The Origin of Paul's ReligionMachen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Religion
The Origin of Paul's Religion
Machen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Theology; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
In answer, it is sufficient to point to 1 Cor. xv. 1-11. Was Paul
indifferent to tradition? In 1 Cor. xv. 3 he himself attests the
contrary; he places tradition--something that he had received--at
the very foundation of his missionary preaching. "For I delivered
unto you among the first things," he says, "that which I also
received." The word "received" here certainly designates information
obtained by ordinary word of mouth, not direct revelation from the
risen Christ; and the content of what was "received" fixes the
source of the information pretty definitely in the fifteen days
which Paul spent with Peter at Jerusalem. It is almost universally
admitted that 1 Cor. xv. 3ff. contains the tradition of the
Jerusalem Church with regard to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The comparison with 1 Cor. xv. 1-11 thus exhibits the danger of
interpreting the Epistle to the Galatians in one-sided fashion. If
Galatians stood by itself, the reader might suppose that at least
the resurrection of Christ, the central fact of Paul's gospel, was
founded, in Paul's preaching, upon Paul's own testimony alone. In
Galatians Paul says that his gospel was not derived from men. But
his gospel was grounded upon the resurrection of Christ. Surely,
it might be said, therefore, he based at least the resurrection
not at all upon the testimony of others but upon the revelation
which came to him from Christ. Is it possible to conceive of the
author of Galatians as appealing for the foundation of his gospel
to the testimony of Peter and the twelve and other brethren in
the primitive Church--to the testimony of exactly those men whose
mediatorship he is excluding in Galatians? Yet as a matter of fact,
that is exactly what Paul did. That he did so is attested not by the
Book of Acts or by any source upon which doubt might be cast, but
by one of the accepted epistles. The Epistle to the Galatians must
always be interpreted in the light of 1 Cor. xv. 1-11.
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