Was Damascus in Arabia? (Maybe Acts is more harmonious with Gal 1:15-19 than we thought)

[gryan]

I'm in a bit of a rush but here's one reference to the phenomena. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7328&p=117976&hilit ... us#p117976 As you know I repeat the same bit of information 100 times here at the forum.

I appreciate you sharing this literary echo of Justin in Tertullian! That's something I didn't know existed.

[Secret Alias]

The question is whether the same political situation resurfaced many times in 200 years or was the material established near the end of the second century.

[Peter Kirby]

I appreciate you sharing this literary echo of Justin in Tertullian! That's something I didn't know existed.

A modern synopsis of Adversus Judaeos literature seems to be needed.

[gryan]

It may be that Arabia initially referred to the Arabian peninsula and then in later usage, by some, to a more expansive area.
If so, then a reference to Arabia may depend on the differing usage of differing authors, which may or may not map closely to politics.

I agree with this perspective.

I also concur with Carlson's text critical decision against Nestle-Aland here:

Gal 1:17-18
οὐδὲ ἀπ-ῆλθον [ἀν-ῆλθον] εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα
πρὸς τοὺς πρὸ ἐμοῦ ἀποστόλους,
ἀλλὰ ἀπ-ῆλθον εἰς Ἀραβίαν
καὶ πάλιν ὑπέστρεψα εἰς Δαμασκόν.
Ἔπειτα μετὰ ἔτη τρία ἀν-ῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα …

Variant readings:

Western branch Eastern branch EDS.
ἀπῆλθον D F G B
ἦλθον (d b ×vg veni) P46
ἀνῆλθον 01 33 A C P 1241S 1739 Ψ Chrys 1611 Byz SBL NA RP S WH TT
? Marc
Carlson comments:
"The meanings of the verb phrases ἀπῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ('leave for Jerusalem') and ἀνῆλθον εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα ('went up to Jerusalem') are almost the same, but the emphases are different. On the one hand, ἀνῆλθον with its prefix ἀνα- ('up') is commonly used for the hilltop city of Jerusalem (e.g., 2:1 ἀνέβην εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα). On the other hand, ἀπῆλθον keeps the topic of Damascus in mind ('nor did I leave [Damascus] for Jerusalem'), minimizing the importance of Jerusalem and consequently that of the Jerusalem apostles."

Contrary to Carlson, Carrier, and the scholarly consensus, I maintain an exegesis in which Paul states that he departed not immediately to Jerusalem but departed to the region of Arabia and the city Damascus immediately.

Like Carlson, I view the repeated word ἀπῆλθον ('departed') as emphasizing the place he came from. However, I believe he departed from an unspecified location where he had his initial revelation. From the mystery location, Paul "departed" not to Jerusalem immediately, but to Damascus and Arabia immediately. This idea of an unspecified place of revelation in relation to Jerusalem and Damascus is exegetically in line with the portrayal in Acts of Paul being at some unspecified place on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus.

The literary echo of going to Damascus immediately after his call experience provides evidence that the author of Acts read Galatians with the assumption that, in some sense, Damascus was a city in Arabia.

In agreement with Carrier, I interpret "returned back" as implying that the Galatians knew Paul was living in Damascus before his conversion. This harmonizes with the claim in Acts that Paul was born in Tarsus and educated in Jerusalem. Since Damascus is on the travel route between Tarsus and Jerusalem, it is not a great leap to suggest that he lived in Damascus after completing his education.

Following RG Price, I currently understand ἐδίωκον as "pursued" rather than "persecuted":

"For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how excessively I pursued the assembly of God and tried to destroy it."
13Ἠκούσατε γὰρ τὴν ἐμὴν ἀναστροφήν ποτε ἐν τῷ Ἰουδαϊσμῷ ὅτι καθ’ ὑπερβολὴν ἐδίωκον τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἐπόρθουν αὐτήν.

This is supported by the word usage in Acts 26:11 NRSV:
"By punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued [ἐδίωκον] them even to foreign cities."

Therefore, I imagine that the Galatian readers of Galatians 1:16-17 knew that Paul was living in Damascus, Arabia when he began to "pursue" the assembly excessively, implying that he traveled to other places. Then, when he was called by God to become an apostle to the Gentiles, the first thing he did was "return back" to the place where he had initiated the pursuit—Damascus, Arabia.

This exegesis is likely in the background not only of Acts but also of the comments by Justin and Tertullian regarding the symbolic meaning of Damascus as a place in Arabia.

I wonder what their comments imply about Paul's time in Damascus.

[StephenGoranson]

Up to any whether to account for "land of Damascus" in Cairo Geniza and Qumran mss and whether such ever included Pella.