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corpus-paul - RE: Gal 2:16 (Liz)

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  • From: Mike Myers <mmyers AT helium.biomol.uci.edu>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Gal 2:16 (Liz)
  • Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 12:31:46 -0800


Liz wrote:

Paul was indeed such a Jew. You must notice however that his
audience did not consist of such Jews. His audience was composed of
Gentiles. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. Among Jews he received
the 39 lashes 5 times. If you can believe Acts, Paul attempted to
preach at various synagogues around the world, but the ones who
accepted him at these synagogues were Gentiles. You would have to
show me evidence that there were Jews besides Paul who
believed as he did.
*****************************************************************

The author of Hebrews is another one who thought this way. Your
point about his being accepted only by Gentiles at the synagogues
where he preached is one I don't fully accept, btw. I'll get back to
that later.

But first some definitions need to be clarified. To me, there is a
highly significant question hiding in Paul's use of terms like
EQNOS, TA EQNH, hELLHNOS, TOI hELLHNES, TOI BARBAROI -- just who's
caught up in Paul's semantic net "Gentile"? If Jew in 1CE means
primarily "descendant of Judah", with some Levites and Benjaminites
and perhaps a small number of converts and remnants of other tribes
who threw in their lot with the Southern Kingdom thrown in to the
mix, there still remains a majority, probably (certainly?), of the
descendants of the children of Israel, scattered after the Assyrian
invasion, located who knows where in the ANE. If Jew means something
substantially different to you, let me know. But unquestionably,
however the word Jew is defined, many descendants of Jacob are
unaccounted for by that designation.

Before I go on with this, maybe you could apprise me of any problems
you have with it so far. My main intention though is to encourage a
much more nuanced reading of Paul's letters and his take on the
"Law." (Particulary since Eisenman's apparent success with some in
passing innuendo about Paul off as scholarship seems to have muddied
the waters, IMHO.)

The rest of your post was filled with stuff to chew on, so that will
have to wait. It would help me to communicate more clearly if I knew
what you thought about the working definition of "Jew" above, 1CE.
We can look more closely at "Gentile" next.

Mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael D. A. Myers
University of California, Irvine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<mmyers AT helium.biomol.uci.edu>
06/02/1999
12:31:47





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