Corpus-Paul

[Jeff Peterson <peterson AT mail.ics.edu>]

At 5:11 PM -0700 5/24/99, Mark D. Nanos wrote: Jim is surely right that
>it is not to do with the Antiochenes per se in the retelling, but the
>result of Paul's challenge of Peter implies Paul's victory, it seems to me,
>for the case he now wishes to make for the Galatians!

A well developed case for a "Paulus Victor" interpretation of the Antioch
tete-à-tete is a welcome sight, if only so that the alternative isn't
accepted without reflection. Nonetheless, in spite of the considerations
that Mark adduces, it seems to me that the majority position works if what
Paul doing here (and throughout the first two chapters of the letter, in
which Paul is presenting himself as a model for his converts) is
illustrating and supporting his claim that he is not a people-pleaser but
one who pleases God (1:10). What's required to sustain this boast isn't
victory in argument but commitment to principle in the face of influential
opposition, and this Paul's resoluteness at Antioch exemplifies regardless
of the response of the settled leadership there.

Jeff

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Jeffrey Peterson
Institute for Christian Studies
Austin, Texas, USA
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