[Vision2020] Ralph, Beer, Cats, Sex, Berith, & Apostle Paul

[Michael]

Ralph,

 

Your name is Inigo Montoya, and I am prepared to die. 

 

Here is your paragraph in full:

 

"As to why neither appears in the New Testament, I suspect that the
expectation of the imminent Second Coming of Christ was so fully in the
minds many of the early Christians that they had no time to think of either
beer or cats. They didn't even have time to think about sex

(1 Corinthians 7:29-31)."

 

Looking back on it, I can see that those who didn't have time to think of
beer or cats were only "many," (although not your later interpretation as
"some.") However, look at how ambiguous the second statement is; it seems to
be an independent statement asserted to support the initial claim.  It is
most naturally read as the following: many didn't drink beer; after all,
Christians didn't even have time to think about sex according to Paul's
comments about sex in 1 Corinthians. This would imply that you were
referring to, generally speaking, all Christians. 

 

So I can't say that my initial read of this was some sort of gross
misrepresentation.  The average reader would need the follow up information
that Corinth and the Christians there were actually a rowdy sexual and
drinking bunch of people, according to external and internal textual
evidence. I don't take the responses to this personally, since I know that
my revealed relation to various ministries of Christ Church do not permit me
to make a true assertion about the bible :-)

 

As for the text in question, this is a very beautiful but difficult text;
Paul does not clearly reference a 'second coming' here, but "this present
[or impending] distress" (7:26).  Paul is more concerned with defending his
own love for them, his authority, getting worship in better order, the
primacy of love and unity in the church, and serious discipline issues than
he is about an immanent happening.  His eschatology in this book seems
different than you suggest.  For example, Paul says that Jesus "must reign
until he has put all enemies under his feet," which would include liberal
biblical scholarship; so he couldn't have come that early on.

 

As a side note, if you are a local biblical scholar, I need help on OT
'berith' and new testament 'diatheke.' This is where some of my work is
currently focused, and other than Leithart it is hard to find any interest
around here since Joan would call me a heretic for rejecting the teaching of
the Westminister Confession of Faith.  I'm working on a debate with Wilson
on this matter right now.

 

Thanks

Michael Metzler  

 

 

 

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