Introduction to the General Epistles

welcome to video lecture number one of the general Epistles let's start off by asking the question what is a general epistle an epistle is an English word that also means letter so we could refer to these as the general letters and why are they General you see uh many New Testament books are letters that were written from one individual to a church or to another individual examples of that would be Romans or 1 or 2 Corinthians or 1 or 2 Thessalonians in those the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to a church in Corinth or to

a church in Rome henceforth the name Romans or Corinthians the same could be said about Paul writing a letter to individuals for example first or second Timothy Titus or fiman are letters that Paul wrote to those individuals Timothy Titus and fiman a general letter or a general epistle is a letter that was intentionally written to a wider audience not to one individual or to one church and so as a result it is general or another term that has been used historically is Catholic and so when you look at the general Epistles or sometimes referred to

as Catholic Epistles understand that when they were written they were written with the intention that they would be read by many people not one one church or one individuals and as a result even today many of us are able to read these letters and they apply to General circumstances in our lives the term General Epistles is a relatively modern term the the traditional term has been Catholic Epistles or Catholic letters uh the term Catholic comes from a Greek word calos which was translated into Latin which meant uh as Catholic for so to speak the the

word literally means Universal or whole and so to refer to something as a Catholic in most of History you meant Universal the universal church the church that exists all over the world that we are all a part of at the time of the Reformation there came to be an understanding that there was a group of people breaking off of the church the reformers and so they were separating from what was understood as the whole church or the Catholic church and they began to refer to the church they broke off of as the Roman Catholic Church

uh as something different than themselves as a result they did not want to use the word Catholic for these Epistles even though it doesn't mean that they are Catholic in the sense of Roman Catholic letters there are General letters written to the whole church and so sometimes you will see the phrase General Epistles and sometimes you'll see the phrase Catholic Epistles understand that they are referring to the same letters the letters that we're going to be looking at in this class we're going to be looking at Hebrews James 1 and second Peter Jude 1 2

3rd John and the Book of Revelation now those letters don't necessarily all uh group together harmoniously we're putting some together that may not fit in the same genre and we're going to speak about genre later on although Hebrews and first John are Cate categorized as Epistles they lack the conventional letter opening that you see in the other letters with a salutation a Thanksgiving and some s of sort of closing closing at the end uh they suggest that these may have originally been sermons and we're going to ask later when we look at those books how

are they sermons or how are they letters and compare the two ideas they were likely uh these two particular books Hebrews and 1 John were likely prepared for specific congregations uh with their recipients who were designated and recognized even in the letters but intended to be circulated like the letters were at that time for other audiences as well uh Hebrews in particular includes rhetorical elements that distinguish it from a typical letter a typical correspondence of its day and its author likely intended for it to reach a wider audience Beyond a single church or even group

of churches James 1 and second Peter and Jude feature traditional letter openings that you would find in the ancient Greco Roman World these align at least partially with the standard helenistic formats that we observe in other letters their recipients however are described in general terms so they don't specifically address one church or one person like Paul does uh for instance first Peter addresses the ch Chen Exiles of the diaspora in 1 Peter verse 1 chapter 1 verse one uh he claims that he's writing it from Babylon now who are these Exiles in diaspora where are

the Exiles and why is he saying he's writing from Babylon when he's not he's clearly writing from another city and he's using code for Rome is what we believe he's saying but he's framing this letter as a diaspora letter with some Intrigue with some Cloak and Dagger if you will rather than pinpointing specific readers and a specific location where it was written while each of these General Epistles originally had an intended audience uh they were not meant to be personal correspondents like the other letters that we see in the New Testament helping to make it

understood that they are um General letters now third John might have a slightly different take on that one in particular instead the authors of the rest of the books aim to communicate with a broader audience ensuring that their message would be received universally by the church let's look at the Historical setting that led up to the writing of these letters uh these letters were written in the milia of the first century after Jesus uh most likely during the latter half of that Century they focus on the New Testament specifically on the person of Jesus Christ

we're going to look at a christology that appears in each of these letter letters um the significance of his life death burial and Resurrection is mentioned in all of these letters it's crucial for the early church why uh we study the letters and we are concerned with two distinct time periods one of those time periods is the time of Jesus because they are addressing the issues that Jesus addressed when he lived but we are also looking at the timetable of the letter the period of when the letter was written because it's addressing issues that the

church is experiencing about 50 years later in most of these cases uh so the issues are a little bit different the church did not exist in Jesus's time he created it the church exists in the time of these letters and now they're trying to figure out how do we Faithfully be Disciples of Jesus so these events are taking place around the church that the letters are intending to address in the New Testament letters the authors of the letters address real questions real concerns of the people who are the intended audience it's addressing the issues and

circumstances that they are concerned with the New Testament writings allow us to distinguish between the periods of Jesus and the periods of the letters themselves and then of course in our own time you see we have the distance of time between the letter and oursel and although the truths Remain the truth they're absolute the principles have to be played out in our time so if you think about it there's really three different Tim taes in these letters Jesus's the original audience and author and our own let's look at the period of the Gospel that is

the first of those three no New Testament books were written during the life of Jesus that takes place somewhere around 4 BC until about 30 ad uh the period of the church expansion takes place after that so when Jesus is crucified and he rose again he tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem and when the Holy Spirit comes upon them he will send them out and the church will grow that takes place in the book of Acts and so from around 30 to 33 ad the church expands rapidly until about the 60s ad 6264 we

know that there's a church that exists in Rome and there are churches in many of the major cities of the Roman Empire and so we see a rapid expansion of the Christian church now that expansion goes to these places where people don't have a history of their faith they are not Jewish necessarily and they certainly weren't Christian and so all of the principles of the Christian faith are new to them or at least it's being applied in a new way and so they're having to learn how to be a disciple of Jesus when sometimes even

the person teaching them is not nearby they're in another city and so they're having to write letters to help them understand difficult things and important things for the faith some of these individuals were Gentiles who uh were're trying to determine do they need to become Jewish or not in order to be a follower of Jesus that's a prominent theme it also wrestles with the law how do they handle the law uh versus the grace of Christ you see it's dealing with a difficult time as well that when the expansion begins to happen there are those

who don't like the expansion and so they're trying to stop the church initially that was Jewish leaders later it was Roman leaders and so we begin to see uh people like demission and neero that began to persecute the church and so the period of unification of the church takes place uh in the latter part of the first century right about the same time the persecution of the church takes place both of these events are going to be very crucial in understanding uh the the letters and the and the material that's in the letters let's go

back and talk about that period of unification and ecclesial un uh do the doctrinal ecclesial unification this was a period in which there were individual churches farflung around the Roman Empire yet they began to see themselves as part of this one body this Catholic church or universal church that existed in different forms in different cities like Ephesus or Antioch or in Rome itself some existed in Jerusalem for a season and then they were persecuted and many had to flee but it's also within this period that they see the obstacles the persecution that I talked about

a moment ago first from the Jewish leaders and then later more severely by the Roman Empire and sometimes the church had to go underground and as a result there was heresies that popped up that uh the whole church the church as a whole wouldn't believe but individuals in churches would and so there was these correctives to try to understand and and correct these heresies and so that's what these letters begin to form and they are written in order to address the concerns of the church now it's at this time that Christ's life uh he had

lived he had died and was uh raised from the dead and then ascended into heaven uh this was a pinpoint time in history in which a lot of other events are happening in the Roman Empire in the Greek culture in the Jewish culture I want to go back and talk a little bit about that because that has some play on their interpretations of who Jesus is at the time when Cesar Augustus was being hailed as the Son of God and savior of Rome and that was one of his titles the Son of God and Savior

Jesus of Nazareth came along as the long promised Messiah of the Jewish people Judaism as a religion had existed for centuries uh and in some aspect in faith going back even 2,000 years to the time of Abraham but Judaism as we understand it had existed for at least many centuries at this point and it had shaped the interests of the people in the leavon in the land that is called Palestine uh a portion of which was a little pre prefect called Judea and in that particular area there was conflict there were problems the people had

stood up for God they had rebelled against God they had been put into Exile on two separate occasions uh uh the northern kingdom in 72 2 the southern Kingdom in 586 or 587 BC uh they had this history of coming back from Exile uh they set up their own country again so there's all this historical stuff that's going on at this time they were interacting with foreign philosophies and religions you had Greek philosophies like epicurian ISM stoicism um you had Hedonism uh you also had the mystery religions uh you had the different philosophies and religions

of the near East people in Persia and in Egypt as well and so things like the gnostics and the monists and all of these were SW uh swirling together and they were influencing each other and they were borro terms and ideas and the writers of the general Epistles are trying to say no you need to stay firm in our faith that is pure and true and we're going to see that they try to teach doctrinal Purity to hold true to the Christian faith immediately after the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ uh writings

began to form to help to write down his story initially um they were all oral but fairly soon people began to realize we need to capture these down in written form so that we could the message could spread further and stay true to its Origins uh probably the earliest letter is one of the general Epistles the name the Book of James some would argue Galatians or first or 2 Thessalonians would be the oldest books and they're probably uh very close in age but I would argue that James is the oldest book in the New Testament

uh probably written I think in around 43 or 44 ad somewhere in that time frame I'm going to give reasons why I think it's that specific date when we look at the Book of James and that also has some interpretation issues because some try to say that James is countering Paul and then you realize James letter is the first one written and you realize James is Count uh Paul is countering James and there's some theological uh sidest stepping you have to do in that to understand what going on uh we'll get to that when we

get to the Book of James at this time the Christian church had expanded and people were Faithfully preaching Christ but they were being persecuted for it um as they grew outside of the city walls of Jerusalem uh they made it into Judea and Samaria just as Jesus had asked them to do and now they were going into the Roman Empire and they were facing persecution they were also finding lots and lots of people that were interested in their message and so they were trying to Faithfully evangelize while trying to protect themselves at the same time

throughout many previous centuries God's Redemptive work in the world as far as scripture reveals was achieved through the nations in which he had a covenant ancient Israel now the gospel was going outside of Israel outside of Judea and we are interacting with the Gentiles and how does that interact with the Covenant that God made with Abraham and these become crucial questions for the Believers of the first century that Covenant had recently uh up until recently been defined in terms of ancient Israel but now everyone's wanting to worship the one true creator God do they have

to become part of the Covenant people of God of Israel uh do they have to live as an Israelites for example as Ruth did in the Old Testament God established his Covenant in relationship with his people on Mount Si with the law that he gave to Moses based on the promises he gave to Abraham and he prescribed circumcision for example as a sign of the Covenant women were included in the Covenant by being the daughter or wife of a circumcised man this New Covenant is being formed and now they're trying to understand how do we

fit that in with the previous Covenant the New Covenant described in the New Testament had been established by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ when Gentiles began to put their faith in Jesus the first issue Apostles had to hammer out that they had to figure out was whether Gentile Believers in the Jewish Messiah needed to be circumcised and if they needed to obey the law of Moses when Peter Paul and James uh met together with the other leaders of the Jewish people in Jerusalem in Acts chap 15 they decided that no Gentiles do not

need to become Jews in order to become Christians the whole issue of the role and purpose of the law and the basis of Christian faith and morality and ethics comes into play at that moment from these issues come Paul's instructions in Galatians and then we also see possibly James instructions in the Book of James with his famous statement that faith without works is dead to clarify that the role of good works is an essential part of Christian Living but faith faith is the foundation of Christian Living the relationship between the old and new covenants with

animal sacrifices made by the ironic priesthood as the basis of the former Covenant and the death of Jesus establishing the latter Covenant needed to be thought through and articulated given the circumstances where the communities uh the the continuities and discontinuities begin to rub the old and new Covenants against each other how does Jesus's death and Resurrection fit into this the writer of Hebrews took up this Challenge and produced a profound Exposition on this topic although the gospels are the first in the sequence of the books that we call the New Testament they are almost certainly

not the first ones written down as I said I think it goes to probably the Book of James and then the books to Thessalonians and to Galatians some would date uh first Peter or Jude as among the earliest as well I think those are written a little bit later uh three letters of John were written in the first century at the end of the first century Hebrews was probably a sermon turned into a letter written toward the middle part to latter part of the first century the uh it is helpful when understanding and studying these

books to have in mind that the types of issues that they wrestled with and that categorized their their ideas um were issues that dealt with the concepts of who Jesus is what does it mean to be Christian and how do we interact with each other and with the world John's letters for example written during the period of unification when heresy had already become a major problem opened a window to a way that christology was already being distorted by some Christians who had an improper understanding of the nature of Jesus so John writes with a high

christology to correct this so does the book of Hebrews but in a different format for various reasons persecution of Christians increased as the decades first century Advanced the decade the last Decades of the first century Advanced even before the Roman government began to imprison and sometimes execute Christians in the second half of the first century Christian faced social ostracism they could have hostility from local rulers they could lose their jobs or their place in their family these forms of persecution took place from the very beginning of the faith starting with Jesus obviously who was executed

and then experienced by his disciples as well the newly imprisoned formed Church needed hope they needed help and so they had an expectations of uh with instructions of of how to live in a climate that the culture around them was hostile to their faith and hostile to their very existence and so we see books written to address these issues the book of First Peter provides an insightful analysis of this very situation unfolding in Ancient Asia Asia Minor the the part of the western part of modern-day turkey with challenging advice about how Christians should engage with

a society that views them as alien and strangers once Gentiles began to come to faith in Christ in great numbers it did not take long for heresy to become a major problem tendencies in GRE Roman philosophy such as neoplatonism and gnosticism were influential in first century thinking and began to influence Christians as well uh they began to influence the the leaders of some of the Christian churches and so letters had to be written to make Corrections in this the books of second Peter Jude and the the three letters of John take on some of the

important task of correcting various types of heresies that cause wrong beliefs and behavior in the church because these books are in the New Testament Hebrews and the general Epistles are theological writings they are about God Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit and the necessary implications of following the Christian Faith Life and morality millions of Christians rightly read the words of these books in worship and devotion but these writings didn't just drop out of Heaven into our books into our laps into our circumstances they're ancient books that were written in a time and place that was quite

different from our modern setting to understand these books of the Bible as theological writings we must understand the author's ideas within each of the books original historical settings to appreciate the original historical setting we must a knowledge who what when and why of each of the books the biblical authors assume that their original readers shared a vast amount of knowledge about the people places Customs religions Society politics economics and philosophies that they shared at the moment and that they had this commonality of experiences that they did not have to even express it's intrinsic in the

writings themselves for modern readers today that need knowledge can only come by study which is why uh uh that knowledge is necessary for us as we study these books the books of the New Testament not only have two historical settings I said earlier but they themselves are literary texts produced in a culture that is not our own and so as we look at these books we're going to look at the Providence which means where the book comes from the authorship the date to know what's happening in the world at the time and the audience that

the original book or books were written to include now in this context this is a wide audience it's not one church but we have a general truth we understand about the audience let's talk first then about authorial intent and the general Epistles as what we call occasional letters all new testament letters including Hebrews and the general Epistles are what we call occasional writings each letter is written by an individ idual author who wrote for a specific purpose to a specific congregation about a specific need that had Arisen as a result we need to understand those

things the problem is that has been lost to us we just have the response of the need and so we have to interpret that as best as we possibly can each letter was written at a time that uh infers the contents of the epistle uh based on what prompted the author to write it we have to try to figure that out sort of like we're eavesdropping on someone's conversation these letters were written 2,000 years ago for an ancient culture vastly different from our own a modern and scientific culture that we live in today and so

they address issues in a different way than we would address them and it should be uh expected that not everything's going to be clear to us the first time that we read it when we read the New Testament Epistles uh we actually are reading letters originally sent to other people if you think about it that way and reading other people's mail may seem like an odd way for God had given us his word we might wish that Jesus himself had written down a Systematic Theology that we could all read and understand um but instead God

gave us among the inspired writings the letters of Apostles to specific Christians living in a very concrete situations in their day as a means to understand God's truth because of that we get to see how the Christian Life was to be lived out in the context of first century Christianity uh and the first century culture we can identify the same or similar issues we face today and as a result we can interpret how we're supposed to respond to those things in the way that the early church did now sometimes the challenges are a little bit

different and we have to think through how we address current problems with this ancient truth rather than giving us a book about abstract philosophy or theology God's word has come in the form of very practical and concrete specific situations it's another instance of God's incarnational intent and so just as Jesus came to Earth as a human God's word was written to humans in a very human time it's a picture of Emmanuel God With Us when we pick up the Bible in an academic program like this one we are working with biblical studies and that comes

comes with some complications it's not a Bible study like we might do at church we're going to be looking at issues that sometimes are puzzling we have to interpret it like a literary document at sometimes while at the same time we hold with tension the truth that it is wor the word of God and so as a result this is a task that has a wide range of disciplines such as ancient languages historical methods we understand ancient philosophy sociology classical rhetoric uh we look at liter analysis we look at the ancient languages how they're formed

and many of the foundational principles of these disciplines help us to understand the word of God was it as it has meaning in the ancient day and in it is our day it's not sufficient for us to Simply read the Bible and say what it means to me we must read the Bible and understand what it means and then we can apply it to me the original authors had a purpose they had an intent when they wrote their letters and so I believe the best way to understand God's word is that authorial intent what did

the original author mean when he wrote the letter of the academic Pursuits and biblical studies many of them bring knowledge uh that could sometimes challenge us or threaten us in our faith I hope that the opposite is true in this course I hope you can wrestle with some of those issues that others will try to make complicated and understand a clearer path to how we understand as Evangelical Christians those issues not that we naively supp support the belief in the scriptures but that we truly do believe God's word is God's word it takes time and

effort to deeply comprehend God's word by understanding it in its original historical context join with me on this journey and I want to help you to do that to understand it in its context you will have to put some effort into it reading these books studying them at a deeper level than maybe you ever have before and understanding their truths for your life today old ideas may need to be left behind new languages methodologies and approaches might need to be adopted for you but the fruit of that labor is as sweet as growing in our

own knowledge and application of God's word in our life this is God's word it can guide us in a sure and true path to his understanding uh to understanding his ways in our world now let's talk about the historical acceptance of the general Epistles of all the letters in the Bible these are some of the ones that had the the challenges of being accepted as scripture by some theologians the general Epistles have a long-standing role in the Christian Cannon but their acceptance was not uniform across church history unlike the Pauline letters which were widely recognized

and circulated possibly even in his lifetime the Epistles uh probably were accepted in some regions but not widely distributed quite in the same way as the Pauling letters Hebrews James second Peter second John thirr John and Jude in particular encountered scrutiny over authorship audience and Theological content the inclusion of these books in the Canon was influenced by church leaders like uus uh who categorized the text as recognized disputed or spirous over time the authority of these Epistles was solid ified and they were recognized along with their doctrinal consistency and edifying messages as important for The

Universal Church let's talk about just the formation of the New Testament Canon for just a moment then to understand what that means the process of the New Testament Cannon coming into existence is a crucial yet often misunderstood aspect of the Christian history for many people the Bible just exists like a complete book without any awareness that it took time to create this book it was a dynamic and complex process the New Testament did not emerge fully formed rather it developed over many centuries by the 4th Century the 27 books of the New Testament had already

been recognized as the Canon but the journey to this recognition involved gradual and deliberate discernment by the early church the term Canon itself has two key meanings that are vital to understanding this process first it refers to a standard or authoritative text in this this sense the writings of the apostles were considered authoritative for the audiences uh that they were written for secondly Canon refers to a list of texts that are deemed authoritative for The Universal Church meaning not just the book itself is Canon but the collection of books is Canon it's the guide so

there's the idea that the book of Romans was a canonical book but later it comes to be understood that the 27 books of the New Testament were canonical in their entirety uh there is the idea that they were authoritative from the very start the New Testament Canon began with a recognition of the apostolic writings intrinsic Authority Apostles such as Peter Paul James and John wrote with a conviction that their mer their messages carried weight and it carried the weight of divine commission these writings were initially addressed to specific communities or individuals but over time their

influence extended across the broader Universal Christian Community and therefore the collecting copying and circulation of these texts became essential in their Canon canonical development they're coming together as the books of the New Testament the first collection to gain prominence was likely the four gospels referred to as the de tesseron a second century harmonization of the Gospel by a personation he provides evidence that Matthew Mark Luke and John were already recognized as authoritative and distinct by that time the 2 Century Matthew's gospel with its Jewish emphasis and inclusion of Jesus's birth narrative was likely placed as

a bridge between the Old Testament and these gospels making it the first book of the New Testament even though it probably was not the first one written following the gospels the book of Acts served as a historical and Theological link to the between the Gospels and the letters or the Epistles acts recounts the ministries of the Peter Paul and others who were pivotal in the early church the apostolic figures recognized uh the authority of those who wrote these books and so they themselves were recognized Paul's letters for instance were among the first to be collected

and circulated as a corpus the placement of Hebrews along Paul's letters and some manuscripts reflect an early association with this book and its Pauling theology even though the authorship was debated Hebrews emphasis on the high priesthood of Christ provides a natural transition from Paul Lan Epistles to the general Epistles the general Epistles also known as the Catholic Epistles I mentioned earlier were gathered as a separate collection their sequence reflects the interconnectedness of their authors James the half brother of Jesus and the leader of the Jerusalem Church is positioned first perhaps to balance Paul's teachings on

justification by faith with a complimentary emphasis on the nature of saving Faith as expressed through through one's works the letters of Peter John and Jude follow creating a narrative Arc that ties together the apostolic authority of Jesus's disciples and his Earthly family notably The Collection begins with James and concludes with Jude framing the contributions of Peter and John within this familial context the theological coherence among the general Epistles is striking reflecting the shared experiences of the authors these men James Peter John and Jude knew each other personally collaborated in Ministry and were United by their

firsthand and close experience with the Risen Christ their writings address themes of Faith tested by suffering the way of truth leading to Salvation and the necessity of embodying Faith through righteous living these shared themes underscore the complimentary nature of their messages even when their Styles and emphases differ the unity of the New Testament uh is rooted in the historical reality of the Apostles lives and Ministries the cannon reflects the lived experience of the Apostles and their Close Associates Who Bore witness to Jesus's resurrection and labored to build the early church the historical Foundation provides the

most compelling context for understanding the theological depth and unity of the general Epistles and of the entire New Testament the placement of the order of these books in the New Testament Canon follow a deliberate sequence reflecting theological and historical Logic the gospels are positioned first introducing the Life Ministry death and resurrection of Jesus they are followed by the book of Acts which provides a narrative framework for understanding the early church and the work of the Apostles after acts the Pauling letters appears reflecting Paul's theological prominence and the significant role his writings played in shaping early

Christian doctr Hebrews serves as a bridge between the Pauling letters and the general Epistles its Rich exploration of themes like Faith perseverance and the priesthood of Christ creates a natural transition connecting Pauling theology with the broader Apostolic teaching found in the general letters these Epistles begin with James and conclude with Jude showcasing a balance between Apostolic Authority and familiar connection to Jesus the general Epistles stand out for their Unity and Theological depth the contributors James Peter John and Jude offer distinct perspectives that converge to address the needs of the early church James emphasizes the nature

of saving faith underscoring that genuine faith is evidenced by works Peter highlights the inclusion of Gentiles and encourages perseverance under trials offering hope to a suffering Church John focuses on love and obedience as defining characteristics of the faith rooting his message message in the transformative power of Christ's teachings Jude provides a doxological conclusion urging steadfastness in the face of false teachings while praising God's sustaining power all of these have a sh set of shared theological themes suffering is presented as a test of faith the general Epistles U def re refine Believers and draw them closer

to God through suffering God's revealed a second theme that is shared by all of these is God's revealed truth is depicted as the path to Salvation offering both Clarity and Assurance to those who follow it a third shared theme in amongst all of these is that Christian lives are often described as public Declarations of Faith exemplifying Christ's reform transformative work the fourth shared theme is that faith is portrayed as incomplete without loving Works warning against a faith limited to intellectual ascent and finally a fifth shared theme is that obedience is shown to lead to eternal

life with God providing both motivation and hope for believers the unity of the general Epistles is further reinforced by their shared historical and Apostolic Foundation the authors of these Epistles were not isolated figures but part of a broader network of apostolic Ministry their shared experiences rooted in the resurrection of Jesus affirm the coherence and authenticity of their writings the interconnected ministries of James Peter John and Jude reflect a unified ter testimony deeply grounded in historical reality and Theological consistency in conclusion the New Testament Canon as a whole and the general Epistles in particular offers a

collaborative and historical rooted witness to the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ these writings provide a rich tapestry and Theological reflection and practice uh practical guidance born out of shared Apostolic Authority and experience together they form a United and credible testimony to the transformative power of the Gospel serving as a foundation for Faith and practice in the church throughout history