Corpus-Paul

[Mark Goodacre <goodacre AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 21:52:56 -0800, Richard Fellows <rfellows AT shaw.ca> wrote:

> My main focus is on historical questions like the date of the letter, and I
> suggest that an early date is rather likely, whether or not the influencers
> were home-grown.

Do you think that Galatians preceeds 1 Corinthians?  One thing that
troubles me about the view that Galatians preceeds 1 Cor. is that in
the latter Paul is still apparently on friendly terms with the
Galatians (1 Cor. 16.1) but by 2 Corinthians and Romans, they are no
longer in view (2 Cor. 8-9, Rom. 15.26).  If Galatians is between 1
and 2 Cor., we have an obvious locus for the fall-out.  If it precedes
1 Cor., we have to hypothesise another crisis between the writing of 1
and 2 Cor., no?

> I
> prefer the view that the Galatians had been persuaded that Paul supported
> circumcision as the final step of conversion. But it occurs to me that
> home-grown influencers could have been the persuaders.

On your view, Richard, does it not make sense to see Timothy / Titus
in the background of 5.11?  If it is known to the Galatians that Titus
was indeed circumcised, they have an obvious reason for assuming that
"Paul preached circumcision".  On that reading, Paul's difficulty in
chapter 2 is that he is writing against a background of recipients who
know that Titus has been circumcised and who want to take this next
step themselves.  What Paul then does with this tricky situation is to
insist that Titus was not *compelled* to be circumcised (2.3), the
implicit contrast being to the compulsion applied by Peter in Antioch
(2.14) and the compulsion applied by the influencers in Galatia
(6.12).

What do you think?  One of the things I find appealing about the
Timothy / Titus theory (and I am not saying that I'm fully persuaded
yet, but intrigued) is the possible light it sheds on the background
of Galatians.  You can understand the persuasive power of the
Galatians' knowledge of this action, "You know, folks, that Paul's
companion Titus himself has been circumcised, even though he's a
Greek", over some rumour about what Paul may be saying.

Mark
-- 
Dr Mark Goodacre                 mailto:M.S.Goodacre AT bham.ac.uk
  Dept of Theology and Religion          
  University of Birmingham      
  Elmfield House, Selly Oak      tel.+44 121 414 7512
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