Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600 -- Fiction
The caution to Timothy as the old soldier put it, “to beware the
widows,” and Paul’s somewhat severe injunctions regarding women to the
churches of Ephesus and Corinth arose from great trouble from the
activities of two women called Euodias and Syntyche, of whom nothing
more is known than that they were quarreling in the church of Clement at
Philippi, who wrote some of the finest and most universally accepted
Epistles, which are _not_ in the New Testament. Clement will be quoted
later. He was Bishop of Rome about the time John “fell asleep.” Turner,
one of the most critical of the higher critics, in his studies on _Early
Church History_, explains why Clement’s _Letters_ are not in our New
Testament. They were not disinterred from Alexandria till 1628, when
they were sent in a present to Charles I, which was seventeen years
after the _King James Version_ came out. Any one who wants to follow up
how desperately dissatisfied the King James translators felt with their
work, should read the _Journals of Evelyn_, a most devout churchman, on
his conversation with the survivors among the translators. Such letters
as Clement’s should be in supplementary readers in every Sunday School
and Church in the land.
While Paul seems to have been prisoner in Rome for certainly two years,
and before coming to Rome, prisoner in Cæsarea for at least as long, he
was not without friends in both places. Philip’s four daughters, who
were prophetesses or teachers, resided in Cæsarea; and Paul seems to
have had great latitude in seeing his friends. This was because he was
not only a Jew but a Roman citizen.
The tendency of modern scholarship is to regard Luke, the physician, as
“the man from Macedonia,” who begged for help. The Greek scholar is
supposed to have accompanied Paul as medical helper.
When Onesimus left Rome carrying the personal letter to Philemon, in 64
A.D. or thereabouts, he also carried along with one Tychicus the
circular letter to the Colossians. These facts can be found in the
postscript to the Epistles, which ought rather to be called simply
Letters with advice for the guidance of the Christians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account