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  • From: Bob Schacht <bobschacht AT infomagic.net>
  • To: Corpus-Paul <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] Voluntary Associations and the Pauline Church
  • Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:25:07 -1000

At 11:39 PM 9/12/2006, Tim Harris wrote:
Dave,

Sorry for the delay in replying to your request. I'm on leave at
present, and I do not have access to the articles concerned. In broad
terms, Judge has argued for many years that early Christian meetings
would not have been viewed as *religious* occasions. They differ
significantly in form and ethos to meetings of mystery cults.
Alternatively, Judge proposes that they are more akin to philosophical
meetings, engaging with a speaker (eg. Paul) associated with a
distinctive philosophical perspective or school.

If I might reflect on this a bit, I have long thought, based mainly on the Corinthian correspondence, that Paul started out doing this, but changed tactics after a while-- I like to think it was after a few exchanges with Apollos (Acts 18:24 - 19:1). His new tactics then became "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1Co 2:2) 

We also know this from his chameleon tactics, speaking to Jews as a Jew, and to Greeks as a Greek (darn, can't find the verse), all the better to win them over.

My point here is that we should not consider that Paul's model of ministry was fixed, or that he always used the same approach.

Bob Schacht
University of Hawaii



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