New Testament: The Apostle Paul
Discussion 3 New Testament
EXPLAIN THE IMPACT OF PAUL 'S WRITINGS UPON THE WORLD AND DO YOU
BELIEVE PAUL 'S WRITINGS AFFECT PEOPLE 'S MORALS AND STANDARDS TODAY?
The Apostle Paul is, next to Jesus, clearly the most intriguing figure of the 1st century of Christianity, he wrote all of those letters that we have [as] primary sources. The primary impact he has left on Christianity after him is through his letters, but in his own time, he sees himself primarily as a prophet to the non-Jews, to bring to them the message of the crucified Messiah, and he does this in an extraordinary way. They must have reacted as if this is some sort of strange message at certain levels. What does it mean to call someone the Christ or the Messiah? It must not have been intelligible to a …show more content…
From other references within Paul[ 's writings] we can determine some of the rudiments of his preaching message. He talks about how they turn from idols to serve a living God so he brings a message of the one Jewish God as part of his preaching. He 's a Jewish preacher. Secondly, he talks about the wrath to come, a kind of apocalyptic image of a coming judgment on all who worship idols and don 't serve that living God, and thirdly he talks about Jesus the Messiah as the one who will deliver from that wrath. So in Paul 's view it is the messianic identity of Jesus that is an important new element in this very traditional Jewish message and now there 's one other element. He 's taking it to a non-Jewish audience. He 's preaching to gentiles. So when we hear Paul talking about the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified, we 're beginning to get for the first time in the New Testament the language that will become the hallmark of all the later Christian tradition. Indeed it 's where we get much of the vocabulary that makes Christianity distinctive. The term "Christ" is a title. It 's the Greek
EXPLAIN THE IMPACT OF PAUL 'S WRITINGS UPON THE WORLD AND DO YOU
BELIEVE PAUL 'S WRITINGS AFFECT PEOPLE 'S MORALS AND STANDARDS TODAY?
The Apostle Paul is, next to Jesus, clearly the most intriguing figure of the 1st century of Christianity, he wrote all of those letters that we have [as] primary sources. The primary impact he has left on Christianity after him is through his letters, but in his own time, he sees himself primarily as a prophet to the non-Jews, to bring to them the message of the crucified Messiah, and he does this in an extraordinary way. They must have reacted as if this is some sort of strange message at certain levels. What does it mean to call someone the Christ or the Messiah? It must not have been intelligible to a …show more content…
From other references within Paul[ 's writings] we can determine some of the rudiments of his preaching message. He talks about how they turn from idols to serve a living God so he brings a message of the one Jewish God as part of his preaching. He 's a Jewish preacher. Secondly, he talks about the wrath to come, a kind of apocalyptic image of a coming judgment on all who worship idols and don 't serve that living God, and thirdly he talks about Jesus the Messiah as the one who will deliver from that wrath. So in Paul 's view it is the messianic identity of Jesus that is an important new element in this very traditional Jewish message and now there 's one other element. He 's taking it to a non-Jewish audience. He 's preaching to gentiles. So when we hear Paul talking about the message of Jesus Christ and him crucified, we 're beginning to get for the first time in the New Testament the language that will become the hallmark of all the later Christian tradition. Indeed it 's where we get much of the vocabulary that makes Christianity distinctive. The term "Christ" is a title. It 's the Greek