Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought– Part Nineteen

Last updated on: February 15, 2017 at 1:18 am by Ben Witherington

Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought– Part Nineteen 2017-01-17T14:24:29-05:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

p. 309— Paul’s version of the words of institution are closer to Luke’s version than to Mt. and Mk. In Luke and Paul, Jesus ‘gives thanks’ before breaking the bread; and after mentioning his body he says ‘for you’, and Paul and Luke both have ‘in remembrance of me’ Luke once and Paul mentions it twice, and in Paul and Luke the cup is the ‘new covenant in my blood’, rather than ‘my blood of the covenant’ as in Mark and Matthew. The common core with the Synoptics and Paul is a loaf of bread identified as his body, a cup with a saying about covenant and blood, and a statement about the future.

[Note that Sanders doesn’t even entertain the possibility that Luke was a sometime companion of Paul and that Paul got his info about the sayings and story of Jesus partially from Luke. This of course would mess up his contention that the early parts of Acts are Lukan fabrication when it comes to Saul being a Jerusalemite]

p. 310– Sanders notes that ‘this is my body’ in 1 Cor. 11 precedes the discussion about the body of Christ in 1 Cor. 12, and the ‘members of Christ’ is mentioned in 1 Cor. 6 about the prostitutes and then discussed in 1 Cor. 12, moreover the notion of Christ’s body and sharing one loaf of bread comes up again in the discussion about idol food in 1 Cor. 8,10. But the emphasis in the L.S. tradition is that it is a memorial meal and that it is done until he comes.

p. 311– In regard to idol meat, probably Paul had told them that there was only one God, and in 1 Cor. 8.1-4 the Corinthians realized they need to provide a rationale for continuing to go to idol feasts, so they quoted Paul back to him.

p.312— There were great social benefits to participating in the city’s pagan customs, [indeed it was one of the means of getting ahead in life in that society]. Most days pagans diet was barley, bread, cheese, fish, wine. But with the festivals they got plenty of red meat, because the gods only got a few bones, and the celebrants got the lion’s share of the meat, this was the occasion for people to have red meat, otherwise a rarity. [If it was such a rarity why talk about the buying of it in the meat market in 1 Cor 10?].

p. 313- Paul’s first concern is for the weak whose conscience’s will be defiled if they eat idol meat. In effect, he brings the issue under the heading that the strong should love thy neighbor and not lead them to violate their conscience. Exod. 20.5; Deut. 5.9 tells Jews not to bow down to idols or worship them, but Paul does not cite this in his discussion here.

p. 314—“Paul seems to be unwilling to cite the commandments on the first table as laws that govern his churches, in fact one of them, observance of the Sabbath he felt ambiguous about (see Gal. 4.10; Rom. 14.5-6). He had no such feelings about idolatry, which is also covered by ‘the first table’—he was against it…. Though he does not quote Lev. 19.18 in this passage, he elsewhere cites it as a summary of the law (Gal. 5.14; Rom. 13.8-10), and the principle ‘love thy neighbor’ guides his discussion of food offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8.”

p. 315—In 1 Cor. 10.6-13 we find Paul using a form of Jewish argumentation that will leave most of his gentile readers puzzled. 1 Cor. 10.6-13 is a typological argument. The word type shows up in vss. 6 and 11. He is using the word type in the sense of prototype. Paul’s point is the consequences that happened then will be repeated if you (Corinthians) repeat the actions of Moses in his day. Paul is an expert in the LXX and in argumentation based on it.

pp. 316-17— Paul’s conclusion is— having nothing to do with idols, long ago it proved fatal to many Israelites. In these verses Paul again writes as if to Jews (‘our ancestors were under the cloud’). The particulars he mentions are from Exod. 13,14,16,17 and Num. 20. The cloud is from Exod. 13.21, passed through the sea is Exod. 14.22, spiritual food of manna is Exod. 16.4-15, the rock yielding water is from Exod. 17.6 and Num. 20.2-12. As for differences Exodus does not say they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and sea, secondly Exodus does not call the manna and the water spiritual food and drink that’s Paul interpretation, and the water giving rock was stationary not mobile as Paul says. Obviously ‘the rock was Christ’ is Paul’s addition and indicates an early belief in Christ’s pre-existence.

p. 318—the quote about sitting down and rising up to dance in 10.7 is from Exod. 32.6. The people feasted and then danced, or played, or reveled. Whatever they did was part of the worship of the golden calf.

p. 319 Paul says that what was written back then, was written for us (ie for our benefit). Sanders says we should doubt the Corinthians follows this argument. For one thing, Paul doesn’t mention the golden calf, though he does make the admonition don’t become idolaters (10.7). [Sanders seems to make the mistake of assuming there were NO knowledgable Jews in Paul’s congregations, but we know that quite specifically to be false in Corinth. In fact he had converted a synagogue ruler or two in Corinth—- Stephanus for example. So his imagining that they would have to go scrambling after scrolls to figure this out is sheer fantasy.] He adds that the Numbers passage is not related to idolatry but to the desire for food (Num. 11.4) and it was satisfied by the quail, not by sacrifice (Num. 11.31). And in Numbers, struck down has nothing to do with punishment for idolatry. Paul’s conclusions are clear his argument convoluted.

p. 320– “So Paul has combined two stories— from Exodus, the story of the golden calf, and from Numbers the story of the people’s grumbling which led God to kill some of them and frustrate the rest” i.e. not allowed to enter promised land.

p. 321— the phrase destroyed by the Destroyer in 1 Cor. 10.7 comes from Wis. Sol. 18.25 which Sanders thinks is late first century B.C. in composition. Here Paul is drawing lessons from Num. 25, 21.5-6 (the snakes), and 16.

p. 322— “That is, Paul apparently has in mind Num. 16.41-50 as it was retold in Jewish syngoagues” (on the close relation between Paul and Wis. Sol. see pp. 352-55 below). Sanders points to Manfred Brauch, “The Problem of the Dual Pauline Eschatology in Light of the Eschatology of the Wisdom of Solomon” McMaster PhD 1972. Sanders thinks Paul may have got this from listening to synagogue sermons, perhaps in his youth, or maybe he knew Wis. Sol. directly. [N.B. he could have read this in Jerusalem too. Literature like Sirach originated in Jerusalem and then went to the Diaspora] Sanders says Paul writes at his own level, not at the level of his audience. But I agree with Sanders that Paul probably did not scramble through various scrolls to write this. He is writing from his Scripture memory switching back and forth between Exod. and Num. sometimes not quoting exactly, sometimes using non-Biblical traditions about the rock that moved and the destroyer ( vss. 4 and 10) and not paying attention to the contexts of the two Biblical books.

p. 324—The main thing is that the Corinthians, though they could not follow the source criticism and parts of the argument would have gotten the main drift of avoid idolatry and immorality, and they would have known he was driving home points from an ancient sacred text or texts in the Bible.

“In the mind of the ancient reader [like Paul] the Bible was composed of words, phrases, sentences that could be quoted, combined as the present argument required (not necessarily according to their original meaning). When this sort of biblical interpretation is granted, we must be impressed by Paul’s ability to recall words and phrases and to combine passages.”

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 14, 2017

Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought-- Part Eighteen

Next Post

February 15, 2017 The 'Lion' of the Tribe of India

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz