Why I believe the Apostle Paul would choose to wear a mask

The parallel that comes to mind from the ancients is not the one about idolatry, though that is apt, but a somewhat more rhetorical question of what would have been the response if Paul had become aware that Gentile believers, by not following the Torah law about separating one’s waste from one’s water source, were risking intestinal infections in the same way that those who do not “mask up” in critical areas risk COVID infections. We might wonder whether, if Christians had been able to have one well for their own use in a town, whether they would be encouraged to figure out a way of emptying their chamber pots/etc., safely.

The closest thing to an answer to this that I can think of is 1 Timothy 5:23, where Paul instructs Timothy to drink a little wine and not just water because of his frequent stomach ailments. The disinfectant nature of the alcohol would not only make Timothy healthier, but we might also infer that his waste would be a little less virulent, so when his “chamber pot” went to the dumping ground, it would have even less likelihood of infecting others. And on the flip side, a look at Pharisaical practices of the time—unneeded abstinence from God-allowed pleasures being misinterpreted as a sign of piety-might well have been pressuring Timothy to try to do the same. (and that brings in Romans 8 and Jewish practices hinted at there)

[Bert Perry]

The parallel that comes to mind from the ancients is not the one about idolatry, though that is apt, but a somewhat more rhetorical question of what would have been the response if Paul had become aware that Gentile believers, by not following the Torah law about separating one’s waste from one’s water source, were risking intestinal infections in the same way that those who do not “mask up” in critical areas risk COVID infections. We might wonder whether, if Christians had been able to have one well for their own use in a town, whether they would be encouraged to figure out a way of emptying their chamber pots/etc., safely.

The closest thing to an answer to this that I can think of is 1 Timothy 5:23, where Paul instructs Timothy to drink a little wine and not just water because of his frequent stomach ailments. The disinfectant nature of the alcohol would not only make Timothy healthier, but we might also infer that his waste would be a little less virulent, so when his “chamber pot” went to the dumping ground, it would have even less likelihood of infecting others. And on the flip side, a look at Pharisaical practices of the time—unneeded abstinence from God-allowed pleasures being misinterpreted as a sign of piety-might well have been pressuring Timothy to try to do the same. (and that brings in Romans 8 and Jewish practices hinted at there)

No one knows what Paul would do today.

[WallyMorris]

No one knows what Paul would do today.

Wally, absolutely correct that we don’t know for sure, but don’t you think it’s still a good exegetical exercise to contemplate what kind of factors Paul would have brought to such a situation?

Another point of reference is the history that there was apparently, a century or so after Paul, an epidemic in Rome where a person would survive if they got basic care—we’re talking a bit of water and bread and basic CNA type care—but they would not if they did not. The history goes that the Church provided care, including to a lot of people who were pagans, and a lot of those people who survived considered the behavior of their pagan neighbors vs. that of their Christian, persecuted neighbors.

So I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Paul would have led efforts to do whatever he believed was the best approach in an epidemic, as that’s how he approached Timothy’s illness, and that’s how the Church later approached epidemics. We can argue about the masks, though. :^)