Corpus-Paul

["Michael T. MacDonell" <sendero AT pcsinter.net>]

At 08:39 AM 1/4/01, G.C. Still wrote:

> Concerning the remote possibility that Paul could be "the beloved disciple
> of the Fourth Gospel" is pure speculation. Considering the account of Acts
> regarding Paul's activities against the saint's then commonly referred to as
> "the way" we are informed that Paul was "an enemy" of the way and all those
> that called upon the name of Jesus Christ.
>
> Did Paul go "from laying on the bosom of Jesus" to administrating death
> warrants against the believer's? Highly unlikely!

But all this presupposes that the characterization of Paul in Acts holds 
water in the first place.  Bornkamm (Paul, p. 15) argues pretty effectively 
that there are strong reasons to question whether, contrary to Acts, Paul 
was a persecutor of the early church...

"... a church which in fact still observed the Law and so was not in the 
slightest exposed to the crucial charge of hostility toward it.  Luke's 
picture is also clearly contradicted by the apostle's [Paul's] remark in 
Gal 1:22, that he was personally unknown to the churches in Judaea - and 
therefore before this to the church in Jerusalem; they heard of him only 
later on, when the antagonist of the past had changed into the successful 
missionary in Syria and Cilicia.  This is absolutely inconceivable in the 
case of a man who in Jerusalem had previously taken the prominent part in 
persecuting Christians ascribed to him by Luke (Acts 22:4 ff).  So Paul can 
hardly have been present at the stoning of Stephen: the connection is 
clearly of Luke's own making (Acts 7:58; 8:1).  Nowhere does Paul himself 
speak on any persecuting in Jerusalem."

I have a hard time accepting the premise that Paul and the B.D. were the 
same person, but I think that if we reject the idea, we need more to rest 
our case on than the picture of Paul given to us in Acts.

Best Regards,
Mike