Corpus-Paul

["Bob MacDonald" <bobmacdonald AT home.com>]

Paul Toseland wrote
>>It is often assumed that Paul wrote his letters to be read out loud in
the congregation, and that he intended them to be understood and to
achieve their goal at a first reading.... it is questionable, to say the
least,
whether his audiences would have been able to follow his arguments<<

It seems to me, a layman and an ordinary person in a congregation, that much
passes over our heads in terms of 'following an argument'. But something
doesn't - and the something that doesn't pass over our heads does not seem
to require 'understanding' in the intellectual sense of knowing which of the
ancient texts that Paul was quoting.

In Galatians 3:1 Paul reminds the Galatians of their experience of the risen
Christ: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with
faith?

Something happened to the Galatians through 'hearing with faith'. The
'receiving of the Spirit' is not just a matter of understanding where Paul's
allusions came from - though this adds support for understanding once the
initial receiving of the Spirit in faith has happened.

I realize that this is subjective - rhetoric, form, or source criticism
cannot 'decide' for us the truth of what is referred to. But they help us
understand the post-experiential rationalization that occurs when one tries
to explain what has happened to oneself. And they help us see (perhaps) how
fragile the message is - with the post-experience rationalizations rapidly
leading to religious hardening of explanations and arguments, forgetting the
original experience of the Spirit. This in itself explains some of Paul's
frustration - he seems to me to be anti-religion in some ways (eg Gal 4:10 -
you observe days, months, etc.); and he is certainly anti-factionalism -
though success with humans in this area is problematic to say the least.

>> The role of his courier was not merely to deliver the letter, but to lead
study groups,
bringing out the intertextual effects and making known more fully the
apostle's mind. <<

Suppose Phoebe was to read the Roman epistle to one congregation after
another when she gets to Rome.

1. Would a woman travel from Corinth/Cenchrae to Rome with a letter?
2. What sort of a woman was she? Maybe she had business connections with
Gaius of Corinth and could arrange travel to Rome on a merchant ship?
3. How would she proceed once she got to Ostia? Perhaps a couple of days in
Ostia at one or two synagogues/house churches, then the day's journey to
Rome itself, then seeking out some of the people - Rufus maybe - in Rome to
find a place to stay before reading again at the sabbath or on the Lord's
day...
4. Would it have been acceptable to the Roman congregations whether
synagogue or house church to be taught by a woman?
5. Would the letter have been read at one sitting in each assembly?
6. What kind of reception would one expect? a. in a district in Ostia? b. in
Caesar's household or some other location in Rome?
7. Are there elements of the Roman letter through which the Spirit can be
received by faith without in depth understanding of the allusions to the
Tanach?  Eg ch 8: If Jesus Spirit be not yours, ye are not his. If by the
Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body ye shall live. (To get away
from possible negative and exclusive connotations, think of these words as
set by Bach in his motet, Jesu meine Freude.)

The message, in short, does not require 'understanding' first - though we
might seek it with diligence as the Beroeans did (Acts 17:11). The message
requires a 'hearing with faith' first to which something happens that
recreates the hearer.

Bob

BobMacDonald AT home.com
+ + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +
Catch the foxes for us,
   the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in flower.   (Song 2.15)

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