Steven Carr

1 Corinthians 1
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Paul claims that when he preaches , he preaches Christ crucified.

He does not respond to Jewish demands that Christianity be accompanied by miraculous signs.

So did Paul just bite his tongue when he was taunted to explain what sort of miracles proved that this Jesus really was the Christ?


If there had been a resurrection, how could Paul have reacted to Jewish demands for miraculous signs by claiming he was not in the business of preaching about them, he was in the business of preaching the crucifixion?

Surely all that stuff in Acts 17 is nonsense. Paul himself says why some people were scoffing at Christianity. It was because of the crucifixion.

He didn't even preach the resurrection, which would have been one of those 'miraculous signs' that Jews demanded, and which Christianity was not in the business of supplying.

mountainman

Greeks satirized.

aa5874

Of course the Pauline writer did write that he preached the resurrection.

See 1 Corinthians 15.17 The resurrection of Jesus was preached without which there would be no forgiveness of sin.

Steven Carr

But it wasn't the main thing he preached. Even in his letters, the crucifixion is more important than the resurrection.

Perhaps I should have been more clear. Paul did not preach the resurrection as a miraculous sign, something that could have been seen. Jews demanded miraculous signs, but he preached Christ crucified.

If there had been a resurrection of a corpse leaving an earthly tomb, that would have been a stumbling block to Jews , not a crucifixion.

aa5874

The resurrection of Jesus is by far the most important event since without it sins cannot be forgiven.

Thousands of Jews were crucified but only one was claimed to have resurrected after the third day. The resurrection is the proof that Jesus was God and not just a man.

Now, the crucifixion of a God must be a stumbling block to the Jews who followed the Laws of the God of Moses.

andrewcriddle

I think the issue is that Paul is being challenged by his opponents at Corinth to produce impressive signs himself not just talk about ones in the past.

He responds by appealing to the crucified Christ as showing God's plan being worked out in seeming weakness.

Andrew Criddle

dog-on

Anyone ever figure out what Paul meant by " Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified."?

andrewcriddle

It is probably a metaphor for Paul's vivid preaching about the crucifixion.

Some on this forum have interpreted it as referring to some sort of visual depiction of the crucifixion but I doubt whether prographw can really mean this. The verb could certainly refer to the display of an official document but this doesn't seem relevant here.

Andrew Criddle

spamandham

Are you sure that to Paul, Christ was a physical human being who had been executed via crucifixion? Because if Paul is speaking in metaphors in regards to 'Christ crucified' or even resurrection, he might have felt superior gnosis rather than embarrassment.

Romans 1:4, Romans 6:5 (ignoring 1 Cor 15, which I consider inauthentic)

Gotcha.

spamandham

I have taken this to mean that the crucifixion was derived from scripture, and Paul demonstrated this point directly to them. I think this is consistent with my overall view of Paul's Jesus, which has nothing to do with a historical man from Nazareth, and everything to do with a rejection of messianic desires altogether in exchange for a return to 'true Judaism', which is a spiritual kingdom.

The messianic dream itself is the childish idea that Paul put aside (aka, crucified), not some wandering carpenter-made-cult-leader from the po-dunk town of Nazareth.