Corpus-Paul

[Ray Pickett <rpickett AT unidial.com>]

Mark D. Nanos wrote:

> In noting that both gentile congregations are suffering in some way
> socially for their practice of Christ-faith, I would suggest that much more
> can be made of the implied situational differences, but that they are not
> both concerned with "a pagan context."

Mark, Thanks for your reply. I was not suggesting that both letters are
"concerned" with a pagan context but rather that they both "reflect" a
pagan context. I am in full agreement with your characterization of the
different situations in Galatia and Thessalonica. I was simply
interested in underlining that if one presses past some of the
terminological and conceptual differences in two very different letters
such as these and reads them with a view to ascertaining the ethos of
pauline Christianity in these different regions of the empire, it is
indeed situational circumstances and not "development" in Paul's own
thought that best accounts for the differences. 

I concur that Paul is reckoning with a Jewish community in Galatia and
the challenges of faith in Christ in a pagan environment in
Thessalonica. Nonetheless, in Gal. 3:1ff.where Paul appeals to their
initial experience of his preaching and their reception of the Spirit he
is referring to their "conversion" from paganism. So in 3:4 when he
asks, rhetorically, "Did you suffer so much in vain?", I take that to be
an allusion to the price they paid for leaving paganism for Christianity
("suffer" in the sense of social ostracism). 

What is interesting to me about the argument of Galatians is that Paul
seems to be appealing to their liberation from paganism (4:8-10) as the
basis for not submitting to the yoke of Torah (5:1). It strikes me that
one reason these Galatians might have found "works of the law" so
inviting is that they may have provided the sort of tangible markers of
identity which these gentiles had forfeited when they converted. Paul
is, in effect,arguing for the sufficiency of life in the Spirit which
they received (through baptism I assume), but I suspect that soem of
these folks would like something more concrete.  So I agree with those
scholars who argue that identity is the major issue in Galatia (your
colleague Esler has made a most compelling argument on this front), but
I think the question of these gentiles'relation to the larger Jewish
community in that region is not unrelated to their former relation to
paganism.

Finally, let me just push a little on the observation I made about the
common  ethos of pauline Christianity as reflected in Galatians and   1
Thessalonians. If we look at authentic letters like 1 Cor., 1 Thess,
Gal. and Phil. of congreagations Paul founded, I think it is possible to
make some general observations about some common features of pauline
Christianity which pose a serious challenge to developmental theories.
In the only two places where Paul recounts his initial preaching (Gal.31
& 1 Cor. 2:2) Paul emphasizes that he preached nothing other than Christ
crucified. In both of these passages the other think he emphasizes is
that his preaching was attended by a demonstration/reception of the
Spirit. All these letters seem to give pride of place to an "experience"
of the Spirit (thorugh which one participate in Christ). Possession of
or by the Spirit (which marks one as a child of God) seems to be assumed
and indeed featured in every letter. This seems to me to be the one
indisputable common denominator. I don't see "development" here, just
various ways of admonishing folks how to live by the Spirit in the face
of different issues and challenges. 

Ray Pickett