Why Foreign Missions? 20b. The Gospel According to Paul in the Corinthian Correspondence, Gordon Fee

Why Foreign Missions?  20b. The Gospel According to Paul in the Corinthian Correspondence, Gordon Fee

The previous study offered two ways to explore the content of the Gospel in the early Church: by examining confessional formulae and the speeches of Acts.  In this study, a third approach to identifying the Gospel will be presented through an essay by +Gordon D. Fee.[1]  His method is to examine Paul’s correspondence with the Corinthian church.  While his method again demonstrates that the Gospel is focussed on Jesus, it identifies several dimensions to the Gospel that expand points noted in the previous study.

The Gospel has Content

First, Fee points out that the Gospel has a content (pp. 112f).  Existentialist eisegesis of the 20^th century attempted to argue that, originally, the Church spoke of the act of believing rather than what was to be believed.  While such a distinction is surely ludicrous in its own right, one might, nevertheless, point out that Paul does indeed speak as though there is a content to the Gospel (Gal. 2.2, 5, 14).  I would add that Paul speaks of 'truth' 55 times in 52 verses, and he uses the phrase 'truth of the Gospel' in the following places:

*Galatians 2:5 we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

*Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

*Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;

*Colossians 1:5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel.

The Content of the Gospel in 1 and 2 Corinthians

Paul offers, Fee continues, some (minimal) content to the gospel on two occasions: 1 Cor. 15.3-5; Rom. 1.16-17.  As with the previous study, Fee also identifies some other semi-creedal statements in Paul: 1 Th. 1.9f; 5.9f; 2 Th. 2.13f; 1 Cor. 6.11; 2 Cor. 1.21f; 13.13; Gal. 4.4-7; Rom. 5.1-5; 8.3f; 8.15-17; Eph. 1.13f; 4.4-6; Tit. 3.5-7.  Fee suggests that these texts might be built upon by other, related texts in Paul, such as: 1 Cor. 1.4-7; 2.4-5; 6.19f; 12.4-6; 2 Cor. 3.16-18; Gal. 3.1-5; Rom. 8.9-11; 15.16; 15.18f; 15.30; Col. 3.16; Eph. 1.3; 1.17-20; 2.17-18; 2.19-22; 3.16-19; 5.18-19; Phil. 1.19f; 3.3.

From these texts, three things might be stated:

1. No one text is identical with another.  If Paul were drawing from a ‘pre-formed pool’ of tradition, one would expect otherwise (Fee, p. 113, n. 8).  Fee concludes by this that Paul is responsible for most of these formulations.

2. Most of these are expressed not for their own sake but to support another concern (p. 113).

3. Almost always there is ‘an experiential dimension to what is affirmed theologically (the experience of salvation obviously transcends mere theologizing about it)’ (p. 113).

As Fee focusses on 1 and 2 Corinthians, he particularly emphasises that Paul’s Gospel emphasises the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and that there is a trinitarian substructure to the Gospel (p. 114).  Thus:

*God is the initiator of salvation in Christ;

*Christ is the content of the gospel, and

*The Spirit is the one by whom the historical reality of Christ’s redemption is made personal and corporate in believers’ lives (p. 114).[2]

Fee demonstrates these points from 1 and 2 Corinthians in his comments on the following texts.

*2 Cor. 11.4: For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.

In 2 Cor. 11.4, salvation is clearly said to be found in Jesus.  Righteousness comes not through the Torah but through Jesus.  The third item in the verse (‘a different gospel from the one you accepted’) interprets the first two (Jesus and the Spirit).  By re-introducing the old covenant (cf. 2 Cor. 3.1-18), Paul’s opponents end up with a different Jesus from the one Paul preached, and this too involves a different Spirit—a faith with no role for the Spirit (pp. 117-122).

*1 Cor. 1.17-2.16:

In this longer passage, Fee again argues that the issue he is facing with the Corinthian church is not about what the church understood of Jesus—christology.  Rather, the conflict is over what the church believes about salvation (soteriology).  What Jesus has done to accomplish salvation is the content of the Gospel that gives unity to the contingent theology of 1 and 2 Corinthians.

At issue is Paul’s contention that the content of the gospel is not wisdom (sophia) but a crucified Messiah (1.18-25).  This alters the understanding of the church’s identity, as many in the church are not wise, influential, or well-born (1.26-31).  This also alters the understanding of the nature of preaching, which is in weakness and not with rhetorical skill or wisdom, and it is through the Spirit’s power, 2.1-5 (122f).

Furthermore, Paul again has a trinitarian substructure to his argument.  First, he speaks of God’s wisdom and power.  Second, God’s gospel is all about Christ, the cross, and redemption through him.  Third, all this is experienced through the Spirit (2.4f).

*1 Cor. 6.11: And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified [or better, ‘made righteous’] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Here again, Fee avers, one can find a trinitarian substructure to the Gospel: God is the assumed subject of the verbs,[3] Christ is the name by which this salvation is accomplished, and salvation is realised through the Spirit (125f).

Other aspects of the Gospel already noted can be found here too.  The focus on salvation can be seen in the rich metaphors of ‘washed,’ ‘sanctified,’ and ‘made righteous’ (cf. 1 Cor. 1.30).  The experiential dimension can be seen in the term ‘washed’ and the role of the Spirit (p. 126).

*2 Corinthians 1:18-20  ¹⁸ As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes and No."  ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not "Yes and No"; but in him it is always "Yes."  ²⁰ For in him every one of God's promises is a "Yes." For this reason it is through him that we say the "Amen," to the glory of God.

In these verses, where Paul defends his integrity, he first appeals to God’s character.  God is trustworthy, and all his promises have been realized in Jesus Christ.  Second, Paul makes note of God’s saving activity.  As Fee states, God’s saving activity

is but an outflow of his character.  Thus, as always in Paul, God’s own character stands as both the ground and initiative of his saving activity, which was effected historically by his Son and appropriated in the lives of believers by his Spirit, who is also the present guarantor of the final eschatological glory (p. 128).

*2 Cor. 2.14-4.6

In these verses, the crucified Messiah is hinted at (‘triumphal procession’—see 1 Cor. 4.9 and therefore 1.18-25), and elsewhere in the epistle.  But here the central role is played by the Spirit.  The Spirit brings freedom from the veil of Torah observance, and so has to do with a salvation in Christ made real through the Spirit, transforming ‘God’s new covenant people into Christ’s likeness’ (p. 130).  Once again, the trinitarian substructure and the experienced nature of theology is in view.

*2 Corinthians 13:13  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

In this benediction to 2 Corinthians, we once again observe Paul’s association of the Gospel with the trinity, his focus on salvation (grace), his understanding that the Gospel is initiated in God’s character (his love), and his understanding that the Gospel is experienced through fellowship with the Spirit.

Finally, two of Paul’s concerns in 2 Corinthians are rooted in the Gospel: Paul’s apostleship (e.g., 2 Cor. 2.14-7.4 and chs. 10-12) and the Corinthian’s participation in the collection for the poor in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8-9—note 8.9) (pp. 132f).

Conclusion

Fee’s examination of Paul’s Gospel apart from the speeches in Acts or the creedal formulae in the epistles involves taking a look at particular texts in 1 and 2 Corinthians.  These texts address the content of the Gospel more discursively.  As with the previous study (20a), Fee finds that the Gospel is focussed (1) on Jesus Christ and (2) the salvation that he brings.  Moreover, his study of 1 and 2 Corinthians shows that the Gospel is (3) rooted in the character of God, (4) is more than a ‘content’ to be believed but should also be experienced, and (5) has a Trinitarian substructure.

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[1] Gordon D. Fee, ‘Another Gospel Which you did not Embrace: 2 Corinthians 11.4 and the Theology of 1 and 2 Corinthians,’ in Gospel in Paul: Studies on Corinthians, Galatians and Romans for Richard N. Longenecker, JSNTS 108, eds. L. Ann Jervis and Peter Richardson (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), pp. 111-133.

[2] Cf. Gal. 4.4-6.

[3] The passive verbs lack a subject.  This usage of the passive in Greek is called a ‘divine passive,’ and it means that God is the assumed subject.

Why Foreign Missions? 20a1. The Gospel According to Paul: Sermons and Confessions

Why Foreign Missions?  20a1. The Gospel According to Paul: Sermons and Confessions

What Gospel did the early Church take to the Jews and Gentiles of the Roman world outside Israel?  This study, focussed mostly on Paul, begins a section that seeks to identify the content of the early Church’s ‘Gospel.’  Here, I will present how several scholars, such as C. H. Dodd and James D. G. Dunn, have approached and answered the question, ‘What is the Gospel According to Paul?’ by exploring sermons and confessional formulae in Acts and Paul. [1]  The next studies will expand this discussion.

Challenges in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century saw several challenges to coming up with a content to the Gospel.  Michael Green discussed these in Evangelism in the Early Church.[2]  First, there is the question of whether different scholars can arrive at the same results when reviewing the evidence from the New Testament.  Is there a unity to the content of the Gospel?  Second, existentialists (such as Rudolf Bultmann) predictably argued against the very possibility of a content to the Gospel.  Their emphasis was on the faith that was elicited—on ‘believing,’ not on ‘beliefs.’  A third challenge was the claim that, while there was content to the Gospel, it varied according to context.  Thus the Gospel was not monolithic but dynamic.  A fourth challenge was whether the speeches in Acts that present the Gospel were not considered by some scholars to reflect actual speeches of the early Church so much as Luke’s own theology.

Green concluded his consideration of these challenges by saying that scholars (such as C. H. Dodd, Ralph Martin, W. Hollenweger, and T. W. Manson) looking at the early creeds in the New Testament found a unified content to the Gospel.  This creedal approach confirms the content of the Gospel, as follows:

Jesus Christ was God's last word  to man, the one who brought as much of God to us as we could appreciate in the only terms we could take it in, the terms of a human life; the one who in dying and rising again was manifestly vindicated in his claims and achievement.[3]

C. H. Dodd

C. H. Dodd believed that he identified an early kerygma of the early Church by comparing the speeches of Acts with passages from Paul's letters and noting recurrent themes.[4]  Of particular importance in the letters are the following passages: 1 Cor. 15.1ff; Rom. 1.1ff; and 1 Cor. 1.23; 2.2‑6; 3.10ff; 2 Cor. 4.4; Rom. 10.8f; 14.9f.  Dodd himself arranged the themes slightly differently in several places, so the following presentation of Dodd’s work is taken from M. Green, Evangelism in the Early Church:[5]

“*The Age of Fulfillment had dawned.
*This has taken place through the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.
*By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God, as Messianic head of the new Israel.
*The Holy Spirit in the Church is the sign of Christ's present power and glory.
*The Messianic Age will shortly reach its consummation in the return of Christ....
*The Kerygma always closes with an appeal for repentance, the offer of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, and the promise of salvation, that is, the life of the Age to Come to those who enter the community."

Not only are such points to be found in creedal statements in Paul’s letters but also in the speeches in the book of Acts.  One might, e.g., work through these features of the kerygma in Peter’s speech in Acts 2.  What we see in Dodd’s proposal is that the early Church’s Gospel (not only Paul’s) focussed on Jesus Christ.  This entailed who Jesus is, what he had accomplished, and that he fulfills what had been promised by the prophets of Israel. 

Dodd wrote in the days before we began to speak of narrative theology in Scripture, but the narrative dimensions of the Gospel can be appreciated in our day.  The prophets told a story about a messianic age that is fulfilled in the story of Jesus and is now experienced in the story of the Church.  Sixty-one years later, for example, Ben Witherington could phrase the ‘tapestry of Paul’s theology’ in terms of a story that was comprised of four stories:[6]

1. The story of a world gone wrong

2. The story of Israel in that world

3. The story of Christ, which arises out of the story of Israel and humankind on the human side of things, but in a larger sense arises out of the very story of God as creator and redeemer

4. The story of Christians, including Paul himself, which arises out of all three of these previous stories and is the first full installment of the story of a world set right again.

In my own dissertation, I argued that the Gospel was the story of Jesus that was lived out in the life of Paul and the Church.[7]

James D. G. Dunn

James D. G. Dunn presents the work of others on the early Christian kerygmatic and confessional formulae that appears in the literature, with much of the evidence coming from Paul.[8]

Resurrection Formulae: ‘God raised him from the dead’	Rom. 4.24-25; 7.4; 8.11; 10.9; 1 Cor. 6.14; 15.4, 12, 20; 2 Cor. 4.14; Gal. 1.1; Col. 2.12; 1 Th. 1.10; Eph. 1.20; 2 Tim. 2.8; 1 Pt. 1.21; Acts 3.15; 4.10; 5.30; 10.40; 13.30, 37
‘Died for’ Formulae: ‘Christ died for us’	Rom. 5.6, 8; 14.15; 1 Cor. 8.11; 15.3; 2 Cor. 5.14-15; 1 Th. 5.10; Ign. Trallians 2.1
‘Handed over (paradidomi)’ Formulae: ‘he was handed (or handed himself) over (for our sins)’	Rom. 4.25; 8.32; 1 Cor. 11.23; Gal. 1.4; 2.20; Eph. 5.2, 25; 1 Tim. 2.6; Tit. 2.14; 1 Clement 16.7
Combined Formulae: ‘Christ died and was raised’	Rom. 4.25; 8.34 (14.9); 1 Cor. 15.3-4; 2 Cor. 5.15; 13.4; 1 Th. 4.14
Confessional Formulae: ‘Jesus is Lord’	Rom. 10.9; 1 Cor. 8.6; 12.3; 2 Cor. 4.5; Phl. 2.11; Col. 2.6; Eph. 4.5; Acts 2.36; 10.36; Jn. 20.28

In addition to the texts noted in the above table, Dunn adds Rom. 1.3-4 and 3.21-26.  Yet even these are not exhaustive.  For example, certain formulaic statements (which some have claimed were early Christian hymns) may have formed the basis of certain texts in the New Testament literature that pre-dated even Paul: Phl. 2.6-11; Col. 1.15-20; 1 Tim. 3.16; and Heb. 1.1-4.  Yet Dunn is not here trying to present the definitive argument on early Christian confessional formulae.  He is defending the existence of such formulae in the literature prior to and apart from Paul.  He does so with the following arguments: (1) there are many possible formulae in a variety of authors, as the chart above suggests; (2) these formulae are found in various contexts in which they were used in the early Church (baptismal, liturgical, evangelistic, and paraenetic [ethical exhortation] contexts); and (3) the brevity of the passages in Paul suggests that the readers were familiar with them (note especially Rom. 3.21-26, after the lengthy argument in Rom. 1.18-3.20).[9]

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[1] All letters attributed to Paul will be taken as written by Paul.  While many scholars dispute the authenticity of Paul’s letters to the Ephesian and Colossian churches, his second letter to Thessalonica, and the Pastoral Epistles to Timothy and Titus, I do not find these arguments compelling.  Even so, the main concern in a Biblical theology of mission is to render the theology of Scripture, and internal divisions of any sort (whether authentic or pseudonymous letters) eventually give way to how the texts fit together theologically.

[2] Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, pp. 60ff.

[3] Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, p. 63.

[4] C. H. Dodd, Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments (HarperCollins, 1936).

[5] Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church, p. 60.

[6] Ben Witherington, III, Paul’s Narrative Thought World: The Tapestry of Tragedy and Triumph (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994).

[7] Rollin G. Grams, Gospel and Mission in Paul’s Ethics, unpublished dissertation, Duke University, 1989.

[8] James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), p. 175.

[9] James D. G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle, pp. 175f.

Why Foreign Missions? 19. The Pauline Missions According to Acts

Luke presents the mission of the Church beyond Israel largely through journeys of Paul and his companions. Acts anticipates the Gentile mission from the beginning and stemming from Jesus’ teaching that his disciples will be witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth (Acts 1.8; thus fulfilling Is. 59.6). This concurs with Jesus’ instructions at the end of Matthew (28.18-20) and Luke (24.46-49). This Gentile mission starts with the diaspora Jews visiting on Pentecost, who take the Gospel back to their home regions (Acts 2.5-11).  John hints at the same development, when Gentiles seek Jesus just before His passion and Jesus says that He will draw all people to Himself when He is ‘lifted up’ (meaning both crucified and glorified) from the earth (12.20-36; reflecting Isaiah 52.10, 13).  In Acts, the mission continues as the Gospel is taken to Samaritans (Acts 8.5, 25), to an Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8.27ff), and to a Roman Centurion's family (Acts 10.1ff).  This study, however, presents the data from Acts for the Pauline missions and offers some external data that helps us to ascertain the dates for these missions.

 

 FIRST MISSIONARY JOURNEY (WITH BARNABAS)

      Antioch to Seleucia to Cyprus (13.4-6) (from Salamis to Paphos)

     Paphos to Perga in Pamphylia to Pisidian Antioch (13.13f; Mark quits the mission (15.37f)

     Pisidian Antioch to Iconium (13.51).  Considerable time (14.3)

     Iconium-Lycaonian cities of Lystra to Derbe (14.6, 20)

     Derbe to Lystra to Iconium to Antioch (14.21)

     Pisidia to Pamphylia (Perga) to Attalia (14.25)

     Attalia to Antioch (14.26) Stayed at Antioch a long time

 

  JERUSALEM VISIT REGARDING GENTILE QUESTION

      Antioch-Phoenicia-Samaria-Jerusalem (15.3)

     Jerusalem-Antioch (15.30, 35)

  SECOND MISSIONARY JOURNEY (WITH SILAS)

     From Antioch through Syria to Cilicia (15.41)

     To Derbe, Lystra, Iconium (16.1f)

     Throughout Phrygia and Galatia (not Asia Mysia or Bithynia) to Troas (to

          Macedonia) (16.6-10)

     Troas to Samothrace to Neapolis to Philippi (16.11f) several days

     Philippi through Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica (17.1)

     3 Sabbaths (17.2)

     Thessalonica-Beroea (17.10)

     Beroea-Coast-Athens (17.14f)

     Athens to Corinth (18.1) Aquila and Priscilla recently expelled from Rome (18.2)

                  Paul stays one year and six months (18.11)

                Gallio proconsul of Achaia (18.12)

     Corinth-Syria (18.18)

     Corinth to Cenchrea (18.18) to Ephesus (18.19) to Caesarea (18.22) to Antioch (18.22); some    

    time in Antioch

THIRD MISSIONARY JOURNEY 

     Antioch throughout Galatia and Phrygia (18.23)

     Road through interior to Ephesus

          While Apollos is at Corinth (19.1), Paul 3 months in Ephesian synagogues (19.8)

          2 years discipling in lecture halls of Tyrannus (19.10)

     Ephesus through Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem (19.21)

               Plans to go to Rome after trip (19.21)

          Ephesus-Macedonia (20.1)

          Through Macedonia to Greece (20.2f), 3 month stay

          Greece-Macedonia (20.3)

          Philippi-Troas (20.6)        After Unleavened Bread, 5 day journey, stay of 7 days.

          Troas-Assos (on foot) to Mitylene (by ship) (20.13f)

          Mitylene (one day)-Chios

               (one day)-Samos (one day)-Miletus (20.15)

               Paul in hurry to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost (20.16)

          Miletus to Cos (one day) to Rhodes to Patara (21.1)

          Patara-Phoenicia (on a new ship) (21.2)

               Route:  Patara-south of Cyprus-Syria

          Tyre (21.3)                        7 days

          Tyre-Ptolemais (21.7)       1 day

          Ptolemais-Caesarea (21.8) a number of days

          Caesarea-Jerusalem (21.15)

ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT IN JERUSALEM AND CAESAREA

Day 1  Reception (21.17)

Day 2  Meeting with James (21.18)

Days 3-10  7 Day Purification nearly completed (arrest) (21.26f)  Commander

Claudius Lysias

     Day 1 (after arrest)  Sanhedrin (22.30)

     Day 2  Revelation of testimony in Rome (23.11)

     Day 3  Jerusalem to Caesarea (23.12, 23)

     Day 4  Paul’s hearing set in Caesarea (24.31-33)

     Day 9  Ananias states case against Paul (24.1)

                 "12 days ago I went to Jerusalem" (24.11)

                  Governor  Felix--governor "for many years" (24.10)

     Several days later Paul’s 2nd hearing with wife Drusilla (24.24)

     2 years later change of governor to Festus (24.27)

     Day 3 of Festus’ rule: Festus goes to Jerusalem (25.1)

     Day 11-13  Festus goes to Caesarea (25.6)  "8-10 days later"

     A few days later Agrippa and Bernice visit for several days (25.13f)

     (Next day after explaining Paul’s case) Paul speaks (25.23ff)

               IMPRISONMENT JOURNEY TO ROME

     Adramyttium-Sidon (one day by ship) (27.3)

     Sidon, under lee of Cyprus, past Cilicia and Pamphilia, to Myra in Lycia (27.4f)

     Myra (new ship) to off Cnidus (several days) to under lee of Crete off Salmone (27.7f) (a

            number of days as the wind was against them)

          Fair Havens near Lasea (27.8) "a long time" (27.9)

          Day of Atonement already past (27.9)

     Along Crete toward Phoenicia (Crete) for winter (27.12)

          Storm; blown to lee of island Cauda (27.16)

          Driven along by wind (hoping to avoid sandbanks off coast of Syrtis) (27.17)

          Next day:  Cargo overboard (27.18)

          Next day:  Ship’s equipment overboard (27.19)

          Many days (27.20)

          14th night:  driven in Adriatic Sea (27.27)

          15th night:  shipwreck at Malta (27.39; 28.1)

                    Chief Official at Malta: Publius (28.7)

                    3 months on Malta (28.11)

     Malta-Syracuse (3 days) (28.12f) to Rhegium (28.13)

     Next day:  Rhegium-Puteoli (2 days) (28.13) 1 week (28.14)

     Puteoli-Rome via Forum of Appius and Three Taverns (28.15)

          ROME

          Day One:  Arrival

          3 days later:  meeting with Jewish leaders (28.17)

          2 yrs. in rented home preaching (28.30)

This is where Acts ends, leaving Paul in Rome under house arrest.  Luke knew the length of time--two whole years--that Paul spent in Rome but does not tell us what happened (Acts 28.30).  For various reasons (not to be offered in this summary), Paul was likely freed, had further ministry, but was later reincarcerated and beheaded in Rome during the emperor Nero's oppressive rule.

     Externally Ascertainable Dates for a Pauline Chronology

I.  Edict of Claudius (Acts 18.2)

     A.  References:

         1.  Suetonius, Life of Claudius 25

         2.  Dio Cassius 60.6.6

         37  Orosius (5th c. Church Historian, History 7.6.5)

     B.  Conclusions:

         The evidence of Acts and the dating of Orosius would place this edict Jan. 25,

                49-Jan. 24, 50.

II.  Gallio Proconsulship (Acts 18.12)

     Archaeology: Gallio Inscription

     Gallio was evidently in Corinth between July 1st,  51 and July 1st,  52.  Paul was in Corinth at

this time and stayed there a total of 1 and 1/2 years.

III.  Egyptian Rebel and 4,000 Zealots (Acts 21.38)

     A.  Josephus, Ant. 20.158ff

     This happened before Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem, under Felix, after Claudius’ death. 

     B.  Paul’s arrest must have happened after 55.

IV.  Paul’s Hearing Before Felix and Festus (Acts 24.10,  27; 25.1)

     A.  References:

         1.  Tacitus, Ann. 12.54

         2.  Josephus, Bell. 2.232ff; Ant. 20.182.

     B.  Felix took office 52/53.  Festus replaced him probably in the summer of 59 or 60.

V.  Encounter with Ananias (Acts 23.1-5; 24.1)

     A.  Josephus, Ant. 20.125-133, 179.

     B.  Ananias was appointed high priest in A.D. 47.  His appointment was questioned

                in 52, but he probably continued in office until 59.

VI.  Dates for other rulers:

     A.  The Herodians

         Herod the Great      37 BC - 4 BC

         Herod Antipas        4 BC - AD 39      (Mk. 6.14ff; 8.15; Lk. 3.1; 13.31; 23.6ff)

         Philip (Mk. 8.27)    4 BC - AD 34

         Herod Agrippa I      AD 37-44       (Acts 12)

         Agrippa II           53-100 (?)         Acts 25.13ff)

     B.  Emperors (dates of rule, always ending by their deaths)

         Augustus         27 BC - AD 14

         Tiberius         14-37

         Gaius Caligula   37-41

         Claudius         41-54

         Nero            54-68

VII.  King Aretas (2 Cor. 11.32)

     A.  Josephus, Ant. 16.294

     B.  Ruled Nabataean Kingdom 9 BC - AD 38-40.  When was he likely to have ruled Damascus?  

Tiberius’ policy discouraged client kingdoms in favor of provinces (e.g., Syria), whereas Caligula favored client kingdoms.  Thus it is likely that Aretas ruled Damascus only during Caligula’s rule.

     C.  So, Paul’s conversion must have happened between 37-40.

References:

     Jewett, Robert.  A Chronology of Paul's Life.  Philadelphia:  Fortress Press, 1979.

     Lüdemann, Gerd.  Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, I:  Studies in Chronology.  Trans. F. Stanley

Jones.  Philadelphia:  Fortress Press, 1984.

Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology: Scholarship, David Bosch (2)

Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship: Scholarship, David Bosch (2)

David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991).

These are short notes on the mission paradigms that Bosch identifies in Church history, without comment.

Bosch argues that identifying 'paradigms' is a helpful way to understand the history of theology and mission. In this, he is developing the notion of paradigm shifts in theology as argued by Hans Küng ("Was meint Paradigmenwachsel?" in Küng and David Tracy (eds.), Paradigm changes in Theology (NY: Crossrod, 1984, 1989 ET).  Bosch finds six paradigm shifts in 2,000 years of Christian history.  He does not believe that one gives way to another so much as one is added to existing paradigms.  I will simply present his analysis briefly, noting that this remains one of the major studies in recent times of mission theology and history (even though I have my doubts about the usefulness of a paradigm study of history).

1.      Apocalyptic Paradigm of primitive Christianity

2. Hellenistic Paradigm of the Patristic Period

  a. After Constantine, Church was made of socially superior, and mission was to the socially inferior.

  b. Christian mission was understood in terms of truths to communicate more than events describing God's self-communication.

  c. Eastern Orthodox Church lost sense of urgency, imminence of end, historical (vs. vertical earth and heaven perspective).  Salvation became ascent of soul to heaven.  Good deeds in this world delivered one from hell.  Church in Eastern Theology moved from a mobile ministry (apostles, prophets, evangelists) to a settled ministry (bishops, elders, deacons).  The Spirit was not so much enabling mission as building the church in sanctity.  Thus the focus was ecclesial, not missionary (although monks were the primary vehicle of missions).  Missions was conducted by Nestorian monasticism (as far as China by AD 225), whereas Egyptian monasticism was missionary.  The patristic and orthodox missionary program was:

1. More compromised to the state than Roman Catholicism

2. Mission is thoroughly church-centred, as church is Kingdom of God on earth.  Church is the aim of mission, not an instrument for mission.  Mission is not proclaiming ethical truths or principles; it is calling people into membership of the Christian community in a visible and concrete form (207).

3. Pagans receive God's light through church's liturgy: mission is centripetal rather than centrifugal, organic rather than organized.  The Eucharist is a missionary event.

4. Mission and unity of Church go together: mission must manifest life and worship of the Church.  Great Schism of 1054 altered mission of Orthodox Church: search for Christian unity.

5. Mission founded on love of God more than justice.

6. Goal of mission is life: doctrine of theosis (cf. 2 Cor. 3.18): union with God (not deification)--a continuing state of adoration, prayer, thanksgiving, worship, and intercession, and a meditation and contemplation of the triune God and God's infinite love.

7. Cosmic dimension of new life: all creation is in process of becoming ekklesia (Church): state, society, culture, nature are objects of mission.

3. Medieval Roman Catholic Paradigm

  a. Changed context from Eastern Orthodox: redemption not pedagogical process and taking up into the divine but an overturning the sin-ridden life through a crisis experience.  Theo. not incarnational (origin, preexistence of Christ) so much as staurological (substitutionary death on cross of Christ).

  b. Ecclesiasticization of Salvation: no salvation outside the church, originally meaning (Cyprian) that one must disassociate with heretical groups (Donatists), came to mean that one might crusade against heretics but not infidels (so Aquinas).

  c. Mission btwn. church and state:  Augustine's City of God (A.D. 413-427): Rome could be sacked by Goths (A.D. 410) not because Rome turned from its ancestral gods but because there are two societies or cities in the world existing side by side.  Later R.Cath. identified the city of God with the Church.  Hence the state became the visible arm enforcing the Christian mission against heretics and pagans.  Hence the missionary wars.  Monasteries were not intentionally missionary but in fact permeated by a missionary dimension in 5th to 12th centuries.  They were independent from state, unlike in the East.  They were communal, unlike the indiv. emphasis in the East.  Monks were revered ascetics, lived exemplary lives in poverty and hard work, perpetrated education and culture, maintained their character despite barbarian invasions, helped others along the way while on pilgrimage.  English monasticism actually had purpose of missionary work.

4. Protestant (Reformation) Paradigm

  a. Mission was weak not due to concern but rather emphasis: Luther hoped for foreign mission but his emphasis was elsewhere:

1. God's work over human effort

2. Preaching over programs

3. Opposed force in mission to pagan world

  b. While Catholic nations were colonizing others, Protestants weren't.  Emphasis was on reforming the church, and energies were expended in fight with Catholic opposition.  Abandonment of monasticism meant abandonment of strongest form of missionary activity of medieval church.  Also, Protestants were torn apart by internal strife.  Later (1652), Univ. of Wittenberg submitted opinion that Lutheran church had no missionary calling; the State was to convert pagans, even through war (Bosch, p. 251).

  c. Anabaptists were missionary, though.  Unlike Luther, who upheld idea of territorially circumscribed parishes with ecclesiastical office restricted within them (don't wander outside your area into another person's territory), Anabaptists wandered everywhere, calling for a more radical reform--a restoring--and a separation of the state from church affairs.  Reformers did not see Great Commission binding, Anabaptists did.

  d. Pietists: broke from weak missionary concern of  Reformation in combining a joy of personal experience of salvation with eagerness to proclaim gospel to all (so Spener).  Nikolaus von Zinzendorf founded Moravians, a non-institutional, ecumencal missions organization.  Early pietists were concerned with service to soul and body but by 1730's concern was purely religious.

  e. Calvinist missions was more active than Lutheran, in part because of popularity in countries engaged in colonization (England, Holland, Scotland), but also because they taught that the Holy Spirit was at work not only in human soul but also in renewing face of the earth, and Christ the exalted is active on the earth.

5. Modern Enlightenment Paradigm

  a. Movements freeing state from church

  b. Forces of renewal in church--did not distinguish nominal Christian from pagan, so mission was expanded.  2 Cor. 5.14: constrained by Jesus' love was a major new motif, along with earlier concern to bring glory to God.  Saving souls and bettering society went together in 18th and 19th c.  Conviction that God chose and ordained Western nations to bear Gospel to world.  But in 1870's and after mission was taken to "bosom of ecclesial Protestantism"; people hoped to evangelize the world in their generation (America's Student Volunteer Movement).  Increasingly, imminent eschatology played role in missions (with predictions of Christ's return).

              c. Liberal Christianity characterized by following:

1. View that other religions not totally false

2. Mission work meant less preaching and more transformational activities

3. Accent on salvation for life in present world

4. Emphasis in mission shifted from the individual to society.  Confidence in social progress in 19th c. led to social gospel emphasis.  By 1917 this was on the way out and a religious universalism, based on 19th c. romanticism, replaced it.

  d. Many mission societies started in last 100 yrs.--hence new question, Should mission work be work of the Church?  But denominations, being so many, are themselves para-church organizations (Bosch, p. 329).

6. Emerging Ecumenical Paradigm

  Enlightenment paradigm is challenged in society today:

  a. Reason is not enough on which to build one's life--religion, new age movement still around in scientific society.  Science and theology probe, they do not prove.

  b. More holistic view of world

  c. Teleological Dimension rediscovered: not everything is predictable, a result of some law.

 d. Challenge to progress thinking--important in missions today

   1. The application of technology is not merely a technological matter--influenced by people's social and religious dispositions.

   2. Humans receiving aid as objects in a network of planning, transfer of commodities, logistic coordination by  development agent is criticized

   3. Power: Western nations neither would nor could relinquish power and privilege.  Liberation theology wrongly assumes good in people: transfer power and all will be well.

 e. Fiduciary framework.  One paradigm interprets facts as does another, but one must choose a fiduciary framework over another.

 f. Optimism is now chastened.

 g. Toward Interdependence: Society sees others as unimportant and beliefs as mere opinion.  We must reaffirm conviction and commitment, retrieve togetherness, interdependence, symbiosis.

Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology: Scholarship, David Bosch (1)

Engaging the Bible in Mission Theology Scholarship: Scholarship, David Bosch (1)

David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991).

After initial chapters on the mission theology of certain New Testament authors, Bosch surveys the history of missions.  He structures his historical survey by identifying six paradigms for mission in Church history.  He attempts to associate key Biblical texts with each of the paradigms for mission.  Bosch’s views on which Scriptures go with which paradigms of mission form the focus of the following study, with a very brief caution and comment of my own at the end.  In the next study, a deeper look at Bosch's paradigms for mission will be presented.  An outline format should help readers scan this study quickly.

1.      Apocalyptic Paradigm of primitive Christianity

a.       This is the period during which the New Testament documents were being written and when the New Testament canon was being defined.

b.      Salvation was largely future, although begun in this life with radical renewal (see the summary of salvation in the various periods, pp. 393ff).

2. Hellenistic Paradigm of the Patristic Period (p. 209).

a.       Ground of mission is love (Jn. 3.16).

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

b.      The Goal of mission is life (Jn. 3.16).  This is understood as participating in God's glory.  A key Orthodox doctrine is theosis (cf. 2 Cor. 3.18): union w/ God (not deification)--a continuing state of adoration, prayer, thanksgiving, worship, and intercession, and a meditation and contemplation of the triune God and God's infinite love.

2 Cor. 3.18: And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

c.       Salvation is cosmic (cf. 2 Cor. 5.19; Col. 1.20):

2 Cor. 5.19: that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

Col. 1.20: and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

d.      Salvation was seen as gradually moving toward divine status and took  the form of paideia, instruction.  Emphasis was placed on Christ's preexistence and incarnation.  (This is also true of Catholics and Anglicans, but now especially of Liberation Theology.)  But Bosch also notes the importance of Jesus' resurrection in Orthodoxy (p. 515).

3. Medieval Roman Catholic Paradigm

a.       Ground of mission is Lk. 14.23:

'Then the master said to the slave, 'Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.'

b.      Goal of missions is to create a Christian civilisation.

c.       Salvation was seen as the redemption of individual souls after this life.  It occurred through Christ's substitutionary death on the cross (this is also true of Protestantism).

4. Protestant (Reformation) Paradigm

a.       Ground of mission for Lutherans is Rom. 1.16f (p. 240).

b.      Grounds of mission for Anabaptists are Mt. 28.18-20; Mk. 16.15-18 [which is, of course, a later addition to Mark’s Gospel]; Ps. 24.1 (p. 246).

Matthew 28. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Mark 16. 15 And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. 16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it….

c.       Calvinists: the goal of mission is the glory of God, understood in terms of predestination and God's mercy.  In theology and practice, this entailed theocracy, 'to establish in the 'wilderness' a socio-political system in which God himself would be the real ruler' (259).  The 'Praying Towns', fourteen settlements including converted Indians, in Massachusetts were organised in accordance with Ex. 18 (259).

5. Modern Enlightenment Paradigm

a.       2 Cor. 5.14: constrained by Jesus' love was a major new motif,

     along with earlier concern to bring glory to God.  Saving souls and bettering society went together in 18th and 19th c.

2 Cor. 14 For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.

            b. In the 2^nd half of the 1800's, a number of premillenial mission

            leaders and groups began to use Mt. 24.14 as the major mission text (316).

Mt. 24.14 And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come.

c.      Paul's vision of the Macedonian call (Acts. 16.9) was significant when Western Christians viewed peoples of other races and religions as living in darkness and deep despair and as imploring Westerners to come to their aid' (340).

Acts 16.9  9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us."

d.       The proponents of the Social Gospel favoured John 10.10:

'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

'

e.       Matthew 28.18-20 was a key text for William Carey, and since him it has been prominent in Protestant circles (340).  Carey argued that the text applied to the present day Church (not the disciples alone).  By the end of the 19^th century, this text superseded all others as the key mission text.

f.      Salvation was no longer seen as distinct from God's providential care (under which came the notions of caring for the needy), nor was it viewed as from outside human agency (pp. 394f).  Jesus' work was not understood in terms of a substitutionary death that propitiated God but as exemplary.  'Here not the person of Jesus was at the centre but the cause of Jesus; the ideal, not the One who embodied the ideal; the teaching (particularly the Sermon on the Mount), not the Teacher; the kingdom of God, but without the King (395).  At the Uppsala Assembly of the WCC (1968), salvation was defined exclusively in this-worldly terms: 'for (1) economic justice against exploitation; (2) for human dignity against oppression; (3) for solidarity against alienation; and (4) for hope against despair in personal life' (see Bosch, pp. 396f).  Salvation was seen with respect to Jesus' earthly life and ministry (p. 399).

6. Emerging Ecumenical Paradigm

a.       The local church is one of the new emphases in missions, with Acts 13.1-3 serving as a key text (p. 378):

'Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.'

b.      The WCC's Narobi Assembly (1975) produced its report as a prayer for the churches instead of a call to the world, and a key text was 1 Pt. 4.17 (p. 388):

For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

In this regard, the church was distinguished from (it 'witnessed to') the Kingdom of God (so the CWME of the WCC at Melbourne (1980)).  In the last half of the 20^th century, there has been a decisive shift to seeing mission as God's mission, largely to K. Barth's credit and understood in terms of the Trinity (389).  This was decisive at the Willingen Conference of the IMC (1952).  Mission is God's work, through the Church, for the world.  This has been endorsed by the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics.

c.       Salvation as taking place in the horizontal sphere alone comes under critique in this paradigm (at the Nariobi Assembly of the WCC (1975) and the 1974 Bishops' Synod and the Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975) publication within Catholicism.  Now, salvation as holistic is the emphasis.  'Missionary literature, but also missionary practice, emphasize that we should find a way beyond every schizophrenic position and minister to people in their total need, that we should involve individual as well as society, soul and body, present and future in our ministry of salvation' (399).  This view includes the vertical (salvation from God; eschatological salvation) and the horizontal.

My Conclusion: Beyond Bosch

I must admit that I find identifying paradigms with particular Scripture passages both intriguing and reductionistic.  (I do, in fact, think that the idea of ‘paradigms’ in history is fraught with methodological problems.)  So, I conclude with a caution about Bosch’s approach.  For me, his arguments are best used by us if, instead of identifying mission movements with singular or particular Scripture passages, we rather ask the questions, ‘Are particular Scriptural passages being used more than others in this or that mission movement?’ and ‘What happens when certain Scriptural passages are used and others not used, or de-emphasised, in our mission theology?’

One might also note that Bosch really needed to give more attention to Pentecostalism when discussing the contemporary missionary situation.  This is, after all, where the major growth is in the Church’s mission.  If we are to try to identify primary texts with Pentecostal missionary efforts, they would certainly include Mt. 28.18-20; Acts 1.8; and Acts 2.17-21 (quoting Joel 2.28-32a]:

Matthew 28:18-20   ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Acts 1:8  ut you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Acts 2:17-21 [quoting Joel 2.28-32a]   ¹⁷ 'In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.  ¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.  ¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist.  ²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.  ²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'