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  • From: "Fabrizio Palestini" <fabrizio.palestini AT tin.it>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The Dutch Radical Approach to the Pauline Epistles
  • Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 17:46:50 +0200


Dear David

> To say that van Manen, etc., had definitively proven them bogus is no
> better than the opposite assertion that Jurgens, Lightfoot and Harnack
> had definitively proven them genuine.

I completely agree with you.
My starting point, however, is this: a document, before being used in an
historical reconstruction, must be critically evaluated, his authenticity
and reliability are not assumed until disproven.
Do you agree with me?
Now, in a complex reconstruction like this, the coherence and plausibility
of the whole theory is to be investigated, without fear of dismissing
document as inauthentic.
>From this position, what hypothesis offer the better understanding of Early
Christianity?

The approach of the JHC is not superficial regarding 1Clement, Ignatian
Letters etc, it is only a possibility to be compared with the others.
I think that this possibility is at least competitive.


> While it is easy to say that these books must, therefore, support an
> early dating for the NT books so referenced, do they also display
> evidence of editorial interpolations? Yes, I would say. In 1 Clement,
> for instance, certain themes (generally, Christological or apologetic)
> appear in concentrations (such as chap. 16, 36, 42, 44, 47], which I
> consider to be expansions of the original text.

This is an interesting hypothesis.

> A proper analysis of the characteristics of these apparent citations
> would need to consider all the relational possibilities between these
> texts equally. They should not be considered *only* entirely genuine
> or entirely spurious, as if that exhausts the possibilities. Once the
> options are identified, then they can be evaluated against various
> reconstructed historical scenarios. Can we say this has been done
> satisfactorily? I don't know, but so far I'd say "no."

I agree with you, again!
The JHC theory could offer the simpler and more coherent sketch (I think),
but all the possibility you listed are to be evaluated.
There is a wide possibility of interesting new studies.

Thank you very much
Best regards

Fabrizio Palestini





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