Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Disagreeable Quotes of the day

I'm writing my doctorate to show why I think this first one is way off:

'The praises and homage offered to Christ [in the NT] then seem to take their place naturally in the series of Jewish royal messianic praises'

(William Horbury, Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ, London, SCM: 1998, p 140)

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All I want to say about the following is "what about 1 Cor 16:22?".

'What does Paul love? ... [I]n contrast to many modern believers, Paul cannot say, "I love Jesus" ... the relationship to this lord and king could not be any closer, but it is not called love. Paul loves heaven.'

(Klaus Berger, Paulus. München: C. H. Beck, 2002, p 35)

Of course, were either of these two to skim through my work, I would come out far worse!

4 Comments:

At 5/08/2007 12:09 PM, Anonymous James Mendelsohn said...

hi Chris
Briefly, why do you think the 1st one is way off?

 
At 5/08/2007 1:52 PM, Anonymous Ed Gentry said...

This is so often much to agree with in something disagreeable.

Of course Jesus was praised as Messiah, and Eschatology was important to Paul. There is just much more to it that that.

 
At 5/09/2007 4:56 PM, Anonymous Chris Tilling said...

James, if I told you that I'd have to kill you (doctoral work)!

But Ed is right, I agree with much in Horbury's scholarship, but early Christin devotion to Jesus displays a pattern of evidence which is inappropriately compared with the 'royal' praises Horbury looks at. It's not even a 'step on the way'. I'll discuss this more when I'm nearer to finishing my thesis, which hopefully won't be too long if I get my butt moving.

 
At 5/22/2007 10:29 PM, Anonymous Benjamin S. Lewis said...

All I want to say about the following is "what about 1 Cor 16:22?".

'What does Paul love? ... [I]n contrast to many modern believers, Paul cannot say, "I love Jesus" ... the relationship to this lord and king could not be any closer, but it is not called love. Paul loves heaven.'

Yup. Or how about 2 Cor 5:14-15 or Gal 2:20? Granted, modern belivers may be talking about "a new kind of love," but these passages suggest a love that goes way beyond sentiment and positive vibes stirred up by the repetive choruses, snappy melodies and upbeat rhythms of modern worship music. Did Paul "love" Jesus? Look at it his life. It goes without saying because Paul's love for Jesus goes far beyond profession in words.

Or so it seems to me.

Good blog, Chris. Found your review of RB's book well worth the extended read.

 

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