Others certainly viewed Paul as authoritative. But the Jewish disciples who knew Jesus, like Peter and James, seemed to view Paul as a nuisance and were content to sort of keep him busy with fundraising duties and teaching the gentiles.huckelberry wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:39 pm
PseudoPaul you have somewhat different picture of this than I do. I was not going to state my difference but in truth I have zero interest in discussing Daniel Peterson so am casting about for some other diverting difference in viewpoints for exchange.
I realize Marcion favored Paul but it seems unlikely that he was the only one. For some reason there were people who saw Paul as enough of an authority to write letters in his name. Part of you observation is that Paul is instrumental in creating a Christianity outside of Judaism. Those followers would have included Marcion but would include many more people as well.
You can read about Marcion's influence in making Paul so prominent in Christianity here:
https://www.westarinstitute.org/blog/ma ... -testament
Jesus' followers must have initially been dejected after Jesus' death - that wasn't supposed to happen. But some of them had some kind of vision that convinced them that Jesus not only had been raised from the dead, but also adopted as the Son of God and taken to heaven. That vision convinced them not only that Jesus was the messiah, but also the apocalyptic Son of Man and the Son of God.huckelberry wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:39 pmI can see some point in observing that Jesus did not fit many messianic ideas. However it is pretty clear that the first followers of Jesus after he died were Jewish.I do not think that the trajectory of thought for those people was completely different than with Paul. They were close enough together to fight over circumcision.
To any ordinary Jewish person who didn't have this vision, it would have sounded crazy to say that an unclean person executed by the state would hold these kinds of titles.
I guess I mean he's a weirdo by contemporary standards. Some of his views are very in line with ancient Jewish thought, and others were more in line with Greek thought.huckelberry wrote: ↑Wed Jan 25, 2023 9:39 pmPaul does some reinterpretation of Jewish scripture as Tabor points out. He also pointed out the Jewish rabbis do some of the same. What the scriptures mean is in some ways a moving target. Paul's handling of scripture does not make him a weirdo but perhaps you were thinking of other things. ..well obviously somebody devoting his life to spreading a new religious understanding is clearly unusual, perhaps that is weird.
There isn't a contemporary Christian tradition that really holds to Pauline Christianity, they just pick and choose a few themes and ignore the rest.