From: Brian Perkins (PerkinsFam@GeoCities.com)
Date: Fri Mar 24 2000 - 11:55:25 EST
Carl,
I just want to applaud your openness. As you would probably guess, I (like
everyone else on B-Greek) have "an agenda underlying most of what" I say
too. My personal agenda is to discover if "words like EPISKOPOS and
DIAKONOS and APOSTOLOS and PRESBUTEROS and even EKKLHSIA", to the writers
and readers of the early church embodied (even a fraction of) the meaning
that Christianity has ascribed to them over the centuries.
The more I work at this, the more monumental the task seems to be. Or, at
least, the more aware I become of its enormity. However, I have made many
interesting discoveries through the 'secular' Hellenistic writings. In
fact, I have come to the conclusion that many of the 'top' lexical works
have (intentionally or not) skewed the attributes of some words so that
they are often assigned a modern connotation of 'officiality'. (I think I
just coined a word. ;^)
But, I just wanted to say, "Thanks!" It is rare to find someone
(especially of your standing) that is at least willing to concede the
possibility that the 'leadership' scriptures have been misunderstood for a
very long time.
That's not to say that I interpret your caution as blind acceptance of my
bias either. I'm not that naive! But, I just appreciate your willingness
to be open to other possibilities besides what we've all considered the
norm.
We may not see a more accurate rendering of the scriptures in our lifetime.
But, I'd like to think that when it's my turn to leave, I had helped (in
some small way) to move the whole Bride of Christ toward a less selfish
existence in realizing Her role and function on this planet.
Sincerely,
Brian Perkins
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