Gamaliel was the most renowned rabbi of the day, the most distinguished student of Hillel and succeeded him as the head of the school which bore his name.9 Paul notes his academic success in Gal. 1:14, “And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.” Bruce points to the extent of Paul’s mastery of the law: “To master the corpus of law, both written and oral, was difficult; to observe it in detail was more difficult still; but twenty years and more after he became a Christian, Paul could look back on his earlier days and sum up his conduct in the words: ‘as to righteousness under the law blameless’ (Phil. 3:6).”10 In addition to his rabbinical training, Paul would have been taught in Greek culture as…
Unlike most commentaries which immediately throw the reader into a verse-by-verse dissection of the epistles, the authors begin each half with a brief overview of the letter. The summary includes a brief history of the city of Corinth, an explanation of the cities religious practices, and the issues that are addressed in Paul’s letters as well as how the two relate to one another. These summaries are very well written and on their own, while they wouldn’t make much of a book, provide the reader with incredible insight of Corinthian culture and the context of the letters, and are perhaps the defining trait of this…
Witherington, Ben, III. Paul 's Letter to the Romans: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.…
”Not only does he invert the essence of Paul’s epistle, but he also introduces various symbolic actions which enhance…
Paul start out by writing a thank-you not to the believers at Philippi for their help in his hour of need, and he than uses the occasion to send along-some instruction on Christian unity. With Christ as your model of humility and services, you can enjoy a, oneness of purpose, attitude, goal, and labor a truth which Paul himself illustrates from his own life, and one the Philippians needed to hear.…
Which is also the basic element to all Christians, for man cannot do business with God until man is willing to approach the situation properly. Although the epistle is directed more so to the Gentiles, it can still be relevant to contemporary society. There is no distinction between man in the way of faith, because God’s salvation is for everyone. Paul develops this element of God’s righteousness throughout the epistle to the Romans. (Tenney 1985, 305).…
Paul appeals to the religion side of people not of knowledge of God however of the ignorance of God. To summarize it all together people everywhere have some idea of God. In addition, the only trustworthy knowledge sought out is God breaking into our lives in a special way that not depending on what one person tell themselves. Some guidelines are necessary for making decisions (Guthrie, Shirley Caperton…
The second reason is because Paul understands justification through the law of faith because the law of works limits God. Paul supports his theory by correlating ‘law of work’ with ‘God of Jews only,’ and ‘law of faith’ with ‘God also of Gentiles.’ Believing that boasting is acceptable in the works of the law restricts God to the Jewish people alone.…
This paper attempts to expose the verses of Romans 12:1-2 and Philippians 4:8-9 historical and literary context and meaning of the passages. The Historical and Literary Context of Each Passage (Romans 12:1-2 and Philippians 4:8-9). According to C. Meeks, The transition from Old Testament prophetic speech to New Testament preaching is influenced by the Roman and Hellenistic discussion on the written description of Scripture during the development of the temple. () Meeks points out, the Jewish and Christian teaching influenced by the developing tradition of Cynic and Stoic discourse in the last few centuries BC.…
Paul’s tone in his letters to the Corinthians is one of warmth, connection, and endearment as he refers to the congregation as “those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 1:2). Apocalyptic Christianity believes that one did not need to be circumcised in order to become a follower of Christ and receive salvation. Proof of this is found in Paul’s letter B when he states “…Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing … Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called” (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 7:18-20). They follow the example of Jesus who died for their sins, not Jesus the Jew, and therefore the only requirement to become a follower of Christ was “baptism and resurrection, dying to oneself and becoming alive in Christ … identifying oneself with Jesus and the resurrection” (Ford). Paul clearly speaks this message in his letter to the Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? … we have been buried with him by…
In order to emphasize to the Corinthians that human wisdom is not as powerful as God’s wisdom, Paul wanted to show that Godly wisdom was accessible and available to all believers (Brass, 2000). Paul shared how we gain wisdom through the teachings of the gospel not through baptism. Paul understands that the Greek’s admire human wisdom, but show them that this form of wisdom is misplaced and keeping them from receiving the word and power of God through the teachings in the gospel (Brass, 2000).…
Paul wrote this book to resolve the problem of circumcision and Jewish legalism toward Gentile believers. It was written as a response to the regional churches facing a theological crisis. Basically, convert to Judaism first, and then you are eligible to become a Christian. Paul was…
The apostle Paul, also known as “Saul of Tarsus,”, is the apostle to the Gentiles. (Romans 11:131 and Galatians 2:8).2 (You can use parenthetical citation for Scripture, as you did here, without having to also cite them in the endnotes.) In order for us to understand how God ordained his apostleship to the Gentiles, we must first understand his background.…
An aircraft crosses the outer marker (OM) on an ILS approach, on glideslope. The outer maker check height is 2300ft.…