Corpus-Paul

["Jeffrey B. Gibson" <jgibson000 AT home.com>]

Liz Fried wrote:

> Dear All,
> Did Paul think that if Jesus had not died on the cross, or voluntarily
> chosen to die, that he would never have died at all and would still be
> walking around today?
> IF so, why did he think that?
>

At first glance, I too, like Jim West, thought the question to be 
unanswerable. But
after giving it some thought,  I began to wonder whether we could not 
extrapolate
something in this regard from the fact of Paul's own ideologically based 
persecution of
the early Jesus movement. That is to say,  given how Paul knew that there 
were others
who were infused with the Zeal for the Law that led him to persecute the 
church, he
could expect that if the Romans had not done Jesus in, someone from this 
party would
have attacked and perhaps tried to eliminate Jesus. Indeed, Paul seems to 
imply that
prior to his "call experience" he would have been one of them.

Yours,

Jeffrey
--
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)
7423 N. Sheridan Road #2A
Chicago, Illinois 60626
e-mail jgibson000 AT home.com