Heinrici, again, in his commentaries on the Corinthian Epistles suggests that the Apostle’s doctrine is a synthesis of elements taken on the one hand from the Jewish prophets and on the other from Greek thought._(_60_)_ Paul, he thinks, reached back beyond Late Judaism to join hands with the ancient prophetism, and similarly rose [pg 068] superior to Alexandrianism and drew direct from Greek thought. In both cases what he seeks is an ethical force. That he possessed the insight and the power to find this in the thought of the ancient world and to apply it to the formation of a Christian system of thought was a great spiritual achievement, pregnant with consequences for the future development of Christianity. One might have expected that these various views would be worked out in detail. That is not the case. In the last resort none of these writers gets beyond the general and simple assertion that the antithesis of flesh and spirit is Greek. But even this is not further explained by means of parallels from Greek literature. There is no attempt to show in what sense Paul’s utterances become more intelligible in the light of these analogies than they are in themselves. “The Greek dualism,” writes Holsten, “underlies all the decisive elements of his thought, and makes itself apparent in a series of individual traits.” Any one who goes through his work in the expectation of finding evidence adduced in support of this statement will be disappointed. It is as though the author had forgotten as he went on writing what he had set out to do. It is also matter for astonishment that no serious attempt is made to extend the range of the Greek elements beyond the single antithesis of flesh and spirit. The suggestion is no doubt met with that the pessimism, the longing for death, and the ethical teaching of the Apostle, belong essentially to the tone of thought prevalent in the Hellenic world. But these remain mere _obiter dicta_ which are not worked out in any way. It is as though these writers one and all had an instinctive feeling that their thesis, so long as it is kept quite general, has an admirable air of credibility and admits of being nicely formulated, but that when any attempt is made to follow it out into detail it yields little in the way of tangible results. Paulinism is deceptive. Its outward appearance is such that the assertion that [pg 069] here Greek influences have been at work seems the most self-evident possible, but when this has to be shown in detail it leaves the investigator whom it has drawn on by its specious appearance completely in the lurch.