Monday, September 24, 2012

We moderns tend to underestimate the intelligence of people like Paul. Because such a man had never seen a bicycle, a typewriter, or a television set, we, perhaps unconsciously, look down on him as living in some sort of twilight ignorance. We forget that he lived in point of time very close to the historic events described in the New Testament, and that he had plenty of opportunity to check their authenticity from many eyewitnesses. We forget, too, that he knew the philosophies of Greece not merely as textbook subjects but as systems of thought being taught and practiced in his day. When he wrote to the Colossians and warned them of “philosophy and vain deceit,” he was not being anti-intellectual. He knew from observation as well as from personal knowledge of human beings that philosophy, however attractive intellectually, is sterile and impotent when it comes to changing human disposition.

... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Ring of Truth, London: Hodder & Stoughton; New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967, p. 52 (see the book; see also Col. 2:8; Luke 1:1-2; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 1:17-23; 2:13; 15:3-8; 1 Tim. 6:20-21; 2 Pet. 1:16; more at Authenticity, Bible, Historical, Ignorance, Knowledge, Philosophy, Teach, Thought, Vanity)

 
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        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
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Last updated: 09/19/22

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