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  • From: "David C. Hindley" <DHindley AT compuserve.com>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: Re: Paul the Persecutor
  • Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 20:21:54


On 04/09/99, ""Chris Cutler" <Chrisc AT powercall.co.uk>" wrote:
> 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. ;-)

You may be thinking of either Robert Eisenman.

Eisenman, on page 638 of _James the Brother of Jesus_, he says:

"There is some indication that overseas Jews may have been using this
'Benjamin' appelation to apply to themselves too [like the author of
Phillipians 3:5, and Eisenman presumes he is Paul, who avoids using the
word 'Jew'], though Paul might simply have been evoking his biblical
namesake, the Benjamite king Saul a thousand years before."

However, he does not say where that evidence is to be found.

Earlier, on page 308 he associates the Rechabite Malachias with possible
priestly duties, and perhaps this triggered the thought of the slave
Malchus with the sliced off ear (thus rendering him ineligible to officiate
as a priest, if he was one).

Dave Hindley
DHindley AT compuserve.com




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