Runner and Pericles

You are right that 1 Timothy is addressed to Timothy, not written by him, but the authorship is disputed. Many scholars argue that this was not written by Paul but by a later author writing under his name (a common practice at the time). The language, message, theology and focus are all very different from the undisputed works of Paul.

It certainly cuts across what we know of Paul’s practice. His letters are often addressed to or make reference to female church leaders, and some of his writing is among the most egalitarian in the bible – e.g. Galatians 3:28: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

There is a growing body of scholarship arguing that the early Jesus movement was unusually egalitarian in the context of the culture of its time, but was quickly pulled back into line by the cultural conservatives like Pseudo Paul.

Rhian, we have no 'proof' of who or what wrote anything in the old book, that has no doubt been rewritten and rewritten to all the new author's satisfaction again over the years.

One thing is for certain, no god wrote the bible.
Mere men wrote what they imagined their mythical gods might say if they were real.
Because mere men wrote the bible, then it goes without saying that they would have written the rules to suit them!

In any case, it sounds to me like most of the likely lads that 'contribute' to this forum would be much happier living in Turkey, don't you think Hasbeen and Runner?
lol, ha ha...

'In any case, it sounds to me like most of the likely lads that 'contribute' to this forum would be much happier living in Turkey, don't you think Hasbeen and Runner? '

seems strange Susie that it is the 'progressives' that has encouraged illegal immigration. fyi I am very happy living in Australia especially with a wife who accepts the natural order of things.

I was wondering if she was going to make an appearance at some point in this discussion, runner.

>>I am very happy living in Australia especially with a wife who accepts the natural order of things.<<

I'd love to hear her version of "the natural order of things" in the runner household at some point.

But I guess she wouldn't be allowed to, under the rules. So we'll never know.

Suseonline
We have no proof of the bible’s authors, but we have lots of evidence, much of it within the books themselves. There are ways of evaluating texts to see whether they have common authorship – use of language, recurring words, consistent ideologies, etc. Many of “Paul’s” letters are probably by the same author. Others probably aren’t. The pastoral epistles are widely held to be amongst the latest books in the bible, written well after Paul died. Some of the Pauline letters have been heavily edited and may contain both original and later material.

Marcus Borg recently produced a version of the bible with the books arranged in the order they were written, according to mainstream scholarship. 1 Timothy is one of the last.

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zcJTRapE3kQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=borg+bible+written&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ABnfU86tA4zq8AXIvIDYDg&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=borg%20bible%20written&f=false

It is true than on the first 100 or so years after Jesus, the bible was still being written, edited and reconfigured. A lot of “gospels” written in the second century never made it into the canonical bible. But there is limited evidence of tampering with the Gospels or Acts after they attained written form (the endings of Mark and maybe parts of John are exceptions).

Christians don’t maintain that God wrote the Bible. It is as you say the work of men, and reflects their worldviews. But they were writing about their experiences of the divine, and they tried to describe these in language that reflects their culture and understanding

Onthebeach,

You know best.

Which I think might be Andee's point.