Corpus-Paul

[Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

Jeff Peterson wrote:

> At 6:26 PM -0400 4/14/99, Sheila E. McGinn, Ph.D. wrote:
> >Acts 14:4 does not explicitly say that Paul and Barnabas are "apostles."
> >It says that some people sided with "the Jews" and some with "the
> >Apostles," but it does not say that "the Apostles" are P&B.  Since it
> >concerns a debate about the Christian Gospel v. Jewish Torah, it makes
> >equally good sense to read this as a discussion of which "side" one takes
> >in the Jesus question.  P&B certainly belong on the side with "the
> >apostles," but this does not mean that Luke is equating them with or
> >including them in the group.
> >
> >If you think Luke saw Paul as an apostle, why is it that the "call
> >narratives" in Acts 9, 22, & 26 never use this terminology?
>
> It may be helpful here to recall that in first-century usage APOSTOLOS
> isn't the Sunday School word that "apostle" is for us, but a term
> designating an emissary; the dignity of the office varying with the dignity
> of the person from whom one received one's commission; so Paul will speak
> of APOSTOLOI EKKLHSIWN (2 Cor 8:23) but of himself as an APOSTOLOS XRISTOU
> IHSOU (passim). Reference to Barnabas and Paul as APOSTOLOI in Acts 14 (if
> textually well grounded, on which  I don't comment here) need imply nothing
> more than a resumption of the narrative from Acts 13:1-3, where Barnabas
> and Saul are appointed for mission by the Holy Spirit through the other
> prophets and teachers of the Antiochene church.

I think it is interesting to determine when the Jewish talmuddaya became
APOSTOLOI.  In the Jewish context, talmuddaya were students of a
teacher but not proselytizers that I am aware.  The go-between between
Paul and the Jerusalem leadership of the N'tzarim appears to have
been Yosef bar Naba who, at first, seems to be the "captain" of a
mission for which he included Paul for acquiring donations from
nearby diaspora Jews for hard times in Judea.  Shortly afterward,
Paul seems to be blazing the trails and mentioned first.

Jack