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corpus-paul - Re: justification: a pre-Pauline doctrine?

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  • From: "Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: justification: a pre-Pauline doctrine?
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 23:16:38 -0500


Liz Fried wrote:

> Dear Jeffrey,
> I think you are relying too much on Paul's statement about where he received
> or didn't receive his doctrine. Paul perceived himself not to have gotten
> his views from anyone and so attributes it to Christ. This is not the hard
> and fast datum you assume it to be. This is only Paul's personal
> experience. How many times have you voiced an opinion that you thought was
> your own, only to have realized much later that you actually learned it from
> someone else, heard it from someone else. People do that all the time.
> People are not very good at judging where they get their ideas from.

I fail to see the relevance of this appeal to my personal experience for
establishing
what really stood behind Paul's claim that his Gospel is not derived or
whether the
truth of his statement can viewed with suspicion. In any case, I have also
been in
situations when I've been pressed to reveal whether what I have said or
published is
derivative or not. And in these instances I know the difference. But if we
are going
to appeal to psychology here, and if we assume that Paul had derived his
message from
Peter, or James, or, if George is correct, from Ananias, how likely is it
that he
would have forgotten this and only learned later that he derived his Gospel
from them?

> I agree he is very adamant about it. He certainly believes himself not to
> have received his thoughts from anyone. That is the only thing you can
> conclude from his statements, however. You cannot conclude anything else.

Oh but I can -- indeed the nature of the situation that Paul finds himself in
when he
writes to the Galatians is that he must speak the absolute truth since he has
been has
been accused of being derivative. He is quite aware of having to say exactly
what the
truth is in this instance, for he knows that discovery of any prevarication
on his
part will show him to be untrustworthy -- a revelation which would undermine
his
authority and bring his work with the Galatians crashing down.

Sorry, Liz, but I don't think you have adequately considered the larger
context in
which Paul writes here and what is at stake if he says anything that is not
true
and/or that he cannot back up.

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT ameritech.net






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