16 Oct Wednesday

On the other hand, “the logos (word) of God” also means just as well in Greek, “the account of God” in other words the retelling of a narrative or description. So that in the II Timothy reading, it is a reference to the kerygma narrative.

In the first part of the reading, Paul calls it sacred scripture. So already we can point to the formation of the canon of scripture as it is coming about. The notion of judging or selecting certain texts of all the texts around as having the quality of sacredness and that they are inspired by God is not a new concept for Paul, as the idea has a long history in Greek and Latin literature in the secular world.

Some folks today are all astir that some texts, eg. gnostic literature, was not incorporated and considered unworthy. They ask, “Why?” This is typically a media question thrown up against the apostolic and patristic church to find a weakness in them so as to discredit them. Actually it is more complicated than that. In any event Paul’s advice here holds true: “remain faithful to what you have learned and believed.”