Tradition: The Ship of Salvation’s Sail not its Anchor

Writes Fr Ted:

St. Paul’s Epistles represent an interpretation of the Scriptures of Israel.  St. Paul is steeped in the Jewish Scriptures, and the Tradition which interprets those Scriptures.   It is the interpretation of the Torah which causes such tremendous conflict between Jesus and the rabbis of the Pharisaic Tradition.   Paul follows Jesus in interpreting the Scriptures of Israel and does so by claiming that he and Jesus are in fact the faithful interpreters of the Tradition.  It is Jesus who is the fulfillment of the God-inspired Tradition; thus Christianity is faithful to Tradition and the correct interpreter of this tradition.   Tradition, like Scripture, is not  made holy by being carved into stone, but rather by being interpreted within a community, by being the heart of the community’s relationship to God and the world.  Tradition is thus alive and constantly relating to the world, not written in stone and frozen in some past understanding.  For St. Paul Tradition is dynamic, creative, vivifying and renewing and keeps people focused on the goal – where God is leading us to, not the past and where we were.   Tradition is not the ship’s anchor, but its sail.   It consists not of repeating past teachings, but of interpreting God’s Word for the current generation…

Rest here.

 

Dr Peter Walker – St Paul, Passionate for Christ

 

The Apostle to the Gentiles

 

Why Does the New Testament Use the Word Presbyter or Elder for Priests?

Dr Taylor Marshall:

Protestants often note that the NT usually refers to clergy as “presbyteroi” which means “elders,” and not as priests. Why does the New Testament use the word Presbyter or Elder for Priests?

One confusion centers on the word “priest.” The English word “priest” comes directly from the Greek word “presbyteros.” This is examined in detail in my book The Catholic Perspective on Paul.

Presbyteros > Presbyter > Prester > Priest

Here is an example of how presbyter is used in the New Testament:

“The elders therefore that are among you, I beseech who am myself also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as also a partaker of that glory which is to be revealed in time to come.” (1 Peter 5:1)

Here’s another:

“Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests (presbyterous) of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14, D-R)

The Greek word for sacrificial, Old Testament priest is “hiereus.”

One key verse is in the third chapter of Hebrews, where Saint Paul writes:

“WHEREFORE, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly vocation consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus” (Hebrews 3:1, D-R)

Here the apostleship is paired with high priesthood. Christ is THE Apostle and High Priest. His New Testament ministers participate in this office. Hence, an apostle is a high priest. Apostolic succession transmits this apostolic priesthood.

The use of presbyteros instead of hiereus in the NT is for two reasons:

1) The word hiereus (priest) is related to hieron (temple). Now the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. Hence, in Hebrews and other epistles, hiereus is avoided since the temple stands.

This, by the way, relates to a previous blog post about the different spellings of Jerusalem based on it being an earthly “temple city” or heavenly.

2) The NT priesthood is a return to the ancient primogeniture priesthood prior to Moses. This “priesthood of the firstborn” (father to son; Noah to Shem; Abraham to Isaac) is a reflection of the relationship between God the Father to God the Son. The Levitical priesthood was a temporary TRIBAL solution to gold-calf worship. Originally, God planned for a “first born priesthood.” Saint Thomas speaks of the “first born priesthood” as pertaining to natural law prior to Moses.

This is why priests are always called “Father” since they represent the Father.

The argument of Hebrews is that Christ, as the “Firstborn Son of God,” not only supercedes but precedes the Mosaic Levitical arrangement.

Priests are called “presbyteros” for this very reason. They are representative “fathers” or “old men” within the assembly. The NT priesthood is a primogeniture priesthood in Christ – extended not by Levitical natural generation but by supernatural generation in the Spirit.

This is why priests are celibate (the Father-Son dynamic is a non-nuptial generation), why priests should wear the tonsure (bald old fathers), why they are called presbyteros (old men), and why they are called “father” (old men). Presbyteros is the title Saint Peter prefers. See the Si dilgis Mass epistle.

The identity as “father figure” or “older man” or “patriarch” is more noble and excels the Levitical temple title “hiereus” or “priest.”

For all these reasons, Saint Paul is hesitant to use “hiereus” for the NT ministry. However, he does do so in Greek in Rom 15:16 (regretfully the Douay gets this verse wrong in English).

Short answer: presbyteros hearkens back to the primogeniture priesthood of natural law (which is purer than Old Law). Christ’s priesthood is the eternal primogeniture priesthood.

ad Jesum per Mariam,

Taylor

PS: If you are interested in this subject, please visit Paul is Catholic.com

 

Did St Paul Attend the Olympics?

Bishop Kevin Farrell:

St. Paul could have attended the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. He was in Greece when they were being played. He never mentioned the Olympics in his letters, but he has a lot to say about winning.

“Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. ^“(1 Cor 9:24-25)

He is not talking about “winning the gold.” The prize St. Paul is referring to is “an imperishable one,” and the race he is referring to is the journey we all make to God. The great thing about this race is that everybody can win the prize. But, like the Olympians, it takes determination and self-discipline.

Athletes from throughout the world are in London this week to compete for the “perishable prize” referred to by St. Paul. Most of them have trained for years to make it to the Olympics. They have willingly sacrificed many legitimate pleasures in order to prepare their bodies for a single moment of glory and piece of precious metal on a ribbon. They compete knowing that the odds are against most of them.

Our training regimen for our race for the imperishable prize is much simpler. We heard it in the first reading of the Mass last Monday. “…to act justly, to love tenderly and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

I look forward to the Olympics. Let’s enjoy the games, but let’s never lose sight of our own race and the imperishable prize.

Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh

Revealed!

Shame. Actually, SpongeBob SquarePants is my favourite cartoon character…

 

Mysteries Surrounding the Tomb of St Paul

 

 

Debunking Cornuke’s Paul’s Shipwreck on Malta

Via Bible Places:

Robert Cornuke is well known in evangelical circles as a non-archaeologist with several astonishing archaeological discoveries. His latest video describes “possibly the Biblical find of this century!” He claims to have discovered the four anchors from Paul’s shipwrecked vessel off the coast of Malta.

Gordon Franz does us all a service by evaluating Cornuke’s presentation. He notes a series of minor mistakes, but he focuses on the four pillars of Cornuke’s case, concluding that:

1. Cornuke’s video misleads in claiming that only his location has the ocean depths as given in Act 27.

2. Cornuke’s video fails to inform viewers that there are other qualified bays that have a beach.

3. Cornuke’s greatest mistake is claiming that sailors would not have recognized the east coast of Malta.

4. Cornuke’s argument cannot account for the specifics of the shipwreck as described in Acts 27.

Franz’s article expands upon each of these points and addresses other problems with this sensationalized “discovery.”

St. Thomas Bay as seen from Munxar Reef, location of Cornuke’s discovery

St Peter and St Paul

Are the Saints of the Day:

Peter (d. 64?). St. Mark ends the first half of his Gospel with a triumphant climax. He has recorded doubt, misunderstanding and the opposition of many to Jesus. Now Peter makes his great confession of faith: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29b). It was one of the many glorious moments in Peter’s life, beginning with the day he was called from his nets along the Sea of Galilee to become a fisher of men for Jesus.

The New Testament clearly shows Peter as the leader of the apostles, chosen by Jesus to have a special relationship with him. With James and John he was privileged to witness the Transfiguration, the raising of a dead child to life and the agony in Gethsemane. His mother-in-law was cured by Jesus. He was sent with John to prepare for the last Passover before Jesus’ death. His name is first on every list of apostles.

And to Peter only did Jesus say, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:17b-19).

But the Gospels prove their own trustworthiness by the unflattering details they include about Peter. He clearly had no public relations person. It is a great comfort for ordinary mortals to know that Peter also has his human weakness, even in the presence of Jesus.

He generously gave up all things, yet he can ask in childish self-regard, “What are we going to get for all this?” (see Matthew 19:27). He receives the full force of Christ’s anger when he objects to the idea of a suffering Messiah: “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23b).

Peter is willing to accept Jesus’ doctrine of forgiveness, but suggests a limit of seven times. He walks on the water in faith, but sinks in doubt. He refuses to let Jesus wash his feet, then wants his whole body cleansed. He swears at the Last Supper that he will never deny Jesus, and then swears to a servant maid that he has never known the man. He loyally resists the first attempt to arrest Jesus by cutting off Malchus’s ear, but in the end he runs away with the others. In the depth of his sorrow, Jesus looks on him and forgives him, and he goes out and sheds bitter tears. The Risen Jesus told Peter to feed his lambs and his sheep (John 21:15-17).

Paul (d. 64?). If the most well-known preacher today suddenly began preaching that the United States should adopt Marxism and not rely on the Constitution, the angry reaction would help us understand Paul’s life when he started preaching that Christ alone can save us. He had been the most Pharisaic of Pharisees, the most legalistic of Mosaic lawyers. Now he suddenly appears to other Jews as a heretical welcomer of Gentiles, a traitor and apostate.

Paul’s central conviction was simple and absolute: Only God can save humanity. No human effort—even the most scrupulous observance of law—can create a human good which we can bring to God as reparation for sin and payment for grace. To be saved from itself, from sin, from the devil and from death, humanity must open itself completely to the saving power of Jesus.

Paul never lost his love for his Jewish family, though he carried on a lifelong debate with them about the uselessness of the Law without Christ. He reminded the Gentiles that they were grafted on the parent stock of the Jews, who were still God’s chosen people, the children of the promise.

In light of his preaching and teaching skills, Paul’s name has surfaced (among others) as a possible patron of the Internet.

Comment: We would probably go to confession to Peter sooner than to any of the other apostles. He is perhaps a more striking example of the simple fact of holiness. Jesus says to us as he said, in effect, to Peter: “It is not you who have chosen me, but I who have chosen you. Peter, it is not human wisdom that makes it possible for you to believe, but my Father’s revelation. I, not you, build my Church.” Paul’s experience of the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus was the driving force that made him one of the most zealous, dynamic and courageous ambassadors of Christ the Church has ever had. But persecution, humiliation and weakness became his day-by-day carrying of the cross, material for further transformation. The dying Christ was in him; the living Christ was his life.

Vladimir Putin is the Reincarnation of St Paul?!

Well, yes according to one Russian cult:

 

Russia (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cultivates the image of a bare-chested macho man, but a nun-like sect in central Russia thinks actually he’s the reincarnation of St. Paul, the apostle.

Or, if not that, he may in a past life have been the founder of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I say what the Lord has revealed to me,” the sect’s leader, former convict Svetlana Frolova, said.

Putin’s advisers disclaim any link with the sect led by the former railway manager, who was jailed for fraud in 1996.

“He (Putin) does not approve of that kind of admiration,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said by telephone…

Madness!

There is more on these lunatics here.