Corpus-Paul

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

I wrote:

>> There are at least three theological assertions about Jesus for which the 
>> earliest
>> testimony appears in Paul's letter to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 1:10):
>> (1) Jesus is the "Son of God"
>> (2) Jesus rose from the dead
>> (3) Jesus is a spiritual saviour (the adjective here is to distinguish 
>> the concept from that of Messiah)

Sheila McGinn replied:

>Ron, you will note that, first of all, Paul's favorite title for Jesus is
>Christos/Messiah.

Sheila,
  My intention was to focus on theological assertions pioneered by Paul.
There is abundant evidence that the title "Messiah" was adopted by Jesus
and applied to him by Peter et al. before the crucifixion. The
application of the title "Messiah" to Jesus was therefore not pioneered
by Paul.

>  Secondly, in 1 Th 1:10, Paul does NOT say that Jesus 
>"rose from the
>dead" but rather that he "was raised" (passive voice).

  If I am told: "The shuttle was raised into orbit by its powerful
rocket engines", I can correctly deduce that the shuttle "rose into
orbit". The latter statement simply doesn't indicate what propelled it
into orbit.
  In other words your distinction is too subtle. Paul himself used the
active voice as well as the passive voice, for in 1 Thess 4:14 he is
quite happy to say: "Jesus died and rose again".

>  Thus, your last two points
> actually are not found in 1 Thess

  Thus my point (2) *is* found in 1 Thess.
  Admittedly my point (3) is debatable as it depends on interpreting:
"delivers us from the wrath to come" as a spiritual rather than a
Messianic deliverance.

Ron Price

Weston-on-Trent, Derby, UK

e-mail:  ron.price AT virgin.net

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