In Reply to: Re: the "red letter "religion.. posted by juniper on July 06, 2003 at 21:23:43:
I very much agree with your statement: "Its very interesting to look into the life of Paul. Its actually nothing like what Berg portrayed it to be." That's for sure. Berg hated so much of Paul's writings, yet Paul was one of the greatest promoters of grace and freedom. Compare the liberating book of Galatians to Berg's ML "You Must Obey the LEAST of These Commandments."
But what did you mean when you said, "A lot of his (Paul's)selections were for political reasons and most of it has nothing whatsoever to do with the historical Jesus or God for that matter." I agree Paul was writing mostly about the structure of the churches, but you read deep stuff like Philippians and Ephesians and Paul talks a lot about Jesus. Granted, yes, he was not writing another account of Jesus' life like the Gospels, but the whole purpose of a lot of his letters were administrative. So if that's what you mean by "political" then I agree.
And I have often wondered why Paul never quoted from the Gospels or quoted the sayings and words of Jesus in his epistles. Have you noticed that there are only three quotations from Jesus in all of Paul's letters, and yet he quotes about 4 or 5 Greek playwrites, including one Greek comedian? Paul knew the Greek poets by heart and obviously wasn't against attending the dramas and theaters of his day.