Corpus-Paul

["Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT mailhost.chi.ameritech.net>]

Nathan McGovern wrote:

> Dear list members,
>
>         I'm exploring the nature of James' rise to power in the early
> church, and I noticed a curious wording that Paul uses in Galatians 1:19:
>
>         But I did not see any other of the apostles [other than Kephas, that
>         is], only James the brother of the Lord.
>
> The wording here, if taken most literally, would seem to imply that James
> was not, at this time, counted among the apostles.  Unfortunately, I do not
> know enough Greek to be able to analyze the original text myself, so I am
> asking whether it is possible or even necessary to interpret the Greek as
> excluding James from the apostolate at this time in history (Paul's first
> visit to Jerusalem).

The short answer is a most resounding no. The Greek text does not allow the
interpretation you are suggesting. Nor, for that matter does the **English** 
text you
quote above, even when "taken most literally".  It says nothing more than "Of 
all the
apostles [who were in Jerusalem when I was there]  I saw **only** James and 
Peter".
That you have read it otherwise makes me wonder if you are approaching the 
text with a
predisposition towards what it **must** say. Do I detect the influence of 
Eisenman?
More importantly, if you had read a little further into the text of Galatians 
-- up
through Gal 2:9 (not to mention 1 Cor 15), you would have seen Paul himself 
provided
the evidence that renders your thesis impossible.

But this brings up a point of protocol. At the risk of stating the obvious, 
not to
mention offending those for whom what I have to say is obvious, I should like 
to draw
attention to an issue I noted very early on in the life of C-P, namely, that 
posts
which try to argue matters Pauline or to exegete Pauline passages on the 
basis of a,
or a particular, **translation** of Pauline texts are NOT acceptable on C-P. 
As our
List description notes, we expect C-P members to be (or to be willing to 
become)
familiar and conversant with Pauline scholarship and the tools and 
methodologies used
by scholars to to examine Pauline texts. At the very least, this means some 
degree of
competency in Greek, not to mention being willing to do a little digging 
around, prior
to posting, in the literature relevant to the topic on which one wants to 
post.
Otherwise, posters are in continual danger of engaging in the sort of 
eiesgesis and
misreading of  a text exhibited above.

Yours,

Jeffrey Gibson
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT ameritech.net