Corpus-Paul

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

Jim Hester said:

>>Frankly I have always had trouble with claims for redactional activity in 
Paul's letters, unless it can be argued that Paul himself added things to 
them in the process of composition, which is what I think happened at Gal 
5:2 - 12, e.g. Teasing out redacted material smacks at bit of trying to 
make the messiness of ancient argumentation conform to the neatness of 
modern thinking. If it doesn't read like we would argue it, then someone 
must have tampered with it. Why, I would ask, would an ancient redactor 
screw up something that must have made some sense to the author who is 
worried that it make sense to the hearer? Partition theories pose the same 
question for me but even more so because the of loss of essential elements 
of epistolary forms that are involved in the editing process.<<

As you know from our earlier private correspondence (a half year ago?) I am 
skeptical about attributing to Paul such a high degree of rhetorical 
ability that what appears to the modern reader as gibberish and double talk 
is really brilliant rhetoric.

The comment of the author of 2 peter 3:16 bears consideration, as it 
indiates that by his time (late 1st thru 2nd century CE?) Paul's rhetoric, 
if that was indeed what it was, was "hard to understand" and subject to 
varying interpretations. This weakens an argument that our modern 
perspective alone is what is keeping us from understanding his discourse.

There was a recent review of Philip H. Kern's _Rhetoric and Galatians: 
Assessing an Approach to Paul's Epistle_ (SNTSMS 101. Cambridge: Cambridge 
University Press, 1998) by Fredrick J. Long at the RBL site, which suggests 
that this issue is not at all settled.

What I am afraid of is that we can label just about any sort of phrase as 
an element of a rhetorical construction if we are disposed to do so. The 
danger is in letting the "tail wag the dog", and ending up with what we 
would like to see, i.e., a traditional portrait of Paul and his theology.

Regards,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA