Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church
Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church
primary, but rather a Jewish Christian theology. Jorge Luís Borges, ‘The Theologians’ (1964): The Historionics ... invoked I- Corinthians 13:12 (‘For now we see through a glass, obscurely’) in order to demonstrate that everything we see is false. Perhaps contaminated by the Monotonists, they imagined that each person is two persons and that the real one is the other, the one in Heaven. Gilles Quispel, ‘Gnosticism and the New Testament’, in J. Philip Hyatt (ed.), The Bible in Modern Scholarship (papers read at the 100th meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, 1964): The Christian community of Jerusalem ... did not accept [Paul's] views on the [Mosaic] Law. Helmut Koester, ‘The Theological Aspects of Primitive Christian Heresy’, in James Robinson (ed.), The Future of our Religious Past (1964); Introduction to the New Testament (1980); Ancient Christian Gospels (1990); with Stephen Patterson, ‘The Gospel of Thomas: Does It Contain Authentic Sayings of Jesus?’, Bible Review (1990): Paul himself stands in the twilight zone of heresy. || The content of Paul's speeches in Acts cannot be harmonized with the theology of Paul as we know it from his letters.... Neither is it credible that he affirmed repeatedly in his trial that he had always lived as a law- [i.e. Torah-]abiding Jew.... From the beginning of Acts to the martyrdom of Stephen, the central figure in the narrative has been Peter. At this point, however, Paul is introduced for the first time.... Peter is always presented as an apostle, since he belongs to the circle of the Twelve. But in Acts 15 Peter is mentioned for the last time, and Luke has nothing to report about his journey to Rome or his martyrdom. Even more peculiar is the presentation of Paul. He is neither an apostle nor a martyr.... Furthermore, Luke takes great care to demonstrate that the originator of the proclamation to the gentiles was not Paul (or Barnabas), but Peter. || One immediately encounters a major difficulty. Whatever Jesus had preached did not become the content of the missionary proclamation of Paul.... Sayings of Jesus do not play a role in Paul's understanding of the event of salvation.... The Epistle of James also shares with the Sermon on the Mount the rejection of the Pauline thesis that Christ is the end of the [Mosaic] law. || Paul did not care at all what Jesus had said.... Had Paul been completely successful, very little of the sayings of Jesus would have survived. Emil G. Kraeling, The Disciples (1966): The peculiar, unharmonized relationship between Paul and the Twelve that existed from the beginning was never 152
fully adjusted.... Modern Biblical research in particular has made it difficult to put the religion of the New Testament (to say nothing of the Bible as a whole) into the straightjacket of Paulinism. Bruce Vawter, The Four Gospels (1967): We have no authentic information about the activity of most of the Twelve after the first days of the Church in Jerusalem, but it is likely enough that they remained identified with Jewish Christianity, particularly, perhaps, with the Galilean Christianity about which we know practically nothing.... This Christianity ... all but disappeared. Paul Tillich, A History of Christian Thought (1968): The [Mosaic] law was not evaluated in the negative way in which we usually do it; for the Jews it was a gift and a joy.... The way of despair ... was the way of people like Paul, Augustine, and Luther.... Paul's conflict with the Jewish Christians did not have to be continued. Instead of that, the positive elements in the faith, which could provide an understandable content for the pagans, had to be brought out. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Creative Mythology (1968): The reign in Europe of that order of unreason, unreasoning submission to the dicta of authority:... Saint Paul himself had opened the door to such impudent idiocies. Günther Bornkamm, Paul (1969): Above all there results the chasm which separates Jesus from Paul and the conclusion that more than the historical Jesus ... it is Paul who really founded Christianity.... Already during his lifetime Paul was considered an illegitimate Apostle and a falsifier of the Christian message.... For a long time, Judeo-Christianity rejected him completely, as a rival to Peter and James, the brother of the Lord.... Paul does not connect immediately with ... [the] words ... of the earthly Jesus. Everything seems to indicate that he didn't even know them. David Ben-Gurion, Israel: A Personal History (1971): Jesus probably differed little from many other Jews of his generation. The new religion was given an anti- Jewish emphasis by Saul,... [who] gave Christianity a new direction. He sought to uproot Jewish law and commandments, and to eliminate Judaism as a national entity striving to achieve the Messianic vision of the Prophets. William Steuart McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles (1973): Why did Jesus choose only twelve chief Apostles? Obviously, to correspond to the twelve tribes of Israel.... Paul stoutly maintained that he also was an Apostle.... Yet there is no evidence that he was ever admitted to that inner circle of the original Twelve.... Those who expect the Acts to be the complete early history of Christianity are 153
- Page 101 and 102: 27. Then the moment comes when thos
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- Page 124 and 125: structure of [Mahayana] Buddhist ph
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- Page 132 and 133: The Gospels endorse John's Baptism
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- Page 144 and 145: Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth
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- Page 158 and 159: Jon Sobrino, Jesus Christ Liberator
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fully adjusted.... Modern Biblical research in particular has made it difficult to put the<br />
religion <strong>of</strong> the New Testament (to say nothing <strong>of</strong> the Bible as a whole) into the<br />
straightjacket <strong>of</strong> Paulinism.<br />
Bruce Vawter, The Four <strong>Gospels</strong> (1967): We have no authentic information<br />
about the activity <strong>of</strong> most <strong>of</strong> the Twelve after the first days <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Church</strong> in<br />
Jerusalem, but it is likely enough that they remained identified with Jewish<br />
<strong>Christian</strong>ity, particularly, perhaps, with the Galilean <strong>Christian</strong>ity about which we know<br />
practically nothing.... This <strong>Christian</strong>ity ... all but disappeared.<br />
Paul Tillich, A History <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> Thought (1968): The [Mosaic] law was not<br />
evaluated in the negative way in which we usually do it; for the Jews it was a gift <strong>and</strong><br />
a joy.... The way <strong>of</strong> despair ... was the way <strong>of</strong> people like Paul, Augustine, <strong>and</strong><br />
Luther.... Paul's conflict with the Jewish <strong>Christian</strong>s did not have to be continued.<br />
Instead <strong>of</strong> that, the positive elements in the faith, which could provide an<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>able content for the pagans, had to be brought out.<br />
Joseph Campbell, The Masks <strong>of</strong> God: Creative Mythology (1968): The reign in<br />
Europe <strong>of</strong> that order <strong>of</strong> unreason, unreasoning submission to the dicta <strong>of</strong> authority:...<br />
Saint Paul himself had opened the door to such impudent idiocies.<br />
Günther Bornkamm, Paul (1969): Above all there results the chasm which<br />
separates Jesus from Paul <strong>and</strong> the conclusion that more than the historical Jesus ...<br />
it is Paul who really founded <strong>Christian</strong>ity.... Already during his lifetime Paul was<br />
considered an illegitimate Apostle <strong>and</strong> a falsifier <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Christian</strong> message.... For a<br />
long time, Judeo-<strong>Christian</strong>ity rejected him completely, as a rival to Peter <strong>and</strong> James,<br />
the brother <strong>of</strong> the Lord.... Paul does not connect immediately with ... [the] words ... <strong>of</strong><br />
the earthly Jesus. Everything seems to indicate that he didn't even know them.<br />
David Ben-Gurion, Israel: A Personal History (1971): Jesus probably differed<br />
little from many other Jews <strong>of</strong> his generation. The new religion was given an anti-<br />
Jewish emphasis by Saul,... [who] gave <strong>Christian</strong>ity a new direction. He sought to<br />
uproot Jewish law <strong>and</strong> comm<strong>and</strong>ments, <strong>and</strong> to eliminate Judaism as a national<br />
entity striving to achieve the Messianic vision <strong>of</strong> the Prophets.<br />
William Steuart McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles (1973): Why did<br />
Jesus choose only twelve chief Apostles? Obviously, to correspond to the twelve<br />
tribes <strong>of</strong> Israel.... Paul stoutly maintained that he also was an Apostle.... Yet there is<br />
no evidence that he was ever admitted to that inner circle <strong>of</strong> the original Twelve....<br />
Those who expect the Acts to be the complete early history <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong>ity are<br />
153
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