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  • From: Zeba Crook <zeba.crook AT utoronto.ca>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Acts and Paul's relationship to Jerusalem
  • Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2001 00:56:30 -0500


With all due respect, there is nothing to object to in Mesfin's post.
Phrases like
"preaching to the converted" and "it's not news" are not rhetorical tactics;
they are
the measured words of a new contributor expressing *the scholarly consensus.*
Like it
or not, that is the consensus among scholars. If you have a problem with the
scholarly
consensus, which anyone has a right to do, then take *it* on, but it is
antagonistic
misreadings like this that turn this list, and others like Sytnoptic-L, into
the arenas
of a few dominating (and bitter sounding) voices.

Zeba Crook

Richard Fellows wrote:

> 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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--
Zeba Antonin Crook, PhD (Cand)
University of St. Michael's College
81 St. Mary Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4Y 1R5






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