What does Van Manen think about the Aretas passage?

[Giuseppe]

...Hoping in an answer by mlinssen or Stuart...

[mlinssen]

Easy answer: I Googled, no luck.
Then I searched THIS ENTIRE FORUM (LOL) and the only post with "the A-word" in it is .... drum roll ...

yours right here

[Giuseppe]

Since you are translating Van Manen, I had really hoped that you give us a little prequel/spoiler about what Van Manen wrote about the Aretas passage...

[maryhelena]

Since you are translating Van Manen, I had really hoped that you give us a little prequel/spoiler about what Van Manen wrote about the Aretas passage...

Giuseppe, whatever Van Manen said on the Aretas 2 Cor..11.32.33 problem cannot change the historical evidence. Which is:

Aretas III controlled Damascus - dating is 85 to 72 b.c. and 69 to 64/63 b.c (there is no histoical evidence that any other Aretas controlled Damascus.)

You can of course create many a fanciful scenario that gets another Aretas controlling Damascus within a timeframe that suits your scenario. But all that does is put the cart before the horse - which means the scenario is going nowhere. Much better to build a scenario around the known historical fact - Aretas III controlled Damascus - dates given above.

[mlinssen]

Since you are translating Van Manen, I had really hoped that you give us a little prequel/spoiler about what Van Manen wrote about the Aretas passage...

Ah, see, that I can Google! Maryhelena is very helpful, I'll check 2 Cor..11.32.33

[Giuseppe]

I'll check 2 Cor..11.32.33

wonderful Too much curiosity, about this point. It is evident that people are going to use Aretas (number x in his name, that same that you like) to fix the historical Paul just as historicists are obsessed by Pilate to fix their historical Jesus.

[maryhelena]

I'll check 2 Cor..11.32.33

wonderful Too much curiosity, about this point. It is evident that people are going to use Aretas (number x in his name, that same that you like) to fix the historical Paul just as historicists are obsessed by Pilate to fix their historical Jesus.

[mlinssen]

I'll check 2 Cor..11.32.33

wonderful Too much curiosity, about this point. It is evident that people are going to use Aretas (number x in his name, that same that you like) to fix the historical Paul just as historicists are obsessed by Pilate to fix their historical Jesus.

Alas, I only have volume 1 and 2, Acts of the Apostles and Letter to the Romans, not volume 3, Letter to the Corinthians. Enough to keep myself busy for now, so if you happen to find the third, I'd be much obliged

No Aretas in the first two, needless to say

[flowers_grow]

I've been translating a bit of Van Manen (Paulus volume 1) myself, but it's hard work and I haven't gotten very far before getting sidetracked into translating his colleague Loman, where I have a bit more.

Unfortunately we are most likely to find what Van Manen thought about this passage in Paulus Volume 3, "de brieven aan de Korinthiërs". I have volume 1 (about Acts) and volume 2 (about Romans) in PDF form, but volume 3 is hard to obtain. If someone can find it I'd be happy to look for his commentary on this passage.

I see mlinssen posted something similar as I was writing this.