The confusion over 2 Peter 1:20-21

I wanted to examine this passage with the help of my friend and ancient Greek aficionado, Steve Blackwelder.

Here is the New American Standard Version (NASB) translation of 2 Peter 1:16-18, which sets the backdrop for verse 19-21. The NASB is a pretty close literal translation, and the meaning of verse 16-18 is not disputed in any Bible translation:

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

17 For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased"--

18 and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

Now here is the literal Greek, Romanized translation of verses 19 through 21 (Greek details: circumflex “e” for eta, circumflex “o” for omega, “y” for upsilon by itself, punctuation according to NA27 and GNT4, English semicolon for the Greek raised dot which means the English semicolon),

19 Kai echomen bebaioteron ton prophêtikon logon, hô kalôs poieite prosechontes hôs lychnô phainonti en auchmêrô topô, heôs hou hêmera diaugasê kai phôsphoros anateilê en tais kardiais hymôn,

20 touto prôton ginôskontes hoti pasa prophêteia graphês idias epilyseôs ou ginetai;

21 ou gar thelêmati anthrôpou ênechthê prophêteia pote, alla hypo pneumatos hagiou pheromenoi elalêsan apo theou anthrôpoi.

Here is Steve Blackwelder’s English word for word translation:

19 And we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts,

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of / comes from private interpretation;

21 for not by human will was any prophecy brought, but, being brought along by the Holy Spirit, people spoke.

With help from the Greek New Testament editions NA27 and GNT4, and from the Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker (BAGD) 1979 lexicon, here are some very important translation points:

The text marked as verses 19 through 21 is one very complicated Greek sentence, separated by the equivalent of an English semicolon between 20 and 21. This is extremely awkward style in English, so most translations start a new sentence at verse 20. Nevertheless, verse 20 is not a sentence but is merely a participial phrase; the participle “knowing” is plural, referring back to the plural “you” in 19. Therefore, 20 belongs more with 19 than with 21.

Now let’s look at some individual words.

According to BAGD, all the meanings of the adjective idias (v. 20) translate as “private,” as in “private property,” not as in, “not in the company of others.”

The verb ginetai (v. 20) has many meanings in Greek, mostly translated as something close to either “become/happen” or “is” in English.

In verse 21, the verb ênechthê and the participle pheromenoi are both from the verb pherô (irregular just as go-went-gone is irregular in English), which is translated by forms of “bring,” “bear,” or “carry.” In 21, ênechthê refers to the act of human will, and pheromenoi refers to the act of the Holy Spirit. No form of ginetai occurs in 21.

Now to examine the confusion over 2 Peter 1:20-21 and why these seemingly technical details of ancient Greek matter for understanding the text:

Having established that “private” is referring to ownership, what is the ownership being contrasted to? The one acting privately is clearly contrasted with prophets who were led by the Spirit of God. Using this contrast to understand the meaning of “private”, one could understand 2 Peter 1:20 such that “private” means, “apart from the ownership of God”. Here, the idea of being “brought along by God” is being made equal to the idea that whatever is being brought along is owned by God.

While this understanding of “private” is a correct understanding of the passage, it is a jarring use of the word “private”, since “private” in English means “apart from the presence of other people”. It is on this basis that certain English translations that use the English word “private” have been interpreted by various groups to mean that people should not operate to interpret prophecy or Scripture apart from the community of others, i.e. others in the Church. Here are some translations that lend themselves to this interpretation by using either directly using the English word “private” or something similar that conveys the idea of “apart from other people”.

New American Bible (NAB)

20 Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,

New King James

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

America Standard Version (ASV)

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.

The idea that the passage is referring to “private” as “apart from other people” is an incorrect interpretation of the passage, and it is for this reason that most English Bible translations translate “private interpretation” as “one’s own interpretation”, which brings an English speaker closer to the true meaning of the text.

Now here is the next major source of confusion on this passage. The Greek verb ginetai can either be interpreted “is” or “comes from”. How one translates ginetai will decide whether A) the passage is talking about interpretation as part and parcel with the very same act of generating a prophecy or B) whether the passage is talking about generating an interpretation of a prophecy, as something that is done to a prophecy that is a separate act from originally uttering the prophecy.

If the Greek verb ginetai for this passage is taken to mean “comes from” as meaning “is generated from”, 2 Peter 1:20 would then be discussing the act of generating prophecy through the very act of interpreting something.

The English Standard Version (ESV) tries to convey this idea

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.

21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

First, here’s the strength of this line of understanding 2 Peter 1:20-21. There is a clear parallel that Peter is making with “private interpretation” in verse 20 and “the will of man” in verse 21. One thing is linked strongly to the other with the word "for" that starts verse 21, and it is plain that Peter intends the reader to understand verse 20 with what is provided in verse 21. Here in these verses, both "private interpretation" and "the will of man" are contrasted with the manner in which the men were led by the Spirit of God. At first glance, the text lends itself to the possibility that the act of applying one’s own private interpretation to prophecy is synonymous with the act of applying one’s human will to make a prophecy come about.

Now here is the problem with this line of understanding the passage. As mentioned earlier, the verb ginetai that is used in verse 19 is not the same as the verbs that are used in verse 20 to mean “brought about”. Peter could have said that no prophecy is “brought about” by private interpretation if he wanted to convey the idea that prophecy originated from interpretation.

If one interprets the passage to mean that no true prophecy “comes from” one’s own interpretation, does the true prophecy therefore come some sort of God-ordained interpretation? To examine the question further, if the passage is saying that prophecy does not come from one’s own interpretation, the passage is implying either one of two things: A) there is, in fact, a God-owned and God-assisted form of interpretation that a prophet is endowed with to produce a prophecy or B) that trying interpret something—whatever it is (current events, the future, God’s will, etc…)— merely a false and inappropriate way for one to try to begin to generate a prophecy.

In regard to A), this seems very unlikely, since the idea of being “brought along” by God does not leave any room for an act of interpretation by the prophet under the auspices of God. In other words, to create a prophecy, a prophet is not engaging in an act of interpretation (except perhaps in the case of Joseph) but is hearing something first hand from God. This does not exclude the possibility that someone might be brought along later by God to interpret an already existing prophecy.

In regard to B), while it is true that many in the pagan world at the time of Peter did try to “interpret” various things to try to know the future, this is specifically an act of “divination”. There is a separate Greek word mantike for “divination” that Peter could have used. The idea of B) is also jarring because “interpretation” is an act that looks backwards, and is done to something that already exists or has already happened. One interprets the meaning of something that is already available to be interpreted. Having eliminated the possibility of “divination”, it is unlikely that there is any point of reference in the ancient world whereby Peter’s readers would have understood what someone could possibly try to interpret in order to create a prophecy.

Now here is another weakness if one understands 2 Peter 1:20 to mean “no prophecy comes from one’s own interpretation. If one translates the passage using “comes from”, the passage would hypothetically suppose that the “prophecies of Scripture” could still come about. The use of the present tense would imply that “prophecy of Scripture” would mean “prophecy whether past, present or future that is worthy to be included in Scripture”. Here, one could argue that Peter affirms Paul’s writing as Scripture later in 2 Peter 3:16, and that perhaps, Peter is open to the idea that Scripture-writing prophecy might be a continuing phenomenon.

The problem with applying this idea to 2 Peter 1:20, is that the context that immediately precedes in verse 19 is about past prophecies, wherein “the word of the prophets”/or “the prophetic word” is presented as a single, past unit. Furthermore, as Steve Blackwelder pointed out at the beginning, verse 20 is a continuation of the Greek sentence that began in verse 19. It is for this reason that the thing that one is to understand about “prophecy of Scripture” is to apply directly to the “word of the prophets”.

In addition to what immediately precedes verse 20, in verse 21 Peter says “for not by human will was any prophecy brought, but, being brought along by the Holy Spirit, people spoke”. If Peter wanted to indicate the possibility that prophecies of Scripture could still come about, he could have used the present tense to say “for no prophecy ever comes about by human will, but men of God have been carried along by the Spirit”.

Even granting the possibility that Peter recognized his contemporary, Paul, as writing Scripture and that Peter recognized a contemporary “gift of prophecy”, Peter’s clear use of the past tense in the immediate context surrounding verse 20 seems to indicate that, for the purpose of making his point in verse 20, he is referring to acts of prophesying that lie squarely in the past and that have been recorded in Scripture, and not ones that could hypothetically occur in the present and/or future.

If one concludes that it is a stronger idea that “prophecy of Scripture” in verse 20 is referring to the already-recorded prophecies in what where already commonly regarded at the time as “Scripture”, then one must work backwards from this conclusion to say that generating an interpretation of a prophecy—an act spoken of in the present tense— is a separate act from generating the prophecy. Based on this, one must interpret the Greek word ginetai in the direction of “is of”.

Now here is the New International Version (NIV),

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.

21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Here is where the NIV tries to split the difference. The NIV translators recognized that “prophecy of Scripture” is referring squarely to the past. At the same time, the NIV translators didn’t want to translate ginetai as “is of”. Straddling these interests, the NIV translators took ginetai out of its original the present tense and translated it into past tense, “came about”, thereby implying the idea that the prophets in the past were not guilty of a bad form of interpretation when they spoke their prophecies.

If 2 Peter 1:20 is translated with ginetai as “is of” as opposed to “comes from”, then 2 Peter 1:20 is discussing the act of interpreting a prophecy as an act of claiming some sort of dominion over a prophecy that already exists and not an act of trying to create a prophecy. In this understanding, the text would be best understood as “no prophecy belongs to one’s own interpretation”.

If one goes with this line of understanding, it begs the question, what would it mean to for a prophecy to “belong to” someone’s interpretation? The closest meaning for the idea that a prophecy is under someone’s “interpretive dominion”, would be that someone would have the authority or dominion to declare the definitive meaning of/ and or fulfillment of a prophecy. If this is true, saying “no prophecy of Scripture is of one’s own private interpretation” to communicate this idea is an annoying and vague way to do it. Leaving open the possibility that Peter’s readers might have understood what he meant, saying “no prophecy is of one’s own private interpretation” to mean “no prophecy belongs to/is under the dominion of one’s own interpretation” is jarring to 21st century ears. The confusion over this passage is further compounded by the fact that Peter could have used other Greek words to more clearly convey this idea, had he meant to.

That is why most Bible translations of 2 Peter 1:20 translate the passage with “is a matter of” to make the idea of “interpretive dominion” a possible interpretation without totally committing to the idea. In English “is a matter of” is used to imply the idea of jurisdiction over something and/or creation of something in a vague way. For example, if an issue “is a matter of jurisprudence”, it conveys the idea that jurisprudence is involved in an authoritative way on the issue without clearly stating how that authority is exercised.

As Steve Blackwelder points out, it's important to note that ginetai is a form of ginomai; In the entry for ginomai, BAGD supports “is a matter of” specifically for verse 20 in ginomai II 2 a, page 160, left column, bottom. Here is a sampling of other Bible translations that translate ginetai as “is a matter of”

NAB

20 Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,

21 for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.

NASB

20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,

21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

If we operate on an understanding of ginetai as meaning “is a matter of”, implying the idea of “interpretive dominion”, the best way to understand 2 Peter 1:20 in the context of verse 21 would be this: the act of attempting to claim “interpretive dominion” over a prophecy apart from God’s leading, would be akin to – but not exactly the same as— attempting to generate a prophecy from human will. In other words, both would be applications of human will oriented toward related but different acts.

In other words, Peter would be saying that there is a bad way to interpret a prophecy whereby one tries to operate on one’s own authority to apply one’s human will to produce an interpretation. If we understand, verse 20 in this way, what is said negative can be inverted into something good – that there is a good way to interpret a prophecy, whereby one’s interpretation is being brought along by God. If verse 20 is inverted into something positive, Peter would then be making a parallel between A) the possibility that one could be brought along by God in the present day to interpret a prophecy and B) the past acts of the prophets who where brought along by God to originally speak the prophecy.

Having explored the ramifications of translating the 2 Peter 1:20 use of ginetai as either “comes from” or “is of”, and given that there are annoying elements to interpreting the Greek verb either way, one must look to the immediate context of the rest of the passage to see which is favored.

Again, the central thrust of the passage is Peter refuting the idea that he and the other apostles had cleverly fabricated the Gospel. Peter is not addressing a lack of confidence that exists on the part of his readers in regard to the validity of the prophets of old. If there were any question of that, there wouldn't be a consensus among his readers as to what the Scriptures even were. Rather, Peter is seeking to buttress the readers confidence in him as an eyewitness among other eyewitnesses to the voice of God proclaiming Jesus to be the Son of God.

Peter is claiming that what he has witnessed is buttressed by the “word of the prophets”, thereby making himself distinct from the prophets, as a group. At the same time, Peter is also claiming the authority as a messenger/apostle to proclaim that he has witnessed the fulfillment of prophecy, and that the prophecies of Scripture are the backdrop to what he has witnessed. In sum, Peter is making his authority to proclaim revelation of God that is co-equal to that of the prophets, without necessarily making his title as an apostle/messenger co-equal to the title of being a prophet.

While the word “prophet” is used throughout Scripture to have a broader meaning than simply “foreteller of the future”, it is “foreteller of the future” that is central to the meaning of “prophet” in 2 Peter. While the prophets had the unique role of speaking of the future, Peter is speaking of an event that is the fulfillment of what had been spoken by them.

It is with this understanding that one can deal with 2 Peter 1:20-21 as a principle that Peter offers to buttress his authority and counter the charge that he has fabricated a clever story. Being that Peter has declared the fulfillment of prophecy under the title of eyewitness, Peter is exercising a sort of “interpretive dominion” over the prophecies of the past. In other words, the prophecy of Scripture is of Peter’s interpretation in the sense that it is a matter that Peter is worthy to authoritatively address. Of course, it is not of Peter’s interpretation on Peter’s own authority, but it is of Peter’s interpretation on the authority of God and what Peter directly witnessed from God.

Peter, operating not “privately” but via the direction of God, is not taking interpretive dominion over the prophecy as an act of his human will apart from God. It is the sense of being an eyewitness to the miraculous fulfillment of prophecy that Peter has been lead by the God in a manner akin to the prophets. In other words, as the prophets were led by the Spirit to speak the prophecy, so too is Peter being led by God to be an eyewitness of the fulfillment of the prophecy.

To sum it up, Peter’s logic in 2 Peter 1:16-21, re-worked by me, is as follows:

A) I, Peter, have witnessed God declaring Jesus as His Son
B) the prophets foretold that this would happen
C) the prophets were led by the Spirit of God, and did not dream up these prophecies on their own steam.
D) in like manner that the prophets didn’t generate the prophecies on their own steam in the past, neither can people in the present day properly interpret these prophecies of Scripture on their own steam apart from the leading of God.
D) Unlike people who would try to interpret these prophecies apart from the leading of God, I, Peter have been led by God to be a reliable witness to the fulfillment of the prophets’ prophecies in like manner that those prophets were led by God to utter their prophecies.
E) Therefore, I, Peter, am not making up cleverly invented stories.

I'm not saying that this is the definitive answer to the meaning of 2 Peter 2:19-20, but it's my best crack at it.

Post Script

Here is a sampling of the many translations that are “all over the map” on this passage:

TRANSLATIONS TRYING TO BE NEUTRAL BY USING “IS OF”

New King James

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God[c] spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

America Standard Version

20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of private interpretation.

21 For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit

TRANSLATIONS THAT INTERPRET GINETAI AS “IS OF” AS MEANING “IS A MATTER OF” WHICH WOULD INCLUDE THE IDEA OF “INTERPRETIVE DOMINION”

NAB

20 Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation,

21 for no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.

NASB

20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,

21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Contemporary English Version

20 But you need to realize that no one alone can understand any of the prophecies in the Scriptures.

21 The prophets did not think these things up on their own, but they were guided by the Spirit of God.

TRANSLATIONS THAT INTERPRET GINETAI AS “COMES FROM”
MEANING “IS GENERATED FROM”

NIV

20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.

21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

ESV

20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation.
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Here is a sampling of other attempts to exegete 2 Peter 1:20-21. You’ll see that they’re all over the map too.

This commentator The commentator argues that the prophets of did not try to interpret the current events of their day to predict the future.

This commentator says that Catholics understand 2 Peter 1:20-21 as indicating that they should use the Catholic Church to properly understand Scripture. He then goes on to say that verse 20 is talking about the origin of prophecy and therefore is not talking about its interpretation.

This commentator says that a believer should be careful and humble about how he approaches trying to interpret a prophecy, since he may very well be wrong.

This commentator uses 2 Peter 1:20-21 to make a point about the God-authorship of all of Scripture.

This commentator says that it requires the community of faith to interpret prophecy.

to judge or not to judge

Continuing on in 1 Corinthians 3:16-22 and 4:1-7,

In this passage we are confronted with a frequent hallmark of Paul’s writing. As is true throughout Romans with the word “law”, throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the same word “judge” to mean different things in different areas of the text, either good or bad. In the following passage in 1 Corinthians, Paul is clearly talking about a bad form of judging. To grasp the nature of this bad form of judging, one must look carefully at the immediate context.

(NIV)
16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

Paul is talking about anyone who operates destructively in the lives and faith of the collective body of believers. In the context, Paul is talking about the ways in which the Corinthians are promoting strife and divisions amongst each other. It is this act of destroying the church that is antithetical the “house building” that will build the church (see 1 Corinthians 3:1-15).

18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; 20 and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." 21 So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

“All things are yours”. In other words, all truth, eternity and goodness belong to the Corinthians through Christ and Christ alone. Therefore, a Corinthian need not try to treat truth, eternity and goodness as though they were only to found in his allegiance to one earthly leader verses his allegiance to another. Each Corinthian who was loyal to one earthly leader over another was operating out of the selfishness of trying to “corner the market” on all truth and goodness by ascribing all goodness and truth as belonging exclusively to his chosen leader. As a Corinthian operated this way, he was also vicariously elevating himself above those other Corinthians who were not following that leader. It is this clever concealed self-aggrandizing that Paul is criticizing as the “wisdom of the world”.

1 Corinthians 4

1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.

Here, “us” would include Paul, Apollos or Cephas (Peter). The Corinthians were to treat the apostles merely as agents of Christ’s truth and goodness and not as sources of Christ’s truth and goodness. While the context for the Corinthians is specifically referring to the apostles, the principle could apply to any other spiritual man or mature believer who was operating with the “wisdom of the mature”. It is the “wisdom the mature” that is the “secret” that has been hitherto withheld (see 1 Corinthians 2:7).

2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

While it is true the Paul has been given a special “trust” as an apostle, the principle that “those who have been given a trust must prove faithful” applies to anyone. It is on the basis of the “trust” that each has been given, whether great or small, that all will be judged (See Luke 12:48). The question of whether one has been faithful to the “trust” that he has been given from God will be answered by only by God. At the “appointed time”, “when the Lord comes”, each person will given a judgment on how he has executed the trust that God has given him. When this judgment is made, all hidden things and hidden motives will be revealed and people will be given a final judgment in regard to their status before God and in regard to the relation to one another before God.

In the context of this passage, each Corinthian's act of elevating one leader above another was an improper act of “judging for finality”. As a Corinthian was determining the status of one leader over another in his mind in order to debate and quarrel about it, he was determining the status of one leader over another as though it were something that could be determined in a fixed and final way. In this way, a Corinthian was guilty of arguing over each leader’s ultimate status before God in relation to the other leaders. By doing so, a Corinthian was trespassing in judgment by usurping the timing and authority of God to “judge for finality” in regard to the "trust" that had been given any particular leader.

To confront this improper act judging among the Corinthians, Paul thoroughly dismisses any assessment of status or worth that any particular Corinthian has assigned to him, as he would reject any assessment of him that had been arrived at by a “human court”.

So what does it mean to “judge nothing”? It is on the basis of carefully analyzing the context that “judge nothing” in this passage means, “judge nothing whose judgment is reserved for the final day of judgment”. In other words a believer should not bring the judgment that will be rendered at the end of time back into the present pre-maturely. To mince it into something even more specific, “judge nothing”, means, “judge nothing about people for the particular purpose of making final judgments about them and how they have executed the trust that God has given each of them”.

This narrow interpretation may seem jarring due to Paul’s use of neuter “do not judge anything” is neutered in Greek, and “anything” is an awfully broad category. However, the immediate context of this passage, this interpretation is demanded by the context of Paul’s other writings that affirm other forms of temporally administered judgment by believers.

In the category of acceptable forms of judging, there are forms of judgement that Paul affirms that are not
A) tantamount to evaluating people’s ultimate standing before God
B) operating out of self-aggrandizing impulses and
C) not causing un-necessary strife and divisions in the church.

Earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Paul has affirmed the spiritual man who is instructed by the “mind of Christ” and makes “judgments in all things”. As I elaborated on in my explanation of “house building” regarding 1 Corinthians 3:1-15, the act of building on the “foundation” involves the act of making careful judgments. Later in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13, Paul discusses judging those in the church who are passing themselves off as brothers while at the same time being openly unrepentant of their immorality. Paul affirms the practice of believers judging these men for the explicit purpose of avoiding them and expelling them from the church.

The common denominator of these acts of judgment that are affirmed by Paul is that they are applications of the truth of the Gospel wherein the Gospel being used as the plumb line to evaluate a person or situation or to understand something for the express benefit of building up and/or protecting the church.

6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Here “what is written” would refer most centrally, though not exclusively, to the Old Testament Scripture. For the purpose of application “what is written” can refer to any Old or New Testament Scripture, including what Paul “has written” to the Corinthians.

“Do not go beyond what is written” means “do not go beyond the boundaries of man’s true nature and the reality of his neediness and dependence on God and his ultimate judgment before God as these things are outlined in Scripture”. It is upon this understanding derived from “what is written” that God, and not any particular man, is the source of goodness. It is by using this truth that is contained in Scripture as the plumb line to evaluate men in this way that the Corinthians will understand that men are not sources of goodness, but are, rather, at best, only agents of God’s goodness who exist to serve God.

It is upon this understanding, derived from “what is written” (particularly what Paul has plainly written in 1 Corinthians) that the Corinthians will know the source of what they have “received” and will not boast about their allegiance to any particular man. By avoiding the false understanding that a particular leader is the source of goodness, a Corinthian will avoid the error of esteeming his own ability to make a judgment of that leader in that regard. By avoiding this error, a Corinthian will avoid living vicariously through that leader to self-aggrandize and will avoid the error of making himself, secondarily, into the source of goodness.

"House Building" on the Foundation

(this post was significantly re-worked on 12-28-06)

Both cessationists and continuationists hold that believers have an ongoing role to play in building on the “foundation” that Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, says that he has laid. The questions at the heart of the cessationist/continuationist debate are these: What, exactly, is the foundation? What is nature of our ongoing role as believers to build on the foundation? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in this building process?

To begin to answer these, I want to continue on from examination of 1 Corinthians 2 and examine what Paul has said in both 1 Corinthians 3:1-15 and in Ephesians 2:19-22.

1 Corinthians 3 (New International Version)

1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.

2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.Indeed, you are still not ready.

3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds.

11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,

13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.

14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.

15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Here, the “foundation” in this passage has the aspect of being A) Jesus Christ Himself and B) Paul’s ministry about “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (back in 1 Corinthians 2:2) in power to the Corinthians. “Jesus Christ and him crucified” understood as the "foundation" is oriented specifically around the rudiments that Paul taught and demonstrated about Jesus Christ – His teaching and life on earth, the doctrine of who He is and the salvation that He offers, and the grace and power of His presence.

To the Corinthians, their rudimentary understanding of the foundation of their faith in Jesus Christ is the “milk” that Paul refers to in verse 2 above. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, the “wisdom of the mature” (wisdom that belongs to mature, spiritual men that involves them making “judgments about all things”), is made distinct from Paul’s conspicuous lack of avoiding any display of his own judgments and knowledge.

Initially, Paul operated with a conspicuous lack of his own judgments and knowledge among the Corinthians to preach “Christ and him crucified” and to be the vehicle for the Spirit’s power to be demonstrated for the Corinthians.In parallel form, In 1 Corinthians 3:2, the “solid food” is made distinct from the “milk” given to babes, which can be interpreted as the doctrinal basics of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” that Paul preached to the new Corinthian believers. It is for this reason that Paul’s discussion of the “wisdom of the mature” is related to understanding the “solid food”.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says that he laid down the basic teachings on Christ and him crucified, which he laid as an "expert builder". As is obvious in chapter 3, the Corinthians were in a crisis of "leader idolatry" and needed to understand their proper relationship to their leaders, and to begin to understand what is involved in being a leader. To confront this crisis, Paul, in chapter 2 has first outlined the "wisdom of the mature" as a general principle as the gospel taken beyond its rudiments and applied to the understanding of "all things". Then, in chapter 3, Paul begins to apply this "wisdom of the mature" to confront this particular crisis in the Corinthian church. In this way, Paul lays the first "housebuilding" brick, adding teaching onto the foundation he has already laid, which is the basic teachings of "Jesus Christ and him crucified".

In chapter 3, Paul applies the "wisdom of the mature" to begin to confront their "leader idolatry" and then outlines what is involved in being a Godly leader. It is my interpretation 1 Corinthians 2 and 3, understood as related passages, that the process of one operating as a leader in chapter 3 is a result of the leader applying the "wisdom of the mature" as it is defined in chapter 2. As Paul's application of the wisdom of the mature in the specific regard to "leader idolatry" is in the category of "solid food", so too is any leader's application of the wisdom of the mature in the category of "solid food".

As I elaborated on in my discussion of 1 Corinthians 2, in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, the “wisdom of the mature” is the ongoing process of a mature believer being instructed by the ”mind of Christ” to understand “all things” in order to understand “what has been freely given” (1 Corinthians 2:13). The mature believer who discerns the ongoing instruction from the mind of Christ is able to make “judgments about all things”.

With this understanding of how chapters 2 and 3 fit together, the understanding of “all things” (chapter 2) is given to a mature believer for him to understand the foundation so that the mature believer is able to then build on the foundation. With this understanding, this act of building on the foundation is connected to Jesus Christ in two different aspects:

A) The act of building on the foundation is connected to Jesus Christ as the foundation Himself in the sense that 1) Jesus Christ's essense as He so demonstrated by His life on earth and 2) His teachings and the doctrine about Him as “Christ and him Crucified” are both aspects of the foundation. Here, the truth of Jesus Christ in essence, incarnation, teaching and doctrine is the foundational plumb line for any and all subsequent building.

B) The act of building on the foundation is connected to Jesus Christ as the “mind of Christ”, the living Person who continually instructs the mature on how to build on the foundation.

In regard to the “we” and “you” division in verse 9, Paul makes a distinction between, he, Apollos and the other leaders who are currently providing the labor as God’s servants— the “we”, and those whom Paul is addressing who had been receiving and benefiting from that leadership – the “you”. However, Paul said back in verse 5 that the “… as the Lord has assigned to each his task", where the word "each" is being used to modify the word "servants". In this passage Paul is describing the ongoing role of a particular type of servanthood to the church.

It is on the basis of verse 5 that it can be interpreted that the task “house building” on the foundation is something that all believers are eventually held accountable to as they progress from “milk” to “solid food”. In other words, the “we” and “you” distinction that is made in verse 9 to separate Paul and Apollos from the Corinthian readers, is being made only because the Corinthians are still immature, and not because the role of “house building” on the foundation is somehow limited merely to Paul, Apollos, or the Corinthians’ current leader/pastor.

While “house building” on the foundation is primarily the act of providing executive leadership to the church, it also encompasses any capacity of judgment making that affects the development of the church. While Paul is unique among workers as the foundation layer, Paul, Apollos, or any “spiritual man” or any who is among the “mature”, participates with God in developing the church as God’s fellow workers according to the task that God has assigned to him.

For some this will mean the act of building directly on the foundation as pastors and leaders. To the extent that other mature believers are not building directly on the foundation in an executive fashion, participating in the building process will mean operating with influence in the lives of others and critically evaluating how the church is being led based on whether their leader is properly building on the foundation. In whatever capacity believers are participating in the “house building”, as builders or evaluators, Paul’s message on building on the foundation is germane to all.

Whether directly building, influencing or critically evaluating, all are ways of participating in the building process as “mature” believers who are partaking of “solid food”. It is in operating as “house builders” according to Paul’s direction that a believer A) avoids deviating from the sound doctrine of Jesus Christ and the living Person of Jesus Christ and B) succeeds in putting a leader in proper perspective and not elevating one leader as someone higher than who he is. Though there are many possible forms of hay and straw that can be interpreted from this passage, it is these two errors that are most easily discernable from the immediate context of 1 Corinthians, chapters 2 and 3 as being part of the "gold", "hay", "straw" etc... that mature believers are to shun as they engage in the building process.

Paul’s use of the metaphors of plants in a field and of a building describe the relationship between God and mature believers as they work together to develop the church through time. As Paul has laid down the foundation, mature believers continue in the process of “house building” the church, operating in the understanding of their relationship with God that Paul has described in both of his metaphors.While Paul’s “plant” metaphor particularly emphasizes the power and agency of God in the midst of the believer’s “house building” labor, Paul’s “building” metaphor particularly emphasizes the involvement of a believer’s use of his judgment in the act of “house building”. Actual building and construction, when taken into account as a trade, involves skill, judgment and measurement.

Moving on to examine a parallel passage regarding the “foundation” in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:19-22

19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household,

20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.

22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

In Ephesians, the "building"/"foundation" metaphor involves Christ as having the roles, metaphorically, of being the cornerstone, the mortar, the brick developer and the architect who makes the building "rise to become a holy temple in the Lord".

So how do the building/foundation metaphors in Ephesians and in 1 Corinthians fit together? First let’s examine how they’re different. There the obvious way in which the foundation metaphor in Ephesians is expanded beyond "Jesus Christ and him crucified" to include all of the prophets (Paul is referring to the Old Testament prophets, not those within the New Testament church with the “gift of prophecy”) and the apostles. The foundation metaphor in Ephesians is more oriented around the idea that the housebuilding “bricks” are people, built as the church, collectively. In 1 Corinthians, the foundation metaphor is more oriented around the housebuilding “bricks” as teachings that are built on the rudiments of "Jesus Christ and him crucified".

Now here is how these two foundation metaphors blend together. For starters, in 1 Corinthians, Paul says that the "foundation" is Jesus Christ the Person, and not merely Paul’s teaching about Jesus Christ. And, in Ephesians, there are aspects of the building process that involve the agency of the person of Jesus Christ that relates to what is described in 1 Corinthians 3.

While it is the agency of God's power to grow the church that is the reflected in the "plant" metaphor in 1 Corinthians, it is the agency of Jesus' ongoing executive direction that is reflected in the manner in which Jesus enables the "whole building to rise into a holy temple". It is my interpretation of the blend of Ephesians and 1 Corinthians, that Jesus, as the architect in Ephesians who makes the "whole building rise into a holy temple", is also the "general contractor" who assigns the “tasks” to servants as described in 1 Corinthians 3:5.

Now here is how I interpret the blend of these passages specifically in regard to the “wisdom of the mature”. The role of Jesus as “architect” as described in Ephesians, is the same role of Jesus as the “mind of Christ” that provides ongoing instruction to the “mature” who "make judgments in all things". In regard to building on the foundation, it is the ongoing grace of Jesus, operating as the "mind of Christ" in His agency to build on the foundation, that helps those who are making "judgments in all things": this, so that those making judgments will make the judgments that will successfully build on the foundation in the manner that Paul has described in 1 Corinthians 3.

My extrapolations

As Paul was instructed by the "mind of Christ" to lay the foundation and the first bricks to confront the particular problems facing the Corinthians at that time, so too do believers need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to correctly appropriate the truth of the Gospel to understand confront new and various times and situations that different people face and that different generations face so that everything that the church is confronted with in time is understood properly in light of the revealed truth of the Gospel. It is in this process that the church is successfully developed from one generation to the next, and the foundation that was laid 2000 years about is properly built upon.

As the spiritual man is endowed with this grace of illumination, the spiritual man is able to “house build” with precision with God to build the church. It is the quality of how a man is continually operating in this grace by learning all things from the “mind of Christ” that determines whether he will be able to make the correct judgments that will faithfully “house build” on the foundation that has been laid. It is the quality of each believer’s endeavor of “house building” that will be judged at the end of time. At that time, each believer’s endeavor of “house building” on the foundation will be judged according whether it conforms to the cornerstone and to the foundation and it will be judged whether the material used to build is consistent with purity, precision, direction and intent of Jesus Christ via the Holy Spirit.

Post Script – “Solas Fundas”

All of this leads us to the other major question that is at the heart of the cessationist/continuationist debate in regard to this discussion of the “foundation”: What is the nature of the exclusivity of Scripture? Does that exclusivity preclude any ongoing guidance from the Holy Spirit?

While the “foundation” metaphor in Ephesians is more oriented towards people than is the foundation metaphor in 1 Corinthians, the “foundation” metaphor in Ephesians nonetheless has a strong aspect to it that involves the teaching of the Prophets, Apostles and Jesus. To the extent that the “foundation” metaphor in Ephesians involves the teachings of the Prophets, Apostles and Jesus, the question is this: how does the "foundation", understood as the teachings of the Prophets, Apostles and Jesus, fit in with the 1 Corinthians idea of the "foundation" as the rudimentary teaching about “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” ?

If the “wisdom of the mature” is defined according to 1 Corinthians as the act of one being instructed by the "mind of Christ" to appropriate the rudiments of “Jesus Christ and him crucified” to make judgements on sundry specific issues and crises in the church, then the “foundation” that is described in Ephesians would include any and all applications of this “wisdom of the mature” by the apostles. In other words, the Ephesians “foundation” metaphor recognizes the foundational aspect of all the applications of the “wisdom of the mature” by the apostles, even as they are the “first bricks” laid on the foundation understood in 1 Corinthians as “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.”

As I explained in my post on 1 Corinthians 2, Paul has outlined the “wisdom of the mature” as an endeavor for the “mature” and the “spiritual man” and not merely for the apostles and prophets. It is on this basis that the understanding of “the wisdom of the mature” in 1 Corinthians – which is being instructed by the "mind of Christ" to appropriate the rudimentary understanding of “Chris and him crucified” to confront specific issues that the church is confronted with – can be amplified as the ongoing act of being instructed by the "mind of Christ" to appropriate all of the teachings of the Prophets, Apostles and Jesus to confront specific issues and crises facing the church.

In other words, the “foundation” metaphor in Ephesians can be understood to broaden the 1 Corinthians “foundation” in regard to what is the foundation on which the “wisdom of the mature” is to be applied. It is in this sense that the “wisdom of the mature” -- the ongoing act of being instructed by the mind of Christ to appropriate all of the teachings of the Prophets, Apostles and Jesus to confront specific issues and crises facing the church— is an ongoing practice among believers.

While this is so, it is the particular applications of the “wisdom of the mature” among the apostles in the first century that have the unique status of being understood as part of the “foundation” and thus, along with the teaching of the prophets and Jesus, comprise our Bible canon. Even as this is so, there is no indication that the process of being instructed by the mind of Christ to apply the wisdom of the mature has ended. As the "wisdom of the mature" has not ended, neither has the guidance of the Spirit of God that is involved in the "wisdom of the mature" and the discernment of that guidance ended .

In regard to the Reformation idea of “Sola Scriptura”, the “Sola”/the “exclusivity” /the “only” that can be substantiated regarding the Scripture directly from Paul’s writing in Ephesians would be that of “Solas Fundas”, which is Latin for “The Only Foundation”. As “Solas Fundas” relates to the hotly debated question of the exclusivity and uniqueness of the Bible canon, what makes the New Testament Bible canon unique as a Bible canon is that it comprises the complete understanding of the Foundation.

Is 2 Timothy 3:16-17 a basis for cessationism?

I want to revisit the cessationist/continuationist debate as it relates to 2 Timothy 3:16-17. To begin, here is the New American Bible (1991) version of 2 Timothy: 10-17, which is a very close literal word for word translation of the original Greek.

10 You followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance,

11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, persecutions that I endured. Yet from all these things the Lord delivered me.

12 In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

13 But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived.

14 But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it,

15 and that from infancy you have known (the) sacred scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

17 so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

To begin to examine this passage, I want to first deal with the question, what are the "scriptures”? Specifically, in verse 15, which says “…and that from infancy you have known the sacred scriptures…”, Paul is referring to the training in the Torah and Prophets that Timothy would have received as a Jewish boy. As for verse 16, which says “all scripture”, “scripture” here would have the central meaning of being the Old Testament Torah and Prophets, though the Old Testament Torah and Prophets would not be the exclusive meaning. For the purpose of discussing and applying verses 16 and 17, the “scriptures” in this passage in Timothy can be safely amplified to include Old and New Testament Scriptures.

Cessationists who use this passage as an argument for cessationism interpret verses 16 and 17 to mean that the Scriptures, and not the ongoing leading/guidance of the Holy Spirit is to be the sole source of guiding a believer. To the cessationist, relying on anything other than the chapter-verse of Scripture challenges the self-sufficiency of Scripture, which cessationists interpret from this passage. For a cessationist, if Scripture is capable of being used to teach, correct and rebuke to make one competent, equipped for every good work, why would one need any ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit?

To confront this cessationist interpretation of 2 Timothy 3:16-17, in the verses that precede it going back to verse 10, Paul lists his teaching, way of life , purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance. These things all comprise “what you [Timothy] have learned and believed” in verse 14. After Paul admonishes Timothy to remain faithful to what he has learned and followed, Paul adds, “and that from infancy you have known the Scriptures”, thereby establishing the Scriptures as something that is complementary to all that Timothy has learned, believed and followed.

In regard to Paul’s list in verse 10, Paul refers to his “way of life”. Paul clearly intends his “way of life” to be a “way” that extends to others beyond Paul and not merely to be Paul’s life as a unique specimen in history. Paul’s way of life is inseparable from Paul’s “teaching” and, therefore, any aspect of Paul’s teaching is intended to be complementary to Timothy’s understanding of Scripture, along with Paul’s way of life. Timothy would have been exposed to Paul’s teaching as it is represented throughout the NT epistles, which include Paul’s teachings on the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, Paul’s experience of the Holy Spirit would have been inseparable from Paul’s “faith” in the broader understanding of Paul’s way of life as a temporal endeavor of relating to God.

A cessationist could try to argue that the “you” in verses 10 and in verses 14 and 15 were exclusive only to Timothy . A cessationist could argue that only Timothy would have directly known and followed Paul and only Timothy would know Paul personally to have learned directly from him (verse 14). From this point of interpretation, a cessationist could argue that the substance of verses 10 and 14 were only for Timothy, and were not intended to be time-transcendent teachings for all believers.

To begin to confront the problem with this line of interpretation, In 2 Timothy, Paul cannot have been guiding Timothy to hold to the Scriptures apart from the ongoing experience of the Holy Spirit, which was clearly part of Paul’s way of life and woven into his teaching. The “but” in verse 14 that Paul uses to distinguish Timothy from the “wicked people and charlatans” in verse 13 is a contrast that Paul also intends to refer back to “all who want to live religiously for Christ Jesus” (verse 12), whom Paul has also contrasted with “wicked people and charlatans”. It is "all who want to live religiously [or 'live a Godly life' as some translations have it] for Christ Jesus" who must distinguish themselves from the “wicked people and charlatans” by following Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance as must Timothy, as it is Timothy’s charge to pass on Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance to others.

Of course it is true that all believers throughout the ages beyond Timothy would not have the benefit of having followed Paul in person or having known Paul in a personal way. This does not mean that the principle of the text does not apply to all believers to the extent that believers are capable of knowing about Paul, or the other apostles, from Scripture and church tradition. To the extent that Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance can be known, all believers are to remain faithful to what they have learned and believed about it.

In the context of the passage taken as a whole, Scripture is complementary to Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance for the benefit of Timothy and any other believer. It is this understanding – that Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance is complementary to Scripture– that explains how the application of Scripture --as it is used for teaching, correcting and rebuking –is useful for making a believer “competent”. It is the one who, like Timothy, follows Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance who is capable of applying the Scripture correctly in the act of teaching, rebuking and correcting.

The cessationist who uses this passage as an argument for cessationism, however, does not emphasize the complementary relationship between Scripture and Paul’s teaching, way of life , purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance to interpret this passage. Rather, the aforementioned cessationist emphasizes the slight change of tone that happens when Paul stops directly addressing Tim directly and begins a new sentence in verse 16 that speaks directly of a principle regarding Scripture. It is this slight change of tone, beginning a new sentence that is part of the basis for a cessationist interpretation of the passage that verses 16 and 17 are more time-transcendent than the verses 10 and 14 that were addressed specifically to Timothy.

Here, the aforementioned cessationist works backward from the idea of being equipped for every good work and reads 2 Tim 3:16 and 17 to mean that the Scripture is “exclusively useful” for being used for teaching rebuking and correcting. It is this cessationist understanding that the application of Scripture for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training will preclude the need for a believer to be guided and/or illumined by the Holy Spirit beyond the canonized chapter-verse of Scripture. This cessationist idea from 2 Tim 3:16 that the Scripture is “exclusively useful” is another way of saying that the Scripture is “self-sufficient” as a cessationist understands that term.

I examined some different translations of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 with the help of my friend Steve Blackwelder, who is knowledgeable in New Testament Greek. For these verses, the NAB (as featured at the top of this post) is very close to the original Greek:

16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

New English Bible (1970), also close to the original Greek says,

16 Every inspired Scripture has its use for teaching the truth and refuting error, or for reformation of manners and discipline in right living, 17 so that the man who belongs to God may be efficient and equipped for good work of every kind.

New American Standard Bible (1977) also very close the original Greek says,

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

There are other translations of the Bible which amplify the word “competent” with the idea of being “thoroughly competent” or some other equivalent. Here is the King James Bible:

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Regarding the word “perfect” in verse 17 here in the KJV, according a footnote in the Nestle-Alande Novum Testamentum Graece, 27th edition (1993) of the Greek text, the Greek artios, which modern translations translate as “adequate” or “competent”, is in most of the ancient manuscripts that have this verse. Some later ancient manuscripts have the word teleios, which means "perfect", instead of artios. However, only one later Greek manuscript is cited for this, and the rest are early Latin translations.

Here is the NIV (1973) which is genetically linked to the King James:

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Here is the RSV (1971) which is also genetically linked to the King James:

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

These translations make the idea of “adequate”, “competent” or “proficient” as it appears in the original Greek into something stronger in English. These translations make it easier for cessationists to work backward from the idea of a believer being “thoroughly equipped”— via his receiving rebuking, correcting and teaching from Scripture— to interpret that the Scriptures are to be “exclusively useful” for his instruction toward sanctification as believer.

The problem with interpreting the Scripture as being “exclusively useful” in verse 16 and 17 in this way is that Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance includes the guiding experience of the Holy Spirit. A cessationist cannot interpret 2 Timothy to mean that Scripture that is useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting is complementary to Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance for present day believers in the full and robust way that Paul experienced the guidance and deliverance of the Holy Spirit. Rather, a cessationist must interpret this passage in such a way that present day believers are to follow only a partial understanding of Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance as an ongoing practice: those aspects of Paul’s teaching, way of life , purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance that do not involve any teaching or practice regarding the instruction, illumination or guidance from the Holy Spirit.

For a cessationist, believers are to understand that the full understanding of Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance was intended as part of a dispensation that was only for Paul to operate as an apostle – and was only intended in diminishing degrees to characterize the lives of Timothy and the subsequent “pre-canon” believers. It is for this reason that a cessationist will emphasize the idea that verses 10 and 14 were intended more exclusively for Timothy and not for all believers.

Here, a cessationist could try to argue that the full understanding of Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance would include the word “purpose” which would include Paul’s purpose as an apostle and writer of the Bible canon. From this a cessationist could argue that all believers operate on a partial understanding of Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance and that the only debate is over the degree of partiality. A cessationist could further argue that “you know from whom you learned it” (verse 14) is Paul asserting his unique apostolic authority as the bearer of teaching.

It is true that Paul had a unique individual purpose in church history as an apostle and as a writer of the Bible canon. However, there is nothing in Paul’s teaching wherein Paul intended his experience of the Holy Spirit to be exclusive to him. The only exceptional experience of the Holy Spirit that Paul claims for himself as an apostle was the manner in which Jesus appeared to Paul after Jesus’ resurrection. In regard to Paul’s “way of life”, he taught, clarified and prayed for an ongoing experience of the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit for others. As I will get into more in later blog posts on this topic, the only exclusivity that Paul claims for himself and for the other apostles is that they were laying down a foundation.

And this brings us to the final question regarding this passage: what is a “good work” (verse 17)? For a cessationist who interprets 2 Tim 3:16-17, discerning the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit cannot be counted as a “good work” that Scripture equips us for. For a continuationist, discerning the ongoing guidance of God via His Holy Spirit is precisely one of the many “good works” that Scripture equips us for. As I have elaborated on earlier posts, it is precisely to equip us for discernment that Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (this would fall under the umbrella of Paul’s “teaching” and as “scripture” in its amplified meaning) and that John writes in 1 John 2:20-4:6 (this would fall under the umbrella of “scripture” in its amplified meaning).

In conclusion: In regard to 2 Tim 10-17, To the extent that:

A) Paul has made using the Scriptures for rebuking and teaching complementary to his way of life and teaching
B) Paul’s instructions to Tim in verses 10 and 14 can be interpreted in a general way to be “time-transcendent” for all believers and were not merely exclusively for Timothy,
C) Paul’s teaching includes teaching about the guidance of the Holy Spirit that Paul intended for others to experience beyond him.
D) The “Scriptures” of verse 15 can be amplified to include all the NT, that include Paul’s teachings on the Holy Spirit,

2 Tim: 16-17 cannot be construed as Paul’s intention that the Scriptures are to be used to equip a believer in a way that precludes the ongoing guidance/illumination of the Holy Spirit. Rather, the Scriptures are intended to be useful along with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to equip a believer for every good work, including the good work of discerning the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit. To interpret the passage as indicating that the Scriptures are “exclusively useful” for teaching, rebuking and correcting toward equipping believers—to the exclusion of the ongoing guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit— is to interpret a “dispensational divide” between the aspects of Paul’s teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance as they were meant to Timothy and those that were meant for modern believers.

Cessationists who support this idea by using the fact that Paul starts a new sentence in verse 16 are making too much of the new sentence. Verses 16 and 17 are merely a continuation of the teaching that was intended by Paul to be useful to Timothy in the context of the teaching that had just been given to Timothy, and in the context of the teaching to follow. Cessationists who support their “dispensational divide” by using the word “perfect”, “thoroughly equipped”, or some other similar translation in verse 17 to work backward toward the idea that Scriptures are “exclusively useful” are operating from an idea that has been made stronger in certain English translations than it is in the original Greek. On close examination, the “dispensational divide” that a cessationist interprets from the text separating what is relevant for Timothy and what is relevant for modern believers can only be construed from silence. It is in the force of that silence that cessationists apply their isogesis to 2 Tim 3:16-17 to have it mean something other than what Paul meant by it as a proof text for cessationism.

Revelations 13:16-17 under a microscope

After having offered some of my speculations last week on Revelations 13:16-17, I was re-examining the text of those verses as they are presented in the NIV version which says:

(16) He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, (17) so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Normally, I'm not especially interested in seeking to interpret the original Greek when interpreting the New Testament. In Scripture, most of what one needs to understand is available from the immediate context of the passage. Most any correct interpretation of a passage that one can arrive at by reading the original New Testament Greek, one can also arrive at from a good English translation of a passage by interpreting the passage in the context of textual clues that are available to be cross-referenced in the passage itself and in the context immediately before and after the passage.

There are instances, however, when examining the original New Testament Greek can provide better clarity on the meaning of the passage. In the case of Revelations 13:16-17, I wanted to see if the original Greek text supports the idea that the anti-christ/beast directly forces people to get the mark of the beast against their will or, rather, manipulates a situation into existence wherein people must get the mark of the beast in order to buy and sell. To see which understanding the original Greek leans toward I decided to seek the help of Steve Blackwelder, who is very knowledgeable of ancient New Testament Greek and the various ways that is has been translated into different versions of the Bible.

After having discussed it and examined it with Steve, he and I, Greg Wertime, co-wrote the following examining of Revelation 13:16-17. Here is the passage in Greek, Romanized, with the verbs we want to examine in boldface.


Here is the almost word for word translation, with the same verbs in boldface:

16 And it (the second beast of verse 11, the Greek word for "beast" is grammatically neuter) caused everyone,
the small and the great,
and the rich and the poor,
and the free and the slave,
that they may give themselves a sign on their right hand or on their forehead
17 and that no one may be able to buy or sell
unless that one having the sign of the name of the beast or the number of its name.

Verses 16 and 17 are one sentence in Greek. The first verb, poiei, has several possible translations into English, expressing varying levels of force or manipulation from "make" to "bring about". The beast is the grammatical subject and also the agent of this verb. The second verb, dosin, is in the subjunctive mood, which is grammarspeak for not being %100 definite-- for presenting only a possibility and not an absolute reality. Like dosin, the third verb, dunetai, is also the result of poiei, and so dunetai also subjunctive, reflecting its parallel relationship with dosin. Considering the relationship that poiei has with these two subjunctive verbs, poiei is better translated as "cause", which is a softer verb than "make" or "force". This translation of poiei indicates that the beast is not the only agent in advancing the sign of the beast. Rather, the beast causes a situation to exist wherein "everyone" is also an agent, and "everyone" has some degree of choice or volition in the matter.

As a supplement to examining the ancient Greek directly, Steve and I also examined some other New Testament translations of the passage. Here is the NASB (1977) translation, done by a theologically conservative committee who were committed to translating as literally as possible and were less concerned about English style:

And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free men and the slave, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to buy or sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Here is the NRSV (1989) translation done by a committee of theological conservatives, moderates and liberals who followed the maxim, "as literal as possible, as free as necessary":

Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

Both of these translations do not express the idea of people "giving themselves" the sign in the active sense as it indicated in the original Greek. Both of the NASB and the NRSV translate dosin as the more passive "to be marked" or "to be given". However, both of these translations do use the subtler, more manipulative translation of poiei as "causes".

Now here, again, is the passage in the NIV (1984), translated by a committee of theological conservatives and moderates:

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could by or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Unlike the NASB or the NRSV, the NIV translates poiei as "force" instead of "cause". This clashes with the agency of "everyone" that is implied in a careful analysis of the original Greek. It is the NASB and the NRSV translations that are closer to conveying the proper degree of agency on the part of both the beast and "everyone".

Conclusion -- Having examined the original Greek under a microscope, and having cross-referenced other New Testament translations of the passage, the best interpretation of Revelations 13:16-17 is this: that the beast will manipulate people in such a way that leads to an infrastructure wherein one cannot participate in the markeplace without having the mark of the beast. Careful examination of these verses reveals the possibility that the anti-christ will operate more like a vampire than Atilla the Hun, and the mark of the beast will be the result of an infrastructure that is created and nurtured into existence by a populace that has been deceived.

The "mark of the beast" -- my speculations

Revelations 13:16-17

"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the number of his name. This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is a man's number. His number is 666."

Here are my speculations and extrapolations on this:

Though it is possible for a society to be temporarily conquered by an invader who imposes his will without regard for the will of the majority of people, as a general principle, the leaders of a society tend to grow out of the soil of the populace that they come from. In other words, as the old adage says, a society gets the leaders it deserves. This does not mean that every person in a society is in collusion with its leaders. Rather, it means that a critical mass of the population in a society has the cultural attitudes and values that either agree with or at least allow for the leaders that it has.

It is for this reason, among others, that I think that the mark of the beast will be less the result of the will of the one anti-christ imposing his will on a thoroughly unwilling populace. Rather, it will be a leader who codifies the will and/or the acceptance of a critical mass of the populace enough so that he can suppress any of those remaining who disagree. I think that the power of the anti-christ will operate more like that of a vampire than that of Atilla the Hun, in the sense that one must first invite a vampire into one's home before he can have power over someone. In the case of the anti-christ, he will be invited in by enough people to where he can take the others by force.

As much as anything, the anti-christ will be the leadership face of a movement that is already powerful and underway throughout a vast swath of the society. It is for this reason that the "anti-christ" will as likely be many leaders with dominion over a large and developing infrastructure as much as the "anti-christ" will be one leader in particular. When I speak of the "anti-christ", I think in terms of the likely occurance of both the one and the many.

It is my speculation that, in addition to other signs and wonders, the anti-christ will be a great economist, and he will take the allegiance that people already have to the marketplace in order to consolidate his power. The anti-christ's use of the marketplace as the tool to solidify his/their power will not be incidental. Rather, having people emotionally, spiritually, relationally and materially bonded to the marketplace will be part of the anti-christ's agenda. For this reason, the power of the marketplace will be a seamless extension of the anti-christ's, which many people will accept because they will already have an insatiable appetite for all that the marketplace provides them.

To the extent that people will be having their emotional needs, relational needs, social needs, and identity needs met by what is provided in the marketplace, I think that the mark of the beast will be enforced as much by the tacit social pressures to be "cool" and "hip" as much as it will be enforced by the power of law. I think that the society where it has become the law of the land for one to need to have a mark of one's covenant with the marketplace for one to buy or sell will have gotten there because a critical mass of people have allowed their identity to be wrapped up in whatever it takes to succeed in the realm of buying and selling. The existence of this critical mass, and other factors, will allow the anti-christ leadership to consolidate the collective idolatry of the marketplace into a regime where it is impossible to be economically viable without joining the idolatry.

Getting the mark of the beast on one's forehead or wrist will be the sign of a covenant wherein if one meets the demands of the marketplace, one will get one's needs met -- and if one fails to meet those demands, one will be cut off from the marketplace. This "branding" of people with the mark of the beast will be both pratical and symbolic. It will be practical in the obvious sense that people will not be able to buy and sell without it. It will be symbolic in that it will turn the very skin of people into a market currency, thereby marking people as belonging to the market and to the antichrist as much as any coin in Jesus' day belonged to Ceasar.

Some may allow themselves to get the mark of the beast reluctantly. To the extent that people are unwilling participants in the mark of the beast, they may allow themselves to be marked by it reluctantly in order to get their basic material needs met in the marketplace. For them, they will be like Esau who gave up his inheritance for a meal. However, many people will already be getting their emotional and relational needs met from the marketplace to such a degree that the mark of the beast will be yet another sign of their ongoing and developing allegiance to the marketplace. For them, they will be like those who bent the knee to Baal. For those who had an initial reluctance in accepting the mark, the convenience of being able participate in the marketplace will make it so that any initial reluctance will be swept away with a "What can you do attitude".

The specific mark of the beast, as in "What will be the 666?", is not necessarily of particular interest to me. Numerologists, conspiracy theory buffs, pre and post millenialists and others who obsess about dissecting Revelations can debate that. What I am interested in is answering what is is the essential symbolic meaning of the mark of the beast and what are the "signs of the times" that are leading to it. It is my speculation that those who are allowing their identity to be wrapped up in the marketplace now, in whatever form they are doing it, are laying the groundwork for what will eventually be the infrastructure for the anti-christ. I argue that this groundwork that is being laid for the mark of the beast, is, in a way, the mark of the beast in its penultimate form.

Idolatry of the marketplace, in any form, is the result of people who are trying to meet their social, emotional and material needs through their participation in the marketplace and through their allegiance to the marketplace. Idolatry of the marketplace is based on people acquiescing their emotional needs to what is provided in the marketplace according to pressure in the form of a covenant that contains a carrot and a stick: if one conforms one's identity to what is accepted in the marketplace, meeting one's social, emotional and economic needs will be so much easier -- and if one doesn't, meeting one's social, emotional and material needs will be so much harder.

I am convinced that this pressure to conform to marketplace idolatry is already operating in our society now and will continue to increase in incremental degrees. I am extrapolating from this observation to arrive at the idea that the sign of the beast will be the ultimate manifestation of a marketplace idolatry that is already underfoot. Going back to the covenant with the carrot and stick, the mark of the beast will simply be the result of the anti-christ raising the ante by a couple notches: if one conforms one's identity to the marketplace with an outwardly visible sign, one will be able to function in the marketplace to get one's material needs met -- if one doesn't, one will be consigned to the threat of deprivation and possible starvation and death.

Idolatry of the marketplace is something that is already present in force in this society in 2006. If there is not yet a sign of the covenant with marketplace idolatry like the mark of the beast in Revelations 13:17, I see that there are lesser forms of this covenant all around. It is my overall anaylsis that brand marketing that it is an emotion based form of advertising that is particularly interested in linking a product not merely to its ability to fulfill a material need, but rather to fulfill a relational/emotional need in people. In this way, a brand marketer encourages people to make emotional bonds with his products.

On the surface, brand marketing appears to be the result of an organic free-for-all of advertising competition between companies, but that is only a "trees" view of it. From a "forest" perspective, each participant in the enterprise of brand marketing sells the same essential "brand marketing worldview" on human identity and relationships which can be summed up as follows:
a) Times always change, and you must keep up in order to be socially and sexually viable
b) Buy our product in order to better fulfill your need to be an individual who is a winner among the crowd. If you don't, you will either be a sociall unviable loser or you will simply be one of the unindividuated crowd. You will avoid both of these bad fates if you consume our product now before others get to it.
c) Stillness and boredom are bad things that our products will save you from.

Underneath the chimera of products that come and go and companies that come and go, there is an increasing influence of this essential brand marketing worldview. With the help of advanced technology and other factors underway in our society, brand marketing, as a whole enterprise, is succeeding in creating an evermore powerful bond between people and the marketplace. As this worldview gains more and more of a monopoly on how people operate, it is evermore representative of a covenant that people have made with the marketplace to get their relational and emotional needs met.

The brand marketing worldview is connected to being socially and sexually viable. As anyone in an urban environment knows, this has a profound effect on one's ability to succeed in the workplace and to provide materially for one's needs.

Whatever sense of individuality of "sub-group" identity that one gains as a consumer of products is a very superficial form of individuality that is only available to one after one has conformed to the brand marketing worldview. This loss of depth and vapidity that is connected to the brand marketing worldview is connected to other casualties that occur both in people's own personal maturity and in the society at large. The brand marketing worldview facilitates a loss of emotional and intellectual depth that is connected to people having an increased desire for disposable pleasures. In brand marketing, old must be old so that new can be new. It is the brand marketing worldview that makes stillness the enemy that people are to be saved from by purchasing products and services. In advancing the brand marketing worldview, people are encouraged toward having a certain perpetual attention deficit. The opportunity cost of putting one's energy into disposable pleasures is that one does not invest in more lasting forms of joy wherein more lasting and active emotional, spiritual and intellectual investment is demanded.

To the extent that the marketplace is the servant of disposable pleasures, people return the favor by having an adulterous emotional bond with the products and services provided by the marketplace. This allows those who influence the marketplace and the political realm to be evermore able to consolidate their power without scrutiny. As this continues, people increasingly vote and buy what feels good based on politics that is retailed to consumers and not to citizens. It is this retailing of politics to consumers and not to citizens through mass media that is politician's verson of brand marketing.

As this continues, checks and balances and anti-trust laws will diminish, as those who control the marketplace and political realm will continue to consolidate their power. It is my sweeping speculation from what is happening now that this consolidation of power will happen in fits and starts and may at times take one step back before it takes two steps forward. Nevertheless, this gradual consolidation of power will lay the infrastructure for the anti-christ leadership as the masses of consumers are kept continually distracted by being kept continually pleased and titilated by what is new and shiny in the marketplace.

Of course, there are many other coinciding factors involved in the laying down of the infrastructure for the anti-christ and the mark of the beast that would take a much longer essay to elaborate on. However as a general attempt to "read the leaves on the tree", it is my assessment that the mark of the beast will be facilitated by the love of pleasure and lack of depth that will coincide with the wholesale embrace of the brand marketing worldview which will coincide with the consolidation of political and economic power. In the confluence of these forces that are already operating to a large degree, the mark of the beast, the "666" -- in addition to being implemented with force -- may also be the ultimate in brand marketing.

A Crisis of Cultural Hermeneutics

Just underneath my link to the Habits for the Journey with Jesus, I have added a link to a paper I have spent the last several years thinking about, and the last several months writing. It is called A Crisis of Modesty in the Evangelical Church, and I am sure that it will be very controversial to many readers.

What is it to dress in a sexually suggestive way? What does it mean to be modest? Why does modesty matter? To what extent is any idea of modesty/sexual suggestiveness a convention subject to change and re-negotiating and to what extent is it not? How are the wider culture's justifications for what it wears connected to other powerful trends and ideas? It is my overall thesis that far too many people in the church are not even equipped to ask these questions. While I assert that immodesty is a problem, I also assert that the problem of immodesty is the manifestation of a far deeper problem within Evangelical Christian discipleship.

As I explain in A Crisis of Modesty in the Evangelical Church, the problem of sexually suggestive clothing in the culture at large that has crept into the church is related to a larger crisis in the church. This crisis involves the question of how the church should relate to the ideas that are encoded into the trends that have arisen in the wider culture.

It is my thesis that sexually suggestive clothing has found its way through a crack in the church that exists between a) the "culture warrior" tendencies of the church to fight and resist the wider culture and b) the "seeker sensitive" tendencies of the church to want to hip and relevant to the "times" in order to function within and relate to the wider culture. In this crack between these two tendencies within the church lies an inability to truly take the trends and ideas captive -- to extract any claims to truth that exist within these sundry ideas and trends while avoiding the rest.

It is my overall thesis that many within the church have employed "street postmodernism" (also referred to in my essays in March and April 2006 as "primalism") to negotiate change because they have not developed a Christian discipleship that is capable of negotiating change from a Godly, disciplined perspective. It has been the Evangelical Christian tendency to fight culture wars without seeking to find the kernels of truth in sundry trends. This culture warrior tendency has created a void in the intellectual aspect of Christians' discipleship to know how to take the complexity of life captive to Christ. In this void of knowing how to confront complexity, many Christians have adopted street postmodernist ideas.

Street postmodernism is summed up as a populist attempt to handle complexity by having individuals abdicate their individual perogative to think and to judge by looking at what the "times" are doing. "Who's to say?" and "Times change" are the key slogans of this belief system. It is my thesis that the intellectual undisciplined "culture warrior" approach to the culture and the intellectually undisciplined "street postmodernism" have been allowed to co-exist together in the minds of many Christians because neither approach to the culture demands very much intellectually from the individual. Many Christians harbor elements of both "culture warrior" and "street postmodernism" without having the mastery over their thoughts to reckon with the cognitive dissonance that exists between these two approaches to the culture at large.

It is my thesis that immodest clothing among Christians-- clothing that has not been the target of culture warriors and clothing that is considered a staple of human, secular freedom by postmodernists-- has not been met with the proper "net" within the church whereby it can recognized and held captive for examination. Even as I am trying to grasp the problem of immodesty, it is my goal to construct the "net", where the questions of modesty and sexual suggestiveness -- and any other question under the sun relevant to Christian discipleship-- can be held captive so that the issues can be examined properly from all angles.

A Crisis of Modesty in the Evangelical Church is constructed around a long series of objections to my assertions about what is modest/sexually suggestive. All of these objections have come from fellow Christians, and all of them emanate from a street postmodernist secular worldview. I want to explore the roots of this worldview and the claims to truth--and therefore to power-- that it has. As I deal with these objections, one by one, I am confronted with what one iMonk describes as a "post-evangelical wilderness". In this "wilderness", it has become clear to me that many Christians have lost their way in the endeavor to take all of life captive to Christ. To point the way out of this wilderness, I want reconstruct a Christian approach to examining the culture on the ruins of the "culture warrior" approach and the failed strategies of phallanx style political and culture warfare that have accompanied the culture warrior approach.

For the particular issue of immodest clothing, I want to recognize the wilderness of street postmodernism that has crept into Christianity, and carefully extract any pieces of truth that exist within street postmodernism, "seeker sensitive" and "culture warrior" approaches to handling culture, change and complexity. Upon doing so, I want to argue for what I consider to be a reasoned and Godly way that these pieces of truth fit together into a prescription for Christian modesty and Christian liberty and sound Christian intellectual inquiry into the issue.

"...will teach you all things..." from the perspective of 1 Corinthians

Continuing on from the previous post, I have been examining the various passages in Scripture that expound upon Jesus' promises in John that the Holy Spirit will teach a believer "all things" and guide a believer in "all truth". In light of the cessationist/continuationist debate, as a major part of my examination of these texts, I have been paying particularly close attention to the issues of inclusiveness and exclusivity, particularly in regard to the use of pronouns, "you", "we", "us" etc... As I have been examining these texts carefully to see whom they include and exclude in regard to these promises, it has become clear to me that these passages contradict the cessationist idea that these promises were exclusive to the apostles or exclusive to "pre-canon" believers. To interpret these promises as being exclusive to the apostles or to "pre-canon" believers requires that one super-impose an interpretation of exclusivity onto these passages that is not in any way apparent from the passages themselves.

In am interested in the cessationist/continuationist debate because I am interested in the claims that are being made on how the Holy Spirit relates to our minds and hearts as believers. I have been articulating a continuationist position that Jesus'promise that the Holy Spirit will teach his disciples "all things" in John 14:26 is a time-transcendent promise for all believers. With this in mind, I am interested in the relationship that the doctrinal truth of the Gospel and the Bible canon has to our "learning all things". What are "all things"? How do we learn them? What does the Spirit teach? How does the Spirit teach? What does the Holy Spirit help us interpret and how? What is our role in this process? How does this edify us? How does this affect our ministry to others?

As I wrestle with these questions, I want to examine 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

(6) We do, however speak of a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. (7) No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (8) None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (9) However, as it is written:

"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"

(10) But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.

Is the "us" in verse 10 inclusive to all of Paul's readers or is it exclusive only to Paul or perhaps only to the "mature"? The "we" in verse 6 starts out as though Paul is referring specifically to his fellow apostles and teachers, as Paul has just talked about his initial preaching ministry to his Corinthian readers in the verses just preceding verse 6. As the text progresses, the use of "we" and "us" operates in the tension between two tandem division - we, the believers vs. non-believers and we, the mature believers vs. immature believers. The other tension in the text is the idea of "centrality" - that the text can have a central more dominant meaning without necessarily excluding other less dominant meanings.

So what has been prepared? The central meaning of that which has "been prepared" is the glory that God has prepared for those who love him. Paul makes specific reference to what has been "destined for our glory" and that the "Lord of glory" was crucified -- in contrast with the "rulers of this age" who have an earthly, profaned form of glory. The reality of the glory that is a secret that is withheld from the "rulers of this age". This idea of glory is the central, though not the exclusive meaning of "what God has prepared for those who love him".

What is the wisdom among the mature? It is the understanding that this glory has been prepared by God for those who love him. The wisdom informs a believer as to the glory that has been prepared for him, and the very fact that the believer has this wisdom is to the believer's glory. As it will be clearer later, the understanding of the glory that God has provided to those who love him is a central feature, not an exclusive feature, of the wisdom.

To whom has "it" been revealed ("it" being the understanding that God is preparing glory for those who love him)? Who is "us" -- is "us" exclusive to the "mature" among believers or is it inclusive to all believers? The answer is best understood as both/and. Though the wisdom among the mature has been more completely revealed to the "mature" and understood more completely by the mature, the principle has been revealed at least to some degree to anyone who is a believer, because the principle is central to the Gospel.

Moving on:

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (11) for who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In ths same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (12) We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what has been freely given us.

In verse 12, Paul is saying that the purpose for a believer having received the Spirit is for him to freely understand "what" has been given to believers. So what is the "what" that has been "freely given"? This "what" would be the glory that God has prepared for those who love him. As I stated above, the "glory" is a central feature of "what has been freely given" though it is not an exclusive feature. "What has been freely given" can be understood to include all of the ways that a believer is endowed with the present and future blessings of a relationship with God.

So what is it about this that "we" may understand? Verse 12 does not preclude the idea that the Spirit of God endows a believer with the understanding, however rudimentary, of the glory of God that has been prepared for him, thereby separating him from the unbelievers who have the "spirit of the world". However, that is not the central meaning. Here, "that we may understand" is not referring to a one time event of one's understanding that neatly separates into a before and after -- as in before one is a believer and then after. Rather, Paul is referring to a continually unfolding process in the life of a mature believer. The central meaning of verse 12, in the context of verses 10 and 11, is that the mature believer learns "all things" from the Spirit of God to ever more deeply understand all that God has prepared for him and freely given him -- as an ongoing process. As Paul will expound on, the "mature" here is synonymous with the "spiritual man".

In regard to the tandem division of believer vs. unbeliever/mature vs. immature operating in verse 12, the "we" is best understood as being inclusive to all believers in potential but specific to mature believers in practice. In the larger context of 1 Corinthians, the immature Corinthians are not yet operating as mature, spiritual men, in the fullest sense of the idea.

Moving on:

(13) This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

This "we" in verse 13 is specific to those whom Paul counts as fellow apostles and teachers at the time, though the principle is not limited to Paul's time. In the verses that follow, Paul extends the principle to characterize a generic "spiritual man" -- something that he expected all of this immature readers to grow into.

(14) the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) The spiritual man makes judgements about all things, but himself is not subject to any man's judgement.

(16) "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"

But we have the mind of Christ.

Here, Paul is outlining the anatomy of spiritual judgement making by specifically linking together the role of the Spirit to teach "all things" and the spiritual man's role to make judgments about "all things". Here, the spiritual man's understanding of "all things" is the result of a participatory process that involves a) the Spirit teaching and endowing the spiritual man with the capacity to discern what is being taught, and b) the man, in turn, discerning what is being taught and making judgements based on what he has learned. The Spirit is not operating through the spiritual man as an oracle or some other form of "possession". Rather, in this exchange between Spirit and spiritual man, God is engaging and teaching the man as God's Spirit, ie. the mind of Christ, interacts with the man's spirit. While teaching is the Spirit's role, discerning what is being taught is the man's role. This discernment is an act on the part of the man, as he actively and consciously engages his spirit with the Spirit.

It is by his spiritual endowment by the Spirit that the spiritual man is able to discern, and it is the lack of this endowment that an unspiritual man cannot discern. It is in applying his ability to discern on a continual basis that the spiritual man continually discerns to learn things from the Spirit and is able to make "judgments about all things".

Taking this understanding of the verse that immediately follow verse 12 back to verse 12, how is it that the spiritual man's learning all things and making judgments in all things relates to his understanding what God has freely given him? It is my interpretation that the spiritual man learns all things from the Spirit so that he can understand how all things relate to God and how God relates to all things. In this way, the spiritual man understands how God and His glory is woven into all aspects of life, wisdom, circumstances and knowledge. It is in learning all things from the Spirit for this stated purpose that the spiritual man is able to make judgements that correctly contextualize and appropriated the glory of God in the midst of all things. It is this constant process of learning from the Spirit -- aka being instructed by the mind of Christ -- and discerning what is being taught to him, that the spiritual man ever more truly and deeply understands all that God has prepared for him. The fruit of this process is that the spiritual man is edified with wisdom for his own benefit and for the benefit of other believers.

To summarize my interpretation of 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, it is via the Spirit in a spiritual man whereby he is made privy to the thoughts of God, aka the mind of Christ, and is instructed about all things. From this, a spiritual man (or woman) can understand God and his relationship with God in the contexts of all things and can make Godly judgments about all things. With this understanding of the passage, the "wisdom among the mature" is both a) the understanding of the glory and other blessings that God has prepared for those who love him and b) the ongoing process of being instructed in all things by the Spirit.

My extrapolations : Making judgements in all things requires a twofold learning by the spiritual man: a) to learn what the new things are and b) to learn how these things relate to the truth of the Gospel. It is this twofold learning that a spiritual man gains as he is instructed by the "mind of Christ" that allows him to make judgments. This twofold learning requires a particular effort of discernment on the part of the spiritual man to find the synthesis between what is new and the truth of the Gospel that has already been revealed. As the spiritual man engages in this, it is the Holy Spirit who endows the spiritual man with the impetus and the ability to discern along these lines and endows him with the wisdom and insight into all things, which is the reward of his effort.

Connections to 1 John: The "what" that "has been given to us" that Paul talks about in verse 12 bears a similarity to the "truth" that John talks about in 1 John 2:20-21. In their respective contexts, both the "what" and the "truth" were things that their readers already had, and yet they still needed to learn about "all things" from the Holy Spirit. Both texts indicate a process of being illuminated by the Spirit that is centered around helping a believer understand "all things" in the context of the revealed truth of the Gospel. While John, in 1 John, examines learning about "all things" in the context of needing to "test the spirits", Paul examines learning about "all things" in the context of a spiritual man interacting in his spirit with the mind of Christ via the Holy Spirit.

What I will explore later: In regard to Paul's teaching that follows in the passage, this passage of verse 2:6-16 in 1 Corinthians was intended to steer the immature Corinthians away from their immature form judging that was based on elevating one man on a pedestal above another and toward the spiritual, mature form of judging that would successfully and faithfully build on the foundation that Paul had laid among the Corinthians as an "expert builder".