Corpus-Paul

[Jim West <jwest AT Highland.Net>]

At 08:23 AM 4/2/99 -0600, you wrote:
>{Jake}
>> Conventionally put, "Was the Gospel *of* Jesus supplanted by Paul's Gospel
>*about* Jesus?"
>

Yes, it was.  Or, in the terms of one famous exegete--- "the proclaimer
became the proclaimed".  The message of Jesus and the message of Paul are
utterly different- Jesus speaks of God, and Paul speaks of Jesus.  This in
itself is a radical break with the teaching of Jesus.  Of course there are
many who will suppose that Paul and Jesus are talking about the same thing;
but a careful reading of both will make clear that they are not.  It is for
no small reason that Paul is seen as the founder of Christianity- whereas
Jesus intended to begin no movement outside of Judaism at all.

>{Bill}
>"Supplanted" is not an appropriate description of the relationship.
>

It is because Christians today are far more "Paulinists" than they are
"Jesusites".  For example- think of the matter of "justification".  In
Jesus, justification comes about by repentence and behavior.  For Paul it
occurs when one "believes".  For Jesus it is by works- whereas for Paul it
is faith....  hmmmmm....  no wonder the Church has argued about these two
ways of salvation for so long...

>In the Gospels, Christ said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, I am the
>Bread of Life, the Door, the Shepherd, the Resurrection, the Light of the
>World."
>

actually you would have a difficult time demonstrating that Jesus said any
of these things.

>In Paul we have "He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Bread of Life,
>the Door, the Shepherd..."

I would like to know precisely where we have this in Paul........  I have
never seen it.

>
>In Paul, however, the principle of justification by faith, which is the
>essence of the Gospel, is revealed in greater clarity than was revealed in
>the prophets or the Gospels, and we are told that God chose to reveal this
>through Paul:
>

Yup- you are right here- because Justification by Faith doesnt appear in the
Gospels.  Anywhere.

[snipped- available to all in some Bible or other]

>Also we need to be clear that the Gospels are the account of how the NT was
>implemented 

I have no idea what you mean by this.  How are the Gospels the account of
how the NT was implemented???  There was no NT until the 4th century.

>but the writings of Paul occur in the context of the fledgling
>Church. Christ's atoning death has been accomplished, he has risen and
>ascended to the Father and the Spirit and apostles given. Paul is writing to
>an NT church - Jews and gentiles. It is a whole new day.

Indeed it is.  The proclaimer has become the proclaimed at the hand of Paul.

Best,
Good Friday, Happy Easter,
and Happy Passover to all......

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jim West, ThD
Petros Baptist Church- Pastor
Quartz Hill School of Theology- Adjunct Prof. of Bible

fax- 978-231-5986
email- jwest AT highland.net
web page-  http://web.infoave.net/~jwest