Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Why did Paul choose the Aegean?

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Why did Paul choose the Aegean?
  • Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 11:37:47 -0600

Perhaps Paul would "only" say that he was "led" there, or that this was due
to the leading of "the Holy Ghost." Paul might say such a thing, but he was
also capable of attributing his actions to reasonableness, to decisions of a
human. He describes human motives, expresses human emotions, including
confusion (end of Rom 11), and admits of human limitations, such as
circumstances that do not permit what he had hoped or planned (Rom 15). He
even offers advice he calls his own, i.e., his reasoned conclusion (1 Cor.).
He wants organization of group actions to be proper and orderly in 1 Cor
14:40. He does not travel to Corinth "to spare" them (2 Cor 1:23), and "for
his own sake" in 2 Cor 2:1, to whom he writes in a certain way to achieve
certain ends (e.g., 2:3-4, 9), and in the same discourse attributes results
to God as well as to the urging of his (human) spirit (2:13-14). Sometimes
he attributes things to evil forces, evil people, evil motives, as well as
God and good forces, good people, good motives, etc. (Galatians), including
his own motives, which he judges to be good (1 Cor 9; 2 Cor 1). He checks
out his message with the other apostles, to see that it is not mistaken,
which would have led to his actions being in vain (Gal. 2)

The point is we should not make Paul too one dimensional, too representative
of only one kind of soul (per William James analysis, which allows at least
for sick and healthy souls), personality, group tendency, and so on. He can
be appealed to variously by different people and groups with different
tendencies and personalities and ways of constructing the world, even if he
may not himself have thought he should be manipulated to speak for each of
them, if he could hear what they speak. It seems that the writer of Acts
could recognize human reasoning in certain cases as well, such as the
reasons for sending representatives with the Decree and the parting of Paul
and Barnabas, to name two that arise in Acts 15.

So while the answer, "by God's Spirit" or some such phrasing should be
included in developing an answer to the question posed, it seems a bit to
trite and anti-intellectual to stand alone (it at least seems to me to have
been delivered in the first case in a polemical way; no?). More importantly,
it does not lead to the kind of interesting discovery available to those who
make the effort to see what the texts might say about the matter at hand,
and the range of interesting hypotheses that might result, and then the
search for logical probabilities, which can take a lifetime of work,
perhaps, some would claim, guided by God's Spirit too.

So I think the question still stands, for those who do not deny the place of
reason in the pursuit of knowledge: why did Paul choose the Aegean?, and
when?, and from among what other available choices?, and how freely or
compelled by circumstances or convictions, including those derived from his
understanding of his role and its dependence upon his interpretation of
Scripture?, and so on...

Regards,
Mark
--
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
Co-Moderator
http://home.comcast.net/~nanosmd/


on 12/4/03 9:05 AM, Jim West at jwest AT highland.net wrote:

> At 03:40 PM 12/3/03 -0600, you wrote:
>> Led by the Holy Ghost?
>
> this seems to be how the author of acts saw it. for in a vision, the
> macedonian beckons paul and his companions to come there. so, at least for
> some early christians, the answer to the question is, thats where God led
> him.
>
> That paul may have followed the outline of Isaiah is likely, it seems to me-
> but paul HIMSELF would have said he was led there.
>
> Jim
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Dr Jim West
> Pastor, Petros Baptist Church
> http://biblical-studies.org
> http://petrosbaptistchurch.org
>
> "Habent sua fata libelli" Terence.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Corpus-Paul mailing list
> Corpus-Paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/corpus-paul





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page