Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought– Part Twenty Three

Last updated on: February 19, 2017 at 1:54 am by Ben Witherington

Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought– Part Twenty Three 2017-01-17T16:05:28-05:00 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. 377— The passages in which Paul deals with res. in probable chronological order are according to Sanders 1 Thess. 4.13-18; 1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 3.18-5.10; Phil. 1.23-24; 2.16-17;3.10-11; 3.20-21; Rom. 6.5; 8.18-30; 13.11-12. Two verbs are used anistemi and egeirein, usually Jesus is the object of res. i.e. God raised him from the dead, attributing the power to God (Rom.4.24; 8.11 cf. 1 Thess. 1.10; 1 Cor. 6.14 etc). In 2 Cor. 1.9 God is said to raise the dead plural, meaning Christ and those who believe in him. We don’t know how and when Paul came to learn of the claim that Jesus was raised, but presumably he knew it when he persecuted Christians.

p. 378— For Paul the most important thing for himself is that God revealed his Son to him at or near Damascus. This changed his life. 1 Cor. 9.1 says he saw Jesus. 1 Cor. 15.5-8 “makes no distinction in kind between his vision of the risen Lord and that of Peter and the others.” Did he really think he had seen Jesus in the same way as the others, or is this apologetics on his own behalf? We cannot be sure. 1 Cor. 15 makes clear he regards the appearances as over— he was the last to see Jesus. He says nothing of possible appearances to subsequent believers such as his converts. For confirmation when they believed the message about the risen Jesus they received the Spirit.

p. 379— Spirit and Christ are combined in Rom. 8.9b anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him [a bad reading of that text— they are not combined here. It is the Spirit Christ sent he is referring to]. His presence in the believers’ lives was their assurance that God had raised him. With one exception (Christ in you the hope of glory) Paul regularly talks about the Spirit in the life of believer’s rather than Christ, and he makes a distinction. He argues that Paul didn’t originally proclaim the future res. of believers because he was convinced Jesus was coming right back, or maybe it played a minor role. [Note that already in Paul’s earliest letter according to Sanders, Paul does indeed talk about the future res. of believers. The problem is not with what Paul originally told them, but with what the Thess. understood him to mean].

p. 380—He makes the good point that apantesis properly means greet (see rightly Mt. 25.6 and Judges 11.31 LXX)— Paul says we will greet the Lord in the air “Greet makes it a little clearer that he is on his way to earth…they go up to greet him on his way down. Meet might (but need not) imply that they all stay ‘in the air.’” Paul speaks of Christ reigning on earth for a period of time after he returns. “If death exists during most of Christ’s reign, it follows that he is reigning on earth…during the early part of his ministry, and as late as 1 Corinthians he foresaw a kingdom on earth.”

p. 381— Parousia clearly refers to the visible return of Christ in 1 Cor. 15.23; 1 Thess. 2.19; 3.13; 4.15; 5.23. [Sanders’ whole argument ignores the fact that Paul is dealing with two variables— the death of believers and the return of Christ. He believes in the possible imminence of Christ, but he also believes Christians could die first. Since he does not know the timing of either in regard to himself he has to say ‘we who are alive when he returns’ not ‘we who will definitely die before he returns’. He cannot say the latter because he does not know the timing of the return. The thief in the night motif is clearly indicating Jesus will come an unexpected time— it could be sooner it could be later. Sanders does not reckon with the important difference between believing ‘Jesus will definitely come back soon, during my life time’ and ‘Jesus could possibly come back soon, so we need to be ready’. The latter is Paul’s view. Schweitzer was wrong about both Jesus and Paul on this score.] See my Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World.

p. 382— One of the aspects of Christ’s return is the judgment of believers 2 Cor. 5.10. Paul thought he himself would be examined on that day and he wanted to brag about his converts and they of him (2 Cor. 1.14; 1 Cor. 4.4-5 on Paul’s being judged). On judgment day see 1 Cor. 1.8;1 Cor. 5.5; Phil. 1.6,10; 2.16; Rom. 2.5,16. 1 Cor. 1.8;3.13 2 Cor. 5.10 make clear that Christ is involved and is the judge.

p. 383— Sanders says that when Paul wrote 1 Thess. from Corinth he had adjusted his preaching and thought to include the notion that Christians might die before Jesus returned. [Nope, there was no need for an adjustment, what we needed was an explanation].

p. 384— 1 Cor. 15.12 ‘there is no res. of the dead ones (plural). If so says Paul then not even Christ has been raised. Paul assumes in his continuing argument that they do believe in Christ’s res. And he is making clear if you deny believer’s res. Then you’ve also denied Christ’s. “The Corinthians, it appears from this line of argument, did not doubt either life after death or Christ’s resurrection, but rather a general bodily resurrection. Presumably they thought their souls would survive, but in non-bodily form.”

p. 385— The Corinthians knew a body decays when a person dies, so how then could it be raised? What would a raised body be like? Probably they accepted Greek soul/body dualism. The idea goes back to Homer’s Odyssey Book 11, you die and your immortal soul goes to Hades, a rather dull grim place but not a place of torture rather like Sheol a shadowy weakened form of life.

p. 386— The Greeks had a saying— soma/sema. The body is a tomb. The soul needs to be released from that prison. Plato, Cratylus 400c says this was an Orphic saying.

When the Corinthians baptized on behalf of the dead they doubtless thought of saving the souls of the dead, so they did believe in an afterlife. [And that Paul doesn’t correct them probably implies he agrees the spirits of the dead persons are out there somewhere].

p. 387— In this chapter, Paul does not speak of the individual’s soul or spirit he treats the persons as a unity body and spirit— the whole person dies and then is raised. But already in 1 Thess. 5.23, and shortly after in 1 Cor. 5.5 he distinguishes flesh from spirit, and in 2 Cor. 1-9. Paul was not totally opposed to limited dualism but to deal with Corinthian doubts he insists on bodily res. Res. was originally a Persian Zoroastrian idea. The Jews acquired it when they were part of the Persian Empire and most Jews believed it. On separation of soul and body see Test. Abrah. Rec. A 20.12. Neither separation nor reunion of soul and body is mentioned in 1 Cor. 15. Here the whole person died and later is raised. [Nope. 1 Cor. 15 says nothing about the whole person dying or disappearing].

p. 387 n. 12 “I do not know of any cases where Paul used soul (psyche) unambiguously and alone to refer to the inner person.” It joins spirit in meaning this in 1 Thess. 5.23 and Phil. 1.27, but more often that word simply means life, self, person— every soul in Rom. 2.9 Rom. 16.4 ‘my life’

p. 388— Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit, the perishable body cannot inherit the imperishable. Which is what Gentiles in Corinth would agree with, but Paul wants to hang on to the word body.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 18, 2017

Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought-- Part Twenty Two

Next Post

February 20, 2017 Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought-- Part Twenty Four

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