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
If, then, it should appear that Paul uses a vocabulary derived from
the mysteries, the fact would not necessarily be of any significance
whatever in determining the origin of his religion. Every missionary
is obliged to take the words which have been used in the religion
from which converts are to be won in order to express the new ideas.
Translators of the Bible in the modern mission fields are obliged
to proceed in this way. Yet the procedure does not necessarily
involve any modification of Christian ideas. The old words are given
loftier meanings in order to become the vehicle of Christian truth;
the original meanings provide merely a starting-point for the new
teaching. Conceivably, the apostle Paul might have proceeded in this
way; conceivably he might have used words connected with the mystery
religions in order to proclaim the gospel of Christ.
As a matter of fact, the evidence for such an employment of a
mystery terminology in the Pauline Epistles is very slight. In
1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, Paul uses the terms "mystery" and "perfect" or
"full-grown."[210] The former word was sometimes used to designate
the "mysteries" in the technical, religious sense. But it is also
used in Greek in a very much more general way. And certainly as it
is used in Paul it is very remote from the technical meaning. The
Christian "mystery" according to Paul is not something that is to
be kept secret on principle, like the mysteries of Eleusis, but it
is something which, though it was formerly hidden in the counsels
of God, is now to be made known to all. Some, it is true, may never
be able to receive it. But that which is necessary in order that
it may be received is not "gnosis" or an initiation. It is rather
acceptance of a message and the holy life that follows. "If you
would know the deep things of God," Paul says to the Corinthians,
"then stop your quarreling." We find ourselves here in a circle of
ideas quite different from that of the mystery religions. As for
the word "teleios," it seems not to have been discovered in pagan
sources in the sense of "initiated," which is sometimes attributed
to it in 1 Corinthians. Apparently it means simply "full-grown";
Paul contrasts the full-grown man with the babes in Christ.
[210] μυστήριον and τέλειος.
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