Re: "thrice the Lord did I call upon, that he might depart from me...gryan wrote: ↑Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:37 am 1 Cor 12:7-8 "he" vs "it"
...and that by the exceeding greatness of the revelations I might not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of the Adversary (ἄγγελος Σατανᾶ, masculine singular), that he might buffet (κολαφίζῃ, 3 person singular) me, that I might not be exalted overmuch. 8Concerning this [i.e. "this man" τούτου, should be read as Masculine, not Neuter] thrice the Lord did I call upon, that it he might depart (ἀποστῇ, 3 person singular) from me... YLT
If Paul's adversary was a person, the bolded 3rd pers singular verbs should both read "he" rather than "it".
I'm considering the possibility that the anatama in Galatians may exemplify one of "the three times" Paul called upon the Lord "that he (i.e. James the Lord's brother) might depart from me."
Gal 1:6-10
"Unless there be some who are troubling you, and wishing to pervert the good news of the Christ, I am surprised that ye are so quickly removed from Him who did call you in the grace of Christ to a qualitatively different good news which does not exist anymore.
But even if we or a messenger/angel out of heaven may proclaim good news to you different from what we did proclaim to you — anathema let him be! As we have said before, and now say again: If any one to you may proclaim good news different from what ye did receive — anathema let him be! For now am seeking to persuade people, or God? Or do I seek to please people? For if yet men I did please — Christ’s servant I should not be."
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Das argues that, in Galatians 1:9, "Paul is indeed persuading God [i.e. "calling upon the Lord"] to wrath against the contrary teachers thereby persuading the Galatians to avoid them." (From, The Rhetoric of curse in Galatians 1:10 -- Persuading God, a chapter in Studies in honor of Troy W. Martin, 2020).
On persuasion, a closely related verse is Gal 5:7-9, and the blame is put on one person:
"Who hindered you so that you are persuaded regarding the truth? That persuasion is not from the one who called you. A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. I myself am persuaded in the Lord about you that you will not think otherwise. But the one troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he might be."
"Whoever he might be" may refer to the contested authority of one prominent adversary, i.e. "no matter how much authority he may seem to possess."
On one hand, I hear Galatians as Paul's request to have James the Lord's brother taken away from him; on the other hand, I doubt that this request was granted. Instead, the Lord advised him to find power in weakness in 2 Cor 10-13. Paul had to learn to love his enemy: ὁ γὰρ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἕτερον νόμον πεπλήρωκεν. "Whoever loves τὸν ἕτερον [the qualitatively different one] has fulfilled the whole law" (Rom 13:8).