Important Poll

The Resurrection of the Dead

I’ve continued pondering the problem raised by the deniers of the resurrection of the dead in Corinth….

The main problem addressed in ch.15 (or at least the presenting problem) is textually clear (in v12), but interpretively problematic:

 

Why do some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

 

The interpretive problem is that it is hard to imagine how first-generation Christians, whose lives had been turned around by a message about one who had been resurrected from the dead, could see no problem in saying “There is no resurrection of the dead.”  Certainly, Paul’s argument relies on the fact that they do not consciously aim to deny Christ’s resurrection from the dead; nevertheless a conscious denial of general resurrection seems astonishingly bold.  A number of explanations have been put forward.  Thiselton groups these as follows:

1. Certain people in Corinth found themselves unable to believe in any kind of postmortal existence
2. Certain people in Corinth believed that the resurrection had already occurred
3. Certain people in Corinth had difficulties with belief in the resurrection of the body

Each of these alternatives carries problems with it – for example, the latter two alternatives involve re-interpreting the straightforward statement “There is no resurrection of the dead” to mean either “There already was a resurrection of the dead” or “There is no resurrection of bodies but there is immortality of the soul”.  In considering this, it may prove worthwhile to keep in mind that Paul has chosen to represent his opponents in a certain way, and to frame his correction correspondingly.  This decision by Paul may tell us more about his rhetorical intention than about the historical problems of the Corinthian church.

My current, recently-clarified conception of the situation behind 1 Corinthians 15 may be considered, in terms of being a distinctive alternative to other conceptions, to have three essential components:

Firstly, I suggest that the denial of resurrection was focused not primarily on the present or future experience of the deniers themselves, but on those who were presently the dead.  Secondly, I suggest that this denial was not primarily driven by logical problems with postmortal existence or celestial physicality; but by political and existential issues of status and superiority.  Thirdly, I wonder whether the Corinthian denial was implicit in certain claims and activities, rather than an explicit theological point of dispute.

In other words, the claim that “there is no resurrection of the dead” was one more example of spiritualistic Corinthian superiority, pouring disdain on those who were presumably going to miss out on the benefits of being personally present for Christ’s parousia because they had died.  This proud, superior attitude toward the status of “the dead” is the climactic example of Corinthian cruci-phobia; and the Corinthians need to learn that the dead are not at a disadvantage – rather, the Corinthians themselves are called to embrace present death and look ahead to future resurrection.

An open letter to backsliding Christians

There is still time for forbearance, time for long-suffering, time for healing, time for reform.  Have you slipped?  Rise up.  Have you sinned?  Cease.  Do not stand in the way of sinners, but leap aside.  For when you turn back and weep, then you will be saved.  For out of labour comes health, and out of sweat, salvation….

Do not lose heart; remember the days of old.  There is salvation, there is reform.  Take courage, do not despair.  There is no law which condemns to death without compassion, but there is grace which remits the punishment and accepts the reform.  Not yet closed are the gates; the bridegroom hears; sin does not prevail.  Renew the contest; delay not; and have pity on yourself and on us all in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the power, now and for ever, world without end.

St Basil, to a fallen monk, fourth century CE

Paul as Letter Writer

Over the last 15 years, there has been a refreshed interest in Pauline Studies on the nature of letter-writing.  Of course, over the last century, there has been a lot of scholarly discussion about epistolary forms and conventions – but the newer direction in Pauline Studies involves the consideration of the practicalities of first century letter-writing – tools, locations, editing, drafts, secretaries, copies, etc… and the implications of these things for our understanding of “authorship” and the production of Paul’s letters in particular.  This new direction is important, and will become more prominent in the coming few years.  Here are a few resources that you might like to follow up if you’re interested in this topic…

Greek and Latin Letters: An Anthology with Translation, by Michael Trapp

 

This is a useful collection of ancient letters in the original greek & latin, along with a discussion of issues related to the production of the letters.  For example, Trapp states, in relation to the use of secretaries: “[W]e can make at least some headway with the question of who did the writing: the presence of particularly skilful hands, and of changes of hand between the main body of the letter and the final salutation, suggest just how often the bulk of the work, or all of it, was done by secretaries (for the affluent) and (for the less well-off) professional letter-writers.” (p8)

 

Paul the Letter-Writer: His World, His Options, His Skills, by Jerome Murphy-O’Connor.

This book explores three areas: Practical issues related to writing a letter; Theoretical issues related to creating the content of a letter; and issues related to the collecting of ancient letters.  Unfortunately his consideration of the ‘content’ of letters relies too much on Rhetorical Criticism, but this is a great little book.  He notes, for example, that secretaries/professional letter-writers (as mentioned by Trapp above) would generally have been employed not only to write the letter to be dispatched, but also to write a copy for the sender to keep, “both for control and perhaps future use” or perhaps because one’s letters “were shared with friends” (p13)

Books and Readers in the Early Church, by Harry Y. Gamble

Gamble argues for the collection of Paul’s Epistles as canon, a canon sufficiently long that it needed to be kept together using the format of the Codex – explaining the early Christian preference for the codex over the roll.  He covers a number of interesting issues along the way.  For example, he applies the insight that ancient letter-writers kept copies of their letters (as mentioned by Murphy-O’Connor above) to Paul: “A dossier of Paul’s letters would surely have been useful to Paul and his coworkers: it can hardly be supposed that each letter immediately had its intended effect, required no further clarification, and generated no new issues.  The letters themselves are proof to the contrary.  The tangled correspondence of Paul with the Corinthians, if not typical, certainly indicates that Paul needed to and did keep track of what he had written.” (p101)

Paul and First-Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection, by E. Randolph Richards

This is a great overview of the issues in the title.  For example, Richards considers ancient letter writers’ use of secretarial copies of their letters (as mentioned by Gamble above), and writes: “From the evidence we can infer that material was recycled from one letter to another in two common scenarios.  First, if a writer had written a lengthy account and then later wanted to send the information to another recipient….  A second common reason for reusing material in another letter was when the writer wanted to send a well-written passage to another.”  (p160)  Obviously, this sort of insight might be fruitfully examined in relation to the letters of Paul – perhaps in terms of a possible relationship between Ephesians and Colossians… perhaps in terms of a possible relationship between 1 Thessalonians & 1 Corinthians…

I Never Ask Questions

Today I went to an event in Cambridge, on ‘the other gospels’.  The speakers were Dirk Jongkind and Simon Gathercole.  Both of these people blog at http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/ - and they had some interesting things to say about the text and canon of the New Testament.  I am amazed at the misinformation that passes as “news” in the media on these topics – even the bbc!

One thing I realised today is that I pretty much never ask questions at conferences or seminars during question time, and I think it’s chiefly for three reasons:

1. I can never think of intelligent or worthwhile things to ask
2. I have this feeling that a lot of questions that occur during question-time don’t have any point and could effectively be translated: “Hey – look at me!  I’M ASKING A QUESTION!!!”
3. I’m usually too busy thinking to myself, “Hey – I could get everyone to look at me, SIMPLY BY ASKING A QUESTION!!!” – and by the time I snap out of this daydream, we’re already halfway through post-seminar drinks

Sympathy for the Corinthians

I’ve been searching for an easy way

To escape this cold light of day

I’ve been high and I’ve been low

But I’ve got nowhere else to go

Going through the opening chapters of 1 Corinthians again, now that I’m part of a Greek reading group, has evoked a certain sympathy in me for these Corinthians.  Their stance is pretty much equivalent to the disciples in the beginning of the book of Acts, who ask the risen Jesus: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”  They can’t quite cope with the fact that the one they’ve been searching and longing for has finally come, and he’s not all he was cracked up to be.  It’s like they’ve stumbled on the holy grail, only to discover that it’s just an ordinary cup.

The Corinthians expect something more – after all, the religious people at nearby Eleusis (50km East) have ecstatic experiences and secret mysteries; those loyal to Caesar have a strong and visible Lord; those loyal to the Greek gods have an impressive temple to Apollo nearby; the travelling sophists have impressive rhetoric… surely Jesus, the Lord of the world, can compete with all that??…

All the locals scattered, they were hiding in the snow
We were so far away from home, so how were we to know
There’d be nothing left to plunder
When we stumbled on the holy grail

Paul’s response is basically that, indeed, Jesus can do more than compete - he can surpass the others: In HIM the Corinthians have ‘been made rich in every way’; in HIM is found the ‘power of God’; in HIM is found the ‘wisdom of God’ – that is, ‘our righteousness, holiness, and redemption’.

The Corinthians’ problem is not that they want too much; in fact, they really are willing to settle for far too little – but they want it NOW, visibly in the present (this is what I call ‘over-manifest spirituality’); whereas in Christ they have everything in a way that is presently HIDDEN until Christ himself appears….

Theology & Scripture

Department of Theology and

 Religious Studies

Dialog Postgraduate Research

 Seminar

 

‘Theology and Scripture’

 Monday, October 13^th, 2008

 4:30pm – 6:00pm

 Trent Graduate Centre Seminar Room

 Matthew Malcolm

‘Paul: Letter-writer and Theologian’

and

Jeffrey Olsen Biebighauser

‘Genesis, Ontology and the Platonic Tradition’

My talk above will be related to the exploration of 1 Thessalonians & 1 Corinthians that I had a post about recently.  I’m not sure what Jeff will be speaking about, but he has a quite ground-breaking inquiry into the Messianic aspirations of Gumby here…  I’m hoping for more on this topic next Monday.

 

Big Sin Meme

I’ve been tagged with a rather bold meme from Roger Mugs, asking about ’sins that could take you down’…

I find myself in agreement with the view that ‘evil’ has no inherent substance, but is rather the corruption of good.  This seems to make sense, and fits with the biblical account, in which God’s subjection of creation to frustration takes the shape of the withdrawal of previously-given blessings.  Similarly, then, I wonder if it’s fruitful to think of much ’sin’ as the tragic corruption of virtue: Hatred is the corruption of discernment; lust is the corruption of desire; greed is the corruption of enjoyment; rage is the corruption of a desire for justice, etc etc…

I think that out of those things, I’m most inclined toward desire and enjoyment, so it’s a danger for those things, which can be good, to be twisted and corrupted into the ugliness of lust and greed.  But perhaps even worse than any of these – because it’s so unassuming – is apathy… that all-too-acceptable condition in which I just can’t be bothered changing my life or changing the world.

…oh, and I’m way not brave enough to pass this meme on!!  (or am I just apathetic?)

A Treatise Concerning a Possible Relationship Between the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians and the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, As Investigated by a Humble Sinner

Section	1 Thessalonians (NRSV, modified)	1 Corinthians (NRSV, modified)
Salutation	To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ	To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus
Thanksgiving	We always give thanks… remembering your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ	I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus… you are not lacking in any gift
Foundational Issue: The Gospel Message and its Impact	Our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit   Just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts   You became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own compatriots as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets….   We wanted to come to you… I sent to find out about you, and Timothy has now come and told us that you remember us	My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries….  But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court….  It is the Lord who judges me… who will disclose the purposes of the heart Already you have all you want!  Already you have become rich!  Quite apart from us you have become kings!…  I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death… we labour, working with our own hands….  I appeal to you, then, be imitators of me I sent you Timothy, who will remind you of my ways… I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills
Ethical Exhortation, Following Paul’s Usual Ethical Flow	Abstain from sexual immorality;… control your own body [skeuos] in holiness and honour, not with lustful passion like the Gentiles;… Don’t be greedy or wrong a brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger God did not call us to impurity but in holiness.  Therefore whoever rejects this rejects not human authority but God, who also gives his Holy Spirit to you Now concerning love of the brothers and sisters…	It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among the Gentiles… Brother goes to court against brother!… The… greedy… will not inherit the kingdom of God Shun fornication!… Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God   Now concerning food sacrificed to idols… knowledge puffs up, but love builds up
The Gospel and the Plight of the Dead at the Eschaton	We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died….  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing	Now I should remind you, brothers and sisters…. Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died… as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ   For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed Therefore… be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord
Closing	Respect those who labour among you in the Lord The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you	Obey those who labour in the service of the saints The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you

From a College Window: On Academic Withdrawal

This morning I found myself at a little tucked-away display case at the University of Nottingham, in which were housed some of D.H. Lawrence’s draft poems, written while he was a student here.  One in particular caught my eye, reminding me of how comfortable it is to be on this side of the College window.  The later revised version was published in 1916, as follows:

From a College Window

The glimmer of the limes, sun-heavy, sleeping,
Goes trembling past me up the College wall.
Below, the lawn, in soft blue shade is keeping,
The daisy-froth quiescent, softly in thrall.

Beyond the leaves that overhang the street,
Along the flagged, clean pavement summer-white,
Passes the world with shadows at their feet
Going left and right.

Remote, although I hear the beggar’s cough,
See the woman’s twinkling fingers tend him a coin,
I sit absolved, assured I am better off
Beyond a world I never want to join.