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
Thus the theory of Windisch can be maintained only if the
identification of Wisdom with the Messiah was accomplished not by
Paul after the conversion but by pre-Christian Judaism. If Paul's
pre-Christian doctrine of the Messiah already contained vital
elements drawn from the doctrine of Wisdom, then and then only
might it be held that the Pauline Christ, with His activity in
creation and His spiritual indwelling in the believer, was merely
the pre-Christian Messiah. But was the pre-Christian Messiah ever
identified with the hypostasis Wisdom? Upon an affirmative answer
to this question depends the whole structure of Windisch's theory.
But Windisch passes the question over rather lightly. He tries,
indeed, to establish certain coincidences between the doctrine of
the Messiah in 1 Enoch and in the Septuagint translation of Micah v.
2 and Ps. cx. 3 on the one hand, and the descriptions of Wisdom on
the other; but the coincidences apparently amount to nothing except
the ascription of preëxistence to both figures. But the fundamental
trouble is that Windisch has an entirely inadequate conception of
what really needs to be proved. What Windisch really needs to do
is to ascribe to the pre-Christian doctrine of the Messiah two
elements--activity in creation and spiritual indwelling--which in
the extant sources are found not at all in the descriptions of the
Messiah but only in the descriptions of Wisdom. Even if he succeeded
in establishing verbal dependence of the descriptions of the Messiah
upon the descriptions of Wisdom, that would not really prove his
point at all. Such verbal dependence as a matter of fact has not
been established, but if it were established it would be without
significance. It would be far more completely devoid of significance
than is the similarity between the descriptions of the heavenly
Messiah as judge and the descriptions of God as judge. This latter
similarity may be significant, when taken in connection with other
evidence, as being a true anticipation of the Christian doctrine
of the deity of Christ, but in itself it will hardly be held (at
least it will hardly be held by Windisch) to establish the complete
personal identity, in Jewish thinking, of the Messiah and God, so
that everything that is said about God in pre-Christian Jewish
sources can henceforth be applied to the Messiah. Why then should
similarity in language between the descriptions of the Wisdom of God
as preëxistent and the descriptions of the Messiah as preëxistent
(even if that similarity existed) establish such identity between
the Messiah and Wisdom that what is attributed to Wisdom (notably
spiritual indwelling) can henceforth be attributed to the Messiah?
There is really no evidence whatever for supposing that the Messiah
was conceived of in pre-Christian Judaism either as being active in
creation or as dwelling in the hearts of men. Indeed, with regard
to the latter point, there is decisive evidence of the contrary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account