Corpus-Paul

[Perry L Stepp <plstepp AT juno.com>]

I first asked this question last Saturday: bad timing, holiday weekend and all.  Anyway, below is the original question, and my own thoughts on a couple of the points after reflection.  I invite your responses.

 

> Alright: suppose you were a Christian in a pauline church in Ephesus
> during the second Christian generation there--say, 80 CE.  How much
> would you have known about Paul?

> Would you have known his conversion story? 

> Would you have known about Paul's priorities,

> that his reason for living was to preach Christ and

> salvation by faith to the gentiles? 

 

YES, Paul's conversion story and career would have been common knowledge, a prominent part of your church's history.  Christians in pauline churches (i.e., churches founded and/or brought up by Paul or by one of Paul's immediate associates) ca. 80 CE, ESPECIALLY in a pauline city like Ephesus, absolutely would have known the "legend of Paul." 

 

De Boer (I don't remember the name of the article, but it was in CBQ 1980) talks about the development of the picture of Paul after his death.  As I recall, the central points of Paul's legend as he outlines them are:

a. Paul's career as a persecutor of the church;

b. Paul's dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus;

c.  Paul's commission to be the apostle to the gentiles;

d.  Paul's suffering and faithful, heroic death in service of the gospel. 

De Boer approaches the question from the Deutero-pauline authors' perspective--as does everyone else I've read on the issue--rather than from the historical audience's perspective.  But (assuming Deutero-pauline authorship) the Deutero-pauline authors are working with their reader's knowledge of the same legend.  So at least these four points would have been a prominent part of the average Ephesian Christian's knowledge.

 

PLStepp, Ph.D. Candidate, Baylor University