Yeah, in reading A. Schweitzer's Paul & His Interpreters, I noticed that all 19th century radical critics tended to think Jesus' message was libertine, which Paul then spiritualized, with the works of Paul were subject to "Judaization." I do not see how this fits the evidence, so it seems to me this is what those critics *wanted* to have been the case. The "tail was wagging the dog" as we say here.Giuseppe wrote:DCH wrote: ... a later editor "updated" Paul's letters, which originally had nothing to do with Jesus or Christ,
This was similar to the view of Arthur Drews, even if in a reversal way (for Drews, the mystical author was the original).
Again, Gordon Rylands doesn't follow Drews on this point. He thinks that the editor was not a particular person, but there were a lot of later editors, therefore making it quasi impossible to determine precisely the ''true'' passages of the historical Paul.
When I attempted to connect arguments and set aside digressions, I had, in effect, separated off the Christological statements and Christologically oriented arguments, with the remaining passages becoming more intelligible in the context of 1st century CE Judeo-Hellenistic private associations that would have been associated with rich households.
On the other hand, the Christological statements were not coherently connected to one another, meaning (to me) that they could not have been the nucleus of Paul's thought. In fact, not one of these Christological passages and comments advanced the Judean arguments of Paul: that gentiles could participate in the blessed age on equal footing with Judeans without having to circumcise themselves of observe the Mosaic law.
There was a little common ground, such as the idea that faith is important, but for Paul it was faith that God would one day establish that promise land in Judea, while for the editor it was faith in the redemptive sacrifice of a divine Christ. I may have faith that my car will start next time I turn the key, and someone else may have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, but we do not thus have a communion of faith.
DCH