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corpus-paul - Re: The "We" sections in Acts.

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  • From: Steve Black <sblack AT axionet.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The "We" sections in Acts.
  • Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 19:35:39 -0700


...I wrote...

Luke, in my assessment seems more
> interested in presenting things in such a way as to make an
> ideological point then merely capturing "what actually happened".
Paul, for example, is "softened", as is the conflict with Jerusalem
one almost gets the picture that it was one big happy family, a
picture which I think is harshly contradicted in Paul.

This assertion/argument chases its own tail, though. You seem to be
implying that Paul's remembrances of these events/conflicts are "neutral"
or "factual" when--as you'd acknowledge, no doubt--he also has rhetorical
and polemical reasons for the way he remembers what he remembers. If we
choose not to give up on "What Actually Happened"--and I for one do
not--then we'd best proceed from the assumption that all histories are
subjective and ideological, even if History (the Platonic form, which we
will not fully realize here) is objective and neutral/factual.

Actually I do not at all think that Paul's "version" is neutral. Anything but!!! His version is just as ideological as Luke's. He does however have the benefit of being a lot closer to the events, and is a much firmer candidate for eyewitness status, which does gain him some brownie points...


Note: you say of the "we" sections in Acts:

My original post was very interested in tracking down information on the suggestion that the "we" passages can be well explained as a literary convention, and do not imply eyewitness status at all. I am hoping someone has heard of this theory before and can point me in a helpful direction.
--
Steve Black
Vancouver School of Theology
Vancouver, BC
---

Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

-Robert Hunter From SCARLET BEGONIAS




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