Paul and Jesus

4. This theme of humankind falling into corruption through these “fallen” angels is a common one in Jewish texts of the period; see Jubilees 5:1–6, 1 Enoch 15:1–12. It also shows up in a few New Testament texts: 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6. The emphasis is that these angels left their proper place in the created order. There are several other possible interpretations, among them the fascinating proposal of Jason BeDuhn that Paul is speaking of the creation of the sexes, divided into male and female, as the inferior work of angels, when God had originally intended Humankind/Adam to be an androgynous unified being: “ ‘Because of the Angels’: Unveiling Paul’s Anthropology in 1 Corinthians 11,” Journal of Biblical Literature 118:2 (1999): 295–320. BeDuhn offers a very thorough review of the abundance of scholarly literature attempting to interpret this difficult verse. In the end I remain convinced that the lustful gaze of the angels is what Paul has in mind.

5. The Dead Sea Scrolls sect shared this idea that the holy angels were present when the group assembled. See Joseph A. Fitzmyer, “A Feature of Qumran Angelology and the Angels of I Cor. xi. 10,” New Testament Studies 4 (1957): 48–58. Fitzmyer does not share the view that Paul’s reference is to lustful angels, but simply to the holiness of angels present in the assembly who would be offended by any kind of immodesty on the part of women. My argument is that Paul’s cosmos is as thick with negative spiritual forces as with positive, and he mentions in this same context both the “discerning of spirits” and the likelihood that some are being “moved” by demonic activity posing as the Spirit of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12:1–4).

6. See Borg and Crossan, The First Paul, pp. 55–57.

7. See the footnote in the Revised Standard Version.

8. Thomas C. Oden, First and Second Timothy and Titus (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1989), 101.

9. Sandra R. Joshel, Slavery in the Roman World (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

10. See S. Scott Bartchy, “Slavery (Greco-Roman),” in Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992).

11. Anthony Everitt, Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician (New York: Random House, 2003), pp. 121, 175–77, 241–47, 319–24.

12. The Revised Standard Version, as well as many others, translates this problematic phrase “avail yourself of the opportunity,” which is surely less offensive than the more literal reading. S. Scott Bartchy supports this, translating more freely: “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t worry about it. But if, indeed, you become manumitted, by all means [as a freedman] live according to [God’s calling].” See MALLON CHRESAI: First-Century Slavery and 1 Corinthians 7:21, Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 11 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1973). The New Revised Standard Version returns to something closer to my understanding: “Even if you can gain your freedom, make use of your present condition now more than ever.”

CHAPTER 8: THE TORAH OF CHRIST

1. See Julie Galambush, The Reluctant Parting: How the New Testament’s Jewish Writers Created a Christian Book (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); Amy-Jill Levine, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2007); Barrie Wilson, How Jesus Became Christian (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008); James D. G. Dunn, ed., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999).

2. The polemics of Christians against Jews are early and amazingly bitter; see William Nicholls, Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate (New York: Jason Aronson, 1995).

3. See the discussion by Shaye J. D. Cohen, “Judaism without Circumcision and ‘Judaism’ without ‘Circumcision’ in Ignatius,” Harvard Theological Review 95:4 (2002): 395–415, as well as the study by Thomas A. Robinson, Ignatius of Antioch and the Parting of the Ways: Early Jewish-Christian Relations (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009).

4. See Louis Feldman, Jew and Gentile in the Ancient World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).