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  • From: "Chris Cutler" <Chrisc AT powercall.co.uk>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul the Persecutor
  • Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 20:56:56 +0100


Liz asked:
> > What did
> > Paul *do* exactly when he "persecuted" Christians???
>
Steve replied:
> As always our knowledge depends on the trust we have in our
> sources. If we trust Acts 22:4-5 then Paul persecuted to the death
> (which probably speaks of capital punishment, less likely, of Paul's
> level of intensity) and arrested both men and women and threw them
> into prison. Also went to Damascus to deport prisoners to Jerusalem
> for punishment (26:11). Word in Acts 22:4 and 26:11 is the same as Paul
> uses of his own activities in Gal 1:13 and 1 Cor 15:9 and so Acts
> tells us more than just what Luke thought Paul did, it also tells us
> what Luke thought that word means. When Paul says he tried to destroy
> the church of god through persecution, we can reasonably think he was
> at the minimum doing more than fussing about it and arguing publicly
> against various of its tenets. His appeal to his zealousness for the
> traditions of Judaism indicates that his persecution was not some
> idiosyncratic whim of his own, but an activity in accord with
> Judaism as he then understood it. So, all in all, it seems Paul acted
> as an agent of Jewish legal authority to arrest and imprison
> Christians.

Chris:
Unfortunately I can't find the reference, so maybe you can help.
I think I remember that during the time of which you speak was Saul a
member of the Temple Guard.
Could this have been the same Guard that set out to arrest Jesus, when
Malchus had his ear chopped off by one of those peace loving, sword
carrying disciples?
The writer (and it bothers me I can't find the reference) speculated that
the name Malchus could have been a nick-name meaning 'king' as a
disparaging reference to Saul's illustrious namesake.
Gosh I'm struggling here can anyone bail me out - but I think you can see
where I'm (or rather the writer was) heading. ;-)

-------------------------
Chris Cutler
"Auditeur Libre"

What liberates is the knowledge of who we were, what we became; where we
were, whereinto we have been thrown; whereto we speed, wherefrom we are
redeemmed; what birth is, and what rebirth." (Exc. Theod. 78.2)





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