In Reply to: Now I'm wondering posted by porceleindoll on July 06, 2003 at 22:55:28:
Jesus was a real historical figure, and so was Paul. But why didn't Paul quote Jesus more than three times? Well, it's probably like Juniper said (if I understand her correctly): Paul's letters were political in nature, meaning business and administrative in the setting up of the church.
The Gospel story had been told already once, twice and three times, so there was no need for him to repeat it. In fact, most theologians agree that the gospel of Luke clearly bears Paul's influence on it. Luke was a Gentile and his gospel emphasized issues important to Paul. Matthew showed Jesus as a fulfillment of Jewish prophecies, Mark showed him as a man of action (a gospel for the Romans), but Luke again and again showed Jesus' humanity, his healing of the sick, his care for the poor and downtrodden, and repeatedly exalts women. It was a gospel for the Greeks and Luke was THE closest disciple to Paul for years till the very end, so maybe Paul felt he'd had his hand already in producing a gospel, so why repeat it.
He quotes in Acts 20:35 some words of Jesus "It is more blessed to give than to receive" that appear in no other place, none of the Gospels, so clearly Paul was aware of a number of commonly-known Sayings of Jesus that either weren't written down, or else were written in the Q document, but not preserved with the 4 Gospels.
Paul quotes the gospel of Luke in one of his epistles, calling is Scripture, but really doesn't quote any other known Scripture. He was totally un-like preachers of today who feel the need to pepper their talks with Scriptures, or chunks of Scriptures. I guess Paul felt they HAD the gospel stories already -- and people had probably nearly memorized them -- so he wasn't about to repeat them.
But I think it's cool that Paul had apparently gotten a good formal Greek education in the "gymnasiums" of the day,and could quote Greek playrights and comedians and dramatists. In fact, he even said of the Cretan (Greek) poet Epimenides (a 6th-century BC native of Knossos, Crete) who was revered by the Cretans, Paul said that Epimenides was a "prophet". (Titus 1:12) Now ain't THAT cool?