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corpus-paul - Re: [Corpus-Paul] Sabbatical years and Paul's collections

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  • From: "Tim Gallant" <tim AT rabbisaul.com>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Sabbatical years and Paul's collections
  • Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:39:35 -0700


----- Original Message ----- From: "Ron Price" <ron.price AT virgin.net>
For some gentiles, Jewish respect for their ancestral traditions, even when it
worked against their economic or human interests, was
something to be admired.

Do you have evidence that any contemporary Gentiles admired the custom under
consideration?

Jewish respect for their ancestral traditions was one of the primary causes
(if not *the* primary cause) of friction between James and Paul (Acts 15).
Paul was to express his willingness to abandon it all for the sake of Christ
(Php 3). If Gentiles had generally admired Jewish ancestral traditions there
might never have been a separate religion called Christianity.

Well, that response is far too comprehensive and blurs a lot of things. The fact is that Paul himself continued to maintain the ancestral traditions insofar it was possible without compromising his Gentile mission. James' own words and his eagerness to listen to James's suggestion (not to mention Paul's words later in self-defense) clearly show that he never instructed Jews to abandon the traditions; and in fact, that he himself practiced them. Indeed, Acts depicts a Paul who takes Nazarite vows.

Of course, Paul no longer considered the law as the way of salvation; and he no longer saw himself as under the law (e.g. Rom 7.14, but esp 1 Cor 9.19-21).

There simply was no friction between James and Paul on this point. The only tension that can be posited from the biblical evidence (from Gal 2 - and I suggest it is overread) is over whether *Gentiles* should keep the law.

tim
----------------------
Tim Gallant
Pastor, Conrad Christian Reformed Church
http://www.timgallant.org





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