Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <DHindley AT compuserve.com>]

Jeffry offered several points offered by Grady:

>>1. Gentile Christian food was bread and fish (art). Its presence in the 
NT indicates a Gentile component in the NT church.

2. Gentile Christians used virtue names in inscriptions (freed slaves). 
Their presence in the NT indicates a Gentile component.

3. Gentile Christians met in houses not halls. House churches in the NT 
indicate a Gentile component.

4. Gentile Christians organized their calendar by the Sun. The Sund-day in 
the NT indicates a Gentile component.<<

In all these cases, we are already assuming we know what defines a Gentile 
Christian, but part of the problem we are considering is *what* 
demonstrates their presence. Isn't this a bit circular?

Grady is saying we already know that in the late 1st century 1) "Gentile 
Christians", to the exclusion of all others, ate bread & fish, that 2) the 
only individuals with virtue names (i.e., were freed slaves) were Gentile 
Christians, that 3) no one else except Gentile Christians nade use of 
houses for worship meetings, and that 4) Gentile Christians "organized 
their calendar by the Sun".

I'd ask: 1) Did not Jews, and non-Christian Gentiles, also eat bread with 
fish? 2) Were there not Jewish slaves who were freed? 3) Could not Jews, or 
non-Christian Gentiles, equally well made use of houses for worship (the 
"house of Peter" excavated in Capernaum was such a house, and while it was 
likely *not* Peter's home it was likely Jewish)? 4) What does Grady mean by 
"organized their calendar by the Sun"? We have no evidence that Sunday was 
the day of meeting in the last three decades of the 1st century CE - that 
comes in the second decade of the 2nd century.

I do not think there can be any question, though, that Paul was primarily 
addressing Gentiles. The effort he invested to justify his position that  
faithful Gentiles were co-heirs alongside Jews also argues towards his 
audience being Gentile. These sections with the "justification of Gentiles" 
themes are the only sections that are complete themes and not 
interjections, explanations or glosses. That makes them primary, not the 
interpolations, if this is what is being suggested.

Regards,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA