Corpus-Paul

["Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Since my name is still in the subject heading, I'll interject a comment. <g>

Mark wrote a comment in response to a query by Moon which I think merges two
issues.

Mark wrote:

> > Of course Jewish people should observe the Law, that is not the
> problem but
> > an advantage (note that by the logic of 1 Cor. 7:17-20 to remain in a
> > circumcised state and Gal. 5:3 that one in a circumcised state
> is obliged
> > to observe the Law, that Paul holds this view). The issue returns to a
> > question on the place of Christ, not the Law. Was he or was he
> not the one
> > who has brought the age to come into the present age? Is that
> not the real
> > question that set apart this Jewish group from other Jewish
> groups at the
> > first?

I don't think Paul thought that Jewish Christians at least should obey the
law. Paul said, become like me as I have become like you. I take this to
mean, become like me and accept my social and sexual mores, because I have
become like you and given up the dietary laws and the holidays.  Since he
thought that all Jews should become Christian, he thought the issue of the
law, as a marker of Jewish identity moot. A new day had dawned and the law
had become obsolete. There is neither Jew nor Greek.  It is this notion that
the law has become obsolete that set the new Jewish group apart from other
Jewish groups.

Not only this, but also Paul's view of the Messiah.  To my mind Paul
introduced an entirely new concept of the role of the Messiah.  The notion
that the death (or even life) of a messiah would render the law obsolete
seems a curious, certainly non-Jewish, notion to me. It was certainly not
held by the Qumran community.  Where does this idea come from?

Mrak continued:
 And it is the implications for how gentiles are viewed
> that is the
> > rub that sets this group apart on social terms (implied in
> 5:11; it is not
> > for faith in Christ or not observing Law, but for not
> circumcising gentiles
> > that Paul is persecuted by representatives of other Judaisms or Jewish
> > interest groups).

This is one issue that divides the Judaizing Christians I suppose from Paul.
This is tangential to the issues which divide Christians from Jews it seems
to me: the eternal validity of the law, and the role of the messiah.

Liz

> > >
> > Regards,
> > Mark Nanos
> > Kansas City and
> > Postgraduate student at Univ. of St. Andrews
>
Lisbeth S. Fried
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
51 Washington Sq. S.
New York, NY 10012
lqf9256 AT is3.nyu.edu
lizfried AT umich.edu