Markus Vinzent's Blog

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Paul's revelation - who speaks to him, Jesus Christ or God?

In the pre-canonical version (*) it is a vision of God. In *Gal 1:12 and (*)2Cor 4:6, it is God who speaks to *Paul. 

The canonical level differs from this. For in Acts, the voice is explicitly identified with Jesus in all three passages (Acts 9:6 // 26:15: ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting’; 22:8: ‘I am Jesus the Nazorean whom you are persecuting’). Here too, as is so often the case, the canonical editors or later copyists carelessly accept an inaccuracy when in Gal 1:12 the revelation at the end of the verse is attributed to ‘Jesus Christ’, but then the following verb in verse 15 requires ‘God’ as the subject. As a number of old manuscript witnesses also attest, this verb lacks the subject ‘God’ - they must therefore still have read ‘God’ in Gal 1:12, while other manuscripts insert ‘God’ in verse 15, because Gal 1:12 now speaks of ‘Jesus Christ’ instead of the revelation of ‘God’. This change is probably due to the harmonisation of the Pauline Galatians text with the Acts of the Apostles. However, this then led to a further inconsistency, because in Gal 1,12 - as in Acts three times - Paul lets Jesus Christ speak in the revelation, but in 2 Cor 4,6 the pre-canonical text remains, in which God speaks explicitly.


In der vorkanonischen Version (*) handelt es sich um eine Vision Gottes. In *Gal 1,12 und (*)2Kor 4,6 ist es Gott, der zu *Paulus spricht. 

Davon unterscheidet sich die kanonische Ebene. Denn in Apg wird die Stimme an allen drei Stellen ausdrücklich mit Jesus identifiziert (Apg 9,6 // 26,15: „Ich bin Jesus, den du verfolgst“; 22,8: „Ich bin Jesus, der Nazoräer, den du verfolgst“). Auch hier, wie so oft, nimmt die kanonische Redaktion oder nehmen spätere Kopisten nachlässig eine Ungenauigkeit in Kauf, wenn in Gal 1,12 die Offenbarung am Ende des Verses „Jesus Christi“ zugeschrieben wird, dann aber das nachfolgende Verb in Vers 15 als Subjekt „Gott“ bedarf. Wie eine Reihe auch alter handschriftlicher Zeugen belegen, fehlt diesem Verb die Subjektsangabe „Gott“ – sie müssen darum wohl in Gal 1,12 noch „Gott“ gelesen haben, während andere Handschriften in Vers 15 „Gott“ einsetzen, weil inzwischen in Gal 1,12 anstelle von der Offenbarung „Gottes“ von derjenigen „Jesu Christi“ redet. Diese Änderung wird wohl aufgrund der Angleichung des paulinischen Galatertextes an die Apostelgeschichte erfolgt sein. Das führte dann allerdings zu einer weiteren Inkonsistenz, weil Paulus dann in Gal 1,12 – wie in der Apostelgeschichte dreimal – Jesus Christus in der Offenbarung sprechen lässt, allerdings in 2Kor 4,6 noch der vorkanonische Text stehengeblieben ist, in welchem ausdrücklich Gott spricht.

Saturday, 18 May 2024

Re-launch of the Patristica Podcast: All about the 10 Pauline Letter Collection

 Here is the new re-launch of the Patristica youtube channel and podcast. Despite the title of the link below, it is more about Paul than the Gospel, as you will quickly discover, as this is what I am working on at the moment: 

https://youtu.be/hPreTmej86k

Wednesday, 8 May 2024

The new book "Beyond the Timeline: Resetting Historiography" is about to be published

 This book that goes back to a workshop from 2022 dealing with the retrospective approach that was suggested in my Writing the History of Early Christianity (CUP, 2019) and tested again in my Resetting the Origins of Early Christianity (CUP, 2023), brings together scholars from a broad range of historiographical studies, music, natural sciences, medieval history, holocaust studies ... and, like me, they grapple with the idea of writing history not simply along the chronological time-line.

You are in for a reshaping of historiography. The book is edited by Julia Seeberger, Sabine Schmolinsky and myself:


A new historiography