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  • From: "John Dickson" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>
  • To: "corpus paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: missionary hermeneutic
  • Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 13:39:27 +1000


Dear List members,
I would like to float the following idea. It is simply an idea not an
argument or a thesis. I invite your help in thinking through the issues.
There has been some talk on the list in recent posts about the various
'influences' on Paul's thinking - Stoicism, the mysteries, Judaism(s), etc.
Such observations are based mainly on verbal parallels between statements in
Paul's letters and certain Greco-Roman traditions. From Bousset to Malherbe
this has been a very productive and voluminous enterprise.
I am wondering, however, how much thought has been given to the radical
'missionary' drive of Paul, well articulated in 1 Cor 9, and the influence
this might have had on the way he framed his convictions in certain
contexts. If Paul were a systematic theologian we might well demand of him a
precision of language and ideas that ought not be demanded of a passionate
proselytiser. I am not suggesting that Paul is muddled or inconsistent, I
simply wondering about the influence his missionary zeal had on his way of
speaking.
To give a modern example, I can easily imagine a modern 'evangelist'
speaking of Christ as the CEO of God's world, in order to communicate (and
win) an audience made up of middle class executives. The extent to which the
designation 'CEO' captures the speaker's deepest convictions about Jesus of
Nazareth is far from certain, however. Similarly, I can imagine Paul (a
'Hebrew of Hebrews' who is conversant with - though not necessarily
committed to - the Greco-Roman culture of his day) speaking to those in the
Roman colony of Philippi as if the gospel constituted a new POLITEIA (Phil
1:27, 3:20), or to the Thessalonians as if he were a trust-worthy
philosopher in the cynic tradition (1 Thess 2:5-8), or to the Corinthians as
if the resurrection body were like the Stoic SWMA PNEUMATIKON (1 Cor 15 -
though I am not sure about the Stoicism of this phrase); all in order to win
these audiences over to Paul's point of view, to convince them in their
language of his idea.
The intent of Paul's language in some cases may be almost entirely
missionary. Furthermore, this missionary motive could move in two
directions. Either, as above, he could use familiar language in order to
make it easier for his audience to understand/accept a point, or he could
use such language in order to subvert notions that are contrary to his mind.
An example of the latter might be the use of PLHRWMA in Col 1:19. This may
point to an advanced 'hellenisation' of Christology, as many have argued,
but it may simply be a missionary subversion of Platonic and Stoic uses of
the term: the fullness took fleshly form (contra Platonism) in a specific,
rather than pantheistic manner (contra Stoicism).
Many, many examples could be brought forward. I hope these are enough to
clearly float the idea.
To summarise, is it not possible (given 1 Cor 9:19ff.) that Paul's
missionary zeal might account for a significant portion of his language,
and, if so, ought we not apply something of a restrained 'missionary
hermeneutic' to our treatment of the Pauline letters?
What would be the implications of this? What parameters must be set? Who has
written on this topic already?
Looking forward to your answers and insights.
John Dickson
Macquarie University
Ancient History Department
College of Humanities
Sydney, Australia





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