1 Timothy 5:18

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D R EDWARDS
I'm sure this has come up before, but what's the take on 1 Tim 5:18?  The
writer refers to the phrase "The worker deserves his wages" as scripture,
when this saying is recorded in the bible only in Luke 10:7.  The
bibliolaters (well, the better read ones, anyway) like to cite this as
evidence that GoL was in circulation and regarded as scriptural in Paul's
lifetime.

I do not believe this.  I hold to the view of the pastorals being
pseudo-Pauline; at the time of their writing, GoL could well have been in
circulation and regarded as authoritative.  If 1 Timothy should happen to
be Pauline, then the addition of the phrase in question could represent a
scribal addition introduced some decades after its composition.

STEVE CR
It's a possibility, of course. As you point out in another Email it isn't
in the OT or the OT Apocrypha as we have them today.

This verse is widely used by apologists as the 'coup de grace' (or whatever
that pesky phrase is) to back up the authenticity of the gospels (by
automatic extension to all four) and (with one bound) the whole canon of
scripture. I have just been reading B.B. Warfield and this seems to be his
approach. (For those you don't know, Warfield is one of the 'great
thinkers' of biblical inerrancy).

However, there are just a couple of little problems with being so bold.

Firstly, the NT appears to cite from OT writings which we also cannot find.
Matthew 2:23 cites the words of the prophets: 'He will be called a
Nazarene'. John 7:38 records Jesus as saying: 'As the Scripture has said,
streams of living water will flow from within him.' And Luke 24:46 records
Jesus words: 'This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from
the dead on the third day...' (Also I Cor 15:4 and Matt 27:9)
These are tricky problems for inerrantists, usually solved(?) by the fact
that the OT did in fact teach a particular truth but not in so many words,
rather scattered across "the whole of scripture". Well, of course, the same
approach can be used with the verse in I Tim 5:18.

EDWARDS

Luke 11:49 is another example of non-existent scriptural gems.  The problem
I see, though, is that the phrase "the worker deserves his wages"  *does*
appear, and verbatim at that.  This is why I haven't used the points you've
made against the bibliolaters on this issue.

STEVE CR

Secondly, the post-apostolic church used the term 'Scripture' to mean the
OT and didn't except in a couple of rare instances didn't use 'Scripture'
to refer to the NT. Now also in these post-apostolic writings, such as I
Clement, Epistle of Barnabas, The Shepherd of Hermas, there are many
instances of 'Scripture' being quoted which cannot be identified from the
OT and sometimes not even from the OT apocrypha.

As Paul only uses the term 'Scripture' to mean 'The OT writings' except for
this verse in I Tim, it would be difficult to make a good case for the fact
that Luke was known to Paul and received by him as Scripture. A lack of a
good case of course has never been an especially big problem for the
inerrancy camp.

EDWARDS

I agree that it should be difficult to make the case that Paul knew of and
received GoL as scripture.  I personally find it absolutely unbelievable
that of all the "sayings" of Jesus given in GoL, Paul picked only this one,
insignificant, pithy proverb for use in his writings and that he did not
avail himself of the many other sayings that would have been immensely
useful.  Instead, on the rare cases in which Paul quotes words of Jesus, he
uses agrapha.  I find it even more unbelievable that Paul would consider
something that Luke, a gentile by all accounts and not an eyewitness of the
events he described, recently wrote as being on an equal basis with his
Hebrew scriptures handed down over the centuries.  I don't normally bring
these points up, though, because their validity rests on how accurately I
can determine what Paul would have done or how he felt, and I routinely
crucify xians when they stray from the bible and interject their thoughts.

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