British New Testament Society

This exegetical study of 1 Tim 5.1-6.2 considers the instructions the author of 1 Timothy gives to widows, elders, and slaves. Two theoretical ideas from anthropology and geography - the idea of performance and of the construction of space - provide a lens with which to understand what the author is doing here, and may offer a way beyond simplistic and ideologically-loaded characterisations in terms of hierarchy versus egalitarianism, patriarchy versus feminism, orthodoxy versus heresy. The argument is that the author is disciplining the performance of certain roles within the church - just as his opponents can be seen to be disciplining such performances, albeit in contrasting ways - and that this disciplining is shaped by his sense that ecclesial-space is household-like in character. Indeed the household, whether of God or of the family, provides a 'pillar and bulwark of the truth' (3.15), a 'place' which guards against the dangers of false teaching and practice as represented by those not at present integrated into a household structure.

A discussion on recent scholarship on the Pastoral Epistles focusing on:

The pericope Mk 8.27-33, puzzles many modern commentators. It has many if not all the elements of an exorcism: a declaration of Jesus' identity, a named evil spirit, a rebuke. It seems worth exploring the responses of early commentators. The way Origen and his successors deal with the account suggests a possibly significant distinction available at least to some in the ancient world: a difference between uninvited bodily possession and invited malign spiritual influence. Philo and Dio of Prusa suggest that this distinction was available in the first century CE. 6,000.