Seder 72: 2 Cor 8-9---Paul's Collection for the Saints in Judea

 In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul writes about the collection that he has been organizing for the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.  Commentator David Garland explains that this collection was important to Paul for several reasons:

1.   The saints in Jerusalem were in need, and helping the poor was a value that he wanted to both practice and teach his congregations to practice (Ro 12:13).
2. Paul believed it was fitting for Gentile Christians to show appreciation to their Jewish brethren.  "For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings" (Ro 15:27).  
3. Paul hoped that the collection would promote greater unity between Jewish and Gentile Christians and would help the Jewish Christians to accept the Gentile believers as brethren 
4. Paul saw this collection as a fulfillment of prophecies that picture the nations bringing their wealth to Jerusalem (e.g., Isa 60:5-7; Zec 14:14).

What was important to Paul was not the amounts donated, but the spirit in which the donations were made.  By giving to those in need, Christians follow the selfless example of Jesus  (2 Co 8:9).  

Resurrection Day 2024: 1 Corinthians15:3-9---Four Categories of Apostles

 In 1 Corinthians 15:3-9, Paul mentions a number of individuals and groups of people to whom the resurrected Jesus appeared:

• Cephas (Luke 24:34)
• the twelve
• five hundred brethren
• James
• all the apostles
• Paul, "the least of the apostles"

This listing raises the question of how "apostle" ("one sent") was defined.  We know that the twelve were apostles, and they were people who had traveled with Jesus from the time of his baptism until the time of his ascension (Acts 1:22).  

Jesus' half-brother James was also an apostle (Gal 1:19).  James may have become a follower of Jesus when the resurrected Jesus appeared to him.  James became the leader of the Christians in Jerusalem.  Those who led the Jerusalem Christ-followers seem to have been called apostles in the book of Acts. 

Paul also became an apostle a few years after James did.  The risen Jesus appeared to him and commissioned him.  

There are also cases where a person who was sent by one congregation to help another is called an apostle.  Titus (2 Cor 8:23) and Epaphroditus (Phl 2:25) are examples.   Today we call people like this missionaries or church planters.

So there seem to be four categories of apostles in the New Testament:'

1. The Twelve
2. James and other leaders of the early Jerusalem congregation.
3. Paul, who is in a kind of category of his own.
4. People sent by one congregation to help another.

The people in the first three categories had seen the risen Jesus.  These categories seem only to have existed in the initial generation of Christianity.  There are people in the fourth category throughout Christian history, but we probably should not loosely throw around the title of apostle for them, since this designation has such exalted connotations. 

Michael Heiser gives a concise discussion of this topic in the Logos Mobile Ed Course BI 165,  one of a series of courses on difficult passages in scripture.

Seder 56: Exodus 15-16---Lessons for the Israelites

 In the early weeks of the Exodus the Israelites were in a challenging "in-between" position, what social scientists call a "liminal space."  They had been uprooted from everything that was familiar to them and were without a home.  They were on their way to Sinai, where they would learn about their new identity.  (For further discussion, see chapter 1 of Bearing God's Name:  Why Sinai Still Matters by Carmen Joy Imes.)

During this period God was very patient with his people and taught them many lessons on their journey.  Three days after the sea crossing, he miraculously provided clean water at Marah, in effect reversing the first plague of the Exodus.  He let the Israelites know that they would not be receiving plagues if they followed him faithfully (Exod 15:22-27).  

Then he began sending daily rations of manna, a marvelous food (Exod 16).  On Sunday through Thursday the Israelites were to pick up enough of the manna for that day.  And however much each family gathered, each family had enough to eat.  But if they tried to set any aside overnight, it would spoil. 

On Friday, on the other hand, they were to gather twice as much as on other days.  The Friday manna did not spoil when they saved it overnight, and they could then rest on Saturday with no need to gather manna that day.  

With the manna God taught the Israelites to trust in him to provide their "daily bread." With that trust they would not have to worry where their next meal was coming from, and they could rest every week on the Sabbath.  

They also learned to just pick up what they needed, so that everyone would have enough (v 18).  Paul quotes this verse in 2 Cor 8:15 in an exhortation for Christians to provide for those in need.