The Making of the New TestamentBacon, Benjamin Wisner
Religion
The Making of the New Testament
Bacon, Benjamin Wisner
Bible. New Testament -- Introductions
But to take Luke's account of how peace was restored, with its
implication that the Pauline gospel as developed in Greek Christendom
between the Taurus range and the Adriatic was nothing more than a branch
from the parent stock of the 'apostolic' church in "Syria and Cilicia,"
would be like viewing the history of the United States from the
standpoint of a British imperialist of a period of Anglo-Saxon reunion
in A.D. 2000, who should omit entirely the American War of Independence,
holding that Washington and Franklin after bearing testimony before
Parliament accepted for the colonies a plan of settlement prepared by a
Liberal Government which reduced to a minimum the obnoxious requirements
of the Tories.
The history of this period of the development of the independent
'gospel' of Paul and of his independent churches is so vital, and so
confused by generations of well-meaning 'harmonizers,' that we must take
time to contrast once more Luke's theory of the process of reunion with
Paul's.
_In Acts Paul takes precisely the view of Peter and James._ He is
himself 'under the Law.' He does _not_ disregard it even among Gentiles.
On the contrary, he sets an example of scrupulous legality to the Jews
among the Gentiles, himself 'walking orderly, keeping the Law.' The
statement that he "teaches them to forsake Moses, telling them not to
circumcise their children, nor to obey the customs" is a calumny (!)
which he takes public occasion to disprove (Acts xxi. 20-26). Before the
Sanhedrin he emphatically declares himself a consistent Pharisee (Acts
xxiii. 1, 6); before Felix and Festus, blameless by the standard of Law
and Prophets (xxiv. 14-16; xxv. 8); before Agrippa, a strict Pharisee in
his conduct hitherto (xxvi. 5, 22 f.). Titus, whose circumcision Paul
strenuously resisted, is never mentioned in Acts. Conversely Timothy (a
Jew only on his mother's side) Paul "took and circumcised" immediately
after the Jerusalem Council "because of the Jews that were in those
parts" (Galatia!). His visit with Barnabas to Jerusalem is not
occasioned by opposition to Gentile missions, though it falls between
Barnabas' mission from Jerusalem to investigate the alarming reports of
Gentile conversions at Antioch, and the First Missionary Journey on
which the two take with them Mark, who had accompanied them from
Jerusalem. No; according to Luke Gentile missions did not yet
exist[12](!). This visit (that of the Conference, Gal. ii. 1-10) was
merely to convey a gift from the Antioch church to that of Jerusalem
because of the famine "about that time" (it occurred in 46-47).
Conversely the great 'offering of the Gentiles' made at the risk of
Paul's life in company with delegates from each province of his field,
as a proffer of peace, the enterprise which occupies so large a place in
his effort and his letters of this period (1st Cor. xvi. 1-6; 2nd Cor.
8-9; Rom. xv. 15, 16, 25-32), has in Acts no relation to the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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