4 Comments:

 Richard Fellows said...

Thanks, Thom. You've done a very thorough job. A one page summary of your own view of the text would be useful.

The whole hidden transcripts thing is fascinating. I don't know whether you have been following discussions about the extent to which Paul subtly criticises the imperial cult in his letters.

You may be interested in some of my own work on Acts and Paul. I argue that there are quiet a few cases of 'protective silence' in Paul and Acts where the author hides certain facts from potentially hostile authorities to avoid getting anyone into trouble. Also, when the author and his intended audience have insider information that is not available to potential persecutors (who are the unintended audience), this can be exploited by the author to communicate with his intended audience while hiding his meaning from the unintended audience. An example of this, I suggest, is the account of the beating of Sosthenes, which makes no sense to those without insider information (such as potential persecutors and modern commentators), but makes perfect sense to insiders who knew that Sosthenes was none other than Crispus renamed. For the insider the text states that the Jews were given the jurisdiction to beat up Christian benefactors, but this meaning had to be kept hidden from the unintended audience because it would tell them that they could beat up other Christian benefactors and appeal to the precedent of the Gallio incident to avoid repercussions.

I have written about protective silences here: http://members.shaw.ca/rfellows/My_Homepage_Files/Page56.html

And I've written about Crispus-Sosthenes here:

http://members.shaw.ca/rfellows/My_Homepage_Files/Page9.html

If my reading of Acts 18:17 is correct, Gallio's ruling gave the Jews permission to beat up Christian benefactors. Therefore Paul cannot have meant what he appears to say in Rom 13:1-7. Phoebe, who delivered Romans and was herself a Christian benefactor would therefore not have been able to read this passage to the Roman church with a straight face. Perhaps she read it with an ironic tone of voice.

Thanks again for an interesting series of posts. The hidden transcript stuff was new to me.

5/15/2008 12:44:00 AM  

 -z said...

hey thom - i got a blog. it's
vicitagnusnoster.blogspot.com
drop on by.

miss you and love you. tell ela happy birthday for me.

5/15/2008 10:01:00 PM  

 Thom Stark said...

Richard,

I am very interested in your work. I've been browsing your sites and I am planning on doing some serious reading of your stuff in the near future. It sounds like your arguments definitely complement the Hidden Transcript approach; in fact, they fit right into Scott's categories. I really appreciate your taking the time to read through this long series, and I very much appreciate your comments.

Your comment on the Benefaction Convention post was helpful. Although Winter's reading is possible, it remains highly unlikely, I think, for several reasons. One of those reasons is that Paul's language is too ambiguous to be determinative, and, as Walters points out, the language of agathon and epainos is right at home in Greco-Roman and Jewish moral paraenesis as well.

I do think it remains a possibility that Paul could be alluding to the benefaction convention, but, since I read the pericope ironically, I think such an allusion would be tongue-in-cheek, as you suggested when you imagined Phoebe reading 13:4 with a smirk, in light of Gallio's precedent.

Your comment on the Nanos section (Jewish synagogue authorities) was very astute. In fact, the point you made was so painfully obvious, I slapped myself for not having thought of it already. Your addition will definitely make the second draft!

I hope to be in dialogue with you in the future. Thanks again for taking the time to carefully read my work, and critique it. I am obliged to you, sir.

Grace and peace,
Thom

5/16/2008 11:13:00 PM  

 Loren Rosson III said...

Thom,

This is a mighty impressive analysis. Thanks for making it available in the two formats. I interacted with it this morning in Paul's Hidden Transcript in Rom 13:1-7, and you may find my earlier blogpost about Jesus and Taxes helpful as well.

5/21/2008 06:35:00 AM  

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