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  • From: MillerJimE AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Sanders, etc.
  • Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 01:01:40 EDT


Mark Nanos writes (on "works of the law"):
<< But why would he do so in a letter to faraway Galatia, or Rome, to where
the
texts with such language were sent, and moreover, to non-Jews who could
hardly be expected to know about these rare sectarian documents? Would
Jewish people in those locations either have those kinds of views, or would
they have any idea what Paul was writing about? >>

Perhaps that is the point. Even when dealing with 1st century Judaism we
do not have a great quantity of texts. If Paul's "works of the law" are
borrowed from the phrasing found at Qumran, this does not mean Paul expected
Galatian Jews to have read Qumran documents. It means that the phrase had
widespread currency -- even though we find it surfacing only at Qumran and in
Paul; or that the source document (4QMMT) had wide circulation, even though
we find it only at Qumran. After all, the use of Genesis 1:27 against
polygamy is found only in the New Testament gospels and 1Q CD. The readers
of Mark and Matthew were not readers of the Damascus Covenant, a rather
sectarian document. Instead it is reasonable to suppose that the use of
Genesis 1:27 against polygamy was widespread, even though we find it used
only in a few sources.
Jim Miller



  • Re: Sanders, etc., MillerJimE, 07/27/2001

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