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corpus-paul - Re: Neil Elliot, "Liberating Paul"

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  • From: "John Dickson" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Neil Elliot, "Liberating Paul"
  • Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 10:26:46 +1000


Jon Peter wrote:

>For Paul to advise Christians in Rome to knuckle under to
>authorities, and mean this with a straight face as he seems to, is quite
>absurd. The explanation I come up with is that Paul is writing favorably
>for submission in order to furnish Christians in Rome with documentation
>they can use if need in their legal defense. He does not really believe
that
>secular authorities are legitimate before God. Rather -- knowing that his
>epistles are read aloud and circulated -- but wants this text to make the
>Church appear to be loyally law-abiding so as to fend off more trouble.

Apart from being speculative, these comments suffer from having missed two
important points: First, the explicit soteriological statement in Rom 10:9
(KURION IHSOUN) is hardly 'Caesar-pleasing' and yet Paul has no problem with
this being read aloud in the capital. Secondly, and more importantly, Paul
is steeped in OT traditions, particular those of Isaiah, from which he could
quite justifiably derive the view that secular authorities were not only
'legitimate' but commissioned to dispense God's justice (for example Is
44:28; 45:1).
Whether or not we think Paul was right - socially, politically,
theologically - let's pay him the respect of accepting that what he says he
believes, he believes, unless there are clear indications to the contrary.

Regards,

John Dickson
jdickson AT bigpond.com
Department of Ancient History
Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia






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