There is also a discussion about why people reject this, especially the Jews. It is clear that Paul wishes for all the Jews to come into the understanding that he has about Jesus, and he is hopeful that this will eventually be the case. Christians are to be glad that they have been grafted on to the original Jewish root, and hope that the other Jews will join them. Paul refers to Abraham as the example of faith, before the law. He also compares Christ and Adam. Through the action of one person, sin entered the world and has had a grip on everything ever since. We as individuals cannot escape sin alone, try as we might. Through the action of another single person, Jesus, sin has now been conquered forever. All we have to do to participate in this is to accept it, and sin and its consequence death will have no hold over us. Again, there have always been huge debates about exactly how this battle over sin was won, and why there is still so much evil in the world if it has in fact lost the eventual war. Extracts: Ch 5; Ch 8; Ch 11: 11 24; Ch 12: 9 21; Ch 13: 8 10. The Pastoral Epistles There is a set of later Pauline letters that were not addressed to churches but to individuals, and applicable to the general church. There is a question whether some or all of these were actually written by Paul himself, because they refer to more solidified structures in the church, such as the institution of bishops, which only came into being quite some time after the informal house church gatherings of Pauls early missions. If Paul wrote them, he would have been very old. Their subject matter is church structure and proper individual and corporate behaviour in general. Next we have a set of letters purporting to be written by other apostles of Jesus time: James, Peter and Jude. These too discuss general questions, rather than being addressed to individual churches, and are therefore sometimes called the catholic letters. (Catholic means general, c.f. the point in the creed when we state our belief in one holy catholic and apostolic church.) Epistle of James As an example we shall be looking at the letter from James. Tradition has it that this letter was written by James, the brother of Jesus. He became a Christian when he saw the risen Jesus, and went on to be one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. The letter is addressed to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion, this may mean Jewish Christians, or the new Israel i.e. Christians of all nations. The theory of James authorship is backed by the letters similarity to stated opinions of James in a speech in Acts 15, also its references to wisdom, which are similar to traditional Jewish wisdom literature, and its parallels with Jesus own teaching, especially the sayings of the sermon on the mount. This letter has been controversial, with Martin Luther referring to it as an epistle of straw. He thought it went too far towards recommending works to Christians read it and see what you think. Its overall thrust is to recommend that Christians wait patiently for the second coming. The letter goes into detail about problems in individual and church behaviour. There is a balance to be struck between formal expressions of worship such as getting a ritual right and the true inspiration for worship, which should be the love in Christians hearts, and avoiding fanaticism. There was clearly a problem in the early church with inequality, and James writes that the poor should be treated fairly in church gatherings, and in general people should be giving unstintingly of what they have to help the needy. Again there is a balance between cold calculations of what one has done in service to God and the other view that faith without works is dead. There is also a long warning about the dangers of unbridled speech, and a discussion of what true wisdom is. Extracts: Ch 1: 22 25; Ch 2: 1 7, 14 26; Ch 3; 5b 18. The Johannine Epistles These are among the later books of the bible. Tradition has it that John the evangelist wrote these, and that he lived to old age, spending his last years in Ephesus. The concepts and language used here are certainly very similar to those in the Gospel of John. Johns writing intends to counter the heresies of Gnosticism, among other things. Gnostics believed in a small clique having special mysterious wisdom that was not available to the wider congregation. They also split the spiritual and the material, or the spirit and body, far too dramatically, believing that the material was entirely bad. This had consequences such as denial that Jesus was truly human. Also, in some cases, Gnostics behaved very badly, on the grounds that what they did in this life was unimportant and could not make their spirits impure. The first letter of John This is by far the longest of Johns three letters and is the most general in application. Johns positive message here is that Christian faith depends on the fact that Christ was a real human being as well as 100% divine, and that if he did not die as a human to obtain reconciliation with God and forgiveness for all the sin in the world, the whole Way has no point. He describes God as light and as love two very important themes in the fourth gospel as well, as you will remember. God is the light of the world, who calls all those who follow him. He is pure love, and requires his people to love one another as well as loving him. People who truly follow God will be walking in the light not the darkness, but they will also be honest about their failings and not claim to be sinless and perfected. If we live as Jesus did and keep directing our thoughts and actions towards God, not the transitory things of this world, we can be sure we are going towards the light. There are already false teachers leading people astray, John says, so we must test what they say in the light of what they claim about Jesus. Extracts: Ch 1: 5 10; Ch4 : 7 21; Ch 5: 6 12. Suggestions for going further One possible next step is to take one of the epistles that we have considered today and read it in full. Other whole letters that you may find interesting are: 1 Corinthians. This letter is Pauls take on some inequality and lax morality in the church at Corinth. There are sections on keeping the eucharist open, and on questions of interacting with the other religions in Corinth at the time. The letter also contains important and famous passages on the nature of the gifts of the Spirit, given to Christians, and on love. 1 Thessalonians. This is one of the earliest letters, and therefore possibly the earliest book of the New Testament. Reading this will give you a vivid impression of the excitement of the new Christians at a time when they, and Paul, expected the second coming of Jesus to be imminent. 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The first thing to say about them is that they show (-333-L-12---&.)33%)373-%(33-1(-.-2133,M(3-3-.(21G T4 C UU@c{@0 QL^igreat variety, and this has to be taken into account in the way we read and inter-&--.-&-.-332(3-'12--0-331-()03333-G-.G-&--3-333-&TlC UU@c{@0 L^iXpret 3&- TlT  UU@c{@ L^iXthem.3-LTTT  UU@c{@ L^iP 6 Tp# ; UU@c{@z [L^iMost of the epistles are open letters to specific churches about specific issues. They are K1(03--2(-(-%-03-3--&(1(3,)))22&)3,(-203(3,))('3,(63-.-&- TL  UU@c{@ UL^ioften a written response to a problem that has been discussed or a question that has 1-3-G&-3&,(312(-1-3&12,M3-3,(2--23')2('-31&-23,(133-3,( T y UU@c{@q EL^ibeen raised earlier. Some of them are more individual than others e.g2--3&-'-3--&-%.0M-13,M-&-M1&-33-32-3-313,&(--Tz   UU@c{@z q L^il. the letter to 3---&1 TP [ UU@c{@ VL^iPhilemon compared with the letter to the Romans. 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Rp@CambriapTRO`2<$O`2 v.1 .'w.1MX$7K@Cambri`a`2Ӵrl.$E9'1<<z%1d.dv% % % % % %  % % %  TT  UU@c{@ wL P13% % % TX +7nUU@c{@ bL Pst% % % TT7 JUU@c{@7wL P TxK 4UU@c{@KwL \letter --& T UU@c{@  L hpossibly 41, 31'(2.33 T UU@c{@ n L dmore likely M1&-0-. % % % T| )UU@c{@ L \49/50, 233-333% % % TX*iUU@c{@*L Pnd % % % TTj}UU@c{@jL P Tx~gUU@c{@~L \letter --& T| `xUU@c{@ eL \49/50/5133-33-22TTaxUU@c{@aeL P 2" '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??&" WMFC l(l% (  '% LdM !??% (  '% LdN Q N !??% (  '% LdR  R V!??% (  '% Ld   !??% (  '% Ld  !??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld  j!??% (  '% Ld  j!??% (  '% LdN Q N j!??% (  '% Ld   j!??% (  '% Ld  j!??% ( ! % % %  TpUU@c{@Ll1 and 2 Timothy3-3337M13-TToUU@c{@oLP 2" !N  % % %  TdeUU@c{@LN TPaul4-3TTfUU@c{@fLN P 2" !R   % % %  T|}  UU@c{@} LR  \Pastoral4-(1&,TT  UU@c{@ LR  P 2" !  % % %  Tx UU@c{@ L \mid 60sM323(TT%UU@c{@L P T`&UU@c{@&L Tor 0& T UtUU@c{@ aL lseveral decades (-.-&-2-),3,( Tl UU@c{@ L Xlater--%TTUU@c{@L P 2" '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% LdM !??% (  '% LdN Q N !??% (  '% LdR  R V!??% (  '% Ld   !??% (  '% Ld  !??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Lds!??% (  '% Lds!??% (  '% LdN Q N s!??% (  '% Ld   s!??% (  '% Lds!??% ( !x % % %  ToUU@c{@\ Lxh1 and 2 Titus3-33373'TToUU@c{@\LxP 2" !N x % % %  TdeoUU@c{@\LN xTPaul4-3TTfoUU@c{@f\LN xP 2" !R  x % % %  T|}  oUU@c{@} \LR  x\Pastoral4-(1&,TT  oUU@c{@ \LR  xP 2" ! x % % %  Tx oUU@c{@ \L x\mid 60sM323(TT%oUU@c{@\L xP T`&oUU@c{@&\L xTor 0& T UUU@c{@ L xlseveral decades (-.-&-2-),3,( Tl fUU@c{@ SL &" WMFC llxXlater--%TTfUU@c{@SL xP 2" '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% LdM !??% (  '% LdN Q N !??% (  '% LdR  R V!??% (  '% Ld   !??% (  '% Ld  !??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ldws!??% (  '% Ldws!??% (  '% LdN Q wN s!??% (  '% Ld  w s!??% (  '% Ldws!??% ( !| % % %  T||cUU@c{@L|\Philemon43,M12TTd|UU@c{@dL|P 2" !|N  % % %  Td|eUU@c{@L|N TPaul4-3TTf|UU@c{@fL|N P 2" !R |  % % %  T|} | UU@c{@} LR | \Pastoral4-(1&,TT | UU@c{@ LR | P 2" ! | % % %  T |FUU@c{@  L |`Early 60s5-&.33'TTG|xUU@c{@GL |P 2" '% Ldx{x!??% (  '% Ldx{x!??% (  '% Ldx{x!??% (  '% LdxM {x!??% (  '% LdN xQ {N x!??% (  '% LdR x {R xV!??% (  '% Ld x { x!??% (  '% Ld x{ x!??% (  '% Ldx{x!??% (  '% Ld|||!??% (  '% Ld!??%  % Ld!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% Ld|||!??% (  '% Ld!??% (  '% LdM !??% (  '% LdN |Q N ||!??% (  '% LdN Q N !??% (  '% LdR  R V!??% (  '% Ld |  ||!??% (  '% Ld   !??% (  '% Ld  !??L&WMFC ll% (  '% Ld|||!??% (  '% Ld!??%  % Ld!??% ( % % 6i6^i6^66h6]h6]66g6\g6\66f6[f6[66e6Ze6Z66d6Yd6Y66c6Xc6X66b6Wb6W66a6Va6V6 6 `6U`6U 6  6 _6T_6T 6  6 ^6S^6S 6  6 ]6R]6R 6  6 \6Q\6Q 6 6[6P[6P66Z6OZ6O66Y6NY6N66X6MX6M66W6LW6L6  4."System--@"Calibri--- 6_82 |3How to start reading the Bible         2 m3  @Cambria--- 2 |3 @"Calibri--- @"Calibri-@"Calibri- @"Calibri-- O2 |3Sessionl  2 3 %2 35: New Testament       2 C3 2 L3 2 P 3The Epistles    2 3  @"Calibri--- @"Calibri-@"Calibri- @"Calibri--@"Calibri--------- @"Calibri-@"Calibri-- OA2 |$3St Bartholomews Church, Sydenham; 2          ---2 3nd--- 2 3 2  3December 2008    2 3  --- O;2 | 3Introduction to reading epistles         2 f3  --- 2 &|3 2 I|X3The epistles comprise the main section of the New Testament after the Gospels and Acts.           2 ]|3Rather l 2 ]U3than an account of the life of Jesus and his disciples, they are a series of letters s       2 r|Z3sent in the time of the early church. The first thing to say about them is that they show            2 |Q3great variety, and this has to be taken into account in the way we read and intere           2 }3pret r2 |3them.r  2 3 2 |[3Most of the epistles are open letters to specific churches about specific issues. They are     2 |U3often a written response to a problem that has been discussed or a question that has s         s2 |E3been raised earlier. Some of them are more individual than others e.g       #2 :3. the letter to   2 |V3Philemon compared with the letter to the Romans. Some are of very general application           2 |3inde M2 ,3ed e.g. the letter of James is one of the so   2 3-/2 3called pastoral epistles   2 53, 2 93 (2 <3as it is addressed s  12 #|3to the church as a whole.p    2 #3 >2 F|"3A reminder, in order, of what we h      ;2 FZ 3ave to consider in this section:   2 F3 ,Zu@Cambria---2 i|uZName  2 iuZ ',Z--- &2 iZTraditional author      2 iZ ',BZ--- 2 iZBType   2 iZB ',ZB--- 2 iI BZPossible    2 }IBZdate(s)l  2 }{BZ '- @ !Zt-- @ !Zt-- @ !Zu-- @ !Z-- @ !Z-- @ !Z-- @ !Z-- @ !ZB-- @ !|ZB-- @ !Z-- @ !Z-- @ !)Zt-- @ !)Z-- @ !)Z-- @ !)ZB-- @ !)Z-,u--- 2 |uRomans   2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BGenerall   2 B ',B--- 2 IB57  2 ZB '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !t-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !-,u--- (2 |u1 and 2 Corinthians     2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BGenerall   2 B ',B--- 2 IB54 2 ZB/55 2 sB 2 vB& 56 2 B/57 2 B '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !t-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !-,u--- 2 | uGalatians  2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BGenerall   2 B ',B---  2 IB4 2 RB6 2 ZB- 2 _B4 2 hB9 2 pB 2 sBor 57a 2 B '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !t-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !-,u--- 2 | uEphesians   2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BGenerall   2 B ',B--- 2 I BEarly 60s   2 B '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !t-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !-,u--- 2 | uPhilippians  2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BGenerall   2 B ',B--- 2 IB54/56a  2 rB-2 xB7 2 Bor 62a 2 B '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !t-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !-,,u--- 2 | u+Colossians   2 u+ ',,--- 2 +Paul 2 9+ ',,B--- 2 B+Generall   2 B+ ',,B--- 2 I B+Early 50s or   2 B+ 2 I B+(more likely)  2 B+ 2 B+61  2 B+-2 %IB+63  2 %ZB+ '- @ !t-- @ !u-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !-- @ !B-- @ !|B-- @ !-- @ !=t-- @ !=-- @ !=-- @ !=B-- @ !=-,,u--- +2 ;|u,1 and 2 Thessalonians      2 ; u, ',,--- 2 ;,Paul 2 ;9, ',B,--- 2 ;,BGenerall   2 ;,B ',,B@Cambria---------  2 ;IB,1 ---2 7RB,st--- 2 ;YB, 2 ;]B,letter l2 OI B,possibly 41,   2 dI B,more likely ---2 xIB,49/50, 2  ---2 uB,nd--- 2 xB, 2 xB,letter 22 IB,49/50/51   2 B, '- @ !+t- - @ !+u- - @ !+- - @ !+- - @ !+- - @ !+- - @ !+B- - @ !|+B- - @ !+- - @ !g,t- - @ !g,- - @ !g,- - @ !g,B- - @ !g,- ,u--- "2 |u1 and 2 Timothy     2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BPastoral  2 B ',B--- 2 IBmid 60sl    2 }B 2 Bor #2 IBseveral decades  2 IBlater0 2 hB '- @ !t- - @ !u- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !B- - @ !|B- - @ !- - @ !>t- - @ !>- - @ !>- - @ !>B- - @ !>- ,u--- 2 | u1 and 2 Titus     2 u ',--- 2 Paul 2 9 ',B--- 2 BPastoral  2 B ',B--- 2 IBmid 60sl    2 }B 2 Bor #2 IBseveral decades  2 IBlater0 2 hB '- @ !t- - @ !u- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !B- - @ !|B- - @ !- - @ !=t- - @ !=- - @ !=- - @ !=B- - @ !=- ,$u--- 2 |u$Philemon   2 u$ ',$--- 2 $Paul 2 9$ ',$B--- 2 B$Pastoral  2 B$ ',$B--- 2 I B$Early 60s   2 B$ '- @ !t- - @ !u- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !- - @ !B- - @ !|B- - @ !- - @ !t- - @ !$t-- @ !$t- - @ !$u- - @ !- - @ !$- - @ !$- - @ !- - @ !$- - @ !$- - @ !B- - @ !$B- - @ !|$B- - @ !- - @ !$-- @ !$- --33333333332222222222221111111111110000՜.+,00 hp|  )Q How to start reading the Bible, Session 5: New Testament The Epistles% Introduction to reading epistles Interpreting the epistles The Pauline epistles St Paul Pauls main ideas2 Justification, grace, faith and salvation Other ideas in Paul Extracts from Galatians Extracts from Romans The Pastoral Epistles Epistle of James The Johannine Epistles! The first letter of John" Suggestions for going further Title Headings  !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEGHIJKLMOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`acdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~      %Root Entry F