Paul and Jesus

19. The tradition that Judas was replaced with Matthias, to fill out the apostolic council to twelve, as Jesus had established, is put seven weeks after Jesus’ death, when the Eleven would have already returned to Galilee. The official list of the Twelve, over the next decades, was an important foundation of the movement and was seen to have lasting, eschatological significance based on the promise of Jesus (Luke 22:30; Revelation 21:14). Some ancient manuscript copies of 1 Corinthians amend Paul’s reference to the “Twelve” to read “Eleven,” in an attempt to harmonize with Luke (24:9, 33) where Jesus appears the same day to the “Eleven,” not the “Twelve,” since Judas was dead (compare Matthew 28:16; longer Mark 16:14).

20. See Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984).

21. See Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho; and Origen, Contra Celsum.

22. The philosopher Philostratus published a Life of Apollonius with the support of the Syrian empress Julia Domna, wife of Septimius Severus, around A.D. 220, though much like Luke he claims to be relying on eyewitness accounts and earlier sources. See Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 1.2, translated by C. P. Jones, edited by G. W. Bowersock (Baltimore: Penguin, 1970).

23. C. P. Jones, “An Epigram on Apollonius of Tyana,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 100 (1980): 190–94.

24. See Augustan History, Alexander 29.2.

CHAPTER 4: LAST BUT NOT LEAST

1. See my discussion in Things Unutterable, pp. 69–97.

2. If Paul’s initial vision of Christ took place around A.D. 37, his three years in Arabia would have ended around A.D. 40–41. Fourteen years later takes one to A.D. 54–55, which corresponds closely to when his Corinthians correspondence was written. See Morton Enslin, Reapproaching Paul (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1972), pp. 53–55.

3. See the many studies listed by Bruce Metzger, Index to Periodical Literature on the Apostle Paul (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1960), pp. 15–16.

4. See the arguments of Robert M. Price, “Punished in Paradise,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 7 (1980): 33–40. Given the self-reported experiences of celibate monks and priests who struggle with sexual thoughts that they attribute to demons, it is possible Paul refers to such temptations, or perhaps even a literal physical condition such as periodic priapism.

5. For example, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see Testimonia (4Q175, compare 4Q558) in Geza Vermes, ed., The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 4th ed. (New York: Penguin, 1998), pp. 495–96.

6. Rabbis Hillel and Shammai were the two most renowned Torah scholars of their generation (traditionally 50 B.C. to A.D. 20). These sayings are recorded in the Mishnah, one of the earliest collections of rabbinic materials.

7. Philo, De Opificio Mundi 128; De Vita Contemplativa 30–31; Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit 80–83; Luke 4:16–17; Acts 9:20; 13:15; 15:21; Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum 1404; Josephus, Wars 2.289–92. There has been considerable debate among scholars as to what activities, liturgical and otherwise, might have taken place in Jewish synagogues or houses of study during the Roman period and some have discounted the references in Luke-Acts as having any historical value for the first century practice. For an overview of the history of this discussion, see an online article by Anders Runesson that puts things in a proper balance: http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/Runesson-1st-Century_Synagogue_1.shtml.

8. See Damascus Document 6:19; Luke 22:28–30.

9. Paul uses a Greek translation of Isaiah that has “the nations” or Gentiles, in the plural, in both Isaiah 49:7 and 8, whereas the Hebrew text has “nation” in the singular—as if to address the Israelites.

10. The common English translation of 1 Thessalonians 4:14 seems to imply the dead are already with Christ, but then Paul goes on to say they will “meet” in the air, which makes no sense. A proper translation makes things clear: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring [from the dead] along with him, those who have fallen asleep.”

11. See Albert Schweitzer, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, translated by William Montgomery (London: A. & C. Black, 1931), pp. 136–37, as well as Arthur Droge, “MORI LUCRUM: Paul and Ancient Theories of Suicide,” Novum Testamentum 30 (1988): 263–86.