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Wednesday, October 14 2009
The apostle Paul (see Paul's Ministry) was a highly-educated Pharisee (who never stopped calling himself a Pharisee after he recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the long-awaited Messiah i.e. "I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee" Acts 23:6 KJV; see also Pharisees and Was Paul Among Them?) who was, at a time when most people were illiterate, well-able to read and write. Paul did however seem to have a vision problem, not of "seeing" the truth (see the Fact Finder question below), but that his eyesight was limited. Paul doubtlessly did do some of the actual writing of his epistles (i.e. letters) to the various local church groups, as shown in this quote from his letter to the Christians at Corinth:
"16:21 The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand." (1 Corinthians 16:21 KJV)
Paul makes the same statement in other epistles, but notice that here he calls his own writing merely a "token," as if it were just a form of signature to attest to the authenticity of the writing:
"3:17 The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write" (2 Thessalonians 3:17 KJV)
"I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord"
Even more revealing is how Paul states here in Galatians 6:11 that he was writing in an unconventional "large print" manner i.e. large letters (the King James translates it as if it means the length of the letter itself, but most other translations render it correctly as referring to the size of the letters, not the letter e.g. "6:11 See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand" (RSV) and "6:11 Look at the large letters I use as I close in my own handwriting" (Complete Jewish Bible):
"6:11 Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand." (Galatians 6:11 KJV)
Is this just speculation that Paul, due to his vision, likely had assistance from an amanuensis (someone skilled in the transcription of speech, a stenographer who could write as quickly as someone was talking)? No. The Bible itself says that Paul had at least one, in this example, a man named Tertius who wrote the epistle to the Romans as Paul dictated it.
"16:22 I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord." (Romans 16:22 KJV)
Although at times Paul was left nearly alone ("4:11 Only Luke is with me" 2 Timothy 4:11 KJV), he often had numerous associates and assistants, such as are listed in the closing of Romans (including, ironically or not, Tertius who was writing what Paul was speaking - except of course for "16:22 I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord."):
"16:21 Timotheus my workfellow, and Lucius, and Jason, and Sosipater, my kinsmen, salute you.16:22 I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord.
16:23 Gaius mine host, and of the whole church, saluteth you.
Erastus the chamberlain of the city saluteth you, and Quartus a brother.
16:24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Romans 16:21-24 KJV)
Fact Finder: How was Paul's vision used as an object lesson in the God-given ability to see and understand the truth of the Gospel?
See Paul's Blindness Lesson
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This Day In History, October 14
1066: The Battle of Hastings was fought on Senlac Hill, 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Hastings. King Harold of England was defeated and killed by the forces of William of Normandy.
1322: Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeated King Edward II of England at Byland, north of York. The independence of Scotland followed.
1586: The trial of Mary Queen of Scots began for her attempts to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I.
1644: English Quaker William Penn was born. Pennsylvania is named after him.
1705: The English navy captured Barcelona during the War of the Spanish Succession.
1806: The forces of Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Prussian army at Jena in Germany.
1912: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin in Milwaukee. Incredibly, the bullet was stopped by the President's thick coat and a bundle of manuscript paper in his pocket.
1913: Britain's worst mining disaster occurred when an explosion in the Universal Colliery in Glamorgan, Wales, killed 439 coal miners.
1917: Mata Hari was executed as a spy.
1944: Nazi field marshal Erwin Rommel (the victorious "Desert Fox" of north Africa before being defeated by British and Canadian forces) committed suicide at age 53 after it was discovered that he had been involved in an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler. He had been given the choice of execution after his "trial" or suicide.
1947: U.S. Air Force Captain Charles ("Chuck") Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier. Exactly 50 years later, in 1997 at age 73, he made a special ceremonial solo flight in an F-15 to again break the sound barrier.
1962: The beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. A U.S. U-2 surveillance aircraft photographed Soviet missile sites under construction in Cuba.
1964: Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (Mr. Rabin and Mr. Peres deserved it, Arafat didn't).
