FRDB Archives

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.


Go Back   FRDB Archives > Philosophy & Religious Studies > History of Abrahamic Religions & Related Texts
Welcome, Peter Kirby.
You last visited: Today at 01:23 AM

 
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-23-2013, 06:15 PM   #51
Contributor
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: Los Angeles area
Posts: 40,549
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post

Please note that I was not claiming that Earl was misquoting Mack. What I was questioning is whether Mack would support or even view as limplied, let alone as logically sound, the conclusions vis a vis 1 Cor 11:23 and Gal 1:12 that Earl was drawing from them Evidence from Mack that Earl has not quoted and that he has has not taken into account strongly indicate, if not prove, that Mack would not.

Of course we could always ask Mack himself. He's reachable through SBL.
Mack is not god, or The Source of All Truth, so it's not clear why we would need to know his position. Earl has relied on him for his expertise, but his point has always been that NT scholars refuse to draw the obvious conclusions from their work because they are stuck in the historical Jesus paradigm.


Quote:
Is that what Mack implies?
Does calling something "suspicious" not imply that the person who wrote it was not totally honest?

If you read around that section, Mack implies that Paul is psycho - an unstable, authoritarian personality, who perhaps was brilliant, but troubled.

It is difficult to psychoanalyze someone from the distance of two thousand years, especially when the surviving writings have been worked over by your opponents.

Quote:
Quote:
(But this doesn't actually say that Paul got his message from someone on earth ...)
Never said it did. And that's not the issue anyway.

Jeffrey
It's not? But isn't that in fact the real issue here? If it's not the real issue, why did you post above "If we take seriously that Paul claim that he had been a persecutor of the Church, then it's hard to deny that he knew something of what Christians were proclaiming before he had his call experience. "
Toto is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 06:17 PM   #52
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,435
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by stephan huller View Post
I don't know if anyone else here had ever done this:
Quote:
And in the light of this, the answer to my second question is "no, he does not confirm Earl's claim. Quite the opposite, in fact.
For this forum this admission is incredible. I hate the fights here because the truth is we're all wrong. That much is certain. It's like the realization during a one night stand with an amazingly attractive woman that soon - even this - will not be real. It will become just another anecdote. The only permanent and everlasting truth is admitting you're wrong
Haven't you got this backward, Stephan? Where has Jeffrey admitted he was wrong in regard to your above quote from him?

Earl Doherty
EarlDoherty is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 06:24 PM   #53
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 3,619
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Toto View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iskander View Post
This trivial and miserable thread was created only to embarrass a distinguished author.
Who? The author of Luke-Acts?

Quote:
Acts say that Paul heard Jesus. Why is this unpleasant and malicious thread allowed to pollute this forum?


Acts 9). 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5 He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting
:Cheeky:

If the purpose of this thread was to discuss 1:12, the title of the thread and the tone of the thread ought to have been different.


A rhetorical analysis of the letter to the Galatians
Galatians 1:12 is said here to admit two interpretations and so forth. All this is very well known.


http://etd.uovs.ac.za/ETD-db/theses/...d/TOLMIEDF.pdf

It is rather late in London, Goodnight .
Iskander is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 06:42 PM   #54
Regular Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: middle east
Posts: 310
Thumbs up

Quote:
Originally Posted by stephan huller View Post
And is it really "riding a hobby horse" to bring up Marcion when discussing this passage in particular? It's not like saying " Moreover, I advise that Carthage must be destroyed "
Sorry that I arrived at this party late – but that’s really funny, and I just gotta say so.

:biggrin:
Bingo the Clown-O is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 06:47 PM   #55
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 3,058
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by EarlDoherty View Post

Once again, Jeffrey is putting words in my mouth. I did not claim that Kelber believed that 1 Cor. 11:23 came to Paul through revelation. Rather, I criticized all three of those scholars for insisting on making this an exception to their own “communications from a heavenly Christ” principle
Sorry. Missed the criticism of Kelber. It's not in JNGM so far as I can see (according to your index, you only cite/mention him in note 15). So where did you make it?

Quote:
which all three acknowledged was an equal possibility,
They did?? All three? Can you tell me exactly where they do this? Where do they actually say that this was an equal possibility for 1 Cor. 11:23, let alone Gal. 1:12? Where exactly does Mack discuss 1 Cor. 7:10-11 and/or 1 Cor. 9:14 or 1 Thess. 4:16-17? (there's no reference these texts in the index to Myth of Innocence). Where exactly does Kelber say that there is any possibility, let alone an equal one, that 1 Cor. 7:10-11, 1 Cor. 9:14, let alone 1 Cor. 11:23 were revelations that Paul received from the "heavenly Jesus" as there is for them being pre-Pauline and dominical? Where exactly does he discuss 1 Thess. 4:16-16 in any way at all Certainly not in OaWG -- at least as far as the scripture index of the book is evidence of this? Where exactly does Bultmann specifically say anything like what you say he says about these texts? There's no discussion of 1 Cor. 7:10-11 or 1 Cor. 9:14 in HST or TNT. Nor of 1 Thess. 4:16-16 either -- or even of Gal. 1:12 (Is it somewhere else? If so, where?) And we've already seen that he denies the very possibility you say he says is an equal one for 1 Cor 11:23.

So forgive me, Earl, if I take not only what you claim these scholars say, but also your claim that they can be used to support your view on what Paul says is the source of what he says in 1 Cor. 7:10-11, 1 Cor. 9:14, 1 Thess. 4:16-17, 1 Cor. 11:23 (not to mention what he is saying/claiming in Gal. 1:12), with a very very large pinch of salt.

Erhman's case grows stronger.

Jeffrey
Jeffrey Gibson is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 06:50 PM   #56
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 3,058
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iskander View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toto View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iskander View Post
This trivial and miserable thread was created only to embarrass a distinguished author.
Who? The author of Luke-Acts?

Quote:
Acts say that Paul heard Jesus. Why is this unpleasant and malicious thread allowed to pollute this forum?


Acts 9). 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5 He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting
:Cheeky:

If the purpose of this thread was to discuss 1:12, the title of the thread and the tone of the thread ought to have been different.
The purpose of this thread was and is -- as it's title indicates and as the OP made clear -- to discuss the claims that Earl made on p. 31 of JNGNM about Gal. 1:12.

Sorry that you seemed to have missed that.

Jeffrey
Jeffrey Gibson is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 07:12 PM   #57
Contributor
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: nowhere
Posts: 15,747
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vorkosigan View Post
Quote:
I'd still like to know, though, how on any translation of the verse one can see it as Paul speaking of Jesus' (heavenly) voice. Seems to me that one can only do that by reading Gal 1:12 not only as containing an objective genitive, but against, and in light of, and with reference to, the Acts stories of Paul's Damascus road experiences.
<confused> If Paul was not taught by any man nor heard about Jesus from any man, where did he get his information about JC from?
Does he say he never heard about Jesus from any man?
He admits no information from anyone, so, while he claims that he got his gospel through revelation, we have no evidence of anything else.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post
And is the issue really that the gospel that he preaches was never communicated to him by human beings?
Was it communicated by anyone else?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post
Here's something from Arichea, D. C., & Nida, E. A. (1993). A handbook on Paul's letter to the Galatians. that we might need to chew over:

Quote:
Paul expands on his argument by the use of two other negative statements: I did not receive it from any man refers to the initial reception of the gospel, while nor did anyone teach it to me refers to his growing understanding of its contents. The first statement may be rendered as “No man told me this good news,” and the second may then be rendered as “and no one taught me what this good news was.” The two statements are essentially only two different ways of speaking about the same reality, though the second may be regarded as emphasizing more the fact that Paul was not specifically taught the good news by some qualified teacher.
Finally, Paul informs his readers of the source of his message. The Greek itself is literally “but through a revelation of Jesus Christ”; the “of” could mean either (1) that the revelation was made by Christ to Paul (for example, TEV, compare NAB “revelation from Jesus Christ”) or (2) that the content of the revelation, which was from God, was Jesus Christ. In view of 1.16, the second of these alternatives is to be preferred, but most translations carry over the ambiguous construction of the Greek. Who revealed it to me may be rendered as “who showed it to me,” “who caused me to see it,” or even “who caused me to understand the good news.
If we take seriously that Paul claim that he had been a persecutor of the Church, then it's hard to deny that he knew something of what Christians were proclaiming before he had his call experience.
You need to be careful in what you impute to the word εκκλησια when the term had no apparent uniquely christian significance at the time of Paul. It was just an assembly of a religious nature. Calling it a "church" is anachronistic (as is your use of "christians"). What can you tell me about the assembly he harassed? Was it anything more specific than a messianic group?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post
So I think we also need to take seriously the what I have bolded above.
The bolded bit is a conjectural (derived) understanding, only worth considering if there were other linguistic pointers to such an idea in the context. As there aren't any, we should stick with a more literal reading.
spin is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 07:32 PM   #58
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: seattle, wa
Posts: 9,337
Default

Battle of the Network Stars!

stephan huller is offline  
Old 05-23-2013, 10:45 PM   #59
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Dixon CA
Posts: 1,150
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey Gibson View Post
And no, I will not answer here any questions from you about where I took specific issue with you. It is not appropriate to do so. And it would be a waste of my time.
Jeffrey
Why would you think I was asking you to respond to my Significance of John in this thread? I made it clear that I dared not post there again, and once again asked you to be specific with my faults, even giving you a free pass to
state something
without me jumping in against it. You relentlessly demand compliance with your wishes from us, but refuse to reciprocate. At least you're not as bad as aa and Shesh about that. But if you're going to shut me up, it's going to take reasons and not your appeal to authority (your own, that is).

And I did post here relevant to this thread, commending Toto for questioning what you are driving at and you for launching specifics against Earl and Shesh.
Adam is offline  
Old 05-24-2013, 09:55 AM   #60
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,435
Default

(Just tying up some loose ends…)

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
12 for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Revised Standard Version (RSV)
12 for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Jeffrey says: “note the rethinking of the RSV text by the translators of the NRSV” (while failing to provide us with a translation of the RSV so that we can actually “note the rethinking”).

Well, I don’t see much of a rethinking there, much less one which casts an entirely new interpretation on the question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey
And yet given what appears on p. 31 of JNGNM, one would never know that the Greek of Gal. 1:12 is rendered by anyone anywhere in a way other than the way the NIV renders it, let alone that (as Burton and Betz and a number [if not a "major portion"] of commentators have argued) that the NIV translation is wrong and misrepresents what Paul says.
…which NIV translation Jeffrey also did not supply us with in that post, nor think to elaborate for us on the difference:

12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

Nor has he provided us with any quote from Burton or Betz or his “major portion” of commentators to illustrate how those worthies have argued, let alone demonstrated, that the NIV is wrong.

Burton ICC
12 for neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

Betz, H. D. (1979). Galatians : A commentary on Paul's letter to the churches in Galatia. Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
12 For I did not receive it1 from [a?] man, nor was I taught [it], but [I received it] through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

If all Jeffrey is referring to is the difference between “of Jesus Christ” and “from Jesus Christ” (which the NRSV has NOT ‘rethought’ over the RSV, since they both show “of Jesus Christ”), Burton and Betz (both quite old scholars) better have some pretty good arguments to prove that “from Jesus Christ” misrepresents Paul. After all, the difference between the two interpretations of the genitive has continued to this day, with no resolution. (Is Jeffrey himself coming down on the side of "of Jesus Christ,"--no ifs, ands, or buts? Or when pressed to declare for his insinuation against me, will he pull a Gibsonism and throw Burton and Betz under the bus?)

Now, Jeffrey has also quoted me from JNGNM p.31 as quoting the NIV’s “from Jesus Christ” and accuses me of not giving any hint that the Greek could be rendered any differently. Well, if he can ferret out my NIV quote on p. 31, why was he incapable of, or remained silent on, referencing my attention given to the passage on page 44, where I quoted the NASB’s “revelation of Jesus Christ,” or on page 45: “but rather (Paul) received through a revelation from (or of) Jesus Christ.” And while I can’t put my finger on it at the moment, I have more than once pointed out the grammatical ambiguity of the genitive phrase which can legitimately be translated as either “of” or “from”, content vs. source.

(Of course, as I’ve said before, the point is largely moot, because both translations point to the same thing: Paul believes he knows certain things about Jesus through revelation, and not through oral tradition.)

But why couldn’t Jeffrey have laid out all these aspects of the case he is seemingly trying to make? Why do we have to ask for clarification, for unsupplied quotes, for explanations on his unargued and unsupported insinuations? Why did spin have to express his confusion over what Jeffrey’s “purpose” was?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffrey
Ah well.
Ah well, indeed.

Earl Doherty
EarlDoherty is offline  
 

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 12:08 PM.

Top

This custom BB emulates vBulletin® Version 3.8.2
Copyright ©2000 - 2015, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.