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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Timothy/Titus and circumcision

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  • From: "Dieter Mitternacht" <teol-dmi AT cassandra.net.lu.se>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Timothy/Titus and circumcision
  • Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:01:30 +0100

Mark, kalispera (which it is on this side of the globe).

Just a short reply to your last assertion.

>By the way, Paul did mention the victory of this coalition's leaders in
Jer: "we did not give in for a moment," where the >issue is between this
coalition and those not from it (in my view, the "inspectors" are not
Christ-believers). So in Jer. >and on the matter of Titus I do think that
victory (conformity with Paul's view) was articulated.

I am not arguing that there is no way of reading "success" into the text.
But I still think that the phrase "we did not give in (to them!) for a
moment," is ambivalent in terms of what "the giving in" may refer to. The
statement is concerning the "pseudadelfoi" in general and the issue of
circumcision may not have been the only thing they disagreed on (if they
were not Christ-believers, there was a lot to not give in to).

Also, I think Paul would never give in to a requirement that Gentiles who
wanted to become Christ-believers MUST be circumcised. And on that I believe
Peter and James agreed even without and before Paul.

In other words, Titus could have been circumcised for other reasons than
pressure from the pseudadelfoi and Paul's point that he did not give in to
the pressure from the pseudadelfoi or be compelled to circumcise his Greek
fellow worker would still be valid.

Again, I am not claiming to know how it went, I am just arguing that the
evidence is inconclusive and that the question of success may not have been
Paul's primary concern.

Dieter










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