1.B. What is problematic about calling St. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus a “conversion”? When talking about the “conversion” of St. Paul, we have to refer to it as a “revelation,” instead as a conversion in the way we would understand it today. For instance, St. Paul did not experience a conversion of religion. In fact, iIn 2 Cor. 11:22 he says, “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I.” Also, in Rom 11:1 he says, “I myself am an Israelite.” Thus, he did not speak of leaving Judaism to become a Christian. Neither can we understand his “conversion” as moving from unbelief to belief because he was a believer, and a very zealous one. Nor can we think of “conversion” as moving from an immoral life to a moral life because
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Paul uses. In this case, he says, “grace to you and peace.” It is very interesting to see how the apostle combines the most common greetings in two different cultures, the Greek and the Jewish. On the one hand, he uses the word “grace,” which brings a connotation of experience of power. On the other hand, he uses the word “peace” (shalom), which means fullness, completion, total well-being, and it is a common greeting even today among the Jewish people. Therefore, this way of greeting people makes of his letters a very important tool for the enculturation of the Gospel and for opening doors in different communities where he preached the good …show more content…
There is a difference between authentic and authoritative authorship of St. Paul’s letters. Some letters are considered authentic, which means most scholars believe they were written by St. Paul himself. And some letters are considered authoritative, which means that even though perhaps they were not written by the apostle himself, they follow his thought or school of thought, and most likely were written by someone very close to him. It is important for people to know this when studying the Pauline corpus, so they understand the truth about authorship of Pauline letters and are able to help others know the whole context of how these letters were
Paul uses. In this case, he says, “grace to you and peace.” It is very interesting to see how the apostle combines the most common greetings in two different cultures, the Greek and the Jewish. On the one hand, he uses the word “grace,” which brings a connotation of experience of power. On the other hand, he uses the word “peace” (shalom), which means fullness, completion, total well-being, and it is a common greeting even today among the Jewish people. Therefore, this way of greeting people makes of his letters a very important tool for the enculturation of the Gospel and for opening doors in different communities where he preached the good …show more content…
There is a difference between authentic and authoritative authorship of St. Paul’s letters. Some letters are considered authentic, which means most scholars believe they were written by St. Paul himself. And some letters are considered authoritative, which means that even though perhaps they were not written by the apostle himself, they follow his thought or school of thought, and most likely were written by someone very close to him. It is important for people to know this when studying the Pauline corpus, so they understand the truth about authorship of Pauline letters and are able to help others know the whole context of how these letters were