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  • From: "Alex LaBrecque" <evangelica AT earthlink.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Jesus' death attributed to unseen powers?
  • Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 18:13:33 -0500


Thank you, David, and please pardon my late reply. I should have phrased my
question better. The night I submitted my query I was pondering an
interpretation that "the rulers of this age" in 1 Cor 2:6-8 are human
authorities, not unseen powers as is commonly assumed (see W. Carr, “The
Rulers of This Age-I Corinthians II. 6-8,” NTS 23 (1976-77), 20-35). I think
this view is supported by the context of 1 Cor 1-2, whereas identification
of the archontes as unseen powers does not well fit Paul's argument against
human authorities who affirm the criteria of this age (such as sophia).
While Paul and other early Christians speak of God's triumph in Christ over
unseen powers, nowhere else (if indeed here) does Paul directly attribute
Jesus' crucifixion to those powers. A common tendency of interpreters is to
impose on Paul's statements ideas of much later date; I was wondering aloud
if there are Christian sources nearer to Paul's time to which the prevalent
view might more plausibly appeal, supported by statements that attribute
Jesus' execution to unseen powers as directly as 1 Cor 2:6-8 requires.

Alex LaBrecque
evangelica AT earthlink.net


-----Original Message-----
From: dhindley AT compuserve.com [mailto:dhindley AT compuserve.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002 10:21 AM
To: Corpus-paul
Subject: [corpus-paul] RE: Jesus' death attributed to unseen powers?


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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