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  • From: Robert M Schacht <bobschacht AT juno.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: justification: a pre-Pauline doctrine?
  • Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 20:34:30 -0700




On Tue, 22 Jun 1999 13:59:28 -0500 "Jeffrey B. Gibson"
<jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net> writes:
>George Blaisdell, after quoting from the exchange between Bob Schacht
>and Jon Peter,
>wrote:
>
>> I am very seriously wondering if the PISTIS IHSOUS CRISTOS doctrine
>is
>> Paul's independently at all. ... [As well, righteousness by faith
does seem to be the
>> underlying thematic of the Psalms, which would make it a
>pre-Christian
>> doctrine as well, would it not?]...
>>

Your argument is interesting. Which of the Psalms do you have in mind?
Would you cite a number of clear examples relevant to the present
discussion?


>
[Jeffrey:]
>George,
>
>I'd like to ask you to re-evaluate whether you would come to the same
>conclusions you
>arrive at above in the light of two considerations.
>
>First, your reading of the sequence of events you see as standing
>behind Paul's
>gaining/developing his "doctrine" of justification is is grounded more
>in Acts than it
>is in any information from Paul's letters. ...

A Nice point.

>
>Second, how do you handle the data from Gal. 1:1 where Paul claims
>that his commission
>as an Apostle, which presumably includes his message about
>justification of the
>Gentiles, is not derived from or through men?
>

Jeffrey,
The trouble is in your word "presumably". What Paul writes in Gal. 1:1 is
"Paul an apostle--
sent neither by human commission nor
from human authorities, but through
Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead--"

This only claims that he was not "sent" by human commission, not that he
was instructed in every detail, unless there is something in the Greek
that is not evident in the English.

I think your actual appeal is to Gal. 1: 11-12:
"11 For I want you to know, brothers and
sisters, that the gospel that was
proclaimed by me is not of human origin;
12 for I did not receive it from a human
source, nor was I taught it, but I received
it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."

Now perhaps this is splitting hairs, but suppose that his understanding
of justification was refined by argumentation with Peter and James, or
developed in reaction to arguments put forward by the two "pillars".
Vss. 11-12 could still apply as true.

Furthermore, Paul's arguments regarding justification, grace, and
election are sufficiently convoluted that it is hard to imagine his
receiving them by revelation, given the various accounts of the
revelation in Acts-- none of which involve extended theological
discussions.

NRS Galatians 2:1 Then after fourteen
years I went up again to Jerusalem with
Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
2 I went up in response to a revelation.

These verses show that Paul may have been writing about more than one
revelation.

So to really address your "presumably" would require an exegesis of
Paul's revelations, and whether, as described, they might contain the
kind of theological speculations that lay behind his concepts of
Justification, etc.

I am inclined to think that Paul's ideas on justification evolved from
interaction between his "revelations," his reading of the scriptures
(e.g., the Psalms), and discourse with early disciples, from Ananias
through Peter and James.

Bob
Robert M. Schacht, Ph.D.
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ


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