Letting Go of Paul's Letters

Leaving the question open

Some people are consoled by this verse and others are wounded by it, often in the same room. The writer almost certainly did not anticipate that. It is left for readers to carry.

A note

The first time I read this passage I understood nothing at all. I carried that incomprehension around for years, and then one afternoon it turned slightly, the way a key turns, and something opened. What follows is an attempt to describe the turn.

60But I, Simon Peter, and my brother Andrew, having taken our nets, went off to the sea. And with us was Levi, the son of Alphaeus, whom the Lord . . .

ペテロの福音書 14:60（Mattison 訳（英語））

This is where I stopped. I could not go forward, so I stayed with the same few lines for a long time. I have come to think the staying was the point.

Here is the conclusion, which is not an answer. I have decided to read this as a promise rather than a command, for the plain reason that I can live inside the first reading and not the second. Whether that is a legitimate reason I genuinely do not know.（ヨナ書 4:5）

14また、やぎの毛糸で幕を作り、幕屋をおおう天幕にした。すなわち幕十一枚を作った。

出エジプト記 36:14（口語訳（日本語））

A short detour. There is a passage elsewhere with the same shape though no direct connection, and setting them next to each other makes the writers' different concerns visible.（エペソ人への手紙 1:18-20）

12もろもろの国民をふるい立たせ、 ヨシャパテの谷にのぼらせよ。 わたしはそこに座して、 周囲のすべての国民をさばく。

13かまを入れよ、作物は熟した。 来て踏め、 酒ぶねは満ち、石がめはあふれている。 彼らの悪が大きいからだ。

14群衆また群衆は、さばきの谷におる。 主の日がさばきの谷に近いからである。

15日も月も暗くなり、星もその光を失う。

ヨエル書 3:12-15（口語訳（日本語））

In its own century

Pull a single verse out of its paragraph and you can make it say almost anything. This particular verse has been made to say a great deal. Which is precisely why it deserves to be read with what stands on either side of it.

6死人にさえ福音が宣べ伝えられたのは、彼らは肉においては人間としてさばきを受けるが、霊においては神に従って生きるようになるためである。

ペテロの第一の手紙 4:6（口語訳（日本語））

How you render this one word determines the meaning of the whole paragraph. A translator has to decide, and the decision is already an interpretation. Readers deserve to know that a decision was made.

A note

The first time I read this passage I understood nothing at all. I carried that incomprehension around for years, and then one afternoon it turned slightly, the way a key turns, and something opened. What follows is an attempt to describe the turn.（使徒行伝 20:30）

Here is the conclusion, which is not an answer. I have decided to read this as a promise rather than a command, for the plain reason that I can live inside the first reading and not the second. Whether that is a legitimate reason I genuinely do not know.