Marching Orders
As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.1 Timothy 1:3-4 NASB
Instruct– Let’s suppose that you are designated a teacher of others regarding the faith. Your mentor has left for another assignment. He gives you some final instructions in a letter. He’s concerned about the purity of the teaching, especially since he knows there are dissenters in the audience. What does he tell you?
If you read the NASB English Bible, you might think he is telling you to provide more education to the group. That’s generally how we understand “instruct.” But the Greek is stronger. The verb is parangéllō. It means, “command, give orders, demand.” Paul isn’t telling Timothy to offer another class in church doctrine. He is telling Timothy to order these people to stop doing what they are doing—to shut up and listen! What is Timothy supposed to stop? “Strange doctrines.” But that terminology is quite ambiguous for us. I am sure Timothy knew what Paul was talking about, but I’m not sure we really know anymore. After all, Western Christianity would assert that Paul meant Timothy was supposed to stop anti-Trinitarian, anti-rapture, anti-predestination, anti-sinful nature, grace over law, etc. Pick a doctrine and insert it here: __________________.
Doesn’t that seem a little strange to you? Paul and Timothy both came from Jewish backgrounds. Isn’t Paul’s concern about those things that were essential to a Jewish way of life in the Messiah? Doesn’t Paul actually praise Timothy’s mother and grandmother for teaching him the “sincere faith” (2 Timothy 1:5). And in this letter, Paul clearly and unequivocally states that the “law” (Torah) is good. So any doctrine that attempts to replace the Torah, or suggests it no longer applies, would seem to fall among the false teachings Paul is so intent on preventing. In fact, Paul uses the Greek heterodidaskaléō. Its root, didáskein, is most often used to describe the demonstration that Yeshua is the Messiah from the Torah. Our word is a bit different than the idea of purely false teaching. False teaching is pseudodidáskalos. This word is “not found prior to the NT. . . occurs only in 2 Pet. 2:1, with pseudoprophḗtai.The ‘pseudo-’ suggests that both their claim and their teaching are false, as is shown by their rejection of Christ’s dominion over their lives.”[1] Our word, heterodidaskaléō, refers to “those who disseminate a different teaching, making peripheral matters the main issue.”[2]
It seems to me there is plenty of this around; fixation on minor issues (e.g., the proper posture for prayer, exact feast day on the calendar, the way to wear tzitzit, or any number of Christian religious behaviors) that detract from the main. What is the main? If we follow the use of didáskein in the Gospels, the main is Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah and what he teaches is our code. Everything else is commentary. Right?
Now you and I have a job before us. Can we really stop concentrating on the peripherals and work on the main thing? Or are we going to be pulled into the debates about the trivial?
Topical Index: didáskein, teach, heterodidaskaléō, different teaching, parangéllō, instruct, command, 1 Timothy 1:3-4
[1]Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament(165). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
Skip, you cited a good list of what is popularly going around these days as substitutes for “sound doctrine”, but perhaps if we look at what was popularly going around in those days we might find that they struggled with a lot of what we are still struggling with. The winds of (strange) doctrine were blowing every which way then, too, and a whole lot of it was Greek even then, right? The list Paul cites to Timothy was stuff that was coming out of Alexandrian-based Jewish mysticism founded on Hellenism that infected them before it infected Christianity. “Myths and endless genealogies”? Isn’t Kabbalah full of this? It appears “Jewish fables and commandments of men” (Titus 1:14) were coming out of that camp, too, after all. Nothing can be considered a ‘safe’ source: then or now. Like you say, if in doubt, go see if Yeshua (or Paul) said it. That was the advice Paul gave, too. If neither of them gave commands about feast days or tzitzit, or, or, whatever, then surely we could safely call it “commentary”?
I have noticed that it is often trivia that divides those who already weren’t following the basics.
Perhaps this is the wrong place to ask, but your post (is very good) begs the question… Who was the first “Christian?” Where did the idea of Christianity come from? Is there any written history on who first espoused this theology? The earliest documented history I have been able to find is Constantine and the first ecumenical council in 313 AD. So the theology would have had to have existed for some time before they wrote it down. Most of what I read about that period suggests that there were communities of Christians in various areas as early as 61 AD. Can you point me to some books on the subject? Thank you!
PS. I am currently working on a piece (artwork) that deals directly with this subject. A soldier clad in gleaming armor raising a flag in the midst of a burning battlefield. The armor has every doctrinal symbol (ancient & modern) etched into it. It’s called “Perspective”. You look at it and either see the conquering Christian hero, or the gleaming defense of theology and doctrines while the world burns. Wars are waged over nonessential theology and doctrines. The fallout from these battles is that we condemn the very people we are commanded to love.
Amber, I hope a lot of people will give us sources to study, as I am always looking for more, but currently my fav is the book Truth Triumphant by B. G. Wilkinson, as he is thorough about following the successive church down through the ages. As it is out of copyright, you can find it PDF, too.
It my experience, just pointing out to people what the Bible actually says can cause one to be accused of promoting strange or even false doctrine in this day and time.
The side roads look enticing.
And they’re packed.
The main thing sits in the middle of
a narrow road.
Isaiah called it a highway — the Way
of Holiness.
By faith, we stay
right there.
Emet. (Truth)… and amen.
Happy Love Day everyone. I read this and felt such relief. Lately I have been worrying about stuff that is I believe trivial. Also I need an attitude adjustment. I find myself falling into a judgment mode towards people. I was not like this before I found God. My struggle is really about how to talk to someone about how to walk with God and when I do I don’t want to sound like I’m judging. Sometimes I fall into resentment mode too especially with my family of origin. I don’t like this about myself.
Your awareness of this, is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Pretty cool! He is perfecting or maturing that which concerns you. For it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure !
This reminds me of Hebrews 6:1. It’s so easy to get stalled or sidetracked!
We want to be like God. We want power and control more than we want to be servants. We want to add and subtract from the Word like a dog wants to leave their scent. We like believing that we are enlightened and those who don’t believe as we do are, well, inferior. We want to be noticed for our superior conduct and wisdom. We like having a forgiving Savior much more than we like having a Lord who offers a narrow Way. Humility doesn’t come naturally.
Most all individual books of the Bible must be read in full in order to determine overall meaning of that book. One may also need to look at other similar books (2 Tim and Titus, e.g.—as Laurita noted, some of these doctrinal aberrations were likely from Jewish mysticism). The ‘strange doctrines’ then come in view. Included is asceticism (1 Tim 4:3) and the use of leadership positions for personal monetary gain (1 Tim 6:5). Some of those advancing some of these doctrines were likely proto-Gnostics (the pseudōnymou gnōseōs, “falsely-called knowledge” of 1 Tim 6:20-21).
But what is “sound doctrine” (1:10: tȩ̄ hygiainousȩ̄ didaskalia̧)? See 1:11—that which conforms to:
The question to answer: What exactly is the Gospel Paul was entrusted with?
Though Paul states the law is good, he also states that the law (nomos) is not for the righteous (dikaios), but (de):
Here’s a little etymology. The word parangellō is a compound of para plus angellō, “announce”. The latter is related to angelos, “angel”, “messenger”; the former is a preposition meaning “from”, “beside”, “with”. Like a number of compound words in the Greek preppended by a preposition the result is a strengthening of the main word.
Huh! Endless genealogies. That’s all you here about is finding your ancestors and tracing your DNA on Ancestry.com! That really struck me when I read the verse that started this post. Some folks are obsessed with this very subject!
Then to end with the questions: “Can we really stop concentrating on the peripherals and work on the main thing? Or are we going to be pulled into the debates about the trivial?”
Tall order but very possible. Nice post today 🙂