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
During the second and third missionary journeys, the agitation of
the Judaizers, as has already been observed, seems to have subsided.
In Corinth, indeed, according to 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul appears
in deadly conflict with certain men who sought to undermine his
apostolic authority. Baur made much of this conflict; indeed, he
based his reconstruction of apostolic history upon the Corinthian
Epistles almost as much as upon Galatians. The starting-point of
his investigation was found in the party watchwords mentioned in
1 Cor. i. 12, "I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas;
and I of Christ." The "Christ-party" of the verse, identified with
the opponents attacked in 2 Cor. x-xiii, Baur believed to have
been an extreme Judaizing party. This extreme Judaizing party,
Baur maintained, appealed with some show of reason to the original
apostles in Jerusalem. Thus the Corinthian Epistles like the
Epistle to the Galatians were made to establish what was to Baur
the fundamental fact of apostolic history, a serious conflict of
principle between Paul and the original apostles.[64]
[64] Baur, "Die Christuspartei in der korinthischen Gemeinde," in
_Tübinger Zeitschrift für Theologie_, 1831, 4 Heft, pp. 61-206.
Subsequent investigation, however, has cast at least serious doubt
upon the Tübingen exegesis, even where it has not discredited it
altogether. The whole matter of the Christ-party of 1 Cor. i.
12 is felt to be exceedingly obscure, so obscure that J. Weiss,
for example, in his recent commentary on 1 Corinthians, has felt
constrained to cut the Gordian knot by regarding the words, "And I
of Christ", as an interpolation.[65] Where this heroic measure has
not been resorted to, various interpretations have been proposed.
Sometimes, for example, the Christ-party has been thought to have
consisted of those who rejected the other watchwords, but in such
a proud and quarrelsome way that the watchword, "I am of Christ,"
which should have belonged to all, became only the shibboleth of
another party. Sometimes, again, the Christ-party has been regarded
as a gnosticizing party which boasted of direct communications
with the risen Christ. At any rate, it is very difficult to find
in the words "I am of Christ" any clear designation of Judaizers
who appealed against Paul to James or to their own connections with
Jesus in Palestine. On the contrary, the reader of the first four
chapters of 1 Corinthians may well be doubtful whether there were
any distinct parties at all. It looks rather as though what Paul
was rebuking were merely a spirit of division, which manifested
itself now in one watchword and now in another. The Corinthian
Christians seem to have been "sermon-tasters"; they were proud of
their "wisdom," and laid undue stress upon the varying form of the
gospel message to the neglect of the content. It is noteworthy
that in 1 Cor. i-iv Paul does not enter upon any anti-Judaistic
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