MATHETΩN

It is generally accepted — among those who accept Divine Authority — that having heard the Divine Voice is an advantage: that the religious legalist enjoys knowledge and favor above the rest of humankind. But Paul Envoy says that those claiming this advantage may be special mainly in that they are specially cursed among humankind: He writes to the Jews in Rome: “The name of God is defamed among the nations because of you … [who] boast of a Law” — and then most risibly can never keep it.

Alternatively, one can probe the Greek to perceive Paul Envoy’s mood of stern counsel yield to commiseration. I will translate the whole paragraph.

I would have, then, the men, with uplifted holy hands, to pray everyplace, without anger and arguing; and the women, with seemly carriage and cautious and collected minds, to deck themselves not with curls and gold or pearls or costly clothes but, as befits those who profess piety, with good works. Let a wife learn peaceably, in all submission: I do not allow a woman to teach nor to tyrannize a husband, but to be at peace. For Adám was created first, then Eúa; and so Adám was not deceived, yet the woman once wretchedly deceived has been marked the law-breaker— Yet she will come safely through childbirth, if only she remain trusting, loving, and modestly holy; believe me.

One always reads I Tim ii.15 with astonishment. The astonishment can abate if one remembers that “saved” is obsolete English, not properly the revenant that does Evangelicalism’s bidding. But now one is bemused.

I contrived the following catechism as a comment on the passage.

Q. According to the Hebraíc scriptures, what were the results of the human disobedience after creation?

A. Conscience, and mortality.

Q. Can these ills be remedied?

A. Yes, by God’s special gifts mercy and eternal life, as his son Yesús taught and showed.

Q. And what were the punishments with which God cursed humanity for the disobedience?

A. For males, to encounter pain in their labors, and to find nature tend to resist them; and for females, to tend to submit to men, and to encounter pain in childbirth.

Q. Can humanity be rescued from these punishments?

A. Yes: by persisting through the pain, thus to renew the joys of creation. Specifically, males can emerge from the sweat of work with a new bounty, and a subjected Nature; while females can pass through the pangs of childbearing to the reverence of husbands, and a baby.

I want altogether to stop saying terms such as “biblical”. I do not believe in a Holy Bible. The book — or really the concept of the book — is for Christian hierarchs a cunningly-used talisman and tabu. It is not a true thing.

What I believe to be true is that there is a Word of God who is Jesus.

When Jesus was alive on earth, the words he said were words of God. Before, in heaven — and now from heaven — he by his Spirit said — and says — words of God.

These latter words of course are said in people’s spirits. But some of them are written down. The ones that are written down are true scriptures. Paul Envoy said: “Every writing that is divinely inspired is also useful for teaching, for argument, for correction, for education in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.” Himself in these ways used sayings of Jesus; and some passages of Hebrew scriptures, for which he always argued relevance and took care to say the Spirit was speaking the meaning he saw in them; and a few ancient poems of the Hellenes.

And now I will sum up my thinking:

“Biblical” is an Evangelicalist construction used as a weapon or tool; “scriptural” can refer to any writings a religion calls scriptures, but true scriptures are written words the Spirit of Jesus uses to tell me some true words of God.

And, of neccesity and as my own Teacher, oftener he tells me true words of God that are not written anywhere but my heart.

And, above all, Jesus personally is the Word, and the Truth.

I would like therefore to speak of an idea’s or word’s or action’s being of Jesus; or of his Holy Spirit, of his Kingdom; or of simply right and truth.

Paul certainly offered correctives to Hellenic culture. He reserved the thunder of the prophet for sins in men of every culture, but he offered some correctives such as this:

A Greek dramatist shows a beggar so poor he must hold his own begging-cup — “I must even dress myself,” he implores passersby, “so great is my misery that I have had to sell my slave.”

But Paul writes Followers in Thessaloniki: “Learn to work with your own hands.”

Paul was a middle-upper-class Hebrew — educated, of affluent and influential stock — writing to middle-upper-class Hellenes — educated and very affluent and influential. The Assemblings he fathered were in a few Hellenistic metropoles in Turkey and thereabout, of course, and were composed of statesmen, merchants, ex-clergy, and so on. He writes just as one would expect, then. He attempts to introduce Corinth to some of the better Hebrew mores, but with a liberal spirit. Indeed, he is always liberal toward the Hellenic culture — he writes as a sort of respectful, amiable diplomat.

I suppose what I want to say is that: Jesus contended with the powerful clergy, and so did Paul (per the Acts); but Jesus passed his time with the outcast, while we have no such record of Paul. (And Jesus eventually clashed with the civil powers — which we know Paul did as well, when he volunteered to enter the den of Caesar, but of his showdown we have no record.)

If instead of writing parentheticals to genteel houseslaves, Paul had written a whole epistle to the Empire’s slave-prostitutes, what would he have written?

“Copy me as I copy the Christ” seems the only answer we can read in him. “You have but one Teacher,” said Jesus.

Paul Envoy sometimes sows in his letters to the wealthy Greek Followers advice how they can thrive in life; this seems such a contrast to Jesus’s teaching to rejoice in suffering and seek dying; it is something that rankles the back of my mind these days. I know there is a synthesis; I can feel its becoming clear to me: yet I was glad to read a letter of Peter’s today, instead — and in it he says of Paul: “There are places he can be hard to understand, and then Christians wrench him out of shape because they are greedy.”

I urge you, brothers [and sisters], by God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living holy sacrifice pleasing to God. This is your reasonable service. And do not pattern yourselves after this age, but transform yourselves through a renewal of the mind, to study the nature of the will of God, what is good, and pleasing, and perfect.

For through the grace that has been granted to me I say to every one among you: Do not think thoughts beyond the thoughts you should have, but think to be moderate, according to the measure of faith God has given to each. As in our bodies we have many parts, but the parts do not all have the same function, so we many are one body in Christ, and individually parts of each other. We have different gifts which vary according to the grace that has been given us. If the gift is for prophecy, it should be based on faith. If one is gifted for service, he should serve; the teacher should teach, the comforter should bring comfort; the contributer should show his generosity, the leader his energy, the charitable man his graciousness. Let love be sincere. Hate the bad, hold fast to the good; love each other as brothers, prize each other more than yourselves; be unflagging in energy, seething with enthusiasm, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, steadfast against oppression, devoted to prayer; contribute to the needs of the saints, cultivate hospitality. Bless your persecutors, bless them, do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Agree with each other in your thoughts, and do not be haughty but accommodate yourselves to modest thoughts. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Return no one evil for evil. Have good intentions in regard to all men. If it is possible, be for your part at peace with all men. Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give way to God’s anger, since it is written: ‘Mine is the vengeance, mine the retribution, says the Lord.’ Then if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not let yourselves be overcome by evil, but overcome evil through good.

” ‘He who is unmarried cares for the things that belong to the Lord: how he may please the Lord; but he who is married cares for the things that are of the world: how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a maiden. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married cares for the things of the world: how she may please her husband. …

” ‘I wish that all persons were as I myself[, unmarried]. But every person has his proper gift of God: one after this manner, and another after that.

” ‘[Yet] I say of the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they abide as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn.’

“When Paul Apostle speaks of burning, I suppose he speaks of someone who contains so flammable a love or desire for another that the pain prevents his doing the work of Heaven. But what of he who, with everyday effort, is able to stand that flame but finds himself also frozen, in inaction, in despair — in a Ninth Circle of loneliness? Ice, touched, burns too.”

“They are zealous for your favor, not fairly, but they wish to keep you in seclusion, so that you may be zealous for their favor. …

“But I wish I could be with you now, and change my way of speaking; because I do not know what to do about you.”