Pastoral And General Epistles From The New Testament: A Latin-english, Verse By Verse Translation

Synopsis

(This work includes Latin-English versions of 1 and 2 Timothy; Titus; Philemon; Hebrews; James; 1 and 2 Peter; 1, 2, and 3 John; and Jude.)

These twelve letters, tucked into the New Testament between Paul's

longer correspondence and the Book of Revelation, are far from

popular today. A world obsessed by lust, intent on throwing off all

restrictions, finds these Pastoral and General Epistles offensive.

Churches that reduce the gospel to a feel-good message and turn

Jesus into a libertine find the letters at best outdated, and at worse,

positively wrong. Today's Christians want to invent a new way, rather

than be reminded of a way that is at least as old as the church itself.

That, I believe, is precisely why we need to hear them anew. In the

Pastoral and General Epistles, the austere purity of the Christian way

is expressed clearly. The Roman era which these letters addressed

was, like ours, marked by brutal lust, accompanied by the breaking

down of time-honored values and systems. When everything seemed

up-for-grabs, the simplicity of the gospel lived out by pure hearts

offered an alternative that endured, long after the chaos of the times

had been swallowed up in history.

These letters still sound a call to a different way of life, embodied in

Christ, ordered in the Word, and rooted in the Holy Spirit. For those

humble enough to lay aside their own lusts and live by the gospel

standard, that way remains as powerful as ever.