The authenticity of Paul’s correspondence with Timothy and Titus went unchallenged until the nineteenth century. Since then, more and more commentators have alleged that the letters to Timothy and Titus (LTT) are an instance of pseudonymous writing (pseudo = false; -nymous = name) in which a later follower attributes his own work to his revered… Read More
Is Polygamy Next?
“Who’s Afraid of Polygamy?” taunts John Tierney in a New York Times Op-Ed piece not long ago (3/11/2006). Referring to the HBO series “Big Love,” which features a husband with three wives in Utah, Tierney calls polygamy, not “a barbaric threat to the country’s moral fabric,” but “an arrangement that can make sense for some… Read More
The Da Vinci Code: A Myth of Christian Origins
The following is excerpted from an article I wrote for Reformation 21: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a book about a non-existent code to provide clues to uncover suppressed evidence about a marriage that never took place. But why cover up evidence that does not exist? How does one cover up non-existing… Read More
Can Women Be Deacons?
Can Women Be Deacons? In 1 Timothy 3:11, we read, “In the same way, women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.” In context, the word “women” (Gr. gynē) refers either to women deacons or deacons’ wives. Translations are non-committal: the NIV has “the women,” with a… Read More
Children of Elders: What Are the Requirements?
In 1 Timothy 3:4, it is stipulated that an overseer’s children must “obey him with proper respect.” In Titus 1:6, the bar appears to be raised higher when it says that “[a]n elder must be . . . a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient”… Read More