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Some Notes on Paul's Conversion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

J. G. Gager
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Extract

One of the most puzzling aspects of our much overworked field of New Testament studies – puzzling particularly at a time when individualism and personal religious experience have become central themes in our culture – is the fact that so little attention has been given to the most obvious, indeed the only clearly accessible instance of a personal religious experience in the New Testament. While some exegetes have shunned psychological contributions almost as if they might somehow impugn the authenticity of the event itself, others have undoubtedly reacted to the excesses of earlier attempts to psychoanalyse Paul's personality. But whatever the justification, the decision to follow a literary path, to the exclusion of the psychological, has meant that exegetes have lost touch with the dynamic, experiential dimension of Paul's conversion and have been forced to isolate it from other facets of his career.

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , October 1981 , pp. 697 - 704
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

Notes

[1] For a full discussion of this issue see Jeremias, J., The Eucharistic Words of Jesus (London: SCM Press, 1966), PP. 15–88.Google Scholar

[2] For a critical appraisal of this approach see Richardson's, R. D. Supplementary Essay to Mass and Lord's Supper by Lietzmann, H. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1976), pp. 623–4.Google Scholar

[3] Commenting on Mark 14. 26 Taylor, V. in The Gospel According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan, 1966), p. 548CrossRefGoogle Scholarwrites, ‘It is commonly held that the Psalms sung at the Pascal meal, namely the second part of the Hallel (Psa. cxv-cxviii) are meant.’ In The Gospel According to Mark, St. (London: SCM Press, 1959), p. 133Google Scholar A. M. Hunter states, ‘The Greek (hymnesantes) need not mean only one hymn or rather psalm. If the meal was a Passover, or a hurried anticipation of it, their praise would consist of the second half of the Hatlel Psalms (115–118), the “Songs of Praise” usually sung at the great festivals.’ Cranfield, C. E. B. in The Gospel According to St. Mark (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), P. 428Google Scholar writes, ‘ύμνησατς refers (if the meal was a Passover meal) to the second part of the Hallel, i.e. Pss. cxiv (or cxv)-cxviii.’ See also: Gould, E., The Gospel According to St. Mark (Edinburgh: T., and Clark, T., 1921), p. 266;Google ScholarLagrange, M. J., Evangile Selon Saint Marc (Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1947), p. 382;Google ScholarNineham, D. E., St. Mark (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1968), p. 387;Google ScholarJeremias, J., op. cit., p. 255.Google Scholar

[4] For example in The Eucharistic Words of Jesus, p. 87,Google Scholar J. Jeremias writes, ‘So far as the word of interpretation over the wine is concerned, this must have been spoken in connection with the grace (Mark, 14. 23:Google Scholar “having given thanks”) after the main meal, since according to Mark it was said after the breaking of bread (14. 22) but before the passover hallel (14. 26). This setting of these words is supported by two things to be found in Paul: the very archaic “after supper” (1 Cor. 11. 25) and the expression “the cup of blessing” (1 Cor. 10. 16).’ In a note on this expression Jeremias adds: ‘kos šel beraka (cup of blessing) is an established technical term for the cup of wine over which the grace after the meal was said. In The First Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Sheed and Ward, 1971), p. 110,Google Scholar J. McKenzie writes, ‘ “The cup of blessing“: we have here a well established expression derived from Judaism. It seems the most solemn point in the Paschal meal. During the ritual lasting several hours, the cup was passed around four times. The third of these was the most important because over it the head of the household, as president of the assembled company, spoke the solemn prayer of thanksgiving or blessing.’ Moffatt, J. in The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1959), p. 165 states, ‘Thus Paul calls the eucharistic cup the cup of blessing, which happens to be the name for the third cup in the Paschal meal as well as for a special cup at the Kiddush.’Google Scholar

[5] Mishnah Pesachim 10. 6.Google Scholar

[6] Jeremias, J., op. cit., pp. 256–7.Google Scholar

[7] Ibid., p. 258.

[8] Mass, A., The Gospel According to St. Matthew (St. Louis: Bertold, 1898), p. 268.Google Scholar