Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net>]

on 11/13/04 8:01 PM, John Brand at jbrand AT gvsd.mb.ca wrote:

> (see: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/nanosmd/index.html and "Paul and
> Judaism")
> 
> BTW Dr. Nanos: I am not sure what you mean when you say 'it ...
> requires the institutional development of Christianity to make sense,
> however historically unlikely this remains.'  I am, obviously, out of
> the loop in terms of the discussion of the institutional development
> of Christianity. Could you point me to an on-line discussion of this
> discussion?

John,
You are welcome to address me as Mark. I do not know one on-line to point
you to, but perhaps someone on the list does. Perhaps Mark Goodacre's NT
Gateway has something listed.

I just mean that we do not likely have a separate entity, Christianity, that
stands alone, as came to be the case eventually. There is a growing
consensus that at the time of Paul no such institution yet existed, but it
was still a movement within Jewish institutional lines, even if considered
deviant by some or many. I am careful to say "unlikely," because not
everyone agrees about this matter. Paul never addresses anyone as
"Christian," for example (which of course does not mean there was some other
label or even this one in use, but it is strange for an institution to be
without membership labels other than those of the institution of Judaism,
namely, Jews and [other] nation peoples [Gentiles]). And issues arise for a
"new religious institution" in the Roman world that must be explained. Who
did Romans think the Christ-believing groups were? How was emperor cult
avoided by non-Jews in the Roman Empire outside of the institutional
confines of Judaism? (We know later of extreme suffering for this policy
(from Pliny the younger, e.g.), but nothing matching that during Paul's
writing period.)

Regards,
Mark
-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
Rockhurst University
Co-Moderator
http://home.comcast.net/~nanosmd/