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corpus-paul - Re: Evidence for an interpretation

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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Evidence for an interpretation
  • Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2001 04:08:05 -0700 (PDT)


Bob wrote:

>Where does one draw the line between inferring
>a motive from the text and
>reading a motive into the text?

You obviously don't agree with the motives I've
inferred from (read into?) Paul's writings. This is
fair enough, and if others find my interpretations
wanting then I welcome more criticism.

Inferring motives is always a tricky business. And I
want to re-iterate that I'm not condoning any kind of
psychoanalytic approach to Paul, only suggesting that
historians try, responsibly, to infer some basic
motives which impelled his mission and drove him to
write some of his more controversial passages. As a
trivial example, most scholars would be comfortable
inferring that Paul felt personally called to bring
Gentiles into the messianic covenant community, and
that many things he said about "faith and the law" can
be explained in terms of this basic motive. The things
I've been inferring regarding Paul's concern about
Yahweh's constancy in salvation-history are more
controversial, but, to me, they are certainly not a
stretch (even if they're wrong) and may indeed be
inferred from the text itself.

I sincerely hope that I'm not reading bogus motives
into Paul's writings. At very least I want to shun
anachronistic motives and come to terms with any
doubts and troubles Paul may have had as a
first-century Christ-believing Jew. I'm a novelist
rather than a scholar, but the works of scholars have
been very important to me. Like all good novelists, I
get inside the heads of my characters, walk with them,
"become" them -- often having them do what they tell
me rather than what I want them to do. And I rely on
the writer's imagination to fill in gaps. But on the
issue we've been discussing in this thread -- well, I
can only hope I'm not too far off base.

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com


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