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  • From: Craig S de Vos <csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: ideas
  • Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 12:22:56 +1000


Liz Fried wrote:
>This is the issue to which I was speaking. I am saying that Paul's
>statement in Gal.1:1, 11, 12 cannot be used to argue that he did not get his
>ideas from someone else. This is because people are simply not good at
>knowing where their ideas come from. In order to do this you'd have to
>write down the sources of your ideas. People have done this in experimental
>situations and certainly they do this nowadays when they are writing
>research papers. They do not do this more gnerally.
>

I've not bought into this debate as yet, but I can restrain myself no
longer. You may be right, Liz, as far as the psychology of the modern
western mind is concerned. What you need to demonstrate is that people in
the ancient Mediterranean had a similar psychology to us. Anthropological
studies of pre-industrial, agrarian and collectivist societies would
suggest otherwise.

Indeed, if someone like Paul was not introspective (as Stendahl argued
convincingly) and if ancient Mediterraneans were members of a collectivist
culture who understood each other in dyadic and stereotypic terms (as
Malina, Neyrey et al have argued), the whole argument is pointless. All
"ideas" would have been seen as handed down from someone, either from one's
group (e.g., the ancestors) or from the divine. Indeed, innovation was
automatically attributed to the divine because people/society/etc. were
thought to be fixed and unchanging. And unless change can be attributed to
the divine it was attributed to the demonic, and it left the individual
open to a charge of deviance. We see this both in the history of the
Israelites and in Graeco-Roman society. So if Paul is introducing something
new or innovative he cannot but claim divine inspiration. As such, Paul's
claim may not be telling us what we think it is.

Craig




******************************************
Dr. Craig S. de Vos
Bromby Lecturer in New Testament
Trinity College Theological School
Royal Parade
Parkville VIC 3052
Australia
(O) +61 3 9349-0129 (F) +61 3 9349-0460
csdevos AT trinity.unimelb.edu.au

******************************************




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