Bernard Muller wrote:to Ben,
Also here
http://historical-jesus.info/hjes3x.html then search on "
Jesus as the "Son" (of God)", I made a case about Paul accepted Christ as "the Son of God" late into his ministry.
Your case depends upon some very specific arguments for interpolation. You write:
1Th1:10 is another addition:
"and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead -- Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath."
Why?
a) 1Th1:10 considerably extends a sentence, when Paul used generally short ones in this letter.
b) 1Th1:10 affirms "he raised [Jesus] from the dead" when later, it is a matter of faith "we believe that Jesus died and rose again" (4:14a)
c) 1Th1:10 is packed with theological tenets, some of them having no counterpart in the letter:
Jesus is Christ (1:1,3,2:6,3:2,4:16,5:9,18,23,28) or/and Lord (1:1,3,2:19,3:11,13,4:1,2,15,16,17,5:2,9,23,28), but never "Son". The expressions:
"God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (1:1)
"our God and Father" (1:3,3:13)
"our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus" (3:11)
And NOT "... the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ..." (2Co1:3a & Ro15:6),
tend to preclude Paul had then Jesus as the "Son".
Then in this letter, dead are risen (4:14,16) (Greek root 'anistemi'), but never "raised" (root 'egeiro').
d) Paul would not have acknowledged "to wait" as a good thing when he wrote in the same letter:
"And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle" (5:14)
Apparently, these "idlers" were a problem in the community:
1Th4:11-12 "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
I believe point A is moot. You cannot use an English translation to determine the length of Greek sentences, since translators often break up long Greek sentences by turning participles into finite verbs. (Go to this link:
https://bible.org/download/netbible/ond ... ok/1th.pdf, and do a search for "sentence"; notice the various times in the footnotes where the translator has done this very thing.) Here are some long sentences from 1 Thessalonians, including the one in question (I take γάρ to begin a new sentence, but ὅτι to begin a dependent clause):
1.2 εὐχαριστοῦμεν τῶ θεῶ πάντοτε περὶ πάντων ὑμῶν, μνείαν ποιούμενοι ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν ἡμῶν, ἀδιαλείπτως, 3 μνημονεύοντες ὑμῶν τοῦ ἔργου τῆς πίστεως καὶ τοῦ κόπου τῆς ἀγάπης καὶ τῆς ὑπομονῆς τῆς ἐλπίδος τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἡμῶν, 4 εἰδότες, ἀδελφοὶ ἠγαπημένοι ὑπὸ [τοῦ] θεοῦ, τὴν ἐκλογὴν ὑμῶν, 5 ὅτι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐγενήθη εἰς ὑμᾶς ἐν λόγῳ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν δυνάμει καὶ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ [ἐν] πληροφορίᾳ πολλῇ, καθὼς οἴδατε οἷοι ἐγενήθημεν [ἐν] ὑμῖν δι᾽ ὑμᾶς.
1.9 αὐτοὶ γὰρ περὶ ἡμῶν ἀπαγγέλλουσιν ὁποίαν εἴσοδον ἔσχομεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ πῶς ἐπεστρέψατε πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων δουλεύειν θεῶ ζῶντι καὶ ἀληθινῶ, 10 καὶ ἀναμένειν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν, ὃν ἤγειρεν ἐκ [τῶν] νεκρῶν, ἰησοῦν τὸν ῥυόμενον ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ἐρχομένης.
2.1 αὐτοὶ γὰρ οἴδατε, ἀδελφοί, τὴν εἴσοδον ἡμῶν τὴν πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὅτι οὐ κενὴ γέγονεν, 2 ἀλλὰ προπαθόντες καὶ ὑβρισθέντες καθὼς οἴδατε ἐν φιλίπποις ἐπαρρησιασάμεθα ἐν τῶ θεῶ ἡμῶν λαλῆσαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν πολλῶ ἀγῶνι.
2.3 ἡ γὰρ παράκλησις ἡμῶν οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης οὐδὲ ἐξ ἀκαθαρσίας οὐδὲ ἐν δόλῳ, 4 ἀλλὰ καθὼς δεδοκιμάσμεθα ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πιστευθῆναι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον οὕτως λαλοῦμεν, οὐχ ὡς ἀνθρώποις ἀρέσκοντες ἀλλὰ θεῶ τῶ δοκιμάζοντι τὰς καρδίας ἡμῶν.
2.5 οὔτε γάρ ποτε ἐν λόγῳ κολακείας ἐγενήθημεν, καθὼς οἴδατε, οὔτε ἐν προφάσει πλεονεξίας, θεὸς μάρτυς, 6 οὔτε ζητοῦντες ἐξ ἀνθρώπων δόξαν, οὔτε ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν οὔτε ἀπ᾽ ἄλλων, 7 δυνάμενοι ἐν βάρει εἶναι ὡς χριστοῦ ἀπόστολοι, ἀλλὰ ἐγενήθημεν νήπιοι ἐν μέσῳ ὑμῶν. ὡς ἐὰν τροφὸς θάλπῃ τὰ ἑαυτῆς τέκνα.
3.1 διὸ μηκέτι στέγοντες εὐδοκήσαμεν καταλειφθῆναι ἐν ἀθήναις μόνοι, 2 καὶ ἐπέμψαμεν τιμόθεον, τὸν ἀδελφὸν ἡμῶν καὶ συνεργὸν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν τῶ εὐαγγελίῳ τοῦ χριστοῦ, εἰς τὸ στηρίξαι ὑμᾶς καὶ παρακαλέσαι ὑπὲρ τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν 3 τὸ μηδένα σαίνεσθαι ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσιν ταύταις. αὐτοὶ γὰρ οἴδατε ὅτι εἰς τοῦτο κείμεθα.
3.9 τίνα γὰρ εὐχαριστίαν δυνάμεθα τῶ θεῶ ἀνταποδοῦναι περὶ ὑμῶν ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇ χαρᾷ ᾗ χαίρομεν δι᾽ ὑμᾶς ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν, 10 νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ δεόμενοι εἰς τὸ ἰδεῖν ὑμῶν τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ καταρτίσαι τὰ ὑστερήματα τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν;
3.11 αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ ἡμῶν καὶ ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν ἰησοῦς κατευθύναι τὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς· 12 ὑμᾶς δὲ ὁ κύριος πλεονάσαι καὶ περισσεύσαι τῇ ἀγάπῃ εἰς ἀλλήλους καὶ εἰς πάντας, καθάπερ καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς ὑμᾶς, 13 εἰς τὸ στηρίξαι ὑμῶν τὰς καρδίας ἀμέμπτους ἐν ἁγιωσύνῃ ἔμπροσθεν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν ἰησοῦ μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ.
4.3 τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν θέλημα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, ἀπέχεσθαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς πορνείας, 4 εἰδέναι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σκεῦος κτᾶσθαι ἐν ἁγιασμῶ καὶ τιμῇ, 5 μὴ ἐν πάθει ἐπιθυμίας καθάπερ καὶ τὰ ἔθνη τὰ μὴ εἰδότα τὸν θεόν, 6 τὸ μὴ ὑπερβαίνειν καὶ πλεονεκτεῖν ἐν τῶ πράγματι τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ, διότι ἔκδικος κύριος περὶ πάντων τούτων, καθὼς καὶ προείπαμεν ὑμῖν καὶ διεμαρτυράμεθα.
4.16 ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ἐν κελεύσματι, ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου καὶ ἐν σάλπιγγι θεοῦ, καταβήσεται ἀπ᾽ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ἐν χριστῶ ἀναστήσονται πρῶτον, 17 ἔπειτα ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες οἱ περιλειπόμενοι ἅμα σὺν αὐτοῖς ἁρπαγησόμεθα ἐν νεφέλαις εἰς ἀπάντησιν τοῦ κυρίου εἰς ἀέρα· καὶ οὕτως πάντοτε σὺν κυρίῳ ἐσόμεθα.
5.12 ἐρωτῶμεν δὲ ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοί, εἰδέναι τοὺς κοπιῶντας ἐν ὑμῖν καὶ προϊσταμένους ὑμῶν ἐν κυρίῳ καὶ νουθετοῦντας ὑμᾶς, 13a καὶ ἡγεῖσθαι αὐτοὺς ὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ διὰ τὸ ἔργον αὐτῶν.
Point B is just a matter of expression and context. 1 Thessalonians 4.14 is set in the context of the Thessalonians' own grief, and Paul is pointing out that they already have the beliefs in place to dispel this grief. No such context overrides 1 Thessalonians 1.10.
Point C is interesting, so far as the relative paucity of references to Jesus as the son of God is concerned in some of the epistles, but two things concern me. First, I think you have (again) ignored the occasional nature of epistles. Paul is responding to specific issues in the churches, not writing his own theological treatises from scratch. Second, of course, your so-designated early epistles
do call Jesus the son of God; that idea is not absent. But you relegate those instances to interpolations, such as the one at hand in 1 Thessalonians 1.10. Those are very specific interpolations, and, if you are wrong about even one of them, your idea crashes to the ground.
Also under point C you write: "Then in this letter, dead are risen (4:14,16) (Greek root 'anistemi'), but never "raised" (root 'egeiro')," which is a statistical wash. We have two instances of the former root and one of the latter, not nearly enough to establish a pattern. 1 Corinthians 15 employs both roots, with more of the latter than of the former, and not even counting your proposed interpolations in that chapter. One could use your same kind of argumentation to help indict 1 Thessalonians 4.14 and 4.16 as interpolations, since these are the only instances of the
verb ἀνίστημι being used of the resurrection from the dead in the entire genuine Pauline corpus.
Point D is completely moot. There is no conflict in any way between waiting for the second coming and working with your hands. You can eagerly await the day you get to graduate from college and still work two jobs to stay afloat till that happens; you can wait to win the lottery and still work in the meantime; you can wait for Mrs. Right and still date lots of women in search of her.
I applaud the effort to search as hard as possible for textual interpolations, layers, and embedded traditions; I believe nothing is clearer than that early Christian writings are the sort of literature in which scribes and other churchmen would add their own thoughts or other materials to what they inherited and in which marginal notes would find their way into the text. But I am not at all sure that your arguments above are up to the task in this case. Two of the points are obviously invalid on their face, another is just a matter of context, and the remaining one is part of the same observation which inspires you to rid the early epistles of references to Jesus as the son of God in the first place, thus running the risk of being circular in nature.
