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  • From: Richard Fellows <rfellows AT intergate.ca>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Acts and Paul's relationship to Jerusalem
  • Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 22:40:26 -0800


Mesfin A. Wrote:
>I hope I will not be shot if I suggest that we must separate between what
>Luke tells us about Paul and what Paul speaks for himself, particularly when
>we raise autobiographical questions. I am preaching to the converted when I
>say the two reports are not quite the same and understandably so:

I do not approve of the rhetorical tactic that is employed by the phrase
'I am preaching to the converted when I say...'. Such phrases are
essentially appeals to authority, which add nothing to the debate, but are
sadly quite common in NT studies. List members hold a wide variety of views
on Acts so you are not 'preaching to the converted'.

>the case
>being it was necessary for Luke that Paul is closely associated with
>Jerusalem, at all expense!, because the gap between Jewish Christianity that
>was cantered in Jerusalem (represented in Antioch) and Gentile Christianity
>that was advocated by Paul had to be somehow bridged and harmonized to
>suggest a unified movement.

But Acts does not suggest a unified movement! There are disputes within the
church on the question of circumcision and law observance (see Acts
15.1-2,5), and there is still some tension on this issue in Acts 21.20-22.

There is also Paul's rift with Barnabas and Mark (Acts 15.36-39), whom Luke
connects closely with Jerusalem. Luke never mends that rift, even though 1
Cor 9.6, Col 4.10, and 2 Tim 4.11 imply something of a reconciliation.

If one is to demonstrate a 'tendency' in Acts, one needs to show a
consistent pattern in which Luke goes out of his way to give an impression
that is contrary to the way things actually happened. It would be useful,
Mesfin, if you could lay out the evidence for Luke's underplaying of the
division between 'Jewish and Gentile Christianity'.

> It is also no news...

Again, this phrase irritates.

Richard Fellows
Vancouver





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