Lexical Evidence On Two Pauline Passages

Bulletin for Biblical Research, 2019

This is a summary of my doctoral dissertation, which has been published as Pauline Language and the Pastoral Epistles: A Study of Linguistic Variation in the Corpus Paulinum (LBS 16; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2018).

New Testament Studies, 1982

The question, What did Paul know about Jesus of Nazareth?, has long been debated by students of the New Testament. The debate has not issued in any consensus.1 Indeed, critical appraisals of Paul's relation to the Jesus of history and to traditions about him have been unusually disparate. Thus, on the one side, W. D. Davies has argued that 'Paul is steeped in the mind and words of his Lord.'2 On the other side, R. Bultmann could claim that 'the teaching of the historical Jesus plays no role, or practically none, in Paul'.3 The contrast between these two assertions is puzzling, and all the more so as neither can be regarded as idiosyncratic: Davies is not alone in avowing that sayings of and traditions about Jesus were of momentous significance for Paul,4 and it is not difficult to find critics at one with Bultmann.5 Moreover, as our two quotations do not simply represent two circles of opinion but also mark poles between which appears a variety of viewpoints,6 matters are even further complicated. Discussion has focused primarily upon ten pieces of data, namely 1. Explicit references to 'words of the Lord' in the Pauline corpus7 2. Possible implicit allusions to Jesus' teaching in the Pauline corpus8 3. 2 Cor. 5. 16 (Ώστε ημείς άπό τοϋ νϋν oùbéva olbapev κατά σάρκα el καί éyvdjKapeν κατά σάρκα Χριστόν άλλα νϋν ούκέτι yivùaKopev)9 4. Paul's references to details of Jesus' life, character, and ministry10 5. Paul's relationship with bearers of the Jesus tradition, especially those who knew Jesus of Nazareth (for example, Peter and other members of the community in Jerusalem)11 6. The role of tradition and its transmission in Paul and the early church12 7. The theological continuity or discontinuity between Jesus and Paul13 8. The meaning of τάν νόμον τοϋ Χριστού (Gal. 6. 2)14 9. The character of Paul's epistles, especially the extent to which they reproduce the probable content of missionary preaching15 10. General considerations (for example, according to M. Hengel, 'es in der Antike schlechterdings unmöglich war, einen vor wenigen Jahren gekreuzigten Menschen-d.h. einen angeblichen Verbrecher-als Kyrios, Gottessohn und Erlöser zu verkündigen, ohne darüber etwas zu sagen, wer dieser Mensch war, was er lehrte und tat und wie und warum er starb').16 Cf. Rom. 12. 14 ('Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them') with Matt. 5. 44. Cf. Rom. 12. 17 ('Repay no one evil for evil') with Matt. 5. 39 ff. Cf. Rom. 13.7 ('Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due') with Matt. 22. 15-22. Cf. Rom. 14.13 ('Then let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block [σκάνδαλο»‫]׳‬ or hindrance in the way of a brother') with Matt. 18. 7; Mark 9. 42; Luke 17. 1-2. Cf. Rom. 14. 14 (T know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for any one who thinks it unclean') with Matt. 15. 11; Mark 7. 15. Cf. 1 Thess. 5. 2 ('For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night') with Matt. 24. 43; Luke 12. 39. Cf. 1 Thess. 5. 13 (ειρηνεύετε év έαυτοϊς) with Mark 9. 50 (εΙρηνεύετε èv άλλήλοις). Cf. 1 Thess. 5. 15 ('See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all') with Matt. 5. 38-48.

Bulletin for Biblical Research

An Ecology of Scriptures: Experiences of Dwelling behind Early Jewish and Christian Texts, 2021

In this chapter we will consider how a spatial-critical consideration of Paul’s main concern, his gentile Christ-believer communities, and their fundamental experience of divine dwelling—or “indwelling”— through the Holy Spirit can meaningfully inform interpretation of Pauline soteriology and sacrificial theology... the purpose of this chapter is to argue for continued consideration of explanatory options that should not yet be foreclosed regarding Paul’s sacrificial theology, soteriology, and pneumatology, based on what we can surmise regarding a Pauline “ecology.” The goal is not to prove the influence of a space-sanctifying, Levitical sacrificial tradition on Pauline soteriology, but rather to investigate its utility as an explanatory paradigm and determine whether it merits further attention and inclusion in the ongoing conversation.

2016

states show up in the role of containers, too. The content can be inside them, but also move in and out of these containers. Consequently, such metaphors can be subsumed under the global event structure metaphor, in particular, the subcases state is location, change is motion, and causation is control over an entity relative to a location, as illustrated in (22)–(24): (22) ᾳ ῳ ‘living in malice and envy’ (Tit 3:3) (23) (Eph 4:13) ‘until we all reach the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God’ (24) ‘you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led’ (1 Cor 12:2) To these three subcases, we can add as a fourth one the metaphorical use of the continuation of a location, which is expressed in the adverb ‘still’ . The metaphor is then ‘persistence of location is persistence of state. (25) ᾳ, ‘How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Rom 6:2) Next, the TD equivalent of containers is highly variable too, Man and God figure prominently here, but also the Cross...

I offer this essay in honor of Doug Moo to tease out how Paul links the "already" aspects of the new creation with the "not yet" aspects by focusing on Rom 5:17: "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!" Many exegetes associate "will . . . reign in life" (Rom 5:17) with the believer's yet future dominion over creation that is set free and renewed (8:18-25). This essay proposes that "will . . . reign in life" refers instead to the reign that Paul elaborates on in Romans 6. It is the believer's present dominion over sin in these mortal bodies. Through his death and resurrection, Christ, whom Adam foreshadowed, reverses the first man's abdication of dominion over sin to sin's reign and to death's tyranny so that everyone who receives God's provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness through Christ Jesus is no longer under sin's reign but already reigns in life.

Contemporary scholarship is only now beginning to address Paul’s pneumatology. Moreover, exegetical analysis and classical Biblical Criticism will not suffice in discussing Paul’s encounter with the Holy Spirit. Scholarship has tended to subjugate experience as suspicious and to some degree has been funded by Enlightenment rationalism. Some of the ways this hegemony has manifested include a focus on textual exegesis and a propensity to systematise Paul’s thought, as well as a sidelining of Paul’s confessed “enthusiastic” experiences and thaumaturgical activity. Furthermore, there can be no dichotomy between revelation, experience, & Scripture in gauging Paul’s experience of the Spirit. Paul’s pneumatology is grounded in the cruciform revelation of Jesus Christ, and this offers a panacea to the various ill-informed and potentially harmful modern pneumatologies, while concurrently breathing life into the Church as institution.

This work has now been reformatted and included in a new collection Learn Latin with New Testament Verses https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNFTPFZ3 Bilingual pari-passu presentation of hundreds of famous and representative verses from the four canonical gospels. Latin text from Jerome's Vulgate; English from 1899 revision of the Douay-Rheims translation.

Asian and Journal of Pentecostal Studies and APTS Press, 2016

The gospel that Paul defends so vigorously in Galatians involves a dramatic newness. It is a gospel, he insists, that came not through any human means, but “through a revelation (apokalypseōs) of Jesus Christ” (1:12).