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corpus-paul - Re: Paul as the beloved disciple

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  • From: "Michael T. MacDonell" <sendero AT pcsinter.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul as the beloved disciple
  • Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 14:37:00 -0800


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






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