St Paul's Tarsus Thesis

One of the major philosophers from late antiquity is St. Paul, an apostle of Jesus and leader of the early Christian church. He was once known as Saul of Tarsus, and used his background as a Jew and Roman citizen to evangelize to all citizens in Jewish cultures within Roman cities when he became one of the most important writers in scripture and in Church tradition. In his time after Jesus’ death, he ministered to many church communities he formed in Europe and what was then Asia Minor through writing letters, to cities such as Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica. A particular city, Corinth, is located against a gulf, which means it participates in land and sea trade. Corinth was also rebuilt as a Roman colony …show more content…
Paul’s first letter, as from this will stem the proper behavior of glorifying God through loving others and behaving appropriately. Therefore, St. Paul’s inferred thesis is to glorify God in our bodies by remaining sexually moral, socially proper, and loving selflessly. St. Paul tells us in the letter to live by the wisdom of God and the Gospel that he speaks on behalf of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2), living sexually moral lives in marriage, families and the single life while loving selflessly, as said in its most famous chapter about love, chapter thirteen (1 Corinthians 5-7). Sexual immortality and other sinful habits cause division and separation within ourselves and with others, and we should have community without divisions by loving rightly. Not to mention, St. Paul also condemns the worship of idols, or objects and people that are made gods, such as how in modern times we often make technology a god. He shuns idolatry because he believes that “there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians 8:6). He also acknowledges …show more content…
Paul obtained inspiration from Jesus’ teachings as he wrote to the church of Corinth, but as early Christianity was beginning, the Greek philosophy of Stoicism was popular and thriving. In The Manual of Epictetus, Arrian described the beliefs of Stoicism. The beliefs of the Stoics that are similar to the philosophy of St. Paul are of behavior and actions and living a virtuous life. The Stoics desired to live without worry and inordinate attachments, letting their will be that events happen as they ought, not as they desire, thus sacrificing their will to Nature and allowing it to run its course (Arrian 135). In a similar way, St. Paul said to love rightly and appropriately defined it, stating that love “does not [worry] over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, [and] endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:6-7). As the Stoics would sacrifice their will to Nature, so too should we sacrifice our will to loving others properly and thus live in and through