Corpus-Paul

["Stephen.Finlan" <Stephen.Finlan AT durham.ac.uk>]

Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

>  Paul goes into great detail about the slavery to
sin
> under which we once  languished (chapters 6-7).

I think Paul knew there would be a double resonance
among his readers whenever he used the "slave" 
metaphor: the literary-religious image of slavery 
in Egypt, and the image or reality of current or 
recent slave status of many of his Gentile readers.  
The notion of Christ buying one's freedom from social
slavery, would be just as vivid to a Gentile reader
as the new-Exodus notion would be for a Jewish reader.

Paul was expert at using images that could reach
diverse auditors, having different resonances for
different readers.  Isn't this what we would expect
of a great preacher?

Stephen Finlan
University of Durham