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  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Questions for Paul
  • Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 04:59:28 -0800 (PST)

Mark Nanos (again):

>It does seem to me that the curse wishes of
>Gal 1:8-9 and other such negative comments
>supports [an] understanding of you as
>intolerant and condemning those who have
>views other than yours...Yet there is other
>language in your letters that bespeaks tolerance
>and respect (not least Rom 11)...This language
>leads me to suspect that those who are so bold
>to judge do so too quickly for your taste.

As a post-script to my last entry I should add that
people who are especially judgmental and intolerant
will be quick to condemn the same behavior in others.
It's what we call projection, a transcultural
phenomenon. Essentially, people hate to look at
themselves. When Paul saw Gentile superiority in Rome,
he recognized their judgmentalism as his own ("if you
spot, you got it"), whether consciously or
subconsciously, and reacted accordingly.

I realize the dangers of psychoanalysis here, and I
certainly don't mean to imply that Paul's projection
is all that accounts for the detailed and developed
arguments of Rom 11 & 14-15. Whether Rom 11 is best
understood as Paul's emotion triumphing over his logic
(Dodd), a desperately sought formula to keep God's
promises to Israel intact (Sanders), a clever device
to convince Jews of the consistency of God with the
purpose of Israel's salvation (Watson), or the real
key to understanding Paul as a Christ-believing Jew
(Nanos) -- in any of these cases, projection should
not be excluded as an impetus. So to answer your
question, Mark, perhaps Paul was finding ways of
coming to terms with his intolerance when he saw
himself in others.

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com

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