Corpus-Paul

["Chris Cutler" <Chrisc AT powercall.co.uk>]

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> From: Anders Eriksson <aeriks2 AT emory.edu>
> 
> 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.
> 
Chris:
Thanks for your refreshing post in response to Jack's Good Guy / Bad Guy
posting

As an amateur sometimes fazed by the erudition of our scholarly subscribers
it gives me, and I hope others, a chance to step back a bit and look at
Paul in a wider context.

Certainly Paul's mission to the gentiles was to create a catholic (small c)
church and to this end he was prepared to sacrifice certain dietary and
ritualistic principles.

How often have we seen in any new community a difference of opinion between
those whose overriding objective is to keep strictly to the founding
principles, and those who wish to broaden the appeal of the group to
attract more members? IMO Paul was firmly in the latter camp.

I'm sure you'r right, without Paul, Christ would probably be unknown today
in our part of Europe.
Proto-Christian groups amongst the messianic Jews were dealt a devestating
blow by the 1st Century Roman pogroms, and were effectively finished off by
the early church fathers in respect of any influence they may have had on
the development of the christian church.

Whether Christianity today owes more to the early followers of Paul, who
coined the term Christianity, or to the historical Jesus is a question of
personal belief. You pays yer money and takes yer choice. :-)

-------------------------
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)