Suggestive Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 9, 1908

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 35, No. 19.

Suggestive Notes.

By Editor

It is impossible in the nature of the case to give any extended notes on such a large number of books which come in one week's reading. We may, however, note the following which may be of interest to many of our band readers:

1. Titus was an assistant of Paul in his Gospel work, accompanying that apostle to the council at Jerusalem as a Gentile Christian. See Gal. 2:1, 3. He was afterward sent by Paul as his special representative. See 2 Cor. 2:13; 7:6, 13-15; 8:6, 16, 23; 12:18. The epistle was written probably about the year 64. The last mention of Titus is in 2 Tim. 4:10. It will be seen by the epistle that the apostle Paul had a great confidence in his fellow laborer, and trusted him with the setting in order of the things that were wanting in Crete.

2. The last of our Old Testament books is Malachi; written nearly 400 years before Christ; the last of the writings of the prophets. It points out the sad condition in which the Jews had come through their formalism, the sins that had crept in, and uses conditions then as a type of the last days. It abounds in precious promises to those who will render to God that which is His own.

3. The epistle to Philemon, containing but twenty-five verses, is a touching, tender, personal letter which the apostle writes to his fellow worker. The occasion for the apostle's writing the epistle was concerning Onesimus, a run-away slave, asking Philemon to favor him for the apostle's sake. The meaning of Onesimus, is "profitable," which will help to explain verses 10 and 11. In Col. 4:9 we learn that the meeting-place of Christians was at the house of Onesimus.

4. The epistle to the Hebrews is the counterpart of the book of Leviticus, and more; it is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, especially in His two-fold priesthood; He was of the order of Melchizedec, and also the antitype of the Levitical priests. The book shows how all the sacrifices of the past pointed to and met in Him.

No author to the epistle is given in the Bible. Many of the early fathers attributed it to Paul. Some have felt that it was written by Clement, others by Barnabas, the companion of Paul, others have ascribed it to Apollos and some scholars to Priscilla. That it was not written by Paul seems evident from Heb. 2:3. For the apostle makes it very plain in Galatians and Ephesians that he received not the Gospel by man, nor was he taught it by men, but by revelation of Jesus Christ; yet the writer to the Hebrews declares that the great salvation "at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him;" which would clearly seem to indicate that the one who wrote the epistle was among those who received the Gospel from some one of the twelve apostles. It is a wonderful book, and will bear long, diligent study.

5. The book of James was written not by James, the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, but by James, "the brother of the Lord." Gal. 2:9. He seems to have been led to believe by special revelation. See 1 Cor. 15:7. The book is written to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. We must not gather from this that this had reference to those who were not Christians, but to those who were. See chapter 2:1. God counts as Israel always the remnant. We learn in Romans 11 that when the fleshly tribes were broken off by unbelief, believers were grafted in, and it is those who stand by faith who are counted the true. So when James writes to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, it is to the true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; and it is an intensely practical book, the fifth chapter pointing right down to our own times.