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corpus-paul - RE: C-P: Paul and Plato

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  • From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: C-P: Paul and Plato
  • Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 16:18:17 -0400




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark D. Nanos [mailto:nanos AT gvi.net]
> Sent: Sunday, July 11, 1999 5:01 PM
> To: Corpus-paul
> Subject: Re: C-P: Paul and Plato
>
>
> Liz Fried wrote:
> >The major part of the letter is Paul's contrast between spirit and flesh.
> >This contrast is based on Platonic thought it seems to me. This same
> >dichotomy is present in Philo, but it is based on Plato.
> >
> >If Paul is not based on Plato, then I am not understanding Plato or I am
> >not understanding Paul, so perhaps we can discuss this.
>
> The major contrast in the letter is about whether gentiles who believe in
> Christ should become proselytes (i.e., gain Jewish identity by way of
> completing the ritual process of conversion, which is marked for men by a
> cut in the "flesh" of the penis) or not. As Paul puts it in 3:3, having
> begun in the Spirit (i.e., by the confession of faith in/of Christ), are
> you now ending with the flesh (i.e., by becoming proselytes). Paul says
> they must not.
>
I understand the letter is about how to be righteoused, and whether you
need to become Jewish (ie circumcised) or not. Still the fact is Paul
compares an earthly Jerusalem to a heavenly one; children after the
promise=spirit to children after the flesh. I don't think he would have
made this sort of dichotomy if he weren't thinking along Platonic lines.
To Paul spirit is good, flesh is bad. Flesh is heir to sin, spirit is not.
However Jewish the *use* he makes of this dichotomy, the dichotomy itself is
Platonic. I think one cannot understand Paul or this dichotomy without
knowledge of Plato. Paul did not think this up de novo.


Liz

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





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