Folks --

I've posted a sample draft of my notes/writing on 1Ti 3.1-7 over at PastoralEpistles.com.

If you are interested and have time to peruse it, I'd appreciate any comments. You can email comments to pe | pastoralepistles | com, or you can use the comment thread on this post.

I'm interested in any feedback, positive or negative. If you think it sucks eggs, please tell me why. If you think it is the grooviest thing since sliced bread, please tell me why. I'm particularly interested if you're a pastor or preacher who prepares sermons with regularity -- is the sort of stuff in the sample draft helpful to you? Why or why not?

Thanks in advance. Again, please feel free to leave comments if you've at least perused the PDF file.

Update: I forgot to mention -- I've assumed Pauline authorship and have stated no rationale for this in the document (as of yet). I'll concede that the PE use some different words that aren't found elsewhere in the NT, but much of the language and content of the PE, to me, sounds like Paul. Even P.N. Harrison's edition of the Greek of the PE makes this point, though he used the info to posit a "dedicated Paulinist" as the author.

So, I've chosen to go with Paul. I realize there are debates here and that many in the scholarly community take non-Pauline authorship for granted. I don't think it is that easy to determine, especially with samples as small as the epistles. If that is an impediment to your reading of the document, I apologize for it -- but I really think it is the best way to approach the problem, so that's what I've done.