NT Amanuensis

By Ed Piper A lot of the younger generation didn't grow up with thee's and thou's in church, in their hymnals and in their Bible translations. Case in point is the famous Isaac Watts hymn, "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" . Watts, a prolific and renowned hymnist, penned this ode to God's faithfulness in 1719, using words from Psalm 90. In the second verse, as the hymn is printed in the red 1955 Hymnbook of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which I grew up singing in church from, it says in the second line, "From everlasting Thou art God/To endless years the same." Years ago, around the time of going to seminary, or shortly thereafter, I went through The Hymnbook and culled all the hymns that I recognized from my youth. I painstakingly typed the lyrics of each hymn, loving music and singing as I do. I later added the information provided in the red hymnal on each of these hymns, the lyricist, the date of publication, and any other information ...

By Ed Piper In my quiet time this morning (July 19), a line from Washington Gladden's 1879 hymn, "O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee" , stood out to me. The third stanza begins, "Teach me Thy patience, still with Thee." It goes on to give three places or activities in which the first-person narrator is asking God to teach her or him patience: in "closer...company" with the Lord, in work, and in a trusting attitude. It is the second that popped out: "In work that keeps faith sweet and strong". I intentionally chose to go into teaching difficult students in juvenile court school. Rather, I asked God to place me there. I wanted to be on the edge. At the frontier. Work with students who no one else wanted to work with. Not thinking too highly of my teaching skills, which were still developing, I didn't want to teach in regular school. The teachers in those schools are great. I just wanted something non-traditional, challenging, wher...

By Ed Piper My professor in my First Peter class in June 2017 was amused: "Wow, that's quite a word," he said, or words to that effect. I told him during my short five-day audit of his summer intensive course at Fuller Seminary that I was going to use the word "amanuensis", which means "ghost writer" , in my blog. And I've finally done it. I love the word, because it's so current in the New Testament (hence the initials "NT" in the name of the blog): In Peter's First Letter, he says in his closing, "And Silvanus wrote this for me." Silvanus, or Silas, was one of Peter's co-workers. Obviously, he was well-educated, because the letter, carrying the name of a lowly fisherman, shows the marks of erudite Greek. Plus Peter grew up speaking Aramaian, so a jump to refined Greek would have been quite a trick. My NT professor was Dr. Matt Hauge , who told us to call him "Matt" or "Hauge" (pronoun...

By Ed Piper Peter was concerned. Jesus' appointed lead disciple, Simon --whom Jesus nicknamed "Peter" as "the rock"--we think was hanging out in Rome or environs, and looking over to Asia Minor where young Christians in the northeast of what is now Turkey were being severely persecuted. Rocky's pastoral concern was not due to the systematic persecution we've heard about directed from the top of the Roman Empire by Nero , who blamed Christians for the huge fire that destroyed a large chunk of the capital. Or that by Domitian , who came later in the first century B.C.E. and who was brutal beyond even Nero's standard. No, this was spontaneous harassment and threats coming from the new believers' neighbors, who, from what we gather in Peter's First Letter, were upset by the Jesus-followers' change in behavior: no more partying with them, no more reveling to all hours, no more taking part in feasts that honored the emperor. Who did t...