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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: The Apostolic Decree in Paul's letters
  • Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 04:56:07 -0700 (PDT)


Edgar Krentz wrote:

>It is curious that neither Paul or subsequent
>narratives in Acts ever
>speak of the Jerusalem decree being actively used...
>Paul never refers to the decree in discussing the
>problems with food in Corinth...

Bob MacDonald wrote (in reply to Steve Black):

> Mark Nanos makes a good case for the decree as a
> principle underlying the Epistle to the Romans
> in Mystery of Romans (I can't give you a
> reference since I have lent my copy...I also
> think an argument could be
> made for the underlying thinking of the
> decree in 1 Corinthians as I think I
> remember form John Hurd in his The Origin of 1
> Corinthians -

Bob, you took the words right out of my mouth. Both
Hurd's Origin of I Corinthians and Nanos' Mystery of
Romans contain diligent arguments that the Apostolic
Decree was in view as Paul wrote I Corinthians and
Romans respectively. Hurd's argument is basically that
Paul did not initially preach the Apostolic Decree in
Corinth (caught up, as he was, in the apocalyptic
fervor of his first "evangelical visit) but then later
reversed himself and wrote the (lost/"previous")
letter in which he exhorted the Corinthians to follow
the decree. After the confused and unsettled delegates
came to him in Ephesus (Chloe's people) -- carrying a
letter from even more confused and unsettled people
like Stephanus/Fortunatus/etc -- Paul moderated
between the liberalism of his earlier visit and the
conservatism of his backlash letter; the result was I
Corinthians. Nanos' argument is that the argument
about the "weak" and "strong" in Rom 14:1-15:6 has (at
least in part) the Apostolic Decree in view. In
general terms, I think both Hurd and Nanos are right.

[Bob]
> I think the possibility that Paul conformed his
> priorities to his own likes
> and dislikes is nearly zero.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. What if he didn't preach
the Apostolic Decree during his first evangelical
visit to Corinth, as Hurd (whom you cite) believes?

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com

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