"Reading the Bible Again for the First Time"
Session 9

"St. Joan of Arc Bible Study is an open and growing group that meets for fellowship and to discuss the Bible and other faith-centered literature. Our informal study group draws from biblical scholarship, historical perspectives, current events and personal reflections. We welcome honor and respect the personal ideas and spiritual journeys of all who join us."

Greetings

How about a quick run-down of what transpired on a crisp clear evening at the old country church. Be sure to check for some new business at the end of this message.

After many hugs, smiles and handshakes were exchanged we hit the floor running with a reflection of our world's seeming slide into the abyss. At the end of this reflection we were asked to make a conscious and present decision to cultivate the love faculty in our hearts and when it blossoms to share it with the world. "Let us be those people we see from time to time that so inspire us. Let us be like those people we have seen and think, "I want what they have", let us be the "good news" and let us be the light bearers to a world on the brink of darkness."

Our master facilitator has had an interest in Paul that goes back a ways. The feelings have not all been good. Kind of like, well, I don't agree with him or he caused a lot of harm and misunderstanding, but wow, did he ever get things done! What a mover and shaker! (Did they drink coffee in those days?) Upon further review and reading the chapter in Borg he has somewhat changed his perspective of Paul as it seems did much of the group. It's almost like the liberation of Paul. You will find out why in the overview that follows.

ST. JOAN OF ARC SCRIPTURE STUDY
Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time
Chapter 9, Reading Paul Again
December 3, 2002

Next to Jesus, Paul was the most influential individual in the birth and spread of Christianity. More documents of the Christian Testament (his epistles) were written by him than by all other authors put together. He was the Apostle to the Gentiles, the one most responsible for spreading Christianity beyond the Synagogue.

Paul can be hard to take. He is accused of turning Jesus' simple human message into a complex and convoluted abstract mythological-theological belief system. He is accused of being a puritanical moralist. He is accused of homophobia and sexism. He's nasty, calling people fools and worse. His letters are difficult and obscure, opaque rather than luminous. But let's reserve judgment, except for the last statement.

Not all Pauline letters were written by Paul:

• Genuine:

  I Thessalonians

  Galatians

  I and II Corinthians

  Philemon

  Philippians

  Romans

• Doubtful:

  Colossians

  Ephesians

  II Thessalonians

• Definitely Not Genuine:

  I and II Timothy

  Titus

The last half of the Acts of the Apostles is all about Paul, but because of questions as to its historical accuracy, Borg chooses to concentrate on the genuine letters.

The pre-Damascus Paul was well educated, cultured, cosmopolitan, and a Roman citizen. He may have been trained in Judaica in Jerusalem. He calls himself a Pharisee,(although one Jewish writer thinks he sounds more like the more conservative Scribes). He was a tent maker by trade.

Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians when a bright light flashed around him and he heard a voice: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? ... I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Paul, blinded, was led to a disciple in Damascus who laid his hands on Paul and cured him of his blindness, both physical and spiritual. Paul was baptized and began his life as an apostle. This was his "call story", or "vocation" in pre Vatican II terms. Question: how literally should we read this dramatic, sudden conversion story? Did it really happen in only three days? What if the "flash of light" and the voice wasn't really Paul's internal epiphany?

Borg emphasizes the need to understand Paul's mystical experiences as the foundation for understanding his message. He was probably a mystic before Damascus, mysticism having an ancient Jewish history. Mysticism involves a non-ordinary state of consciousness; it is ecstatic in its root sense. His mystical experience of Jesus is the appearance of the risen Christ, first to Peter, then to the twelve, then to five hundred brothers and sisters, then to James (Paul's nemesis), last of all, to Paul.

Paul then made at least three missionary trips by land and sea around the northeastern Mediterranean, from Syria to Turkey to Greece to Rome, and maybe even to Spain. He found or founded many Christian communities , preaching first to the Jewish synagogues and then to the Gentiles. By the year 60 CE there were about two thousand Christians, so these were small groups, meeting in house churches, either wealthy villas or poor tenements. He worked with several other missionaries and local leaders.

His letters were written to the communities he was away from. The context is difficult because they are often responses to a letter not retained. We don't always know what concern he is responding to. Likewise, these are not summaries of his teachings, but answers to specific problems. He had taught all about Jesus while preaching in each city, so he didn't repeat all of that, only what was need to solve the issue at hand, such as the rich eating before the poor got off of work in I Corinthians. Also, there are the recurring problems of translating passages which have no punctuation - see page 240 bottom. We can assume that he had preached what Jesus was like: his subversive wisdom, his healings, his passion for social justice for the poor and marginalized, his indictment of the domination system, his goodness. We know he emphasized "Christ crucified" - the paradox of a messiah so humbled, the sacrifice which is the revelation of God's love for us. He believed in an imminent Second Coming. He taught Jesus is Lord, exalted by God, both as a sign of respect for Jesus and as a slap at the imperial domination system.

Paul contrasts our life "in Adam" with our life "in Christ." In Adam we under the domination of sin; we are not sinners because we have done wrong things but because sin rules over life. We are subject to fornication, impurity, licentiousness, drunkenness, carousing, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, and envies. In Christ we are subject to freedom and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In Romans, Paul develops Jesus' death and resurrection as a metaphor for the way of transition from a life in Adam to a life in Christ through Baptism. This is a new identity, a new way of seeing, and a new way of living. Baptism brings us into a Spirit-filled community which re-socializes us to this new life. Social boundaries are eliminated: "there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." We must eat together.

Justification by Faith