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corpus-paul - RE: Jesus' death attributed to unseen powers?

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  • From: "David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Jesus' death attributed to unseen powers?
  • Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2002 11:21:20 -0400


Alex LaBrecque asks:

>>Outside of NT texts, what Christian sources of the first two centuries CE
attribute Jesus' execution to the activity of unseen powers?

Paul's statements in 1 Cor 1-2 are commonly cited as supporting such a
view.<<

While there will undoubtedly be books and articles on the subject, but you
will find that their concern will often be apologetic or concentrates on
some theme rather than an even review of sources and their probable intended
meaning.

Sometimes the best thing to do is a little homework. Using a thesaurus (to
look up all usual permutations of names and concepts like Christ, Jesus,
powers, principates, etc), a good concordance (stick to one based the RSV),
and the master index volume of the ten volume Ante-Nicene Fathers series
(the authorized 10 vol. American edition of the original 24 vol. T & T Clark
edition of 1867 - 1872 was published between 1885 & 1897 by Christian
Literature Publication Co. and reprinted by several modern publishers; look
in vol 9, the index, for those specific NT passages that mention 1 Cor 2:8,
etc).

There are also some citations in Gnostic literature from Nag Hammadi and
elsewhere (mainly the Bruce, Askew and "Akhmim" codices. The Gnostics often
saw the creator God as having his angels thwart Christ's mission as a
redeemer (for a variety of reasons, depending upon the agenda of the authors
of the treatises contained in the codices). These are not so easily
discovered, but there may be translations that have indexes.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA






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