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Showing posts with label Philemon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philemon. Show all posts

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Book Comment: The Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon

The full title of this book published in Edinburgh in 1897 is A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon. The writer was Marvin R. Vincent, the Baldwin Professor of Sacred Literature in Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York. In this book, Dr. Vincent defends the Pauline authorship of the letters.


The book is quite technical and requires at least a rudimentary understanding (like mine) of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. Dr. Vincent examines the Greek text of both books, word by word, phrase by phrase, and describes the usages of the words in other literature of the same time period. He discusses various possible interpretations of certain words and passages and gives his reasons, based on Greek grammar, lexicology, and consistency of biblical interpretation, for making the translations which he does.


Vincent makes many interesting observations, such as the following on Philippians 1:5:
“For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;” (π τ κοινωνί μν ες τ εαγγέλιον π τς πρώτης μέρας χρι το νν). τοῦ is the definite article “the,” so, literally, this is “the now.”  Vincent says this is “only in Paul,” which may mean that Paul was the writer who introduced the modern idea of “the now.”




This is a commentary which respects the Scriptures it examines. As he says in his preface to the book, "The main object in this commentary has been to exhibit St. Paul's thought in these two letters ..."

Friday, October 28, 2011

Paul's Letter to the Laodiceans

Paul's letter to the Laodiceans is obviously a lost letter.

"And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Colossians 4:16


There have been numerous guesses (and that is all that they are) as to the identity of this letter.



It is a totally lost letter.

It is the book known as 1 Timothy.

It is the book known as Philemon   

It is the book known as Ephesians

Some consider the sixth century letter mentioned on this web page to be the Letter to the Laodiceans, others insist that it is totally spurious.  No copy of this letter can be proven to have existed before 546 AD/CE, much later than any other biblical book.

A Mormon perspective saying that the mention of this letter proves that the canon of Scripture is not closed.  The majority of Christians reject this as heretical.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Familial Relationships in the Bible: Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus

The earliest Christians were very few in number and were, in the beginning, mainly from a very small number of families.  This is a new, recurring segment on this blog and it will show, basically, who was related to who.

Many scholars believe that Apphia and Archippus (Colossians 4:17 and Philemon 2) were the wife and son of Philemon.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

Alice Guy-Blache: (b. 1873, France – d. 1968, USA) Pioneering French filmmaker and director.  She was the first female film director and one of the first directors to make a fictional film.  She wrote, directed, and/or produced over 700 films.  In 1906, she made The Life of Christ. Roman Catholic.

Wang Ming-dao (b. 1900, China – d. 1991) Chinese evangelist, Protestant leader.  He founded the Christian Tabernacle in Beijing in 1925.  He advocated separation of church and state.  He was arrested in 1955 for refusing to join the state sanctioned Three-Self Patriotic Movement.  He spent 22 years in prison.  Upon his release he became a leader in the illegal house church movement.  Founder of the Christian Church in Christ. Protestant fundamentalist.

Arizona Drane: (b. 1891?, Texas – d. 1963?; Best known as Arizona Dranes) Blind Holiness Gospel singer and pianist of African-American and Mexican ancestry.

Archippus: A Gentile convert in the city of Colossae, he is mentioned in Colossians 4:17 and exhorted to “complete the work you have received in the Lord.”  Also mentioned in Philemon 2.  He was possibly the son of Philemon.


Conchobar mac Meic Con Caille: (b. Ireland - d. 1176, France; aka Cornelius of Armagh, Cornelius McConchailleach) Irish Augustinian Archbishop of Armagh.  He died in France while returning from a pilgrimage to Rome.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Are We Not Men?

On 14 April 2010, I posted a comment on the film, Island of Lost Souls. The "happy" paradise built by Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton) begins to fall apart when his man-animal hybrids begin to ask, "Are we not men?"

Island of Lost Souls is a very perverse film which can be uncomfortable to watch even today. Many considered it to be a frontal assault on the prevalent political and religious order. The film was banned in some places and in Australia it received the N.E.N. designation: "not to be exhibited to natives;" the aborigines or "Bushmen."

The motivation for the N.E.N. designation was the same as that which produced laws in the pre-Civil War American South which made it illegal to teach slaves to read. Many especially did not want the slaves to read the book of Philemon.

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You can read more about this film and others which stretched moral, political, sexual, social, religious, and ethical boundaries in:
Doherty, Thomas, Pre-Code Hollywood. Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934 (NY: Columbia University Press, ca. 1999)