Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 09:1 (Fall 2022)
Article: The Books, Especially The Parchments
Author: Nathan Eshelman

RPTJ 9:1 (Fall 2022) p. 64

The Books, Especially The Parchments1

Nathan Eshelman

Pastor of Orlando Reformed Presbyterian Church

In 2 Timothy 4:13 Apostle Paul said

Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come—and the books, especially the parchments (NKJV).

We live in a time where the servant of God is confronted with an intellectual and practical problem concerning ministry and the depth of study required to serve Christ effectively in this world.

There was a time in the church where the study—the physical office of the servant of God—was a holy place from where the ministry of the Word was crafted and went forth. The study was that place where the literary life of the servant of God was made manifest. There was a time when the study was a place of rare tomes, first editions, ephemera, leather-bound delights, gazetteers, prints and busts, and general curiosities. Under a green library lamp or the amber glow of a leaded glass light, the servant of God used his time to drink deeply from the Word of God and other volumes reflective of his craft and trade. From there, the work of ministry was done.

The “study” as a noun occupies the eighth usage in the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of the word “study.” Four columns into the definition of the word whose verb form came to us in the fourth century from the Latin studium, we have the noun study: “A room in a house or other building furnished with books, and used for private study, reading, writing, or the like.” The first use of “study” in this sense appearing in the English language in 1303, in Robert Manning Brunne’s poem Handling Synne: “In his chamber, beside his study…” The metered verse would go on, without knowing that a noun—the word, “study”—was birthed. The study in this context and sense has become rather obscure outside of academic, legal, or ecclesiastical circles.

However, even in the ecclesiastical realm, the study has fallen on difficult times. Why is this? It is because the literary life of the servant of God has fallen on difficult times. The servant of God has been guilted out of his study that he might go forth, be busy, and be practical. Event has become ministry.

The servant of God ministers in the age of dings and likes and clicks. We minister in an age of memes, shorts, and abbreviated abilities to think and to process words, thoughts, and ideas. Our obsession with event has led us to elevate the practical over the theoretical; the ephemeral for that which is everlasting. Many servants of God have moved away from systematics ...