Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

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

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "John Dickson" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Corpus-Paul] Re: Scholars who deny a Pauline divine-Christology
  • Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 07:38:57 +1000

Elli Elliott stated:

It's worth considering that the notion of Christ's divinity does not originate in Paul's monotheism so much as in the pervasive polytheistic practice of his world.

Dear Elli,
Without attempting to answer whether Paul did in fact believe Jesus was God, let me say that the above proposal would, it seems to me, face the dilemma of explaining why Paul cast his highest Christology in distinctly Jewish/Scriptural terms (1 Cor 8:5-6; Phil 2:5-11). I guess it is conceivable that Paul borrowed polytheistic ideas and dressed them up in Jewish/Scriptural garb but this appears unnecessarily convoluted. I could, however, be convinced that Paul occasionally expressed his Jewish/Scriptural Christology in apologetic terms--i.e., Jesus embodies the Jewish God in a way that overthrows the false deities of the Greco-Roman world. That would certainly have resonances with Paul's wider teaching.
Kind regards,
John

__________________________________________________
Dr. John P. Dickson
Department of Ancient History,
Macquarie University, Sydney.
New South Wales, Australia.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page