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
The first objection is derived from the fact that if Gal. ii.
1-10 is to be identified with Acts XV. 1-29, Paul has passed over
the famine visit without mention. Could he have done so honestly,
if that visit had really occurred? In the first two chapters of
Galatians Paul is establishing the independence of his apostolic
authority; he had not, he says, as the Judaizers maintained,
received his authority through mediation of the original apostles.
At first, he says, he came into no effective contact with the
apostles; it was three years after his conversion before he saw
any of them; then he saw only Peter (and James) and that only for
fifteen days. Then he went away into the regions of Syria and of
Cilicia without ever becoming known by face to the Churches of
Judæa; then after fourteen years again he went up to Jerusalem (Gal.
ii. 1). Is it not the very point of the passage that after his
departure to Syria and Cilicia it was fourteen long years before
he again went up to Jerusalem? Would not his entire argument be
invalidated if there were an unmentioned visit to Jerusalem between
the first visit (Gal. i. 18, 19) and the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10?
If such a visit had taken place, would he not have had to mention
it in order to place it in the proper light as he had done in the
case of the first visit? By omitting to mention the visit in a
context where he is carefully tracing the history of his relations
with the Jerusalem leaders, would he not be exposing himself to
the charge of dishonest suppression of facts? Such considerations
have led a great number of investigators to reject the historicity
of the famine visit; there never could have been, they insist, a
visit between the first visit and the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10; for
if there had been, Paul would have been obliged to mention it, not
only by his own honesty, but also because of the impossibility
of deception. This is one of the points where the narrative in
Acts has been most insistently criticized. Here and there, indeed,
there have been discordant notes in the chorus of criticism; the
insufficiency of the objection has been admitted now and then even
by those who are far removed from any concern for the defense of
the Book of Acts. Baur himself, despite all his Tübingen severity
of criticism, was clear-sighted enough not to lay stress upon this
particular objection;[50] and in recent years J. Weiss has been
equally discerning.[51] In Galatians Paul is not giving a complete
enumeration of his visits to Jerusalem, but merely singling out
those details which had formed the basis of the Judaizers' attack,
or afforded peculiar support to his own contentions. Apparently the
Judaizers had misrepresented the first visit; that is the time,
they had said, when Paul came under the authority of the original
apostles. In answer to this attack Paul is obliged to deal carefully
with that first visit; it came three years after the conversion, he
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