Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - August 7 and August 14, 2023

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Is the love of money the root of all evil?

Jo Ann missed our class on 8/7/23 since she was helping our daughter Annabelle move, so Dan facilitated the class.  The summary, written by Dan, of what went on is below:

“We are always grateful for all who participate in our discussions. We covered ITimothy chapters 3 and 4. In chapter 3 we discussed the qualification for leaders in the early church. We compared what this chapter had to say about how this church operated versus the church in Corinth mentioned in ICorinthians. Notably the qualifications for the leaders in ITimothy are moral and not based at all on what kinds of “spiritual gifts” people had. 

In I Timothy 4 there is teaching about what should be believed, and more importantly, what should not be believed. In particular, there seems to be criticism of those who tell them what to eat (Jewish teaching?) and those who teach that it is wrong to marry (early Gnostics?). What follows in the same chapter is encouragement in leadership, and the strange admonishment to let no one hold Timothy’s youth against him. It seems a little weird, given that Timothy had been associated with Paul for a long time and seems likely to have been in his 30s when this was supposed to have been written.”

And…below is another summary written by Dan of what went on on Monday, August 14, 2023.  This time  Jo Ann was there.  We did say the Misheberach prayer for Jessica and also for her friend Judy who is in hospice.  Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Dave, Merrill, Robin, Odette, Jay, and Shanaya attended.  It was Shanaya’s first time and we were so glad she joined us.  We learned that Jay connected with a daughter he didn’t know he had and she has going through a Jewish conversion!  Mazel Tov, Jay!

“We studied I Timothy chapters 5 and 6 and finished our study of this letter.  Chapter 5 was a series of instructions that revealed the developing needs of the embryonic Christian community in the first century. In particular there were instructions for the care of widows in the community - apparently responding to a high demand on the Christian communities’ resources. So, there apparently was a way of supporting needy widows, and the letter emphasized the need to evaluate widows based on their age, and family connections, or lack thereof, to see if they should be supported by the church. Younger widows were presumed to be able to marry another husband who could take care of her. Other older widows had families who should be able to care for them. This passage seems to be a seed for a long history of Christian institutions for social welfare, as well as maybe the foundation for groups or orders of unmarried women - nuns.

Chapter addressed slaves and the rich. It is controversial that slaves were instructed to be “good slaves” for the sake of the reputation of the Christian community. Although slavery was everywhere in the ancient world, these verses were used to justify slavery in the United States until 1865. An example of the selfish use of the Bible. The slaves were at the bottom of the social order but this passage also addresses the rich, and contains one of the most commonly quoted sayings:”For the love of money is the root of all evil…” (King James version). Amen.”

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