Corpus-Paul

["Neil Elliott" <elliott AT igc.org>]

Have I reached the list to which I am posting?

Jeffrey Gibson's initial posting (long ago!) raised 
several related issues we're all dealing with.
While I'm not convinced by his proposal that Rom 7
gives us a "before and after" look at Paul, or
any insight into his "zeal" (DONALDSON, "Convert
or Zealot?"), I DO think the political realities
in Roman-controlled Judea had a lot to do BOTH
with the crucifixion of Jesus AND with Paul's
subsequent actions against "the churches of Judea"
(Gal).

Fredriksen (FROM JESUS TO CHRIST) has made a
persuasive case that Paul's motives for persecuting
the churches (which she reads as routine synagogue 
discipline) were not related to supposed breaches
of Torah or inclusion of gentiles, but to the 
political danger of "messiah" talk in the politically
volatile mixed communities outside of Judea.  Her 
case must be rather circumstantial, since Paul does
not SAY as much.  On the other hand, the more tradi-
tional attempts to explain the persecuting activity
(indicated above) ALSO rely on circumstantial 
evidence AND on a tendentious reading of Paul, who
never says he objected to Torah violations OR to
gentile inclusion, either.

Cal Roetzel's new book on Paul and John Barclay's
book on the Mediterranean Diaspora both emphasize
the tension between "universalism" and Torah-
inspired particularity and distinctiveness that
EVERY Jew in the hellenistic period had to negotiate.
These improve on the old dichotomies, EITHER 
hellenistic OR Jewish, EITHER universal OR particular
(or "ethnocentric," etc.).  I think we do better
to ask how Paul and the Jerusalem Temple regime
would have differed in their negotiating that
SHARED TENSION.

Neil Elliott