Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Paul a Pharisee

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Eduardo G. Llanes" <Ejllanes AT aol.com>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: Paul a Pharisee
  • Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 14:56:11


How can Luke tell us that Paul is a Pharisee,when in Philippians Paul
states that he is not longer one.Also when Paul does not subscribe to the
essense of their beliefs,i.e.Torah observance,circumcision,even the
observance of the jewish identity markers.Any help is welcome.Thanks.

Eduardo G. Llanes
>From nanos AT gvi.net Sat Nov 27 21:44:32 1999
Return-Path: <nanos AT gvi.net>
Received: from gvi.gvi.net ([204.251.236.2]) by franklin.oit.unc.edu with
SMTP (Lyris Server version 3.0); Sat, 27 Nov 1999 21:44:30 -0500
Received: from [208.0.208.98] (mdm2-19.max4.gvi.net [208.12.255.60])
by gvi.gvi.net (8.9.3/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA15402
for <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>; Sat, 27 Nov 1999 20:41:33
-0600 (CST)
Mime-Version: 1.0
X-Sender: nanos AT gvi.net (Unverified)
Message-Id: <v04210105b466443cbd9c@[208.0.208.98]>
<LYR86878-25319-1999.11.23-21.02.15--nanos#gvi.net AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
<LYR86878-25319-1999.11.23-21.02.15--nanos#gvi.net AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1999 20:48:26 -0600
To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
Subject: Re: Paul a Pharisee
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"


>How can Luke tell us that Paul is a Pharisee,when in Philippians Paul
>states that he is not longer one.Also when Paul does not subscribe to the
>essense of their beliefs,i.e.Torah observance,circumcision,even the
>observance of the jewish identity markers.Any help is welcome.Thanks.
>
>Eduardo G. Llanes

Dear Eduardo,
There is much assumed in your comment and question that can be
understood differently. First, Phil. does not tell us Paul is no
longer a Pharisee, but he qualifies the honored identity he has in
view of Christ when addressing people in Phil. who do not have the
same honors, but to whom he seeks to make it clear that they are
nevertheless his equal in the community of Christ-believers. If no
prestige was assumed for these things among his audience or by
himself, then his argument would seem pointless, even
counter-productive. At least that is how I read him here.

>Second, how do you know that he "does not subscribe to the
>essense of their beliefs,i.e.Torah observance,circumcision,even the
observance of the jewish identity markers" (whatever that means)? I
don't know this. Quite the opposite is what I believe I read in his
letters. The position he takes assumes knowledge by his addressees of
himself as a practicing Jew, since circumcised (see the logic of Gal.
5:3 for example).

What I do read is that he does not believe that gentiles should adopt
this identity, as this would undermine the meaning of the death of
Christ for themselves as gentiles; is not the One God of Israel the
God of all the nations as well? I believe that is how he argues the
case anyway.

So I do not find the Paul of Luke at variance on this point with the
Paul of the letters, although many (the majority of?) others join you
in thinking otherwise.

What if Paul remained a practicing Pharisee: Would this be a problem
for you? Why?

Regards,
Mark Nanos
Kansas City




  • Paul a Pharisee, Eduardo G. Llanes, 11/22/1999

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page