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corpus-paul - Re: 2 Cor 5:16b

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  • From: Yuri Kuchinsky <yuku AT globalserve.net>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: 2 Cor 5:16b
  • Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 13:32:43 -0400 (EDT)



On Fri, 1 Oct 1999, Jeffrey B. Gibson wrote:

> Over on XTalk, one of our C-P members, Dave Hindley, has not only
> raised the issue of the meaning of 2 Cor 5:16b (arguing that it
> implies that whatever Jesus was in the flesh [i.e., in history] was of
> no concern to the author of the verse); he has also gone on to assert
> that the passage is an interpolation.
>
> My response to the argument regarding what the verse implies was the
> following:
>
> > Does this verse really say that Paul has no concern for the
> Historical Jesus? Given one of Paul's uses of SARX isn't it possible
> that what he is asserting here is that he no longer thinks, as he
> certainly once did (and in so doing persecuted the church), of the
> Messiah as having to be a warrior?

> > It is a long way from KATA SARKA (according to (the) "flesh")
> which modifies a way of thinking about something (i.e., the nature of
> Messiahship) to not being concerned about what the historical Jesus
> was like.

> But having said this, I realize that I'm relatively ignorant on the
> scholarship on this verse. I'd like to ask, then, What is the
> consensus, if any, regarding what "Paul" is saying here? Is it
> anything like what I argue?
>
> Also, I'd like to know if there any evidence at all that this verse is
> really an interpolation? I could see how someone might want to
> **argue** that it is IF the verse means anything like what David seems
> to think it means. But to my eyes, this only begs the question.

Dear Jeffrey,

I confess that I'm not really prepared at this time to present arguments
that this is an interpolation, as I have not researched this specific
passage lately. And yet I strongly suspect it is indeed an interpolation,
and it reflects mid-second c. theological struggles over the attitudes
towards the Desposynoi (the relatives of Jesus who were active in Church
leadership in early Christian period). So this passage would carry a
negative attitude towards the Desposynoi, which was quite common among
some parties, and especially among the Paulines, I would assume.

More about the Desposynoi can be found in the following post from the old
(now defunct) Crosstalk by Bob Schacht,

http://www.egroups.com/group/crosstalk/2088.html?

And here's some more info from a religiious (sectarian) site,

http://www.haydid.org/yeshron1.htm

Best wishes,

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky || Toronto

http://www.trends.net/~yuku/bbl/bbl.htm

The goal proposed by Cynic philosophy is apathy, which is
equivalent to becoming God -=O=- Julian





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