David

Hi, all, I trust you’re well…

Craig, might I offer a few thoughts? Of course, take or leave them as you wish.

Can I suggest that this is perhaps a little imprecise? ‘Paul meant his words to be time/place specific, but they are actually applicable universally’.

(I think here might lie the key to what is confusing regarding universal commands etc..)

These reflections might be helpful. If for instance we have a family rule that is made for our children, ‘Do not steal biscuits’, then even though other families might forbid the theft of biscuits too, strictly speaking our family’s rule is not in itself applicable universally. For the implicit meaning of the rule (taking into account its context) is, ‘No child in this particular family—ie the Adams family—may steal biscuits’. It is reasonably clear, I think, that a rule whose implicit meaning is this sort of thing can’t itself have universal application.

Strictly, rules of this kind, narrow rules set in a particular concrete situation for a particular group of people, can’t themselves be applied universally. Providing the context in which they are set is given due place when thinking about them, in themselves such rules as these apply only in that context.

What we can do with this sort of rule, however, is to try to see by combining a number of them with each other whether we are justified in inferring a universal rule that is similar. Or we might be able to combine them with other broad principles, and see what happens.

I’ve been wondering perhaps whether the confusion you feel isn’t partly to do with having the idea that Paul’s language in Timothy might be narrow, and yet nevertheless susceptible to universal application.

I think a more accurate distinction for interpreting any of the Bible’s narrow rules is attained when we consider the rule on the one hand in its actual condition (which is narrow), and on the other hand as the expression of some wider rule. So for example ‘Do not sow your field with mixed seed’ is the Bible’s explicit rule—but perhaps it is the expression of a wider rule like, ‘Use resources wisely’ (seeing that carelessly mixing seeds during planting is an inefficient way to farm). Even if it is not an expression of that broad rule, it most probably is the expression of some broad rule.

In other words (i) the Bible’s narrow rules are expressions of broader ones; (ii) the broader ones might be discovered by combining as much information as possible on the subject, to see how far it gets us; and (iii) the broader rules are the ones with the wide application.

Another way of expressing the same idea is to say that Paul’s language in a narrow rule is not applicable universally, but rather constitutes the application by him of a broad rule to a particular situation.

Peace be on the heads of all…!