Week 15 Study Page - Titus, James, Jude, Psalm 1-21

Week #15 Study Page

Titus (1-3)
James (1-5)
Jude (1)
Psalm 1-21

About the Book(s)

Titus

Date of Authorship: (stop me if you've heard this before:) the date of Titus is disputed. This dispute is based on a disagreement about what moment the conditions described in the letter, would fit into the account of Paul and Titus' ministry recorded in Acts. We know that, at one point during Paul's third missionary journey (54-57 AD) Titus was in Corinth (2 Cor. 8; 12:17-18) not* Crete (where Titus is when he receives this letter from Paul). Paul is imprisoned in 57 AD, but he is not imprisoned when writing Titus (Titus 3:12). There are some who think that Titus went quickly from Corinth to Crete allowing for this letter to be written in 57 AD (approximately the same time as Romans is being written) just before he was arrested. Others think that the conditions of the letter best fit a period between Paul's first and second imprisonment in Rome (after the account of Acts ends). This would sandwich Titus between the authorship of 1st and 2nd Timothy, dating this letter to the mid-60's AD. the latter view is the majority opinion.

Author: Paul is the author of Titus

Occasion: Paul is writing to Titus, who is ministering as an evangelist and overseer to the churches on the island of Crete. Crete is in the middle of the Mediterranean sea to the south-east of Greece. The church there is young and underdeveloped as evidenced by the fact that Titus was to appoint elders there, which would be one of the first steps in church organization. Crete had an infamous reputation in the ancient world that has survived to this day. If you call some one a "cretin" it means that they are "a stupid, vulgar, or insensitive person" according to Merriam-Webster. Paul may have contributed to the development of this stereotype with the content of this epistle, but this perception certainly predates his writing as evidenced by Titus 1:12-13. This letter, is Paul's instruction to his pupil regarding his ministry on this island full of 'cretins.' Furthermore, this new, young church was encountering false teaching and influence (Titus 1:10-11). Titus was there to build a Church which would be resilient and unyielding to such forces.

Purpose: In Titus, Paul instructs his pupil to shape the life of the church and the believers on Crete to the form of the Gospel. This epistle would be an extremely lucid response to the question, "what kind of society should result from the Gospel?" D.A. Carson says that this letter brings out "the civilizing function of Christianity." It becomes plain that the society that these new Christians came from was wild and lascivious, prone to disorder. However, the gospel was not kept from these "unpromising people" (Doug Moo's term). They have received the Gospel and now must understand what implications it has for their family and society. Paul describes the Church as a protector of order and orthodoxy where wise and virtuous leaders are given the authority and charge to protect sound doctrine and behavior. He gives instructions for what is to be taught or corrected in each age-group, gender, and societal position. The end result is a community which is orderly, cooperative, helpful, and beyond reproach so that "in every way they (the Cretin believers) will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive" (Titus 2:10)

James

Date of Authorship. Before James' martyrdom in 62 AD - obviously. attempts have been made to further narrow the date of authorship of this book based on its theological development, but i think some of them are problematic. the first limiting factor suggested is based on the conspicuous absence of the Jew-Gentile issue that appears in so much of the New Testament literature. Some have taken this absence to mean that James was written before the Jerusalem council of 50 AD, described in Acts 15. I think that this factor makes it more likely (not certain) that James was written before 50 AD; it is possible that James considered that issue satisfactorily addressed and not worthy of mention in his epistle sometime in-between 50-62 AD. Another suggested factor is what some commentators call an 'underdeveloped' understanding of Justification according to faith in James (especially 2:14-16). They (Carson and Moo among them) argue that this factor should limit the date of authorship of James back to the "early or middle 40's" so as to predate a thorough interaction of Paul and James - the author. I find this line of argument troubling because it seems like a pretext for dismissing James teaching regarding justification in chapter 2, and I think it depends on an incorrect understanding of Pauline theology.

Author: James, the half-brother of Jesus, (son of Mary and Joseph) is the author of this book ("James" is the English-ised version of the name that in Greek and Latin would be transliterated "Jacob"). James is mentioned by Paul in Galatians 1:19 and a few times in the book of Acts (12:17, 15:13, 21:18). James likely became a believer after Jesus' death and resurrection, but quickly rose to a position of leadership in the Jerusalem Church. There are a number of "James" in the New Testament, we believe that this letter is attributable to James the brother of Jesus because of his important position in the Jerusalem church, and the similarities between the Greek of the Epistle and that of the speech attributed to James the brother of Jesus in Acts 15:13-21.

Occasion: we are told very little about the occasion of the letter of James. not only is it hard to pinpoint a date of authorship before 62 AD, but we are not told who the recipient of the letter is. James addresses the letter to the "twelve tribes scattered among the nations," (James 1:1) which could* refer to ethnically-Jewish believers, or could just as well designate the church as the new covenant people of God (see Matthew 19:28, Revelation 7:4-8, 21:12). D.A. Carson and Doug Moo, believe that it was likely written to a number of congregations of predominately ethnically Jewish believers to the north and east of Palestine who were fleeing Jewish persecution in Judea, while James was serving as the leader of the Church in Jerusalem.

Purpose: The uncertainty concerning the occasion for the book of James obfuscates, to a degree, a clear understanding of the purpose of the letter. James is a book of pastoral admonition filled with imperative verbs (commands) which occur at a great frequency in this book than in any other New Testament book. Commentator James Ropes argues that we should understand the genre of James as a diatribe. A reading of the book will clearly reveal its opposition to what we might call a "shallow" or half-hearted Christian faith. James appears to be confronting the idea that a believer could have an unchanged life. He calls on believers to have a faith which is made apparent by their life, with an emphasis on purity, unity, humility, and service. Carson and Moo suggest the following structure for the book of James:

Opening (1:1)

Trials and Christian maturity (1:1-18)
True Christianity seen in its works (1:19-2:26)
Dissensions within the community (3:1-4:12)
Implications of a Christian worldview (4:13-5:11)

Concluding exhortations 5:12-20

Jude

Date of Authorship: While there are few internal (belonging to the text) clues as to the date of authorship of Jude, we can use what we believe about the author, and its close relationship to 2nd Peter to date the letter the middle to late 60's AD.

Author: It is likely that Jude, the brother of Jesus and James, is the author of this book. "Jude" is a translation of the same Greek word that is also translated "Judas" in the list of Jesus' brothers in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 12:55. Jude calls himself the brother of James in verse 1 and we know from 1st Corinthians 9:5 that some of the Lord's brothers were practicing traveling ministry; Jude was likely one of them.

Occasion: Jude was certainly written to a certain church or group of churches who was/were dealing with false teachers, we just don't know which one. Jude cites stories from some popular non-canonical (not-in-the-bible) Jewish literature; the Testament of Moses in verse 9, and the First Book of Enoch in verses 14-15. While these texts were not likely regarded as scripture, they were widely read and believed accounts of Old-Testament events for first century Jews. Jude's citation of these works indicate that he was writing to a primarily, ethnically Jewish audience. The characterization of the false teachers confronted in Jude indicates the following characteristics: boastful (16), selfish (12), scornful of authority (8-10), greedy (12) and sexually immoral (4,8) and, while that is that is quite a list, it does not give us a clear indication of who they were or a complete picture of what their false-teaching included.

Purpose: Jude writes to encourage the believers in his audience to confront and reject false teachers. He warns his readers about the dangers of tolerating or entertaining false teaching because it can bring punishment and destruction on God's people. Jude effectively reminds us that defections from true revelation and sound morals are to be expected in every generation.

Psalms

About: "Psalm" is a translation of the Hebrew word mizmor, which is is a technical term for a song sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. The book of psalms or the "Psalter" came into being over a period of centuries. There is a Psalm attributed to Moses (Psalm 90) and Psalms which almost certainly date to post-exilic Israel - no earlier than the 6th century BC.

David plays a huge part in the Psalms as many of them are attested to him. It is possible that not all of the Psalms that bear David's name in the title (there are 73 of them) were written by him (though it appears certain that many were), some may have simply been written about king David, or for him.
Asaph plays an important role in the Psalter, as 12 of the Psalms are attributed to him. He was appointed as chief musician by David in 1st Chronicles 15:4-5
Many Psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah. These individuals should not be connected with Korah's rebellion in Numbers 16-17, but with a family who served as temple musicians referenced in 2nd Chronicles 20:19

The Psalter is divided into five books, each ending in a doxology. However, the arrangement of the Psalms is not orderly. David's Psalms are spread across all five books, the collections of the separate books do not appear to have a distinct chronological provenance. Really, why the Psalms appear in the order and organization that they do is anyone's guess today. if you're viewing the study notes online and watching the "Bible Project" video you'll notice that they will attempt to broadly make sense of the organization of the Psalter. I think their description is a good enough depiction of the structure, but as all other such attempts, is frustrated by many outlier psalms in each book which don't fit perfectly into the movements that they suggest. They leave those outliers out of their video. We'll be splitting our reading of Psalms according to the 5-book division. We will not read our last chapter of Psalms until December.

Book 1: 1-41
Book 2: 42-72
Book 3: 73-89
Book 4: 90-106
Book 5: 107-50

As you Read Notes

Justification in James 2:14-26

Justification is how someone (the believer) is made or declared just or righteous. In theological discourse justification often comes to mean the science of the mechanism of our salvation. How is it precisely that we cross from guilty and damned, to righteous and saved? The answer to that question is the hot-button theological issue of justification. it is a hotly-contested theological issue because the implications from one's understanding of justification are huge and far-reaching. James 2:14-26 becomes incredibly important, and simultaneously widely maligned because of what it teaches, specifically a phrase in 2:24 "a person is considered righteous (justified) by what they do and not by faith alone"

This passage is especially troublesome to some major movements of protestant theology, especially Reformed and Lutheran theological systems. These systems proudly promote the Latin credo "sola fide" meaning literally "faith alone" which on-its-face directly contradicts the text of James 2:24, but on a deeper reading, depends on what you mean by "faith" in each instance. The Lutheran and Reformed systems take this to mean that no work - action or response of mankind - is relevant to justification, and i believe that this understanding of "faith" and "works" is in fact directly contradictory to the teaching of James 2:14-26. It seems that they also recognize this problem in their systematic theology, because they can often be found attempting to discredit or explain away the text of James. Luther famously and angrily referred to James as "the epistle of straw" while also accusing the author of "throwing things things together chaotically' in his Preface to the New Testament. While those in the Reformed camp can be caught inferring that the theology of James is "underdeveloped" or arguing that James means something else by "made righteous" than other Biblical authors mean when they use those words

But how can we read these two passages together?

(Romans 3) 27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. 28 For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

(James 2) 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

in order to believe both Romans and James, we must understand that faith works. There is no faith which does not obey. There are 'works' which are not "works of the law" that are an inseparable part of our faith. Not only are some of these works directly tied to salvation by the Bible, like belief, repentance, confession of Christ as Lord, and Baptism, but the book of James is about the need to adopt a thoroughly Christian character of humility, obedience, and service. These 'works' do not earn salvation for us, they do not - of their own merit - in any measure satisfy the punishment that our sin deserves, but they are an inextricable element of our faith - by which we are Justified according to God's grace through Jesus Christ. Any conception of faith that does not include these works is in error, and we know this because of James 2:14-26.

James and the Tongue: (curse words??)

The Book of James features a large section of teaching on the tongue, by which, of course, he is referring to speech. When we, in 21st century America, think about taming our tongue, we often focus on one certain kind of speech - curse words. However, this is not the kind of speech that James has in mind. Additionally, the majority of New Testament texts which we usually cite to prohibit the use of cursing do not necessarily address words which are simply coarse. Here in James, both the text of the tongue passage and the context of the passage within the book of James pretty clearly indicate that harmful and/or divisive speech is what James is warning against. this is true of many other passages that we are used to thinking of as regarding curse words:

Ephesians 4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Greek word literally means divisive - context of passage is unity)

(Colossians 3:8) But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. (here the Greek means exactly what we'd expect - a compound word meaning 'shameful words,' but look at the other items in the list - they all have to do with the way we treat other people and this passage is followed by a teaching about how the gospel unites all kinds of people)

All this to say that the Bible seems to be concerned with something different regarding our speech than we are. The Bible is frequently teaching us how to speak lovingly and graciously to each other, and in passages like this one in James, warning us how bad hurtful and divisive words are. However, we're often so occupied by the topic and guilt of cursing, that we do not read these passages correctly. now there is one passage where we are clearly taught to not say curse words in Ephesians 5:4, BUT don't lose sight of the fact that cursing is not the only thing that we can do wrong with our tongue, and its not even addressed here by James. I think a strong case can be made for harmful or divisive words being a much more serious transgression than curse words, and that is important to know. I think the Bible teaches that a hateful word spoken to or about a Christian brother more sister is a more serious offense than a dozen curse words.

Reading Psalms

Lets start zoomed in on reading Psalms and work our way out. Hebrew Poetry is typically written in pairs or triples of lines called couplets or triplets. you should notice, in your Bible, that the first line of each verse is left-justified to the margin, but the second and sometimes the third lines of the verse are indented. The couplets form a single unit of meaning the A-line and B-line(s) depend on each other. Sometimes the B-lines will be an intensification of the first, sometimes a consecutive point, sometimes the B-line might contrast the A-line, but they need to be regarded as a single unit. sometimes groups of couplets and triplets can from a unit of meaning called a stanza, and multiple stanza's usually make up a poem (chapter).

Each chapter in Psalms is a new and distinct poem. This is why above i recommended pausing and trying to mentally reset after each chapter. consider the development in each poem. ask questions like: does the end sound like the beginning? what changed? how does the response of the Psalm (i.e. 6:8-10) fit with the challenge of the Psalm (i.e. 6:1-7)? There is a tricky structure in many of the Psalms where the stanzas are built toward a middle point on which the Psalm turns and reflexively begins re-tracing its earlier form. This particular structure is called a "chiasm" and Psalms is full of them. I've included a picture of the structure of Psalm 9, can you find more?

The Psalms are an open invitation to identify with the words of the psalmist and speak to God. Not every Psalm will fit your situation but some might. Psalms - more than any other book - is conducive to prayer, so don't pass up that opportunity. When you read a Psalm that fits a challenge you're facing, or a feeling you have, or something you'd like to say to God, then go back and pray that Psalm. When attempting to identify with the words of the Psalter i find it helpful to remember that the Church is the new people of God and Christ is our King. The words that the Psalmist speaks against his enemies and about Israel's king, can often be translated to be spoken against the church's enemies and about Jesus, our king.

Study Questions:

Titus 2 contains instructions for how people are to live holy lives. can you identify the rationale for why* believers are to live this way? is that a goal that you have in your life?
In James 1:27, we're told what "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is." are those things that you are doing in your life currently? How can you start?
In Jude v. 3, We're told to contend for the faith. How can we do that in 21st century America? how can you contend for the faith this week?
Psalm 4:8 ends with a proclamation of peace - why did David feel at peace, and have the ability to sleep? are you experiencing that peace?
Psalm 12 seems really well suited for a modern reader. How is our world like the one described in this psalm? What message of hope does this psalm offer, and to whom?
Pslam 17:3 tells us that God knows our hearts. Are you being honest with Him about what you think and feel? what is stopping your?
in Psalm 19:12 David asks for forgiveness from a particular kind of Sin? Have you ever prayed this to God before? why do we need to?

Joel NielsenApril 7, 2018Madison Church of Christ