manimal2878

Ok, I have just read most of Pauls epistles.

If I were to have been introduced these in my college lit class and told to deconstruct them and form a view of the writer/main character I would come to some weird conclusions.

I think he was sexually damaged, maybe imputent, maybe gay, somehow outside the sexual norms of his society and not in a good way.

In 2 corinthians he seems insane, he talks of how he is humble and won't boast and then spends most of the letter boasting and then concludes by saying he is so great because he dosn'e boast.

He seems to get angry and have an authority complex with those he disagree with him, he also admittedly see and hears things.

Further he never actually quotes Jesus or mentions his miracles as examples or illustrations he also seems to have trouble getting along with the real apostles, those who actually knew Jesus.

In conclusion I would have to say Paul is a little wacky.

Toto

On Paul's boasting, try to find this article: RUNAWAY PAUL: PAUL'S APPROPRIATION OF THE ROLE OF THE FOOL IN 1 CORINTHIANS 1–4, by Laurence L. Welborn, Biblical Interpretation, 10:4, October 2002, pp 420 - 435. The article is no longer free online, but I quote from some relevant parts in this thread.

Paul was doing a bit of standup comedy derived from the Greco-Roman theater; that is how his audience of the time would have read that letter, as rhetorical devices, not evidence of Paul's insanity.

20th century Christians liked to blame Paul for distorting Jesus' message, because they thought Jesus was good, but they could see how corrupt the church had become, and they needed to blame someone.

If you search for Paul in the title of threads, you will find some more discussions on Paul.

manimal2878

Are you serious?

I am suppossed to look at Paul's speeches as a standup routine?

More like they remind me of the wacky dude reverand songbird who use to come to our college and preach on the green.

After about 20 minutes you could see that he honestly believed what he was preaching, the rest of us were rolling on the ground laughing as he called the soriety girls harlots and the jezabel which would lead us into the lake of fire, etc

He was fucking hilerious but it was no comedy routine this guy really thought he was preaching the word of god just as paul probably did and besides this was a letter meant to be read to his followers so how is it that it was a parady routine?

manimal2878

Okay,

toto I read through the other thread,

so in any instance whether paul was serious or it was a comedy, it seems that he is a pretty unreliable source.

Either a crazy guy or a a comedian, like getting fact from carrot top or leno.

Toto

I think the point is that you should not necessarily hold to a literal interpretation of the English translation of Paul's letters, whoever wrote them.

vsop44

http://www.epilepsiemuseum.de/alt/paulusen.html

Paul was an epilectic and it is during one of the seizures that he had the vision on the road to Damascus that left him blind for 3 days .

Toto

We don't know that Paul was epileptic. That is a hypothesis put forward by people who are trying to explain one of the scenes of his vision recorded in Acts. But there are literary antecedents to this scene, and no good reason to assume that it records real history.

yalla

The first time I read Paul's stuff I too questioned his grasp on reality.
But I had not then read much ancient religious literature so it could have simply been the reaction of 21st century thinking. Even so ....
On a more serious note I have a speculation about his references to "persecution'.
I note that the list of those who have persecuted him is extremely wide ranging inc. the sea, wilderness, Jews, Romans, bandits.It seems just about everybody and everything had a go at him according to him.
Seriously, I suspect he had a paranoic persecution complex.
And perhaps this set the scene for later alleged Christian persecutions???
There is a definite "death wish/self destuction'' element in some Christian writings [eg. "Ignatius, Origen, the almost prurient masochistic Acts of the Martyrs] which reveals, IMO, a certain unhealthy mind set.

jonesg

Most people who don't believe something just go on with their life, others obssess about it and go ... a little whacky.

The believers appear to the non believers eye to be whacky too, but sane people will always seem insane to the insane.

Newton's Cat

Most of what is purported to have been written by Paul wasn't. What remains of his actual writings was subjected to major alterations. The true Paul never mentions Jesus - he had his own agenda.