An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 230: Mama, My Time Has Come. Plus: Alexander the Coppersmith – no stars, very poor (2 Timothy 1-4)

2 Timothy 1-4
Mama, My Time Has Come. Plus: Alexander the Coppersmith – no stars, very poor.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

2 Timothy 1

“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God”

Paul writes to Timothy again, bolstering the younger man’s faith and encouraging him to be a good apostle. Much of the early verses are platitudes concerning being strengthened by faith –“ I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day”.

Paul refers to Timothy as his “son”, which I suspect is simply an avuncular term of endearment and not meant to mean that Timothy is Paul’s biological son. It’s interesting that Timothy has a matrilineal Christian heritage – “I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice”. It’s his female relatives that are mentioned as coming to the Christian faith, no mention of his father or grandfather. Perhaps, despite Paul’s growing dislike of chattering women, the religion was an attractive one to women compared to the harsh patriarchal forms of the older religions. There’d be no room for them in the old Jewish faith, under a male priesthood. Under Graeco-Roman gods, there’d be positions as priestesses of Hera/Vesta, but these would entail giving their entire life to the temple. Other than that, I’m ashamed to say my knowledge fails me, and I thought I was quite well versed in Graceo-Roman myth and culture. Mind you, details on the life and experiences of every-day women are always hard to come by in history.

Meanwhile, back at the bible, here’s trouble in Paul’s ministry – “all they which are in Asia be turned away from me”, “of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes”. Phygellus and Hermogenes have turned away from Paul, it would seem. But not Onesiphorus, “for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain”. So, it looks like when Paul was imprisoned some of the bishops or deacons did a bit of politicking and made a bid to make their own ministry above Paul.

2 Timothy 2

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient”

In this chapter Paul imparts some information to Timothy concerning, not as in previous epistles how a Christian should behave, but as to how a minister should behave. Some mechanics concerning the probity of bishops have already been covered, here Paul expands or re-iterates.

“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour” says Paul. There are some who are captive by the “the snare of the devil” who ask “foolish and unlearned questions”. These should be instructed with meekness, so that “God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth”. In other words, do what you can and God will sort it out.

There are more troublesome apostates mentioned, Hymenaeus and Philetus, who claim that the resurrection has already happened (well … it has according to the Gospels. I assume Paul means the resurrection of everyone or some kind of Second Coming). Paul also says that “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him” which ties to what I thought earlier, about the death and rebirth of Christ being a kind of spiritual power that the worshippers can partake of and be “reborn” in spirit if not actuality. So I guess Hymenaeus and Philetus were preaching that a second coming had already happened. Perhaps we will learn more (doubt it).

2 Timothy 3

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come”

Paul gives some suitably vague prophecies as to when the end days will come, when people continue to act as people always have – “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”. Well. Watch out for those times. We’ve certainly never seen anything like that in the last 2000 years.

Paul engages in a bit of wishful thinking, that all the persecutions suffered by himself and fellow Christians will be rewarded and “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived”. Which would be nice for him were it true, but all too often evil men succeed in life and suffer no backlash. The idea of an imaginary place of punishment might be appealing, but ultimately pretty useless to prevent injustice and abuse.

Finally, Paul notes that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” If you’ve followed me thus far you’ll be minded of the various contradictions and vagueness in the “scripture” and agree with me that although perhaps Paul means well, I’m not convinced that studying scripture will leave a person anything more than confused about how to live a good life. Interesting here that Paul urges “good works” when previously he has spoken of how faith and not works are the right way of things.

2 Timothy 4

“Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works”

Oh, Alexander the coppersmith. Is this the first bad review? I wonder what Alexander the coppersmith did? Paul says that he “greatly withstood our words”, but is not listening to Paul’s gospel the sum extent of his crimes to be condemned in print for 2000 years? I suspect he did a shoddy bit of coppersmithing for Paul or something like that. Is it bad of me to think that perhaps his work was fine but Paul tried to cadge a discount or something?

Anyway, I suppose I shouldn’t be too down on Paul. This letter is written from Rome whilst he is a prisoner of Nero, and, like Bohemian Rhapsody, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand”.

Paul is resigned to his fate, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”, and his faith sustains him even though a lot of people have abandoned him – “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia”.

Others have remained faithful, including Luke and Mark (whom I wonder are the same as the gospel writers), faithful scribe Tychicus, and Prisca and Aquila get a mention again, as does a woman called Claudia. There’s even a sad little note of pathos where Paul asks Timothy to bring him his cloak and book that he left with one Carpus at Troas. He also urges Timothy to “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” because a time will come when people get bored of the preaching and turn away to earthly things, but nevertheless Timothy should continue.

And that’s it for 2 Timothy, a mix of personal and doctrinal messages. It’s a little bit sad really; most of the doctrinal stuff is about people not believing you or others teaching a different message or people hating you for your beliefs, and the last chapter has a bit of a tragic air of finality about it. I wouldn’t give much for the chances of anyone who was a prisoner of Nero, a famously capricious and cruel emperor. Well, we shall see if Paul manages to get free or write any more letters before the end.