Paul's Corporate Christophany

An Evaluation of Paul's Christophanic References in Their Epistolary Contexts

Rob A. Fringer

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781532645280, 9781532645297
• eBook ISBN: 9781532645303
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Paul's Christophany (i.e., his Damascus Road Experience) has been the subject of much scholarly analysis. However, treatments of this phenomenon, while widely varied, have tended to extract the various references from their literary contexts in order to reconstruct the event, to discover the foundations and content of Paul's Christology, or to analyze Paul's experience of conversion and/or call. The current study, focused on the undisputed Pauline epistles, evaluates how and why Paul employed the various Christophanic references in their particular literary and sociohistorical contexts. Through this assessment, the importance of Paul's Christophanic references as part of his larger arguments is established. It is shown how Paul uniquely shapes the various Christophanic references to fit the needs of his argument and through it, the needs of each community. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that Paul's Christophanic references do not primarily establish his apostolic status or assert his apostolic authority. Through this study, the corporate nature of Paul's Christophanic references becomes increasingly evident, and multiple general conclusions are drawn, which provide a possible glimpse into Paul's understanding of his Christophanic experience.

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Introduction

Any student of the Apostle Paul and his letters will eventually engage, no matter how shallowly, with the subject of his “Damascus Road Experience” (DRE). As one does, a multitude of questions will quickly surface. The difficulty in answering any such questions is quickly deduced as one surveys the copious pages of literature on the subject and comes to recognize there is much more said about this event than is actually known. The legendary status of Paul’s DRE is as much fabricated as it is factual. Much of what is reconstructed comes from the three accounts in Acts (9:1–19; 22:1–21; 26:4–18) and not directly from the Pauline epistles. This is not a statement about the historicity of one or the other.1 Each writer employs these references for particular purposes unique to his various situations and audiences.2

This book will not evaluate Luke’s accounts in Acts or compare and contrast them to Paul’s own references.3 It is enough to acknowledge that both authors write about an event in Paul’s life where Christ is manifested, in some form, to Paul. Thus, this event can be called a Christophany (Χριστός + φανερόω). Since this work relies exclusively on Paul’s accounts of this event, it will employ the language of “Christophany” and its cognates rather than DRE, even where others refer to this event with DRE language.

A Review of the Relevant Literature

The literature addressing Paul’s Christophanic references can be broadly grouped into three approaches: (1) those seeking to reconstruct that which precipitated the event, the specifics of the event itself, or the particularities of Paul’s subsequent mission to the Gentiles; (2) those seeking to discover the foundations for Paul’s Christology and/or to reconstruct Paul’s Christology; and (3) those focusing on conversion and/or call in general.4 These broad categories overlap both in content and in scholarship. Therefore, those scholars who are most relevant to the discussion are highlighted showing their foci, methodologies, strengths, and weaknesses. This is followed by a brief comparison of these works and concluded with explanation of how the current study both differs from and augments these works.

Seyoon Kim

Seyoon Kim’s published doctoral thesis is perhaps the most ambitious attempt to locate not only Paul’s apostleship, but moreover, the whole of Paul’s gospel within his Christophany.5 Against the scholarly tide of his day, which effectively dismissed Paul’s Christophany arguing Paul spoke “surprisingly seldom”6 about it, Kim insists that references and allusions to this event abound in the Pauline corpus.7 Conflating the Pauline accounts and Acts, Kim seeks a historical re/construction8 of the event from whence to derive and subsequently construct Paul’s Christology and soteriology. He begins by denying any psychological pre-conversion preparation saying, “[Paul] was rather satisfied with his achievement in Judaism.”9 Kim argues adamantly for an “objective, external event” wherein “Christ appeared to Paul accompanied by the radiance of glory (2 Cor 4.6; Acts 9.3; 22.6; 26.13)”10 and whereby Paul was both converted and commissioned. The physical act of seeing God’s glory stands at the center of Kim’s thesis, which relies heavily on 2 Cor 3:4—4:6. Kim believes Paul saw Christ as the εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ (2 Cor 4:4; Col 1:15), a concept nearly synonymous with Christ as the Son of God (Gal 1:16)—“Paul saw the risen Christ as the Son of God and as the Image of God at the same time, namely at the Damascus Christophany.”11 This εἰκών-Christology,12 as Kim calls it, forms the basis for Paul’s Wisdom-Christology and Adam-Christology. From the former derives Paul’s understanding of Christ as pre-existent (divine), as agent of divine revelation and salvation, and as one who supersedes the Torah.13 From the latter derives his understanding of the humanity of Christ, as the one who restores the divine glory enabling believers to be justified in Christ and thus bear the image and glory of Christ as part of the new creation.14

Kim’s work has several strengths. It takes seriously Paul’s Christophany as a major source of Paul’s gospel. In so doing, it also attempts to show Paul as a shaper rather than an inheritor of early church theology. However, Kim’s attempt to explain the complexities of Paul’s Christology and soteriology as solely rooted in his Christophany is not convincing.15 If he is wrong about 2 Cor 3:4—4:6, either about it being a Christophanic reference or about it giving concrete descriptions concerning this event, then his thesis is seriously weakened. Moreover, his overconfidence in 2 Cor 3:4—4:6, read in consultation with the Acts accounts, and through the lens of various throne-theophany visions (e.g., Dan 7; Ezek 1),16 is too dependent on strained philological connections. In his attempt to re/construct the historical foundations of Paul’s thought and then to explicate his Christology and soteriology, Kim often ignores the literary contexts of Paul’s various Christophanic references.

James D. G. Dunn

Jam...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Prolegomena
• Chapter 3: Paul’s Christophanic Reference in Galatians
• Chapter 4: Paul’s Christophanic References in First Corinthians
• Chapter 5: Paul’s Christophanic Reference in Philippians
• Chapter 6: Paul’s Christophanic Reference in Second Corinthians
• Chapter 7: Conclusion
• Appendix
• Bibliography