Paul and Pagan Gods | Dr. Paula Fredriksen

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In this video, I am joined by Professor Paula Fredriksen to discuss her presentation "Paul and Pagan Gods" at the New Insights into the New Testament conference.

NINT is a new two-day virtual conference for people who are interested in Bible scholarship but are not, themselves, scholars. Prepare for a truly groundbreaking event as we gather ten world-renowned biblical scholars, each a compelling expert in their field, to unveil the latest and most intriguing revelations about the life and letters of the Apostle Paul.

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𝕏Twitter: @Jacob56723278

[History-Valley]

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[alsecen]

Paula's book, From Jesus to Christ, is one of my favorites. She is an exceptional biblical scholar as is Bart Ehrman.

[jasminenwhitaker]

Good morning everyone blessings 🦋🕊🦉🐦‍⬛

[anthonyjohn]

The question is was there a man named Paul, was the New testament actually written by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, were they eyewitness of Jesus, or someone wrote it and gave the names of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.

[Nkosi]

How she knows Paul is using lord as a god?

[eximusic]

Someday someone will attempt to answer whether Paul's supposed authentic letters were collected for churches all over the western world at that time or whether the collection was found in one place where the author placed them, unsent - or both.

[Hemocracy]

God - Blessed and Most High - says:
* Woe to those who write the Book with their own hands and then say,
“This is from God, ” in order to exchange it for a small price So woe to them for
what their hands have written, and woe to them for what they earn *.
(Quran)

[slicktrickyes]

Gods walk this earth, most disguised as cats.

[EdwardM-tp]

According to Acts Paul after his shipwreck booked passage on another boat with the Roman Gods Castor and Pollux for its figurehead. He was like, "Screw Jehovah!"

[theonlyway]

*Dr Fredriksen makes some good textual observations here, but I think goes too far in using these to construct her own interpretations of these observations.* For instance, Fredriksen states _"the body becomes 'pneuma' and 'pneuma' is the stuff that different kinds of gods are made of, that heavenly bodies are made out of"_ , but she provides no evidence for this from either the Bible or elsewhere, to make this assertion.
Dr Fredriksen points to the word "δύναμις" (dunamis) in 1 Corinthians 15:43 and states _"those words mean astral powers"_ , but again this is a leap in interpretation of this word in the context in which it appears. δύναμις is used in 15:43 to describe a transformation from a natural body (ψυχικός), into a spiritual body (πνευματικός σῶμα). By using the term "astral powers", Dr Fredriksen leads us on a diversion from the text itself into an undefined ambiguity, which could imply quite diverse associations, that have little or nothing to do with the subject of the text.

Dr Fredriksen, says that Paul _'is a messy monotheist'_ , and quotes 1 Corinthians 8, in which she deduces that Paul believes there are many gods, but if we look at the text in context, Paul unmistakeably asserts that there is *one god.* So checking the verse below, we can see that Paul does not believe there are many gods in reality, he only refers to *idols* as 'gods' and 'lords' in respect of the beliefs of common peoples of the time. In this understanding, Paul regards *idols* as representing *false beliefs* not actual gods, but rather the delusions held by people of the time.
1Cor 8:4  Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, *we know that “an idol has no real existence, ”* and that *“there is no God but one.”*
1Cor 8:5  For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 
1Cor 8:6  yet for us *there is one God*, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 
1Cor 8:7  However, not all possess this knowledge. *But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.* 
what Paul is clearly describing in the above words which Dr Fredriksen alluded to, is not actually a belief that there are "gods", but on the contrary, *Paul is here defining that there is one God, but people of the time believed in many idols*
I think this is another example of Dr Fredriksen, being overly keen to interpret the text along her own ideas, rather than what the text and author actually told us.

Dr Fredriksen claims: _"And he requires the activation of pagan gods in order to have his Davidic Christ, a biblical type of warrior, have someone to defeat and overcome, so pagan gods are hard wired into Paul's views of redemption and to his definition of Christ"_ but is this assertion, either correct or accurate or even distinct from Jewish thought and beliefs? I would argue that it is from Jewish tradition, so even if she could make such a case, then it reflects a Jewish nation and tradition that holds these beliefs. The reason I say that is not just because in the 2nd Temple period we have enough evidence of similar thoughts and descriptions amongst Dead Sea scrolls like the Book of Enoch, in which a Chosen One will act similarly, but we also have indicators of this in the book of Daniel and even in the written history of Israel when the Assyrians were defeated outside of the walls of Jerusalem. This makes Paul not at all distinct as a 2nd Temple Jew, in his descriptions of these kinds of warrior action and redemptive acts.
In summary, we may say that the Jewish promise of the appointed Messiah from David's line, could not in reality, be a normal man, if he is to sit upon the throne of David and accomplish the world wide peace of the 'messianic age', in which the 'wolf will lie down with the lamb' and in which all the wicked of the world will be destroyed by the breath of his mouth (Isaiah 11), all of which is beyond any normal human man to accomplish. Nor could we ignore that fact that the God of Israel speaks of himself more than once as 'a warrior', or that in Isaiah 63, his warrior acts are prophesied to be in a demonstrably fierce way:-
Isaiah 63:1  "Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” 
Isaiah 63:2  Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 
Isaiah 63:3  “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 
Isaiah 63:4  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. 
Isaiah 63:5  I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. 
Isaiah 63:6  I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
....but in this prophecy, we read of from Isaiah 62:11 which precedes it, that it is יְהֹוָה who will act in Isaiah 63, but described in 63 as wearing 'crimson' garments, from the blood of those he judged (Isaiah 63:3) in his vengeance (v.4) and destroyed them (v.6). This anthropomorphic description, does not require 'pagan gods' for redemption of judgement. It simply requires like Paul's description the action of יְהֹוָה whether through the descriptive agency of Christ or not. Indeed, it is thought that the description in passages like Isaiah 63, is that of the judgement of יְהֹוָה enacted through his Servant of Isaiah 40-55 as the Messiah or Christ.

[roddychristodoulou]

After the death of Jesus the disciples ran away in order to save themselves .
Legend has it that Paul took a ride on a ship and sailed to Cyprus .
He landed in Cyprus and made his way to pafos where he continued to preach the word of Jesus .
The locals took offence to this and had Paul arrested, he was tied to a post and stoned but somehow managed to survive .
After this incident Paul stopped preaching the word of Jesus and faded into oblivion .
Even to this day the people of pafos suffer old wives tales of being bad people based on this stoning of Paul .

[jf]

Paul doesn’t describe Jesus as a Zeus, like a god of gods. The Koine Greek word Kyrios wasn’t used in a sense of describing divinity

[jamesmanolakis]

Dry scholars with no eyes to see... Lost to themselves.

[Nkosi]

The Jewish messiah was to battle other gods, or the enemy of the Jews ( Rome) ? How can she know what Paul thinks?

[Nudnik]

Paul makes way to many blatant errors in Laws of Judaism to have been a Jew
Nonsense

Wasn't Paul secretly working for the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't all of the original Roman Catholic Saints' members of the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't all of the original symbols used by the earliest Christians identical to those of the Flavian Dynasty? And isn’t one of the earliest iconographic symbols for Christianity, located in a catacomb, under the city of Rome, which was owned by a Flavian Princess?

Weren't all of the original Jesus cult texts produced under the oversight of the Flavian Dynasty? Didn't the Flavian Dynasty posses the only remaining copy of the Hebrew Tanakh other than the Greek Septuagint translation? Isn't there Flavian typology in the Gospels? Weren't the canonical texts all back dated like the historical fiction of Gone With The Wind? Wasn't Emperor Vespasian known as the Jewish Messiah? Wasn’t Pope Clement of Rome a Flavian? Wasn't Josephus a temple whore for the Flavian Dynasty? Weren't the Flavian’s, as well as Paul, descended from King Herod?

There was no separation of Church and State in the Roman Empire. And Christianity is clearly a Greco-Roman hybrid form of Judaism created by the Flavian Dynasty. As an attempt to adapt, pacify, and integrate the rebellious and defiant Jews into the rest of the Greco-Roman Empire. Just like the Greeks created Hermes Trismegistus to integrate Egyptian mythology with Greek mythology.Then finally Neo-Flavian Constantine chose the Flavian family religion to be the official religion of the entire Roman Empire. In order to consolidate power in his fractured Empire. And then Eusebius edited and rewrote the history of the previous 3OO years. Destroying all contradictory evidence. It isn't history it is all simply Greco-Roman mythopoetic literature. Today it is known as Historical Fiction.

“What profit hath not this fable of Christ brought us.”

Pope Leo X 💙

[berglen]

Some like I AM stay with Neville Goddard hope you face I AM same one mind imaginations have levels of mental beliefs so the famous called repeats till time in earth elements fades away after timelessness experience reborn last time mortal dreams only chase time theorist brilliants' of mysteries' grace mercy safes yourself from life and death mortal masters.

[Bluebaggins]

Paul is a double agent, Jesus told Peter was the foundation of the church. Matthew 16:18.. he also told Peter was a stumbling block to those seeking truth. Matthew 16:23 In Job the lord speaks with Satan. Job 1 :12... Now to join this up, also in Job is a hidden structure the celestial sphere pointed towards here, Job 38 :33 which are created from elemental and spiritual forces, and if you want to meet the Father, , Gen 1 : 3, , , as is reflected here John 8 : 12, , you need to understand this passage Colossians 2 : 20 - Gen 1 : 1 Son of Man, Father Light, Ela the Mother. Hillel the Elder. I Am That I Am, everything else is adversary. Universal doctrine. Matthew 23:13-

[Hemocracy]

Why do Christians differ in their religions? Because they believe in what was
written by unknown people, such as "Paul" and others, and they left the words
of their Messenger, "Jesus, son of Mary."

Matthew 7:21, "Jesus " says :
* those who don't do the will of My Father will not enter the kingdom of heaven *.
So that verse only applies to those who don't do the will of ( The Father ) " ALLAH "
Almighty is the Creator of the heavens and the earth and what is in them, and what
is between them, and the Creator of everything, everything.. including "Jesus", peace
be upon him.

When Jesus, son of Mary, returns to earth ( his second coming ),
he will say to those who took him as " God " or " Lord " :
* On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'
And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers *.
( Matthew 7:22).

[Historian]

Mr. Berman, please learn how to speak clearly. Your mumbling and speed of talking make you barely understandable. Slow down and enunciate. Fortunately, Prof. Fredriksen is an experienced lecturer and knows how to speak well.