Corpus-Paul

[Anders Eriksson <aeriks2 AT emory.edu>]

Mark Nanos

Your reply to Chris Cutler should really have been directed to me. I was
the one who raised the question whether Paul was a nice guy.  You wrote:

"By the way, I find the use of this language of nice guys ill-conceived
without a great deal of cultural and contextual anchoring, at the very
least. That is not to say one may not speak of such things, but that these
are relative terms, and what they are relative to must be spelled out in
order to make any comparative sense. This would need to consider at least
what was nice in their culture, sub-cultures, time, place, and the context
of our information; also the way in which to render such a decision would
need to be cross-cultural, attending to our own cultural codes. ...
Opinions about what is nice are often different, to name but a few, from
gender to gender, age group to age group, occupation to occupation, city to
rural, region to region, country to country; not to mention across the
divide of time."

Let's do some of that cultural and contextual anchoring right now.  I asked
the question in our language, or rather using an american expression "he is
a nice guy." What people mean by that I guess differs, but it would
probably be something about a likeable person, someone one who like to be
around, polite, not offensive, well-mannered.  Then I ask whether Paul fits
our definition of being a nice guy.  Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. I am
inclined to the latter. Maybe there is something wrong with our definition
or maybe it is OK not to be a nice guy.

The reason I am asking this question is that in the last few years I have
met several people who plainly say that they do not like Paul. Some
therefore stay out of Pauline studies. It is their modern opinion about him
coulored by our modern context. Often these people are women who do not
like the way Paul treats other people.

So I consider our present context to be a valid context for asking whether
we like Paul or whether we do not.  The historical context of course is
also a valid context to ask the question in. What did Paul's conversation
partners think of him?  Did they like the way he represented them and
treated them in discussions?  Did they think he was a nice guy?


Anders Eriksson,
Lund University, Sweden
Presently Post-Doctoral Research Scholar at Emory University, Atlanta