Paul said: give thyself to reading of the scriptures

[Waiting on him]

Paul was writing a letter to Timothy, so he was addressing only those Scriptures that existed at the time.... especially since Paul told him to do that until such time as he arrived in his town.

Letters the various Apostles wrote were not yet designated "Scripture" at that time.

It’s amazing these men were a living record of the New Testament!

 

[Willie T]

Peter even said that it was tough to figure out what the things Paul said and wrote meant.

 

[farouk]

It’s amazing these men were a living record of the New Testament!

What a privilege! what a responsibility!

 

[farouk]

Agreed! He transcends time

Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, which was, which is and which is to come (Revelation 1).

 

[Waiting on him]

Amazing he has no beginning or end yet he is Lord over our time

 

[farouk]

Amazing he has no beginning or end yet he is Lord over our time

Great for a new year meditation!

 

[Enoch111]

Letters the various Apostles wrote were not yet designated "Scripture" at that time.

That is incorrect. All of Paul's epistles were already classified as Scripture by Peter, who was writing his epistles around 63-68 AD. And many of the other NT writings were also accepted as Scripture.

 

[Willie T]

That is incorrect. All of Paul's epistles were already classified as Scripture by Peter, who was writing his epistles around 63-68 AD. And many of the other NT writings were also accepted as Scripture.

I know you intended to give chapter and verse for that claim, but just forgot.

 

[Willie T]

That is incorrect. All of Paul's epistles were already classified as Scripture by Peter, who was writing his epistles around 63-68 AD. And many of the other NT writings were also accepted as Scripture.

Uh, Paul wrote over half of his letters in the 60's.
Chronology of Apostle Paul's Journeys and Epistles

 

[WalterandDebbie]

My dad was 90 , the night he died we took him to his room (more like my hubby and I half dragged him , his legs gave out) I settled him down , he was on oxygen and in heart failure.

An hour later , when I came up the hall to check on him...I heard him gasping out Psalm 86 , his big old bible was in his hand ...he always read the bible aloud.
It is one of my sweetest memories. He died 4 hours later.

There is a time for everything, our dad was 71 when he died.

 

[Enoch111]

I know you intended to give chapter and verse for that claim, but just forgot.

Willie, please note carefully what Peter said -- by divine inspiration -- in 2 Peter 3:15,16.

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

First of all what are "the other Scriptures"? The Lord Jesus Himself told us that they consist of (1) the Law of Moses -- Torah , (2) the Prophets -- Nebiim and (3) the Psalms -- Kethubim. The entire Hebrew Tanakh (24 books equivalent to our 39 books in the OT).

Had Peter seen all of Paul's epistles? Absolutely, since he said that there are some things in them hard to be understood.

So what did Peter do by placing all of Paul's epistles alongside the Tanakh? He gave them the stamp of divine authority. Then he said that people who are unlearned and unstable (and we have plenty of those today)"wrest" or twist all the Scriptures unto their own destruction because they refuse to accept Bible truth, especially the truth about the Second Coming of Christ (see the entire chapter for context).

 

[bbyrd009]

keep looking up!

Uh, Paul wrote over half of his letters in the 60's.
Chronology of Apostle Paul's Journeys and Epistles

and Peter was not exactly a recognized authority either I guess.
The epithet used for him, "Petra," is best translated "pebble."

 

[amadeus]

Reading the Scriptures - publicly or privately - is so important.

I don't understand a believer that never reads God's Word.

Sometimes there is a good reason. Were you not here when I wrote about the man from Central America who spoke only Spanish? He could not read or write in any language. In spite of that he stood to give a tremendous testimony of becoming a believer in Jesus. Obviously he did not believe because he had been reading the Bible. Never presume something is impossible when you are talking about God:

"And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible." Mark 10:27

 

[bbyrd009]

Copies of all those separate letters finally existed after probably decades. But they did not have stenographers at each church to make copies, nor Postal Service or e-mail to facilitate distribution. Shoot, it took more than three hundred years to finally collect enough to make a book called the Bible.

hmm, lotta assumptions here, I sure don't know. How might the first copy of the original have come about? It would almost have to have come from the local stenographer imo

 

[Willie T]

keep looking up!


and Peter was not exactly a recognized authority either I guess.
The epithet used for him, "Petra," is best translated "pebble."

And I believe it was Peter that Paul had to "call out", sometime during the 50's or 60's, for ignoring the Gentile brothers, and catering to the visitors from Jerusalem by going to sit and eat with them.
I believe that happened in Antioch (Gal 2:11-13)

(Some people really do believe Peter was the first of the infallible Popes.)

 

[amadeus]

Copies of all those separate letters finally existed after probably decades. But they did not have stenographers at each church to make copies, nor Postal Service or e-mail to facilitate distribution. Shoot, it took more than three hundred years to finally collect enough to make a book called the Bible.

The following verse suggests that some sharing was occurring very early, well before Paul had left the scene:

"And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea." Col 4:16

 

[bbyrd009]

And I believe it was Peter that Paul had to "call out", sometime during the 70's, for ignoring the Gentile brothers, and catering to the visitors from Jerusalem by going to sit and eat with them.

(Some people really do believe Peter was the first of the infallible Popes.)

despite the repeated characterizations of a well-meaning idiot, lol. "Petra" was literally a put-down, or at least a slight

 

[bbyrd009]

2 Timothy 3:16 | All Scripture is God-Breathed? | Commentary

contains a fairly comprehensive list of extra-Biblical "Scripture."

 

[marksman]

All Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.

Sorry but no as some of it had not been written when he said that.

 

[marksman]

fwiw imo this is an assumption that the Bible does not bear out, even if this is what we are taught. "Scripture" surely had a diff meaning to Paul, and Paul can even be Quoted repeating much that was not within...those parameters, which essentially deny the existence of the many Roman and Greek gods in our Christian "Scripture."

Hades would be a good example I guess, who is "Hades?"
see, he was not invoked out of thin air, nor invented by Paul or any other believer
Hades has been made into Hell for us, but this is surely not what Hades meant to Paul, who was intimately aware of Hades' mythology.

So, should Hades' mythology now be admitted as "Scripture?" tht is up to you, but I suggest that if "...the gates of Hades will not overcome it" is true, a believer should at least be aware of what "the gates of Hades" represents, which is certainly not "Hell."

Hades was the god of the underworld and the name eventually came to also describe the home of the dead as well. He was the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea. Hades and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their father and the Titans to end their reign, claiming rulership over the cosmos.