Nielsen’s Nook

Nielsen’s Nook
Nielsen’s Nook
Contemplative, reflective, and irenic we pray.
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Grant Osborne on Interpreting Paul, Part 3

Will Nielsen
July 6th, 2007
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Out of the brief second section of Osborne’s article on interpreting Paul there are nuggets of insights into Paul’s world. The letters of the Apostle Paul generally follow the traditional bounds of “Hellenistic letters”; however, Paul “felt less bound” to these structures, mixing several forms to accomplish his literary task.1

Osborne incorporates nine types of Hellenistic letters into his catalog of letters with which Paul was likely familiar: 2

  1. Letters of friendship (cf. 2 Cor 1:16; 5:3; Phil 1:7–8)
  2. Family letters
  3. Letters of praise and blame (1 Cor 11; Rev 2–3)
  4. Exhortatory or paraenetic letters (1 Thess 1-5; the Pastorals)
  5. Letters of mediation or recommendation (Phil 2:19-30, Philemon)
  6. Juridical or forensic letters (1 Cor 9:3-12; 2 Cor 1:8-2:13)
  7. Private or documentary letters
  8. Official letters
  9. Literary letters
1 Grant R. Osborne, “Hermeneutics/Interpreting Paul,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 391.
2 ibid.

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What is meant by Special Revelation?

Will Nielsen
December 27th, 2005
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Special Revelation is God’s direct historical revealing of himself to His people. II Timothy 3:16 explains that all Scripture is God-breathed (θεόπνευστος ) and demonstrates that Scripture includes itself as part of this Special Revelation. Hebrews 1 teaches us that just as God spoke specifically and historically through the persons of the Prophets, he spoke finally and completely through the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

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