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corpus-paul - Re: Paul as apostate (was:Paul Not a Pharisee?)

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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul as apostate (was:Paul Not a Pharisee?)
  • Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 13:07:09 -0600



Now, let us return to our original issue: Was Paul a
Pharisee? I told that he might have been, but I am not at
all convinced he was. One of my arguments was that his
opponents did not accuse him to have been too faithful to
the Torah (i.e. Paul did not obey the Torah same way as
they did). Just the opposite, they accused him of apostasy.

Sakari,
Perhaps your above (and below) comment will allow me to ask the questions differently, but specifically with reference to Paul and those with whom he interacted, not later writers. Who are the "they" to whom you refer? On what basis are they identified as opponents or Pharisees? What data supplies this basis? And where does this data inform you that they accused Paul of apostasy?

If Paul was a Pharisee, he was quite a special one because
of his more liberal attitude to the commands of the Lord in
written Torah and Halakhah than other Pharisees had.

Again, what Pharisees are you comparing Paul with, and upon what data from these Pharisees about Paul do you base your analysis? If it is data you find in Paul's letters, what data is it?

I
understand quite well the accusations of apostasy, if the
opponents were Pharisees or at least influenced with
Pharisaic Judaism. If Paul himself was a Pharisee, who
respected the Torah and interpreted it in Pharisaic way
(which he did not, if I compare his writings to known
Pharisees), how did some people regard him as an apostate,
whether later or contemporary? For Paul the Torah was
important, but he did not demand all of its commands to be
obeyed in daily life of true believers.

Again, on what basis do you make this claim. What known Pharisees, what writings from them, and what writings of Paul are you comparing? What standards are used to contextualize the comments of each? Were these Pharisees writing to gentiles, for example? Writing or working in the Diaspora? Or even writing about gentiles or Diaspora situations?

And your last statement, on what basis do you conclude that Paul "did not demand all of its commands be obeyed in daily life of true believers"? I assume you do not mean what I do when referring to "true believers" (i.e., Jewish people who believe in God), but only Christ-believers, and so I assume that you mean he did not teach Jewish people who believed in Jesus Christ to observe all of the Torah commands in their daily life. If so, then where do you know this from?

His letters are to gentiles as far as I know. If you find it inferred somewhere in his correspondence with them, where is that?

Your conclusion seems to me a lot like the one that Luke shows being denied by Paul and the leaders of the Christ-believing coalitions in Jerusalem. But those people are characterized as not knowing Paul and not getting him right, besides being later data, and thus not what I am assuming you are referring to in your comments about Pharisees and Paul providing data from which you "compare his writings to known Pharisees."

Take care,
Mark Nanos
Kansas City





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