Religion and Ethics Forum
Religion and Ethics Discussion => Christian Topic => Topic started by: Ricky Spanish on June 02, 2016, 08:34:01 AM
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As a follow on to Hopes "Epistles" thread, which has wandered wayyyyy off topic as usual.
I'm curious as to how Paul is conceived by other contributors.
Was he Greek or Jewish?
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As a follow on to Hopes "Epistles" thread, which has wandered wayyyyy off topic as usual.
I'm curious as to how Paul is conceived by other contributors.
Was he Greek or Jewish?
He was a Roman Citizen and a Jew.
Did anyone who was Jewish get the right to hold power outside what was allowed by the Romans?
Tit for tat... ROMANS AND JEWISH leaders avoiding conflict then.
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Hellenic Jew IMO.
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The big drawback against the gentile Paul theory is that he didn't have a drawback.....ha ha ha.
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Vlad, you might want to check that the office air con isn't giving off fumes.
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Vlad, you might want to check that the office air con isn't giving off fumes.
I'm not at work and never Internet when I'm working.
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I'm not at work and never Internet when I'm working.
Good for you. Far too many people seem to be playing on forums etc when working for an employer. Years ago I questioned an extreme Christian who posted on the Beeb, as to why he was posting from work, his answer was that it was his duty as he was doing god's work!!!!!
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As a follow on to Hopes "Epistles" thread, which has wandered wayyyyy off topic as usual.
I'm curious as to how Paul is conceived by other contributors.
Was he Greek or Jewish?
Why would it matter?
ippy
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There must be an agenda behind the question (call me cynical) because it is very apparent from Paul's writings that he was a Jew.
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Whatever Paul's ethnicity, he was a miserable git and a bigot if his writings are anything to go by!
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There must be an agenda behind the question (call me cynical) because it is very apparent from Paul's writings that he was a Jew.
So what!
ippy
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There must be an agenda behind the question (call me cynical) because it is very apparent from Paul's writings that he was a Jew.
It's also very apparent that he was culturally Greek. The two are not mutually exclusive.
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I'm not at work and never Internet when I'm working.
Do you know what's causing it then?
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I have thought about what Thrud is asking.
One is a religion the other place. It would actually be in Turkey the Tarsus where Paul was born.
So I am not really sure why the heading is:- " Was Paul a Jew or a Gentile." and the Question in the first post is as follows:-
"Was he Greek or Jewish?"
Paul clearly a Jew by religion. Where the GREEK comes in, I am not sure...
Though I do get the saying " it's all greek to me!". lol
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I'm not at work and never Internet when I'm working.
Oh Goody-two-shoes! If you believe that you will believe anything!
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Oh Goody-two-shoes! If you believe that you will believe anything!
At almost 12 midday it would be far fetched to believe someone sat at their computer at the approach of their Lunch hour.
Suppose he could be a goody-two-shoes if missing lunch for a leaner waist-line.
The phone-line won't add calories...
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Well, that didn't take long did it?
At least the "night worm" (Sassernacht. Remember that moniker?) attempted to give an answer:
He was a Roman Citizen and a Jew.
Did anyone who was Jewish get the right to hold power outside what was allowed by the Romans?
Tit for tat... ROMANS AND JEWISH leaders avoiding conflict then.
Yup - it is obvious that Paul was a Jew, the Roman Citizen part. A probability. It cannot be denied though that he was a full-on Greek speaker who grew up in the Jewish Diaspora around the Turkish/Syrian border area known as "Cilicia" in his day. Or Can it?
"Was he Greek or Jewish?"
Paul clearly a Jew by religion. Where the GREEK comes in, I am not sure...
He was obviously trained in the judicious classical Greek, by virtue of his writings and philosophical outlook on the impending "Kingdom" he was waiting for.
But apart from that what do we really know about Paul?
Well from his genuine letters we can read he was possibly a Pharisee, because he was allegedly weirdly zealous about the Jewish traditions handed down from “the fathers” (Gal 1:13-14): “For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, that I was persecuting the church of God beyond all measure and trying to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”
He seemed very keen on keeping the Pharisaic traditions of the Torah-observance that was prevalent in his day. Now this sectarian group were not that interested in pagans.
Pharisees were more concerned with other Jews who wrongly interpreted their own religion. Which is why he had this beef with the Jewish cult he knew as the "church of God".
As an aside. Were these members of the "church of God" he was persecuting 'Christians' or Jews? (Think language).