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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Scholars who deny a Pauline divine-Christology

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  • From: "Tony Costa" <tmcos AT rogers.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Scholars who deny a Pauline divine-Christology
  • Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 09:21:20 -0400

Elli Elliott stated:

"It's worth considering that the notion of Christ's divinity does not originate in Paul's monotheism so much as in the pervasive polytheistic practice of his world."

I think that John Dickson makes a convinving argument when he states, "I could, however, be convinced that Paul occasionally expressed his Jewish/Scriptural Christology in apologetic terms--i.e., Jesus embodies the Jewish God in a way that overthrows the false deities of the Greco-Roman world."

Was it not part of the Jewish apologetic to usurp the titles of pagan deities and apply them to YHWH because of the Jewish world view that YHWH alone was the true God? It has long been held that the background to Psalm 29 is a a hymn dedicated to Baal, and yet the referent in that psalm is YHWH. The same has been argued with Psalm 104 with possible connections with the Egyptian hymn to the Aten composed by Akhenaten.

I think Paul is consonant with this Jewish apologetic base in his re-working of the SHEMA in 1 Cor.8:5-6 where he affirms the true God and Lord against the false gods and lords of the Empire.


Tony Costa, M.A., ThD (cand)
Toronto, Canada







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