Tiny Books of the Bible #6 - Jude

We're not talking about the famous ones (Esther, Jonah, James) We’re talking about the TINY ones.  The ones rarely quoted in sermons.  And when they are, it takes you twice as long to find them, because they're only 1 to 15 pages long.  Squashed between longer books, what's in these itty bitty books, and what's so important about them that they're in the Bible?

Remember how we said last week that 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John are near Jude and Revelation at the end of the New Testament and the Bible proper?

Did you maybe say to yourself, “Jude?  Who’s Jude?”  Jude is our last entry in the Tiny Books Of The Bible series!  I hope you guys have gotten a few chuckles out of it.  I like doing these series, it’s a way to really get into the nuts and bolts of the Bible that perhaps a regular sermon at your church might not provide.

IT’S SO SMALL!  I CAN’T FIND IT!  WHERE IS IT?

Jude is right before Revelation, the last book in the Bible.

HOW SMALL IS IT?

Jude is two pages, one chapter long.

WHO WROTE IT?

Jude did.  He’s the half-brother of Jesus (sharing Mary as a mom), and full brother of James, who also wrote James, another book in the New Testament, but James is too big for our Tiny Bible series.

WHAT’S THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT?

This book was written around 65 AD or thereabouts, maybe earlier.  The early Christian church was dealing with a bunch of weird beliefs and teachers worming their way into leadership positions.  Jude was writing the book as a kind of warning, whistle-blowing about those wormy teachers.

WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?

Jude’s warning the church (not a specific church, this letter would be carried to several early churches and read aloud to their congregations) about “godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude 1:4b)  Basically, these false teachers were claiming if you believed that you were saved by grace, you could live however you wanted.  You could eat a bunch of Funyuns, or rob banks, or sleep around with whomever you want.  Sin meant nothing to those forgiven by God.

Jude reminds the church about the time of Moses, how OT God destroyed those people who didn’t believe, and saved those that did.  But belief itself wasn’t enough, as Jude also brings up Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities whose actions condemned them.

Jude also mentions fallen angels (1:6), archangel Michael (1:8) and everyone’s favorite Owner Of A Talking Donkey Balaam (1:11) in warning against these teachers.

Jude winds up the letter by quoting other apostles of Jesus, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” (1:17-18), and that the church should protect themselves so “build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.”  Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” (1:20-22)

Then Jude finishes with the Doxology.  If you’re a regular churchgoer, this may sound familiar, “To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.” (1:24).  Ends every single service at my church, anyway.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?    WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS IN HERE?

Can I just say something that may get me into trouble later?  By all means, go ahead.  I don’t understand people, scholars, I guess, who make it a large part of their life to research and write papers and do all sorts of academic things, all to cast doubt on things in the Bible.  Some people don’t believe Jude wrote Jude.  Some people don’t believe Jude was related to Jesus.  Some people don’t believe Jude should be in the Bible.   And that’s just THIS book.  You can go down many dry and dusty rabbit holes of academia and you will never get the evidence or answer that would change the world’s opinion.  Just justifying your own education and intellect, I guess.  It seems to be such a rarefied career, and for what?  Really, for what?  Dunno.

But Jude is in here because he’s the half brother of Jesus, and what he’s warning about in his letter matched up with what the early Christian churches were facing, so in the Bible it goes.  The End.  Of this series, anyway.  :)

Tiny Books of the Bible #5 - 2 John and 3 John

We're not talking about the famous ones (Esther, Jonah, James). We’re talking about the TINY ones.  The ones rarely quoted in sermons.  And when they are, it takes you twice as long to find them, because they're only 1 to 15 pages long.  Squashed between longer books, what's in these itty bitty books, and what's so important about them that they're in the Bible?

Here’s 2 and 3 John.  Did YOU know there was a 3 John?  I didn’t!  It’s like the only series of books in the Bible that’s a trilogy!  Woooo! 

IT’S SO SMALL!  I CAN’T FIND IT!  WHERE IS IT?

2 John and 3 John are right before Jude and Revelation, the last book in the Bible.

HOW SMALL IS IT?

1 John is disqualified from being a Tiny Book Of The Bible because it’s 4 chapters and 5 pages long.  In comparison, both 2 John and 3 John are 1 page each.  They're so tiny I squashed them into one blog entry, ha ha ha.

WHO WROTE IT?

John the Apostle.

WHAT’S THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT?

John wrote all three books late in his life.  At this point, he’s the only surviving Apostle, other than Paul.  The rest of the 12 have all been martyred in various violent ways.  All three books were addressed to a group of churches and certain people around Ephesus, in what’s now western Turkey.

WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?

John’s primary topic in the first two books (or letters) is about the infiltration of false teachers in the early Christian church called Gnostics.  Gnostics taught that one should shun the material world and material needs of others, only the spirit was good.  They also thought that Jesus was never fully a man, only a spirit, or a ghost who had the appearance of a man.  Because they thought Jesus was a spirit, they denied the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In 1^st John, he explains fully why that’s wrong.  In 2^nd John, he follows up on what a false teacher is and in 3 John, he’s writing to a friend about a different kind of false teacher, a gossiper and inhospitable man.

2 John is addressed to a lady, but that’s most likely a metaphor for the church.  The Church Lady!

John asks The Church Lady that “we love another.  And this is love:  that we walk in obedience to his commands.  As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” (2 John 1:5-6).  And then expounds on the warnings in 1 John that anyone who doesn’t acknowledge Jesus Christ “as coming in the flesh” (2 John 1:7)) is a deceiver and the antichrist.  So if anyone shows up and says something like that, “do not take him into your house or welcome him.” (2 John 1:10) So do good, and he’ll hopefully see him soon.

3 John is addressed to Gaius, who is not the Battlestar Galatica character or Gaius Julius Caesar but instead is a good friend of John’s. 

John thanks Gaius for showing hospitality to “the brothers” (3 John 1:5).  The brothers were most likely teaching elders who traveled between churches. 

John then goes on to call out Diotrephes, a leader of the church who’s been “gossiping maliciously about us” (3 John 1:10) and hasn’t been showing hospitality to the brothers, and has actually been excommunicating members of the church who do.  So John tells Gaius to do good, not evil, and he’ll hopefully see him soon.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?    WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS IN HERE?

All three letters were written around the same time, so it seems silly not to include all three.

Yet 3 John is really more of a personal letter to Gaius, not something to be read aloud to a new congregation.  It almost feels like you’re spying on personal stuff, especially when John talks about Dioptrephes being inhospitable to him and other Christians, and how John will call him out publicly if John manages to get to Gaius and his church.

No mention is made whether John did so, though it would be quite fun to imagine John the Apostle calling out someone.  Yo!  You been talking smack about me?  I hung with JESUS, you moron!  You really think you can lie and get away with it!  I GOT GOD ON MY SIDE!

Ha ha ha.

Tiny Books of the Bible #4 - Philemon

We're not talking about the famous ones (Esther, Jonah, James) We’re talking about the TINY ones.  The ones rarely quoted in sermons.  And when they are, it takes you twice as long to find them, because they're only 1 to 15 pages long.  Squashed between longer books, what's in these itty bitty books, and what's so important about them that they're in the Bible?

Now we’re hitting the New Testament, and the books here are just as tiny!  Ya-woooooooo!  First up at bat is Philemon.

IT’S SO SMALL!  I CAN’T FIND IT!  WHERE IS IT?

Philemon is in between Titus and Hewbrews.  Titus was thisclose to also making this series, but if you can believe it, Titus clocks in at three chapters, which is simply too big compared to the rest of the books featured here.  I KNOW.  :)

HOW SMALL IS IT?

Philemon is all of one chapter long, spanning two pages.  It would probably take you longer to read your Facebook feed.

WHO WROTE IT?

Even though the book is called Philemon, it’s actually TO him.  Paul, the apostle, is the one who wrote it, and he wrote it from a Roman prison somewhere between 60 and 62 A.D., (side observation, there’s never a book just named Paul.  But he wrote almost half the books in the New Testament.  Funny, huh?) 

AND!  When I say “Paul wrote” I mean it in the broadest sense, because Paul usually dictated his letters while someone else did the physical task of writing.  So all the would-be nitpickers can be appeased.  ;)

WHAT’S THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT?

Paul had been kicked around to different places and different jails because he was a Roman citizen accused by Jewish citizens, and no Roman official of the law wanted to cross those kind of political party lines.  Now he’s here in Rome, and it’s kind of awesome.  He’s under house arrest (instead of a jail cell), where he could receive visitors, and preach, and write a bunch of letters.

WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?

Philemon is a wealthy Christian who owned a slave named Onesimus.  Onesimus runs away from Philemon’s household (never clear why), and somewhere else along the line, crosses paths with Paul.  They strike up a friendship, Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, and once Onesimus becomes a Christian, Paul lets him go, nope, sets a slave free, nope, sends him back to his owner, Philemon, along with this letter, asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus for running away and to welcome him back into Philemon’s house as a brother in Christ.

What’s up with that?  Why would Paul tacitly condone slavery? 

Well, number one and most important – Onesimus was not Paul’s slave to free.  Onesimus belonged to Philemon and Philemon only.  Any act of freeing Onesimus would have to come from Philemon.

Number two – Paul is asking Philemon to do something much harder than setting Onesimus free - to forgive Onesimus and to treat him “no longer as a slave, but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.” (Philemon 1:16).  Paul’s telling Philemon how awesome Onesimus was to Paul, and wants Philemon to treat Onesimus just as awesomely.

Paul reminds Philemon that Philemon kinda owes Paul, since Paul was the one who introduced Philemon to Christianity.  And Paul tells Philemon that if there’s any outstanding debts that Onesimus owes, Paul will pay it back.

Ultimately, Paul is not condemning or condoning slavery – he’s much more interested in focusing on the people, as opposed to the institution.  Because you effect the greatest change by changing people, who then go on to change institutions.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?    WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS IN HERE?

It’s in the Bible because Paul wrote it.  And it’s a nifty bite-sized lesson in forgiveness.  And even though a very superficial reading of the text would return a lot of hyper conclusions:  PAUL LOVES SLAVERY!  It’s when you spend a little more time reading the depths that you realize what Paul’s doing.  If Onesimus was to be taken seriously as a follower of Christ, he COULDN’T continue on without addressing and hopefully resolving the small baggage of oh yeah, and I’m a runaway slave, lest Onesimus be seen as a hypocrite.  So Paul is constructing an environment of hopeful reconciliation.  And once again illustrating that there’s always going to be a time when we all have to face whatever our particular music is.

It’s never mentioned what happened to Onesimus after Paul sent him and the letter to Philemon.  So you can look at it as a glass half full, glass half empty kind of thing.  Either Philemon disobeyed Paul's letter and went back to mistreating Onesimus, or he did what Paul asked, and welcomed Onesimus back as a brother in Christ.  I am feeling optimistic today, so I'm landing on the side of Yay, Philemon!

Says me.

Tiny Books of the Bible #3 - Malachi

We're not talking about the famous ones (Esther, Jonah, James) We’re talking about the TINY ones.  The ones rarely quoted in sermons.  And when they are, it takes you twice as long to find them, because they're only 1 to 15 pages long.  Squashed between longer books, what's in these itty bitty books, and what's so important about them that they're in the Bible?

Here’s Malachi, which is probably the most famous of the Tiny Books Of The Bible.

IT’S SO SMALL!  I CAN’T FIND IT!  WHERE IS IT?

Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, so the easiest thing to do is find Matthew in the New Testament and flip backwards.  :)

HOW SMALL IS IT?

Larger than the others, four chapters and four pages long.

WHO WROTE IT?

That’d be Malachi the prophet.  As usual (because scholars love their debates) there’s different theories on whether Malachi was actually his name or not.  So I’ll note that there’s different theories, and move on, because I’m not a Debatehead.

WHAT’S THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT?

So after Obadiah chastises the Edomites for helping to sack Jerusalem, and after the exiles come back and after Haggai exhorts them to rebuild the temple, the temple is rebuilt, and the Israelites are lapsing into complacency and apathy.

WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT?

It’s a prophecy God spoke through Malachi.  And initially, God’s pretty upset with the Israelites (what else is new in the OT, right?  Israel usually pisses God off, God yells at them but ultimately forgives them). 

The people of Judah have been slacking off on appropriate worship rituals.  Remember, since we’re still in the OT, they’re still doing rituals like sacrificing the best of your flock upon the altar.  Why is God still commanding them to do this?  Because Jesus hasn’t shown up yet.  Once Jesus does show up, his sacrifice as the one perfect enough to take on all of mankind’s sins means nobody has to sacrifice animals on altars anymore (to which the animal community said a most fervent “THANK YOU, GOD!”)

But we’re not in the NT, we’re in the OT, and God’s got three complaints against Judah:

1. Judah and the priests have been sacrificing the worst of the flock, not the best.  They’re bringing in sheep and stuff that are sickly, ill, have holes in their socks, etc., because they wanna keep the best lambs for themselves and for Sunday dinner (to which the animal community said “What the hell?  Don’t I ever get a break here?”)

God yells at Judah and the priests who presides over the shoddy sacrifices, and says if everyone doesn’t shape up right now, He’ll curse them and their descendents (and uses the lovely graphic phrase of smearing animal poop ON THEIR FACES, rendering them literal Poopyheads)

2. The people of Judah have apparently been acting out against their marriages.  They’re divorcing their wives and marrying people outside of Judah (though I wonder if this is a metaphor for people of Judah not following God and instead worshipping other gods other than God).  God tells them to knock it off, he hates divorce.  Yep, it literally says that: Malachi 2:16 “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel.”  Eeeep.

3. The people of Judah have been slacking off, not just in bringing in the best of their flock for sacrifice (to which the animal community says “whhhhhhhhy can’t you be a farmer of grain and stuff!”) but they’re also not tithing.  A tithe literally means 10 percent.  Judah isn’t bringing 10 percent of everything they have – be it grains, animals, money, etc.  And when you do that, you’re essentially cheating God.

God doesn’t really need your tithe, (it’s not like God’s broke), but you do it as a sign of honor, respect and trust.  By not doing this, Judah is essentially saying they don’t trust God, and don’t respect Him. 

So God yells a bunch and Judah straightens up and promises to fly right.  Then God talks a lot about “The day of the Lord” and how He will send the prophet Elijah ahead of time.  That turned out to be John the Baptist, who preceded Jesus Christ.

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?  WHY DO YOU THINK THIS BOOK WAS IN HERE?

If you’ve ever sat through a sermon on tithing, you will most likely have heard the famous verse of Malachi 3:10 “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.” 

Of course, since the church doesn’t want to scare you off, they rarely mention the verse that comes before it, Malachi 3:9 “You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me.”  Hee hee hee.

And interesting to note Malachi 2:16 “I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel.”  Pretty strong words, though the NT does clarify instances where divorce is okay ( Sexual unfaithfulness, abandonment, neglect)

So it’s easy to understand why this Tiny Book is included in the Bible, especially since it mentions the coming Messiah.  Any verses portending that would probably mean automatic inclusion in the Bible, no matter how small they were.