Corpus-Paul

["Jim Hester" <hester AT jasper.uor.edu>]

Liz Fried quoted a definition of apocalypse (Collins, Apocalyptic 
Imagination, p. 4) which Collins takes from Semeia 14.  It is important to
note that Collins emends the definition (p. 31) by adding, "intended for a
group in crisis with the purpose of exhortation and/or consolation by means
of divine authority."

IMHO that emended definition means that while Paul does not write an
apocalypse, a kind of literary genre, he makes extensive use of the
apocalyptic.  By way of illustration, Lou Martyn, in his commentary on
Galatians (pp. 97-105) lays out a cogent argument for the strong presence on
an apocalyptic theology in Galatians.  At the November meeting of SBL in
Boston, I hope to describe the apocalyptic themes in 1 Thessalonians using
Ernest Bormann's Symbolic Convergence Theory to show how Paul is using the
fantasy type of eschatological hope to maintain the rhetorical vision of
future glory that he has shared with the handful of believers in
Thessalonica.  Apocalyptic is an important argumentative tool in his
strategy.
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Jim Hester
736 Buckingham Drive
Redlands, CA  92374
(909) 792-0533
hester AT uor.edu
"Let the games begin!"