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

Last updated on: February 21, 2017 at 1:10 am by Ben Witherington

Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought– Part Twenty Five 2017-01-17T16:16:09-05:00 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.

pp. 400ff. A discussion of dualism.

p. 405— “divine punishment remained the only real ‘solution’ to evil and suffering that pure monotheism had to offer.” [This is absolutely false, but what is true is that Jews regularly attributed human suffering to the wages of sin, and sometimes to divine punishment as well. Sander’s statement doesn’t even comport with Josephus who affirms both free will and divine sovereignty].

p. 406–Sanders argues that this severe doctrine was ameliorated by the idea that things would be rectified in the world to come. Some Jews avoided attributing evil to God by accepting some form of dualism, but these other powers in the universe were seen as subordinate to God. They even thought of two powers in heaven one good, one bad (see A. Segal’s Two Powers book on this). Cosmic dualism was often worked out chronologically— this age is evil but God will defeat and supercede it with a good one.

p. 407— body/soul dualism does not necessarily affirm that the body is bad or evil, maybe just weak and inferior, but Sanders says it’s a slippery slope to affirm this. “First one proposes that the pleasures of the flesh should be enjoyed only moderately….Then one proposes the pleasures of the flesh should be avoided: sex is only for procreation not for pleasure. It is short step to the view that the physical body is evil.” This anti-flesh, anti-pleasure form of body/soul dualism, which partially penetrated Christianity. This issue has never been resolved in Christianity “Many, many Christians are monotheists who accept the existence of evil powers, such as Satan, though maintaining that finally God will conquer them.”

p. 408— Clearly, Paul believed in cosmic dualism— Christ has to conquer these powers among whom are Satan ( 2 Cor. 11.4 and 2 Cor. 4.4—where he is called ‘the god of this world’).

2 Cor. 3.18-5.10 “is among those [passages] that most forcefully raise the issue of the growth and development or movement of Paul’s thought. It includes elements of ongoing inner transformation, which we do not see in 1 Thess. or 1 Cor.” [N.B. this is an argument from silence. Just because it isn’t mentioned in those letters doesn’t mean Paul didn’t affirm such ideas. And he is wrong that Paul forcefully rejects body/soul dualism in 1 Cor 15. Had he done so his response to proxy baptism would have been very different.]

p. 409—2 Cor. 5.10 says Sanders assumes the evil powers have been destroyed or rendered inoperative.

p. 410—2 Cor. 3.18 refers to inner transformation. He compares 1 Cor. 15.49, 51-52 where transformed into his image involves the body, but here it doesn’t. The inner person is being renewed day by day, the outer person is wasting away.

p. 411—Paul adds that the inner self is eternal the outer self passes away. Sanders calls this Paul’s most Platonic moment (see Phaedo 80e the soul is immortal not the body— what is real can’t be destroyed, what can be destroyed is not real). He takes 2 Cor. 5.17 ‘the old has passed away, everything has become new’ to be a contradiction to Rom. 8.19-23 where the creation is still groaning and awaiting redemption. Image he says refers to something visible, but the change he is talking about is inner and invisible to the naked eye.

p. 412—he conjectures that Paul says what he says here in 2 Cor. 3 because he was himself feeling the delay of the Parousia [something Paul neither says anything about nor shows anxiety about it. You can’t have a delayed Parousia if you haven’t got a timetable in your head, and he didn’t].

p. 413—“it is striking that present transformation enters his letters in 2 Cor. and remains through the last letter, Romans, while discussion of the Parousia fades into fairly brief reminders”. [Nope.]

2 Cor. 4.16 shows he does not use the term soul for the inner person, but he does distinguish outer from inner. [This is not to be confused with old self/new self language].

p. 414—he minimizes 2 Cor. 5.8 to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. He argues that 2 Cor. 5.8 is governed by ‘longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling’.

p. 415— He sees two differences between 2 Cor. 3.18-5.10 and 1 Cor. 15— the former emphasizes transformation in the present, and the former speaks of an inner and outer self. The language of further clothed and swallowed shows he still affirms future res.

p. 416– Sanders rightly notes that in 2 Cor. Paul places himself with those who may die before the Lord returns. 2 Cor. 5.1— what happens if the tent in which we are living is destroyed? Cf. 5.8—and in 4.14 confidence in the res. which will involve Paul and his converts being brought into Christ’s presence. G. Tatum, New Chapters in the Life of Paul (CBA monograph, 2006) he places Gal. between 2 Cor. 10-13 and 2 Cor. 1-9. [This is one of the few places where Sanders actually mentions scholarship since the 1990s and NT scholarship since the 80s].

p. 419—Phil. 3.20-21 he says has language reminiscent of 1 Thess. 1.10 Christ returns from heaven, will transform the body echoes 1 Cor. 15.51-52. Subjection of all things echoes 1 Cor. 15.26-28. Body of humiliation transformed into glorious body as 1 Cor 15 says. Phil. 1.23 affirms the notion person departing from the body and going and being with Christ.

p. 420—Sanders is right that in Phil. 1.21-23 Paul is contemplating his possible death and this prompts dualistic thinking, but Paul had contemplated that before surely. In 3.10-21—he contemplates the future res.

p. 421- Sanders admits that Paul envisions the destruction of the non-believer in Phil. 3.18-19, and at Rom 9.22 he speaks vessels of wrath made for destruction and so Rom. 2.5-8. But Sanders thinks there are other passages like Rom. 11.32 where Paul envisions God saving everyone.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 20, 2017

Psalms Old and New-- Coming to an Amazon Near You

Next Post

February 22, 2017 Paul the Apostle, His Life Letters and Thought-- Part Twenty Six

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