Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

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

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Sakari H�kkinen" <sakari.hakkinen AT sci.fi>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul as apostate (was:Paul Not a Pharisee?)
  • Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 22:51:56 +0200


Hello Mark,
I am sorry the answer is a bit delayed. I had a seminar in
another town and was not able to check the e-mail.

You asked me to identify the opponents of Paul, right? I
suppose he had several opponents. As you rightly noticed,
his letters are to gentiles. However, in some of these
gentile communities (or mixed ones?) there were visitors,
itinerant preachers that preached Judaism. These preachers
had taught differently from Paul, that is why he attacked
them in his letters. Do you agree?

One of the problems with defining Pharisaism at Paul's time
is that we have so little data of Pharisaism, except later
data. However, in the time the Gospels were written
Pharisees were considered as enemies of Jesus-believers.
This is not much later than Paul's time, although the
situation may have changed. I admit that I am not a
specialist on Pharisaism, so I let some one else to give
more data on exact Pharisaic texts. Josephus considered
himself a Pharisee, but was he a typical one? How well do
early rabbinic texts reflect pre -70 Pharisaism? As you see,
I have no answers to your challenging questions.

Here are some texts about the Jewish opponents of Paul:
apostles 2 Cor 11 especially vs. 4-5, 13, 22-23
teachers of the Torah Gal 1, 6-9 implicitly Gal 3 and 4,17
and 21; Gal 5,1-11; 6,12-13
(2,4 pseudo-brethren, [I have your paper on these])

> 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?
I suppose the texts above is enough evidence for this.

All the best,

Sakari

Sakari Hakkinen, PhD
University of Helsinki
Department of Biblical Studies
sakari.hakkinen AT evl.fi
http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/hyel/henkilo/henkilo.html








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page