In researching journal articles regarding Paul’s tentmaking activities, there were very few entries found. I printed out this particular one and brought it home BEFORE realizing it was the work of the same person who authored the monograph I reviewed.
This article was published two years before The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry. The article deals specifically with the question of Paul’s social class: was he from an upper class background, in which case WHY was he making tents, or did he come out of the working class? Hock’s thesis is that based on the particular language used by Paul to describe his tentmaking work, he was from an upper class background, and wrote about his work as degrading and demeaning. (This was the opinion of a majority of scholars, at least at the time this article was written.)
As in the book I reviewed, Hock uses material from Greek and Roman culture to support his thesis about Paul’s work attitudes.
The question I am left with is, if Paul was from an upper class background, as this article suggests, how is it that Hock moved to the theory that he learned his tentmaking skills in apprenticeship to his father? If his father was from the same upperclass background, would he have been the one to teach Paul?
Since I am NOT a scholar, and since this particular question doesn’t impinge on my life in a direct way, I am happy to leave it as one of my many unanswered questions, and move on from here. But it does point out to me 1) the inconsistency and hypothetical-ness of Biblical scholarship (which is NOT a criticism) and 2) the developmental nature of scholarship which results in published theses being amended over time.
The above are included in the author’s bibliography for: Achtemeier, Paul J.: The Quest for Unity in the New Testament Church (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987) 270.1 Ac47q.
Both Fitzmyer and Knox provide exegesis primarily from Gal 1-2 and Acts 11&15 that support Achtemeier’s thesis that the Jerusalem Council reported in Acts 15 preceded the dispute related in Gal 2:11 ff. The "sharp disagreement" reported in Acts 15:36-41 is regarded as a result of the same dispute.
The starting point for such a thesis is that more accuracy is attributed to Galatians than to Acts. That is because Paul was present for the events recounted there, whereas Luke was editing much of his material from oral tradition.
Probably Knox in his first (1950) edition of Chapters In a Life of Paul, was the first to give full treatment of such primacy of the authentic epistles over Acts.
Neither readings added significantly to the insight provided by Achtemeier. However, spending more time with the thesis has sharpened my sensitivity to the wounds that early Christians inflicted upon each other.
Essentially, two groups disagreed violently with one another over the issue of whether or not one could be justified solely on the basis of faith in Christ. Paul said they could. On the other hand, certain Judaizing Christians claimed that at least some conformance to Jewish law also was required.
It should be noted that the disagreement split the gentile Christian Church in as much as one of their chief evangelists, Barnabus, was persuaded to the conformance view.
Later, of course, Martin Luther raised the same issue in relation to Roman requirements for salvation.
Today, personal attack e.g. by men sent from James, feeling betrayed e.g. Paul’s feelings about James, Peter and Barnabus, and stinging rhetoric e.g. Paul’s response to Peter in Gal 2:11-21 are still experienced by people of faith.
Within denominations, as well as individual congregations, Christians continue to struggle with strongly held but differing interpretations of Scripture. From the beginning and continuing today, Christians often fail at resolving those differences in a loving and reconciling manner.
It was a rather uninspired article that outlined the various options for what the nature of the glossolalia in Corinth might have been. It struck me as something like a technical manual on how to make love: a scientific treatment of a passionate subject. It was helpful in that it gave all possible options and then ruled out ones that are unlikely.
It was a sensitive treatment of Christian-Jewish relations with Romans 9-11 as a point of departure. It outlines Paul’s conviction that God has not rejected Israel and that the Jews still have a decisive role to play in salvation history. She then goes on to caution the church not to ignore this fact.
It was interesting in light of what we have been doing in class. The author stresses the historical priority of Paul’s own letters as a source, saying that Luke must be read as secondary. He then goes on to harmonize the accounts far more than we have. For instance he simply accepts Tarsus as Paul’s home. It was an interesting read because it illustrates where another scholar feels comfortable drawing the line in the sand between Luke and Paul’s letters.
This article was helpful in illuminating some research questions. As I workwith my Site Team, the question of the goal of a chaplain-patient encounterhas been raised several times. One physician has put it in the parlance ofKubler-Ross and the movement through the five stages toward acceptance ofone's illness/death. Christianity may be the only religion that speaks ofsuffering in redemptive terms. I believe the affirmation of the chaplain mustbe what Evans states: "God sometimes works through our human weaknesses,rather than eliminating those weaknesses." (pure Pauline!)
My only question for Evans would be why he closed with the primary goal beingonly God relatedness and not the other half of Jesus summary of all the lawand the commandments: "...and love their neighbor as their self"? As I workwith patients, the deepening of their relationship with God may be the arena,but it may also be issues of forgiveness, alienation, loneliness, fear ofabandonment and other person-to-person problems. But then I also must bechallenged by Jesus assurance that if I had faith as big as a mustard seed, Icould move mountains. Do I ignore or shy away from the question of cure orphysical healing out of a lack of faith or because the deepening of dependenceupon God for all gifts is the goal of my visit?
