Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: hard evidence for early opening to Gentiles

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "David C. Hindley" <DHindley AT compuserve.com>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: Re: hard evidence for early opening to Gentiles
  • Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 21:53:19


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




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page