Corpus-Paul

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

JERRY SUMNEY wrote:
>  Though
> this is not quite on the subject of whether Jesus would have died, a few
> who have commented on this question cite 2 Cor 5:16 as evidence that Paul
> was not interested in the historical Jesus.  Such easy acceptance
> of this reading needs, I think, to be reassessed given what I find to be
> the convincing arguments put forward by many interpreters that show that
> the phrase "according to the flesh" is adverbial.  This means the
> verse speaks of a way of knowing, not about what is known (or not known)
> about Jesus or about how important such knowledge was for Paul.Jerry
>  
I, for one, think Jerry raises a very important issue on which  I'd
like to see more discussion. I have always taken Paul here to be making
a statement about how he has rejected his old (and for want of a better
word) Zealotic ideas concerning the Messiah. After all, in the larger context
in which the _expression_ appears, Paul seems to be speaking of how the Corinthian
community is to become the embodiment of the rightwising way of God which
Paul, contrary to his old pre-call way of thinking, himself had come to
discover was to be found not as he once expected, in triumphalism, but
in the ministry of reconciliation which the historical Jesus manifested.

But is this a legitimate position to take?

Yours,

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