Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <DHindley AT compuserve.com>]

On 05/02/99, "Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net>" wrote in response to 
"Perry L. Stepp":

> > [...] it is unnecessary (and possibly somewhat anachronistic) to read the 
> > PE
> > as if they reflect the fully developed authoritative hierarchy of 
> > Irenaeus.
> > The church structure of the PE need not be placed any later than 90 at the
> > latest.
> 
> Yes, this could be true but Paul died in 64 CE at a time
> when these structures were still in formation.  Additionally,
> Paul had been under arrest and imprisoned in Caesarea around
> mid 57 and sent to Rome in 60 CE.  In 1 Timothy "Paul" speaks
> of himself as free and traveling. The situation in 1 Tim cannot
> fit into any of the time periods in Acts and Acts ends in 64.
> 
> Jack

Is it necessary to assume that the church structures were formed as a 
result of the activity of Paul (or his immediate contemporaries)?  This 
really boils down to the question of who Paul was evangelizing. I think it 
is safe to take as a given that they are some sort of Gentile associates to 
Judiasm (i.e., "God-fearers" as we often call them today), but could they 
have already been organized in some fashion?

Judiasm had its apostles who appear to have collected the temple tax from 
Jews of the diaspora, and possibly communicated other relevant info to 
them. The synagogues of the diaspora likely had organized leadership 
(probably with variations in practice due to the inclinations of sponsoring 
parties, much like today), but must we assume that Gentile associates were 
-only- operating in conjunction with a Jewish synagogue?

Could they not have had a life, and organization, separate from them as 
well, perhaps one that mimicked the organization of the synagogue and the 
financial apostles from the temple authorities? They had offerings to make 
to the temple just the same as Jews. Those Jews who did not approve of the 
temple accepting offerings from Gentiles may have made it impossible for 
the Jewish financial apostles to receive offerings from both Jews and 
Gentiles (unless each faction withing Judiasm and the Gentile associate 
movements had their own "apostles").

Thus, the Gentiles whom Paul evangelized could well have a pre-existing 
organization which Paul utilizes. Then, too, it would not be surprising to 
see Gentile associates occasionally deviate from these models to create 
organizational characteristics that fit Gentile modes of thought about 
organization, giving their leaders and functionaries Greek titles, etc.

Dave Hindley, BA 
Cleveland, OH, USA
Dhindley AT compuserve.com