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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: C-P: Who wrote Hebrews?
  • Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 12:17:13 -0800


Liz,

There are many layers to your objection, which have to be dealt with
one by one and probably in detail. This is of course a standard type
of objection. I'm fairly certain that most of its substance results
from an understandable misreading of this book, and of Paul, maybe
due to modern preconceptions about the level of sophistication we
can expect in 1CE authors. It is of course the case that Paul
expresses related ideas, and tries to synthesize the "cross" with
the (to us pre-exilic) cult and find meaning in it. Paul is regarded
by most as a (former) Jew -- he certainly regarded himself as one.
So there is one Jew for sure who entertained such notions and built
a theology out of them.

{You wrote:

"I think in Greek religious thought it is not unusual to have human
sacrifice. This you would not find in Jewish or Mesopotamian
religion. You do have human sacrifice in Carthage and Phoenicia. Was
this from Greek influence? I don't know if they viewed the god as
eating the sacrifice or not. Perhaps some of you know. It seems
unlikely to me."

You seem to be forgetting about the Molech cult, and the primordial
offering of the firstborn. These are certainly Levantine. Can't
blame this on the "Greeks". Where do you come up with idea that in
Greek religious thought it's not unusual to have human sacrifice,
btw...?}

As I understand the thinking of the early community that can be
gleaned from the NT texts, ancient notions of sacrifice seem to be
deconstructed consistently and boldly. The elements appear to
undergo demolition and restructuring into something else entirely,
and the sacrifice concept is attended by a very different teleology.
That's a long story and would take a lot of demonstration, but I
only want to point out that in regard to your point below, it's very
hard to see any grounds, in the NT texts anyway, for the archaic
ideas of the purpose of sacrifice you adduce -- to feed the god. I
must say that I find it hard to believe that many 1CE Jews
consciously understood the sacrificial cult as stocking the
cafeteria for YHWH. I try to keep an open mind tho. Are you
suggesting that? Or are you alluding to a sort of commensality
between the god and the worshippers lying behind sacrifice? (Altho
that would seem unduly generalized in the face of all the types and
motives of sacrifice, i.e free will offerings vs. expiatory
sacrifices.) I guess a starting point of discussion would be how
much latitude you are willing to allow 1CE writers in terms of
intellectual sophistication. I have noticed how often fear of
anachronism and eisegesis can inhibit a genuinely open-minded
inquiry into the ideology of an ancient culture.

Mike



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

<mmyers AT helium.biomol.uci.edu>
06/03/1999
12:17:14





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