[Uucf-bible] Questions about 1 Corinthians 8:4-6

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

Hi John. Here is how many of the scholars of the New Paul Perspective would  
I believe approach this which makes the most sense to me:
 
1. Paul is a thoroughgoing Jew from start to finish who never has any other  
notion than the God of the Torah is the singular Ruler of the  Universe.
2. Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah, but not God wholly as  
understood through the Torah and the history of Israel. 
3. Paul was trained as a Pharisee; they were the Jews of the first century  
who believed in an eschatological bodily resurrection signifying the messianic  
age that would make right the world; of course not all did but that's another 
 matter; Paul's theology was that God raised Jesus after the crucifixion and 
that  this signaled the beginning of the bodily resurrection to come, the 
messianic  age, the kingdom of God, that in fact Jesus became the Anointed, the 
Christ, the  Messiah at the time of his resurrection by God because of his 
faithfulness to  God even unto the cross, and not before (it is God who does the 
raising,  not Jesus by himself), and that Jesus as Messiah would come again, 
some time  soon, to participate in the full bodily resurrection of all the 
martyrs, the  faithful, and in the full transformation of the earth into God's realm.
4. The mission of those who would be faithful to God as Jesus was faithful  
to God was to participate in this dawning messianic age, this kingdom of God  
present and still to come, by participating in communities that would be  
faitfhul to such a God as seen in the faithfulness of Jesus, which is why those  
communities were so inclusive, they were to be signs of such a messianic age as  
would be fitting to Jesus' style of faithfulness. In fact the more these  
communities grew, and the more faithful they were, incorporating non-Jews the  sa
me as Jews like Paul, these communities could help usher in that present and  
coming messianic time. 
5. So God is God, Father of all, Jew and non-Jew, now as always; Jesus as  
the Risen One, the Christ, Messiah, is the conduit now for all who would exist  
in this new creation, this new age, especially, and this is important, for  
non-Jews, with whom Paul is ultimately concerned and to whom and  about whom his 
letters are written. Elsewhere in Romans he makes clear  Jews are already in 
covenant with God and nothing eliminates that;  Christ however provides a 
gateway for non-Jews to be in that  covenant.  
6. So yes I think Paul is getting at something close to what you are  picking 
up on in his letter; and I think there is some linkage for such a  good 
scripture reader as Paul between the Risen One, the Christ, the Messiah,  and those 
promises that were to come via the Sophia, Wisdom, which makes its  
appearance in the Hebrew scriptures and which would become so important  eventually in 
the shaping of the understanding of the Holy Spirit in post  Pauline times. 
 
My take on things from my study of Paul. 
 
blessings, Ron
 

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