[Dialogue] 7/15/10, Spong: The Origins of the New Testament, Part XXIX: I and II Timothy and Titus - The Pastoral Epistles

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Thursday July 15, 2010 

The Origins of the New Testament, Part XXIX
I and II Timothy and Titus — The Pastoral Epistles
We Have the Truth!

Thus far, as we have explored the origins of the various books of the New Testament, we have not yet come across that familiar form of human religion that asserts: "We have the Truth!" "If you disagree with me, the truth is not in you." It is our "God-given duty to define truth, defend truth and impose truth." Up until this point in the biblical story, the Christian movement has basked in the wonder of the Christ experience, sought words that can convey the power of that experience to another and has dealt with conflict only in the attempt by believers to clarify what this Christ experience really meant. Since, however, religious systems almost always, devolve into a security-giving system in which "my understanding" of God is assumed to be the same as God, we should not be surprised to disc over this negativity making its appearance inside the Christian movement. When we turn to the Pastoral Epistles, the ones we have named I and II Timothy and Titus, our wait comes to an end. This mentality that suggests than any person can possess "ultimate Truth" in his or her propositional statements permeates almost every verse of these particular writings. This attitude is so apparent that it actually helps us to date these works. That, in turn, forms the data that makes us absolutely certain that Paul is not the author of any of these epistles.
The Pastoral Epistles are so clearly the product of a later period of church history, when missionaries, prophets and teachers have been replaced by hierarchical and authoritative figures called bishops, priests or presbyters and deacons — all institutional functionaries. Even more, the office of a senior bishop, elder, or archbishop has had time to develop and the primary task of this official, it seems, is to impose order on the life of the various congregations in a given geographical region and to guarantee conformity in both their worship and their teaching. From other sources, we can identify this ecclesiastical structure as reflecting the period in church history no earlier than 90 CE and possibly as late as 120 CE. While these dates alone rule out Pauline authorship, they also make us aware that enough time has passed so that Paul is regarded as a respected not a controversial figure as the Paul of history certainly was. In these works, Paul has become the sy mbol of a revered elder apostle possessing such authority that these words are buttressed by being written in his name. Timothy and Titus, the younger companions of the historical Paul, named in his own authentic letters (Timothy in Romans, I and II Corinthians, Philippians and I Thessalonians) and (Titus in II Corinthians and Galatians), have been transformed into symbols of the next generation of Christian leaders who listen eagerly to the elder Paul's advice. While the Paul of history could write his ode to love in I Corinthians 13 and speak about his own conversion in Romans 8:38, 39, the Paul of the Pastoral Epistles is only interested in order, "sound" teaching, proper obedience and the need to drive away erroneous and false teaching. In the Pastoral Epistles "orthodoxy" has been defined in non-flexible ways.
In content, the Pastorals are quite similar to the five letters of Ignatius of Antioch, written between 110 and 113 CE while he was on his way to his own martyrdom. They reflect similar church structures, similar lines of authority and issue similar warnings against false teachers, once again demonstrating that they are the products of about the same time. The chief function of a bishop in both of these sources is "to defend the faith," and to "establish orthodoxy," which simply means "right thinking." Words like "doctrine" and "teaching" are a major concern of these books that clearly favor "catholic-orthodox" formulas.
It is apparent that something is threatening this sound doctrine. Historians have identified the enemy as a group of Christians who called themselves "Gnostics." The Pastoral Epistles exhort younger leaders to protect the "true faith" by confronting evil, rebuking or silencing these false teachers who are disparaged as "imposters, unbelievers and deceivers." The battle grew quite hostile with words like "stupid, unprofitable and futile" being used. God-given authority was claimed for established church leaders. They alone were authorized to determine what constitutes "true doctrine" and they alone had the power to ordain new leaders, who in order to qualify themselves for ordination, had to take vows to be faithful to the established tradition. Those who, in a previous generation, had themselves been "revisionists" in the synagogue were now determined to allow no revisionists in the church. The language of the Pastorals is replete with familiar religious hostility. Tit us 1:13 refers to Cretans as "liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons." I Timothy calls those opposed to sound doctrine "immoral persons, sodomites, kidnapers, liars and perjurers." II Timothy says its enemies engage in "godless chatter" and likens their talk to "gangrene." Church fights can frequently be anything but Christian! By this time in church history the disciples of Jesus seem to have moved rather far from Jesus' admonition to "love your enemies!" Yet in the midst of this rather rampant hostility we are startled to find familiar and treasured words that we might have heard, but of their origin we had no clue. I refer to such phrases from the Pastorals as: "A little wine is good for your stomach." "The love of money is the root of all evil." "We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out." Christianity so often blends good and evil.
Someone once said that Christianity probably would not have survived had it not become institutionalized and that it might not survive because it did become institutionalized. Institutions, certainly including the Christian Church, always subvert truth to institutional needs. That is why the Church developed irrational power claims like, "My pope is infallible," or "My Bible is inerrant," or "There is only one true Church" and it is mine or "No one comes to the father except through my church or my faith tradition."
These assertions always arise in religious movements when the decision is made that the wonder, truth and mystery of God can in fact be captured inside human words developed inside human minds. God and my understanding of God become the same. The power needs of the religious institutions become identified with the truth of God and the well-being of church leaders. This mentality almost inevitably produces religious wars, religious persecution, the Inquisition and the incredible cruelty that we Christian people have poured out on our victims over the centuries. It also finds expression in the rudeness frequently seen in religious debate.
Two stories will serve to make this point clear and to reveal why I have no great appreciation for the Pastoral Epistles, which not only introduced, but also justified these attitudes and helped to make them part of the life of institutional Christianity. The first story is personal; the second comes to me from another source.
I have been on a number of book tours to Australia. In the Anglican Archdiocese of Sydney, Christianity has been captured by a Northern Irish Protestant fundamentalism of an 18th century variety and frozen in time in the South Pacific. The Bible to them has to be read literally, women can not be ordained or have authority over men and homosexuality is an abomination! So my presence there appeared to frighten Sydney's Anglican leaders and call them to arms against the anti-Christ. When I came on a lecture tour for my book, "Resurrection: Myth or Reality?" these leaders quickly got out a fundamentalist paperback rebuttal that hit the bookstands the day my plane landed. In addition to that, they devoted a number of pages in their Archdiocesan newspaper, "The Southern Cross," to arming their people with the "facts" necessary to resist the onslaught of this non-fundamentalist, and therefore non true-believing, Christian. Finally, they appointed a "truth squad" headed by one of their bishops, named Paul Barnett, to follow me around Australia to "correct my errors publicly" lest the people be corrupted. They contacted any radio or television station on which I was scheduled to appear to demand "equal time" for "the truth." One noonday TV program decided to book us together rather than accede to "equal time." The conversation went well at least from my point of view until Paul Barnett exploded with the words, "Jack, you're nothing but a Gnostic." I responded, "Paul, the wonderful thing about that charge is that 99% of our Australian viewers do not know whether you have just insulted me or complimented me." I apparently bothered Paul Barnett as much as the Gnostics had bothered the authors of the Pastoral Epistles.
The second story came to me from a member of a book study group in a large conservative Episcopal Church in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky. This group had been meeting for some time in this church to read and discuss some popular modern religious writers like Marcus Borg, John Crossan and even Rowan Williams. The local parish clergy got wind of the fact that this group was actually discussing theological ideas that did not fit their definition of orthodoxy, so they decided that one of them should sit in on the discussion to protect the participants from "heresy." In the future, the group was informed, the clergy would pick the books the group would read, suggesting champions of yesterday's orthodoxy like N. T. (Tom) Wright and Luke Timothy Johnson. If this group would not agree to these conditions they were told that space in this church would no longer be available for their gatherings. The group immediately found another church that would welcome them and so they m oved on. 
Religious leaders need to learn that ultimate truth can never be fully captured in propositional statements at any point in human history: not in scripture, not in creeds and not in doctrines. That strange and destructive idea was first introduced to the Christian movement by the Pastoral Epistles. Christianity has been compromised from that day to this. 

– John Shelby Spong
 




Question and Answer 
With John Shelby Spong


Mary Ann Dobrik, via the internet, writes:
I am very disappointed that the Gospel of John is not being discussed next in this series of columns. Elgin United Church book study is studying this gospel, following the question series in: John: 26 Studies for Individuals and Groups written by N.T. Wright. I do not particularly like this study book and was hoping that Bishop Spong's articles would give me some helpful guidance in refuting some of the remarkable fundamentalist claims in this study book. When will Bishop Spong reach the Gospel of John in his discussions? I need his insightful scholarship.
Will Bishop Spong be coming to Peterborough, Ontario to lecture in 2011? I hope so.
Respectfully,
Mary Ann Dobrik
Mary Ann Dobrik, via the internet, writes:
I am very disappointed that the Gospel of John is not being discussed next in this series of columns. Elgin United Church book study is studying this gospel, following the question series in: John: 26 Studies for Individuals and Groups written by N.T. Wright. I do not particularly like this study book and was hoping that Bishop Spong's articles would give me some helpful guidance in refuting some of the remarkable fundamentalist claims in this study book. When will Bishop Spong reach the Gospel of John in his discussions? I need his insightful scholarship.
Will Bishop Spong be coming to Peterborough, Ontario to lecture in 2011? I hope so.
Respectfully,
Mary Ann Dobrik



Dear Mary Ann:
Your letter delighted me in that it expresses disappointment that John did not come up in my study after Luke as it does in the Bible. I appreciate the fact that you had great expectations even if you felt disappointed.
I have said from the beginning of this series that I would be looking at the New Testament in the order in which it was written. That is what I have done from the very beginning. I started with the genuine Pauline Epistles because Paul wrote between 51-64 CE. Then I went to Mark the first gospel; then to Matthew the second gospel. Next I treated Luke-Acts as two parts of the same story. Then I moved to the early, but non-authentic, Pauline letters: II Thessalonians, Colossians and Ephesians, all of which appear to have been written well after Paul's death, but were probably contemporaneous with the synoptic gospels. Next I will address the pastoral epistles: I & II Timothy and Titus, which are dated between 90-110 CE, followed by the general epistles: I & II Peter, James and Jude. Then I will do a column on the Epistle to the Hebrews, which I believe deserves serious treatment. Then I will complete the series with probably three columns on the Gospel of John, one on t he Epistles of John (I, II, III) and will close this series with a final column on the book of Revelation. I expect the series to be complete by September 1.
Between September 1 and December 31 of this year I will be busy with the editorial task of turning this series of columns into a book that HarperCollins will publish some time in 2011 under the title: Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World.
I am sorry the John section did not reach the Elgin United Church in time for your study. N.T. Wright is more of a propagandist for fundamentalism than he is a New Testament scholar, albeit he has the capacity to use heavily perfumed and sophisticated language to preserve the illusion of scholarship. I can well imagine that you need a counterpoint. 
Since my next major work will be on the Gospel of John, I have been reading books on John almost exclusively for the last year. There are some massive and brilliant commentaries like those of Rudolf Bultmann, C.H. Dodd and Raymond Brown, but I doubt if they would be good resources to your class, because of their sheer bulk and heavy footnotes. I have, however, thoroughly enjoyed two other smaller books that I happily recommend to you. One is The Mystical Way in the Fourth Gospel by L. William Countryman and the other is Invitation to John by George W. MacRae. Both are less that 200 pages and I have profited greatly by my study of them. 
We have no present plans to return to Peterborough, Ontario, at this moment though we thoroughly enjoyed our time there twice in the past. We will be in the Lutheran Church in New Market, Ontario, in the late spring of next year. Maybe I will see you there.
Thanks for writing, 


– John Shelby Spong






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