[Vision2020] Response to Stile

[Nick Gier]

Dear Mr. Stile:

I thought that you were going to respond off line, but I saw that you also 
posted your e-mail to me.  I rarely ever let a private or public challenge 
go unanswered, so here is my answer.

Assuming that you believe that Paul wrote 2 Timothy, then I submit that the 
following are indisputable facts.

1. The New Testament did not exist at the time that Paul wrote this (early 
50s), so it cannot be part of  the scripture that he says is 
inspired.  That's 27 books of the Bible that are not included!

2. Paul says nothing about history, geography, or science.

3. There is no indication whatever that Paul thought that his own letters 
were God-inspired.

I challenge you to answer these three points.

I also have two other questions for you:

1. What constituted the Old Testament for Paul or Jesus for that matter? 
Remember, it was not yet canonized. Was it the very poor Septuagint 
translation in Greek, Targum paraphrases, or was it Erza's 24 books and 70 
additional esoteric books? See I Esdras 14:1-48 for the last one. Lots of 
weird stuff was circulating in the First Century CE!  Pick your poison!

2. Are all of Paul's letters in the NT? There seem to be pieces of four 
letters in I and II Corinthians, according to good Pauline scholars anyway.

Yours for careful and accurate Bible reading,

Nick Gier



Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.moscow.com/ngier/home/index.htm
208-883-3360/882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/ift/index.htm