Corpus-Paul

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

Loren,
Thank you for bringing up this discussion and for your comments. For the
most part your different views and leanings require no reply; we have
different views and leanings. I will comment on one that seems to be more
substantive, and to play out in several of your criticisms.

on 5/11/05 10:07 AM, Loren Rosson at rossoiii AT yahoo.com wrote:


> 
> And the Gentile situation dragged Paul pretty far
> afield. Unlike Mark, I think Paul meant what he said
> in I Cor 9:19-23 by "living outside the law in order
> to win those outside the law".

I think Paul meant what he wrote too, but I think it means something
different than you do. Note that I draw on Stower's observation that the
better translation is not outside or without law, but sinful, as in as a
sinner according to the law ("anomos": lit., "lawless" or "unlawful").

I wrote (p. 37, "A Torah-Observant Paul?..."): "Note that in mentioning this
particular effort to relate to sinful ones Paul is quick to avoid being
mistaken to mean he behaves like a sinner: ³not being sinful (or Œlawless¹)
toward God.² When Paul writes alternatively, ³I caused myself to become as a
Judaean to the Judeans, in order that I might profit the Judeans,² there is
no such caveat attached, as one might expect based on the standard
interpretation of his intent (there is a caveat for those ³under law,² which
is interesting, and I suppose it is a phrase signifying proselytes versus
Jews/Judeans from birth). Paul is instead anxious to communicate  that he
maintains the priority of keeping the commandments, to refer to his language
from 7:19."

Jesus was accused of the same, when fraternizing with sinners and
tax-collectors. Many recognize that did not require being a sinner or
tax-collector; in fact, that it required the exact opposite, but not a fear
to be misrepresented by rivals. This explanation should also serve to
distance my view from other criticisms also built upon a different basis of
translation and interpretation.

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