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corpus-paul - Re: justification: a pre-Pauline doctrine?

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  • From: George Blaisdell <maqhth AT hotmail.com>
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: justification: a pre-Pauline doctrine?
  • Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 07:25:38 PDT





From: Robert M Schacht

George Blaisdell 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?

Bob ~

Almost any Psalm will do. I see them as the product of ascetic practice, whereby the meditant clearly places himself in God's [the Lord's] hands to rectify [through God's righteousness] the [Adamic] state of his soul in the face of his [inner and demonic] enemies, who will overwhelm and destroy him without God's help.

So that the righteousness [of God] secured is secured through the constant and extended process of ascetic faith and is effected in the person who calls upon and is responded to by God. [Which IS righteousness through faith by God.] The psalmist's enemies, who are indeed Israel's enemies, and the Lord's enemies, are mostly to be seen as inward enemies, on this view...


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.

I heartily agree, and yet when Paul says that Christ is his only teacher and commissioner, I believe that as well. Even if he first heard about justification through faith by God from Ananias when he was first baptised into the church, he could still easily and very truthfully say that he LEARNED it at the feet of the Risen Christ.

I am uneasy with this idea we seem to be developing that Paul's "Christian Education" did not come from where he says it came, if we can show somehow that he encountered the idea somewhere else prior to his espousal of that idea. Paul spent a lot of time in prayer and communion with Christ ~ It would not surprise me to learn that he was in constant communion through prayer with Him ~ Nor would I be surprised to learn that this is indeed what he means when he says that he learned his evangel only from Christ. Nor would I be surprised to learn that his first few years after the Damascus event were spent in primarily an inward ascetic struggle [in Christ] to clean out his own soul, just as the disciples who knew Christ in the flesh took three years to mature with him alongside them. How long did David have to struggle with His? There's a LOT of Psalms!


George Blaisdell
Roslyn, WA


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