Corpus-Paul

["Ron Price" <ron.price AT virgin.net>]

G.C.Still wrote:

>Did Paul go "from laying on the bosom of Jesus" to administrating death
>warrants against the believer's? Highly unlikely!

Mr/Ms Still,

  Agreed. But you probably missed the correspondence on John_Lit on this
topic. Here is my first posting which sparked off the "Paul as the BD"
thread on that List:

>  In my opinion [John 20:2-10] is the only text that matters when trying
>to identify the BD. All the other references are intended simply to show
>the high status of the BD in contrast with the earliest disciples of
>Jesus.
>  Here the presentation of the BD as being in a race with Peter makes it
>abundantly clear that the BD was in some sense Peter's greatest rival.
>The idea that this was James the brother of Jesus can be dismissed
>immediately because according to John 7:5 Jesus' brothers did not
>believe in him. This was the ultimate condemnation from an author to
>whom belief was paramount.
>  On the other hand in 1 Clement, which was written about the same time
>as the First Edition of John's gospel, we see Peter and Paul bracketed
>together (1 Clem. 5:1-6:1). A generation after their deaths these two
>apostolic heroes had become rivals for the admiration of Christians.
>  Looking in more detail at the race to the tomb we are told that Peter
>"saw" but the BD "saw and believed". This implied denigration of Peter
>parallels that of Mark's gospel in which Peter is portrayed as seeing
>Jesus only as the Messiah (Mark 8:29) and not as the Son of God. In
>John's gospel, Peter saw the earthly Jesus, but it was Paul who
>"believed" in the resurrection of the Son of God. Such praise by the
>author of John's gospel was natural from someone who had adapted Pauline
>theology and taken it to new heights. There may be another link in the
>probable association of both John's gospel and the collection of Paul's
>letters with Ephesus.
>  So the BD was none other than Paul. This is why the BD's identity
>could not be revealed, for everyone knew that Paul had played no part in
>the story of Jesus' life or earliest appearances.

  In other words my contention is that the Johannine presentation of
Paul's involvement in the life of Jesus was surreal and not meant to be
taken as historical. It was a subtle way of presenting Paul as the
greatest hero amongst the earliest apostles, above even James and Peter.


Ron Price

Weston-on-Trent, Derby, UK

e-mail:  ron.price AT virgin.net

Web site:  http://homepage.virgin.net/ron.price/index.htm