Corpus-Paul

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

Liz asked

>>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?<<

And many have responded - searching out issues around Christology with a few
'how can that question be answered' cries.

In the early hours of the morning, a related question came to me. Why do we
and other parts of creation die? A very Adamic question. Did Paul think only
literally about time and death or is there room for metaphor in his
expression of his experience? More specifically to this question including
the phrase 'walking around today', did these ancients perceive time only
linearly with no thought of the timelessness of God? Were they 'more
primitive', 'more childlike', in their thinking than we?

Now I was going to try and answer all this but my thoughts flew the coop. An
answer was there as firm as the marginal proof of Fermat's last theorem, but
it left me, victim of that definition of fundamentalist thought = the
shortest distance between two scripture verses <smile>.

So I went back to bed. (and slept in too long to get to church - good thing
I don't preach)

Then I remembered the marginalia. Picking up and refusing a disincarnate
gnosis as required by Jim, strict teacher that he is, and concentrating on
the death images in Paul's writing, his mechanism of incarnating the Spirit
in his hearers - if you by the Spirit do put to death the deeds of the body
you will live, I realized that this faith is a voluntary work. Through the
preaching of Paul, we are given authority to die in Christ. Then the Spirit
of Glory declares us too in Christ since, Frank's 'ek', the resurrection
from the dead - ours this time. Shifting into John's gear, if we become so
bold, we can learn to say: no one takes my life from me, I lay it down of my
own free will. I have authority to lay it down, and to take it up again.
Back to Paul (Colossians 2:6), this is the way we received Christ Jesus as
Lord (by death) - and this is the way we live in him (by death). So to live
is Christ and to die gain. The sacramental dramas that we continue today in
baptism and eucharist remind us what that message is. Both these sacraments
are evident in Paul, but there is a depth of sacrificial thought in him (1
Cor 11:27-31) that still escapes the net of my own understanding that may
delve further into the ancient mind on the meaning of sin and death.

My conclusion is that Paul does use words death and life figuratively as
well as literally.

As for a linear view of life - did Paul think that Jesus would be 'still
alive today'. I think Paul reaches out of and transcends a childlike view of
time and death in passages like Romans 8:19. Here he recognizes that
creation subject to decay cannot of itself do the whole job. Since God has
subject it to decay yet still 'in hope'. The question - would Jesus 'still
be alive' in the flesh 'today' is a hypothetical question that does not
recognize the inherent limitations of this decay. Jesus did not come here
'to live' in that sense, as if one of us would move to New York or Adelaide
or Moscow. He came specifically to do the work his Father had given him to
do, which was to die. Here Philippians 2:6 ff is picking up on the original
doctrines that Paul had learned in Antioch and Jerusalem and particularly
from the Johanine school (John 9:4), not to mention the Damascus road and
his own experience of the risen Christ in the Spirit.

A recent commentary came across my desk which explains the regress of God to
the seventh heaven due to seven sins from Adam to Egypt, and his return due
to the labours of the seven righteous from Abraham to Amram, and the
experience of this presence in the Tanach. (See below my signature for the
relevant part of the text. For the full text, see
http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/5760/naso.shtml). God's presence with
humanity is an ancient understanding that Paul would have been aware of
though not presumably in Talmudic terms. For Paul the new tent is us, and
the presence complete and completable 'in the Spirit'. To say 'you shall
live' (Rom 8:13) seems almost equivalent to the sense of Psalm 37:29 taken
causatively (the righteous shall live in the land for ever) as suggested by
the translation below.

Is this 'for ever' the same childlike thought 'still alive today'? Well,
Christ (Jesus) is for Paul 'still alive' (Romans 6:9), but I doubt that the
Psalmist had this in mind any more than Paul in the sense of an earthly
'still walking around'. Perhaps this question is not answerable in the terms
it is expressed in. Both the Psalmist and Paul could have had a 'you will
know the difference if you try it' in their minds whether you 'understand'
what 'for ever' means or not.

Conclusion: Paul would not have asked the question. But he does invite
participation in the life he preaches. Paul might have said - I have done
enough 'walking around'. (2 Tim 4:6-8)

My question probably belongs on another list: would there have been any
difference in Paul's preaching of Psalm 37 from the preaching of a Jewish
preacher today? If so, what?

(By the way the first part of the Chancellor's commentary is the best - from
my favorite book, the Song of Solomon, but you'll have to click to see.)

Happy summer

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)

http://members.home.net/bobmacdonald/homepage.htm


From a recent commentary by Chancellor Schorsch of Jewish Theological
Seminary of America

Human waywardness alienates God. In a particularly graphic image, one
midrash speculates on God's progressive withdrawal in consequence of
recurring acts of human evil. With Adam's sin, God took refuge in the first
firmament. With that of Enoch, in the second. With that of the generation of
the flood, in the third. The builders of the Tower of Babel drove God yet
further away to the fourth firmament. The Egyptians in the days of Abraham,
to the fifth. The Sodomites, to the sixth and finally the Egyptians after
the death of Joseph impelled God to hide in the outermost reaches of the
universe, in the seventh and highest firmament.

What served to reconnect God with the world were the deeds of seven
righteous individuals. Each one, from Abraham to Amram (Moses's father),
brought God one firmament closer to human affairs till Moses with the
construction of the Tabernacle created a sanctuary for God here on earth.
The function of the righteous, then, is to restore God's faith in humanity,
to offset the baleful consequences of human depravity, as suggested by the
verse that, "The righteous shall inherit the land and abide forever in it
(Psalm 37:29)," where we should read the verb "ve-yishkenu (abide)"
causatively, "and they will bring God's presence to dwell on earth
(ve-yashkinu shekhinah b-aretz)." The righteous are the link between heaven
and earth. (Pesikta de-Rav Kahana, 1)

Originally, according to yet another midrash, God strode the earth when it
was pristine. After their sin, Adam and Eve "heard the sound of God moving
about in the garden at the breezy time of day (Genesis 3:8)" and they hid in
terror. The Tabernacle recovers but a fraction of that presence, now
restricted to the Tent of Meeting where Moses alone "would hear the Voice
addressing him (Numbers 7:89)." Rashi comments on the unusual reflexive form
of the verb "midaber--addressing" that God was actually speaking to God's
self and Moses simply overheard (Ibid and Rashi ad loc). The divine-human
encounter is still hampered by estrangement. God is wary of betrayal.

The theological core of this vivid language is that we live in an imperfect
world. God's remove flows from our constant abuse of the gift of human free
well. Ignorance and arrogance induce us to commit acts that wreak havoc. The
function of Judaism is to temper the demons within us and attune us to the
vistas beyond us. The grandeur of an incomprehensible universe is not
intended to satisfy our appetites. By giving us a center of gravity, the
ritual and sacred texts, the community and culture of Judaism enable us to
live our lives from the perspective of eternity.