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  • From: "Mark Goodacre" <M.S.GOODACRE AT bham.ac.uk>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Cc: sacummins AT dlcwest.com
  • Subject: Re: sick and broke
  • Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 09:10:14 GMT


Troy Martin wrote:

> Greetings Rick. In regard to your proposal that Paul was sick, you may
> be interested
> in my article entitled "Whose Flesh? What Temptation? (Gal 4:13-14),
> which will appear
> shortly in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament. In this
> article, I
> discover through a Pandora Search on the TLG that Paul's phrase
> "weakness of the
> flesh" in Gal 4:13 does not occur before Paul. The phrase "weak flesh"
> does occur,
> but it never means sickness or illness. Rather, it refers to the
> essential quality of
> everyone's flesh in being able to absorb fluids. On the basis of the
> philological
> evidence, therefore, the usual interpretation of "weakness of the
> flesh" as an
> illness is dubious. This illness interpretation is rendered more
> doubtful since the
> second time Paul uses the phrase "weakness of the flesh" (Rom 6:19), he
> certainly does
> not mean illness. My study indicates that Paul was not sick in Galatia
> but rather
> sickened by the moral condition of those whose weakness of the flesh
> provided an
> inroad for sin.

I am reminded of an article I first heard presented as a paper in Chris
Rowland's Graduate Seminar in Oxford a few years ago:

A. J. Goddard & S. A. Cummins, "Ill or Ill-Treated? Conflict and Persecution
as
the Context of Paul's Original Ministry in Galatia (Galatians 4.12-20)",
_JSNT_
52 (1993), pp. 93-126

This also argues against the "illness" theory -- and quite convincingly.
Presumably Troy Martin's forthcoming article engages with this.

Mark
--------------------------------------
Dr Mark Goodacre mailto:M.S.Goodacre AT bham.ac.uk
Dept of Theology tel: +44 121 414 7512
University of Birmingham fax: +44 121 414 6866
Birmingham B15 2TT United Kingdom

http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/goodacre
Aseneth Home Page
Recommended New Testament Web Resources
Mark Without Q



  • Re: sick and broke, Jeffrey B. Gibson, 05/17/1999
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: sick and broke, Mark Goodacre, 05/18/1999

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