Tuesday, July 3, 2012

1004--pastor, as a one minute commentary


Today, I am posting another one-minute commentary that I somehow neglected to publish earlier.

1004—pastor

            My name is Tom; this is Simple Church Minute.  You may have heard that the one place that the word “pastor” appears in the New Testament is Ephesians 4 verse 11.  In English, this is true.  A standard tenant of the Christian faith is that we believe that God inspired the writers of the Bible to say what they did in the original languages.  In studying the Bible, one finds that the original words have some extremely meaningful nuances, and, as much as we can appreciate translations, they invariably and unavoidably add and delete nuances.  In the original Koine Greek, the word translated “pastor” is poimen, and that appears 18 times in the New Testament.  All the other times it is translated “shepherd” and refers to either a sheep herder, or that Jesus cares for us as a shepherd cares for his sheep.  In Ephesians 4, there is reason to believe that the word is modifying the following word, “teacher”.  We have no evidence of this being used to designate a type of leader in the church by itself until after the Reformation.  You can find out more about simple worship at www.hrscn.org. You can call me at 757-735-3639.

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