Posted on 09/18/2010 8:26:32 PM PDT by markomalley
Remains interesting you would state that.. Humm-mmmm.
Or, from Answers.com:
The apostle Paul wrote the Christian religion’s earliest texts while crisscrossing the Mediterranean and preaching about the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul’s letters to other believers — declaring that Jesus had risen from the dead and was the Christ, the anointed one, foretold by Jewish prophets — are now a vital part of the New Testament of the Bible, and his words have strongly influenced Christian thinking and worship. Paul himself did not start out as a Christian believer. According to the biblical book The Acts of the Apostles, he was originally known as Saul and was an authorized persecutor of the followers of Jesus. He suddenly converted, Acts says, after being temporarily blinded by a flash of light and hearing the voice of the risen Jesus while on the road to Damascus. Taking his new name of Paul, he became a traveling Christian leader, explaining the movement to the Greeks, starting new churches, and settling conflicts in existing ones. He was jailed or run out of town many times for angering local religious and civic leaders. Scholars say Paul was the actual writer, in Greek, of seven biblical epistles: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon.
Paul is considered a saint in Roman Catholic, Orthodox and some other Christian traditions... His hometown, Tarsus, is in modern-day Turkey, in a region then known as Cilicia... Unlike other famous Christian disciples, Paul never met Jesus before his death. Like them, however, he took the title “apostle” (Greek: apostolos), meaning “one sent forth”... Most scholars question Paul’s authorship of six more biblical letters attributed to him: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. They differ from his other epistles in style, viewpoint and vocabulary. Their unknown authors may have identified with Paul’s school of thought or hoped to invoke his authority... Among Paul’s most famous passages is the discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13. It begins, “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal,” and ends, “Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.”
I wouldn't have bothered, but Dr. Eckleburg attributed my statement that Paul was likely looney to "Roman Catholics" and I had to correct her. Then, everyone else jumped in and decided to resurrect that old discussion. I don't mind. But my view is not "the" Catholic View. It's MY OPINION.
Even so...your comment remains interesting. Do you have an opinion on the others who penned scripture? A favorite perhaps?
So tell me, what exactly is the point in this posting, this which you say is from that august and expert source, wikipedia???
All of the Psalms.
The stuff that I labeled from Answers.com is from several sources, including Encylopedia Brittannica, and Columbia Encyclopedia.
You can look it up yourself, if you don’t like my sources.
Well, you impeached my source, the Jewish Encyclopedia. So, I got some others. None of the scholars think Paul wrote all the Epistles attributed to him.
What makes you say that?
I've written elsewhere that if all I had to go on were the so-called Pauline Epistles, I wouldn't care for anything about Christianity. I read the Bible from cover to cover, several editions several times, and it was the four gospels that brought me to Christ.
By the way, as far as I recall, the only two disciples of the twelve that St. Paul mentions are Sts. Peter and John. Maybe the others didn’t like him. Maybe with good reason. After all, they were Jews, they knew Jesus Christ personally, and St. Paul did not. Maybe they thought he was a mental case too.
All I've ever found are Peter and John. Where did you find the others?
Do you know on what basis they make this argument? Can you point to anything that would support that contention or are you just saying, “So and so says”?
For example this from the “Answers” source:
” Most scholars question Paul’s authorship of six more biblical letters attributed to him: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. They differ from his other epistles in style, viewpoint and vocabulary. Their unknown authors may have identified with Paul’s school of thought or hoped to invoke his authority...”
Who are these “most scholars”? How do those six letters of Paul differ from the others, what style, viewpoint, vocabulary?
I can't believe you have any idea and I can't see any reason to think you've actually made any investigation at all to find out since you reply to any question is a web site.
For example the letter to the Colossians Paul both opens and closes naming himself as the author though he may have had a secretary do the actual penning. But from wikipedia,
“The authenticity of Colossians has been questioned[46] on the grounds that it contains an otherwise unparalleled description (among his writings) of Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God,’ a Christology found elsewhere only in John’s gospel.”
Then why not question John's writing too? That Paul agrees with John proves he didn't write Colossians? Please! This is scholarship?
Further from that wikipedia citation on the book of Ephesians:
“Ephesians is a very similar letter to Colossians, but is almost entirely lacking in personal reminiscences. Its style is unique. It lacks the emphasis on the cross to be found in other Pauline writings, reference to the Second Coming is missing, and Christian marriage is exalted in a way which contrasts with the reference in 1 Cor. 7:8-9.”
Ephesus was was an extremely wealthy city with the temple of the goddess Artemis, it was also a very immoral city and Paul found it necessary to make clear God's righteous moral laws as in chapter 5.
Part of Christian morality Paul pointed out was proper love and treatment of marriage mates. On the other hand what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 7:8,9, was his own opinion on the desirability of widows remarrying
and he said it was his opinion not a command from God.. There is no contrast or conflict to had there.
So the great mind at wikipedia either doesn't read or doesn't even the most simple Scriptures.
So too your source, the rabbi, who impeached himself but had you looked beyond his saying what seemed
to support your view you would have known his views of the Last Supper and general bias.
Repeating opinions is easy, and not the same as having convictions, that's what makes me say that.
.
For a long time, all I had was my personal preference for ABP (anyone but Paul). When I first made my views known here, it became a 1000 post dogpile.
Since then, I've looked at a number of writers on Paul, only posted major websites here because frankly, the discussion bores me, and you are not a congressional committee which can compel my participation.
What difference does it make to ANYONE what I think or why? Frankly, it's nobody's business.
But claiming, as Dr. E. did, that Catholics in general feel the way I do is just ridiculous. For that reason I'm participating in a limited way. You will not find any Catholics agreeing with me, but they WILL allow a personal opinion without dogpiling.
Yes, they are a comfort and encouragement for most of us....but how about the New Testament? One of my favorites is Revelations, for it reveals Christ so wonderfully as our coming King. Awesome depictions of Him.
“What difference does it make to ANYONE what I think or why? Frankly, it's nobody’s business.”
But that is what posting on an open thread does, it invites comments from anyone who wishes to reply, it's everyone business then.
The other side of posting is that no one can compel you to respond to anything you wish not to and you can simply leave the thread.
As for what others post... I only accept responsibility for my own words.
And I would think that the young virgin that Christ called and chose as His Mother, who gave of herself to the death in obedience to Christ's request to bear the good news within, next to her heart, would merit better than be called a nobody, nothing but a vessel, a plain woman like any other who was fit only to cast aside...well, you get the idea. Some folks probably think Catholics worship her.
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