Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT home.com>]

on 6/23/01 9:17 AM, Frich107 AT aol.com at Frich107 AT aol.com wrote:

> 1 I.e. How Paul's claims to apostleship, and usage of power over people 
> could
> be related to his Jewish identity, and understanding of the law as a
> controlling element. In particular I would be concentrating on the work of
> James Dunn, although I would consult others such as E. P. Sanders and N. T.
> Wright amongst others.

P. Tomson, Paul and the Mosaic Law, van Gorcum, 1990 is closer, in my view,
to getting at Paul in a Jewish context. These guys are still starting with a
Christian portrait of Paul from Augustine/Reformation and comparing that
creature to a better understanding of Judaism in the first century; now
wonder he appears strange!

By the way, in my opinion, it is not so much Law that would be the salient
element for Paul as a Jew on this matter, but Jewish communal authority, by
which the Law is interpreted for and by each Judaism, including Paul's
Christ-believing Jewish groups and the other Christ-believing Jewish groups,
together forming a coalition (as defined by J. Boissevain, Friends of
Friends: Networks, Manipulators and Coalitions, Basil Blackwell, 1974). In
addition to these varieties of authorities and interpretations of Law, in
Judea, in Galilee, in the various Diaspora locations, there would be the
leading authorities in Jerusalem working with the Romans, and the issues
that arise of authority and interpretation with which all other interest
groups must deal.
> 
> 2 Within this I would hope to investigate how Paul could be seen as a 
> product
> of his society, both Jewish and Hellenistic. In particular I would be
> consulting the work of Bruce Malina and Jerome Neyrey, and using some of
> their methodologies.

In this vein see too P. Esler's Galatians, Routledge, 1998, and his article,
"Making and Breaking an Agreement Mediterranean Style, BI 3.3.285-314, and
B. Holmberg's Paul and Power: The Structure of Authority in the Primitive
Church as Reflected in the Pauline Epistles, Fortress, 1978; N. Petersen,
Rediscovering Paul: Philemon and the Sociology of Paul's Narrative World,
Fortress, 1985.
> 
> 3 I intend to attempt to deconstruct some of Paul's arguments for his own
> authority over various churches, as found in his letters, and seek to 
> analyse
> this rhetoric.

The works of J. Schütz, Paul and the Anatomy of Apostolic Authority,
Cambridge, 1975, and Holmberg, noted above will be valuable; so too W.
Schmithals, The Office of Apostle in the Early Church, Abingdon, 1969, even
if these might be dated in some important ways. See also the works of W.
Meeks, and Lüdemann and Hengel and too many others to name on Paul and
Jewish Christianity (I disagree with most of their interpretations on the
subject, and your hypothesis too, for what that is worth!). In addition to
many works on rhetoric and my own forthcoming work, The Irony of Galatians,
Fortress, Oct., and article on the Jerusalem meeting in a Brill volume on
Paul and His Opponents (early 2002), and on the Antioch Incident in The
Mystery of Romans, Fortress, 1996, see L. Thuren, Derhetorizing Paul, Mohr
Siebeck, 2000, and D. Mitternacht, Forum für Sprachlose, Almquist and
Wiksell Int., 1999.
> 
> 4 Castelli, Elizabeth A., Imitating Paul: A Discourse of Power (Louisville,
> KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991)

To this you might add C. Kittredge, Community and Authority: The Rhetoric of
Obedience in the Pauline Tradition, Trinity Press Int., 1998; S. Polaski,
Paul and the Discourse of Power, Sheffield, 1999; and in Sept., M. Given,
Paul's True Rhetoric: Ambiguity, Cunning, and Deception in Greece and Rome,
Trinity Press Int., 2001.

May I note that I disagree with the assumption of most of those I have
listed that Paul was in an oppositional relationship with the Jerusalem
apostles. I think P. Koptak's reading in "Rhetorical Identification in
Paul's Autobiographical Narrative: Galatians 1.13--2.14," JSNT 40.97-115, is
much closer to what Paul was up to, and this is also the line of argument
you will find in my essays on this. Although arrived at independently, these
leaders were in "consubstantial unity" (ala K. Burke).

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
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