Corpus-Paul

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

Jonathan Ryder wrote:
[snip]
> Philip Esler, in his recent book in Galatians (Routledge 1998), states
> that Paul had not been successful in persuading the Antioch church that
> he was right in this incident (p41). I've come across this idea before -
> indeed I think it is somewhat of a consensus view.
[snip]

Jonathan, I checked your reference but I couldn't find Esler's argument
there.  I also looked at p. 141, but it didn't seem to be there either.
Could you double-check and elaborate, please?  BTW I think Esler's use of
theories of social identity can be improved upon by the use of Symbolic
Convergence Theory proposed by the rhetorician Ernest Bormann.  His
explanation of the rhetoric of group formation and the creation of social
reality by small groups holds real promise for NT study, IMHO.

To respond indirectly to your questions, however.  At one level the question
of whether or not the Antiochians were convinced is (a) beyond our ability
to prove, and no matter how useful speculation might prove to be, this one
seems to me to be way beyond useful debate. What proofs for either position
-- yes, they were convinced, or no, they weren't -- could be offered for the
time period of the letter? And, (b) largely irrelevant because the incident
is reported for its argumentative value and has nothing to do with the
Anthiochians per se!

Finally, I have posted my bibliography on Galatians on my web-site,
http://rhetjournal.uor.edu  While I haven't updated it recently -- it is
about a year old -- it does contain over 900 entries.  Folks might be able
to find something in it that deals directly with the thread.  (It is posted
in HTML format.)


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Jim Hester                   "Never be afraid to try something new.
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