Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Scholars who deny a Pauline divine-Christology

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Scholars who deny a Pauline divine-Christology
  • Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 08:42:33 -0700 (PDT)

Chris Tilling wrote:

>Firstly, many thanks for all who contribute
>here and make for some interesting
>and entertaining reading. I am one of the
>silent listeners - I read but
>make no contribution myself. Perhaps
>things will/should change!

Chris, welcome. I look forward to hearing more from
you.

>I'm writing my history-of-research and am gathering
>together a list of more scholars who
>deny a Pauline divine-Christology...

>1) of course, James Dunn
>2) Maurice Casey
>3) Marinus de Jonge and
>4) Anthony Harvey

>...And, of course, if anyone here has any
>comments to make concerning Paul's alleged
>divine-Christology, I would love to get
>involved in a discussion ...

This would make for a good discussion. I take it you
agree with those like Dunn, Casey, De Jong, and Harvey
-- that Paul did not believe in the deity of Christ?
I'm the opposite, though I continue wondering how
someone like Paul could have believed a man to be the
Jewish God. Hengel has argued that there was a
full-blown high Christology within 20 years of Jesus'
death owing to Hellenic influence. Richard Bauchkam,
as I'm sure you know, is currently working on
demolishing that idea -- that there was a "Big Bang"
of high Christology within Jewish thought from the
get-go, that "Jesus=God" didn't need to await
Hellenism; if anything, Hellenism is what started
causing problems for it. Because (a) various
personifications (or "hypostatizations", as Bauckham
calls them: wisdom, word, spirit) had always been
included in God's identity, and (b) the importance of
"who" rather than "what" God is, the time was ripe in
Jewish thought for divinizing a human being.

It would also be good to address whether or not Paul
spoke of "faith in Christ" or the "faith of Christ".
Hays and Johnson argued strongly for the latter, and
there has been a growing trend to to use the
subjective genitive. While it's possible to maintain
an equation between Jesus and God in either case, the
subjective genitive lends itself more easily to "lower
Christology".

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page