Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! We've been reading the Bible clear through this year. We are finishing the New Testament, so read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

Father,

When the fullness of time had come, you sent your Word in the One who said, “Whoever sees me, sees the Father.” No revelation can surpass this until Jesus comes again. By your gift, the Church continues to receive unfathomable riches from the inheritance handed on from the Apostles and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

Let the Spirit who inspired the writing of today's pages "guide me in the truth and teach me" to follow Jesus ever more closely, until he calls me to follow him to the Kingdom where he lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen.

Today's chapters are 1 Thessalonians 2-4.

Paul is playing "catch up" with the Thessalonians, trying to pick up where he left off in their religious instruction from when he had been run out of town. First he has to remind them of the time he spent among them, brief though it was. Notice how easily Paul, who will write in the person of a stern father to the Corinthians, speaks of himself as a nursing mother to the Thessalonians (2:7). But we see that he writes this way to a community that is suffering, as are the communities in Judea: The Judean believers are suffering marginalization from their fellow Judeans; the Thessalonians converts are suffering marginalization from their neighbors and former friends. 

Paul's charged language in 2:14-16 about "the Jews" should be interpreted not as all "the descendants of Jacob" (which would include people like Paul, Timothy, and Silas!) but "the movers and shakers" in Judea: the scribes, Pharisees (!), and Sadducees. Paul is using the same kind of shorthand that Americans use when they speak of "D.C." or that Catholics often use when referring to "Rome" (which, truth to tell, often means "anybody except the Pope" or "somebody at the Vatican who thinks he is somebody").

After a great deal of encouragement, Paul broaches the subject of problematic issues that Timothy may have mentioned after his visit to Thessalonica. The two big ones are sexual morality and confusion about the mystery of death. As in most of his epistles, Paul is both circumspect and forthright when writing of sexual morality (4:3-8): This is not simply wise advice he is offering, but God's express will (4:3, 8). And it is related directly to charity! 

As to the mystery of death, a naively literal misinterpretation of 4:16-17 gave rise (in the 19th century) to the American Protestant belief in "the Rapture" and an entire genre of fiction. Having read various apocalyptic texts by now, we recognize that Paul was using standard Biblical imagery to evoke an unavoidable (but also uncontrollable) cosmic event which will unmistakably reveal God in all his majesty. The difference now is that "we" will be participants ("with the Lord in the air") and not simply awe-struck observers.

Start reading here.

For additional background

N.T. Wright's Paul: A Biography is the book I would recommend to someone who wanted to read one (only one) book that combined the life and letters of St Paul. Written by a noted Scripture, this is a flowing narrative that is scripturally enlightening and historically sound. Wright gives the reader a way of following Paul through the Acts of the Apostles and the writing of his letters, making Paul the person that much more approachable, and the letters themselves more readable as a result of having a social and historical context.