Corpus-Paul

[Anders Eriksson <aeriks2 AT emory.edu>]

Listers

On April 21 Jack Kilmon wrote the following on Corpus-Paulinum:

"For many years, I didn't even like Paul, preferring to see him
variously as a liar, opportunist, braggadocio, fanatic, etc.
Gradually, he kind of grew on me and I now prefer to see him
as an enigma."

I have always seen Paul as the Good Guy, the apostle to the Gentiles
without whom the gospel of Jesus Christ might not have reached me, a
descendent of the northern germanic tribe of Swedes. Without Paul the
messianic Jews who saw Jesus as the Messiah might instead have remained a
faction of Judaism.

As I have analyzed Paul's argumentation the last few years I have been
struck by how he divides the world in the same way as Jesus into "those
against me and those for me."  Since Paul's side is defined as the side of
God, those who do not agree with him are more or less equated with the
devil. I sometimes wonder how Paul's conversation partners would have
reacted to such arguments.

I still believe Paul to be the Good Guy, but I have my doubts whether he
was a nive guy.

Anders Eriksson

University of Lund, Sweden.
Post-doctoral research scholar at Emory University.