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
Attention has already been called to the difficulties which
beset this interposition of an extra link between Paul and the
Jerusalem Church. It has been shown that what Paul "received" he
received not from the churches at Antioch and Tarsus but from
the original disciples at Jerusalem. But in addition to the
general considerations which connect the whole of Paulinism with
the Jerusalem tradition about Jesus, there are certain special
indications of a Jerusalem origin of the title "Lord."
One such indication may be found, perhaps, in Gal. i. 19. When, in
connection with a visit to Jerusalem which occurred three years
after the conversion, Paul speaks of "James the brother of the
Lord," the natural inference is that "the brother of the Lord" was
a designation which was applied to James in Jerusalem; and if so,
then the title "Lord" was current in the Jerusalem Church.[224] Of
course, the inference is not absolutely certain; Paul might have
designated James as "the brother of the Lord" because that was the
designation of James in the Galatian Churches and the designation
which Paul himself commonly used, even if it was not current in
Jerusalem. But the natural impression which the passage will
always make upon an unsophisticated reader is that Paul is using a
terminology which was already fixed among James' associates at the
time and place to which the narrative refers. It should be observed
that in speaking of Peter, Paul actually uses the Aramaic form and
not the Greek form of the name. The indications are that with
regard to the leaders of the Jerusalem Church Paul is accustomed
generally to follow the Jerusalem usage. And the evidence of such a
passage as Gal. i. 18, 19, where Jerusalem conditions are mentioned,
is doubly strong. The use in this passage of the title "brother of
the Lord" would indeed not be absolutely decisive if it stood alone.
But taken in connection with the other evidence, it does point
strongly to the prevalence in the early Jerusalem Church of the
title "Lord" as applied to Jesus.
[224] Knowling, _The Witness of the Epistles_, 1892, p. 15.
More stress is usually laid upon the occurrence of "Maranatha" in 1
Cor. xvi. 22. "Maranatha" is Aramaic, and it means "Our Lord, come!"
Why was the Aramaic word "Our Lord" included, as a designation
of Jesus, in a Greek letter? The natural supposition is that it
had been hallowed by its use in the Aramaic-speaking church at
Jerusalem. Accordingly it pushes the use of the title "Lord" back
to the primitive Christian community; the title cannot, therefore,
be regarded as a product of the Hellenistic churches in Antioch and
Tarsus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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