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  • From: Jill and Dale Walker <jilldale AT rcnchicago.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Jewish origins of apostle
  • Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 22:45:41 -0600

Dio's challenges are quite different. Often, he doesn't have to argue
against the norm, he has to take the familiar and commonplace
and make it interesting. Kind of like the minister who every
December looks at Luke 2 and has to figure out what to do
with it this year. In one case, Dio also faced the challenge of
politely telling the emperor how to do his job. What I like about
Dio is that often when he argues a point, you don't realize it.
With Paul, you usually know he's arguing. Personally, I like that
degree of subtlety that Dio can use. But generalizing about so
many discourses isn't really honest of me. To speak directly to
Dio's creativity, one feature is that characteristic of the Second
Sophistic that expresses itself in trading on old traditions but
doing so in a fresh way. Variations on a theme, to use an
analogy from music, who are the children of Abraham to use
a religious one. One thing that distinguished good orators
around the I-III centuries is that they weren't predictable. They
all played with the same cultural ingredients, but the good ones
did interesting, fresh things with them.

Oh, in general, I think people from Paul's time
would agree that the person arguing for resurrection clearly
had the harder row to hoe. And I would repeat an earlier point
that the reason Paul had a difficult task is because what he was
saying (e.g., the list below) was often ideas not shared by
his audience.

Dale Walker
Chicago



At 03:30 PM 12/13/01 +0000, you wrote:
>Dale Walker wrote:
>> Deliberative
>> and forensic rhetoric require persusion of those who disagree, so
>> I would expect different types of arguments....
>> But is one more intellectual than the other? ....
>> maybe Paul exhibits more in the way of argument and
>> reason because he simply isn't as good at the game as Dio or Pliny.
>
>Or maybe it is because he has a much more difficult task,
>showing why Judaism is better than paganism AND why the
>widespread Jewish rejection of Jesus is wrong; showing
>how the God-given law is now transcended or fulfilled;
>showing how the New Age has dawned although it is not
>obvious to most people; showing why one must participate
>in the death of the Messiah in order to share in
>his resurrection;
>
>Paul has a more difficult task than these other teachers,
>who end up looking so predictable in comparison.  How
>creative is Dio's thinking?
>
>(Now I'm sure you'll tell me!)
>
>Finlan
>Durham
>
>---
>You are currently subscribed to corpus-paul as: jilldale AT rcnchicago.com
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