Excusing James the Just from the Last Supper.

Covering all topics of history and the interpretation of texts, posts here should conform to the norms of academic discussion: respectful and with a tight focus on the subject matter.

Moderator: andrewcriddle

User avatar
Ben C. Smith
Posts: 8994
Joined: Wed Apr 08, 2015 2:18 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Excusing James the Just from the Last Supper.

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Ken Olson wrote: Mon May 03, 2021 6:52 am I understand why the Gospel of Hebrews and the other accounts of the appearance(s) to James would suggest there were other appearance traditions than that/those in 1 Cor. 15.3-11, but why would that imply that the 1 Cor. 15.3-11 is an interpolation and/or post-Pauline?
The appearance to James, especially in the Gospel of the Hebrews and seemingly also in the First Apocalypse of James, looks like a first appearance, whereas in the canonical gospels others are the first witnesses. That and the general confusion in the accounts about when and where each appearance took place, and to whom, implies that there was controversy during the compositional stage of the gospels, a stage which I take to postdate Paul.

1 Corinthians 15.3-11 seems to answer any question about who received an appearance in what order (though it does not go into the locational controversy), and it is passed along as standard information. On its own merits, I have no reason to assume that someone very early might not want to answer that kind of question, if it existed. However, I find it at least challenging to believe that Paul would have cared enough about it to pass it along to his converts.
Post Reply