Giuseppe wrote: ↑Sat Jun 17, 2023 9:18 am
I read in Edwin Johnson:
At the close of the reign of Trajan, the Antinomian and Antitempelian movement breaks out, and continues under the teaching of the historical Gnostics from Cerinthus down to Marcion and his followers through the whole of the second century. Of this movement Paul is the last ideal expression.
(
Antiqua Mater, p. 240, my bold)
I understand what 'antinomian' means, but what about 'antitempelian' ?
Thanks in advance for any explanation.
I think it may relate to the last few sentences in the last part of Stephen's speech which started at Acts 7:2 and ends at vs 53.
This speech consists of a long and involved overview of the development of Judaism constructed in a way that downplayed the importance of the Jerusalem temple as a religious institution central to Judaism.
Acts 7:44 "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen. 7:45 Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David, 7:46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 7:47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 7:48 Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, 7:49 'Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool. What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 7:50 Did not my hand make all these things?'
This kind of thinking would seem to have come from a Judean sect that was explaining away the loss of the temple in 70 CE. Could it have been part of an evolutionary path to the kind of gentile infused Christianity that we find in the NT? Well, look what immediately follows!
Acts 7:51 "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 7:52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, 7:53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it."
The writer suddenly flames Judaeans for betraying the "Righteous One." Here it is supposed to refer to Jesus Christ, yet the death of Stephen is connected to the James the Just myth cycles (God forgive them for what they do in ignorance).
Is Johnson suggesting that this part of Acts (7:2-50) can be dated to the reign of Trajan? I'm not sure what to make of his comment "Of this movement Paul is the last ideal expression." Is this related to the explosive tirade of vs 51-53?
The high Christology of the epistles doesn't seem to fixate on the temple, as Jesus in the role of a divine redeemer was much more attractive to the author of this high christology than the temple ever was. The original Paul I envision, he probably took pride in the prestige his nation's temple had in the ancient world. Herod's temple was a tourist's paradise, not just for Jews. If he looked forward to a future kingdom of God on earth, it was an earthly one. His bets were on Antipas as the head of a reconstituted kingdom of Herod the Great. His never-does-well relative Agrippa was granted the title king first, and Antipas and his supporters were deposed and exiled, his estates added to that of king Agrippa.
DCH
