NT2213 The Pauline Tradition: 1 & 2 Corinthians
Mary E. Hinkle
Associate Professor of New Testament
Luther Seminary
Fall 2004

Week 1 | Sept. 7-12

Week 1 | To Do List and Links

1. Complete the Hunt for Paul. (Link to print-friendly version here.)
2. Read Dunn article its reading notes. (Available on e-reserve and desk reserve.)
3. Complete "my info" four-part introduction & check out those of classmates.
4. Weblog.

Getting to Know Paul

What did Paul think of himself?  We begin with the primary sources. That is, first we look at Paul's own letters and the book of Acts.  (Secondary sources are things like commentaries or textbooks.)

Pauline Autobiography

At several points in his letters, Paul talks about his life both before and after his encounter with the risen Lord.  James Dunn lists the references for many of these autobiographical reflections from Paul ("Who Did Paul Think He Was?" 177). In The Hunt for Paul, you read some of these passages from the letters and begin to form a picture of what Paul says about himself.

Sources for Paul's Life

Generally, modern NT scholars who study Paul's life prioritize their sources in this way:

Authentic Letters from Paul | Those letters that everyone is sure Paul wrote are judged to be the best source for Paul's life.  Soon we will talk about the whole collection of Paul's letters (also known as "the Pauline corpus") and why it looks to many like Paul himself might not have written some of the letters that bear his name.  For now, it is enough to know that everyone agrees that Paul wrote:

Acts  | Next is Luke's account of Paul's life in Acts.  We guess that this source is somewhat less reliable as a record of Paul's life because (a) it was not written by Paul, and (b) it was probably written in the 80s, nearly 50 years after Paul's call and 20 years after his death. The idea here is that the letters are "straight from the horse's mouth," while Acts is not.  Some authors, like A. N. Wilson, purport not to use Acts at all.  Even Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, in many ways a traditional Roman Catholic scholar, tries to build a chronology of Paul's life without depending on Luke's testimony that Paul embarked on three missionary journeys.

Other Sources | Finally, we look at sources beyond those offered by Paul and Luke.  For example, Clement, an early bishop of Rome, sent a letter to the Corinthians in which he alludes to the death of both Peter and Paul.  The letter is known as 1 Clement.  This is the oldest document we have that mentions Paul's martyrdom.  (For a look at how Luke ends Paul's story—without mentioning Paul's death—see Acts 28:30-31.)

Join in the Hunt

Now put on your pith helmet and strike out on the Hunt for Paul.  This is a scavenger hunt game built in PowerPoint that will help you organize the information from these texts on Paul's life. 

Want to print the hunt? Here is a print-friendly version of the questions.

	Gal. 1:11-2:10	Phil. 3:4b-14	1 Cor. 15:3-11
	2 Cor. 11:21b-33	Acts 7:58	Acts 9:1-31

What do you think of Paul?

Almost everyone brings some ideas about Paul to the study of his letters. After you have done the scavenger hunt for Paul, prepare an introduction of yourself (a page or two) that covers these four topics. One paragraph on each is fine.

1. Life | Tell us where you live and anything you would like us to know about your life outside of seminary.
2. Learning | Share one learning goal you have for yourself in this class. What would you like to get out of this learning experience?
3. Time | Talk about "finding the time" for this class. Are you giving something up in order to do the class? Tell us what you will be juggling as you participate here and share any good strategies you have for making the most of your time in online learning.
4. Paul | We are going to be spending a lot of time with the apostle Paul (by way of his letters) this semester. This is a guy who inspires intense emotions in people. Remark on what you think of Paul and his letters.

Where do you post this after you write it? I think you can post it on the course website within MyLutherNet. At the top left of the page that greets you when you log in, you should see something that says, "My Info," or "Profile" maybe. Click on that. From there, you can add information about yourself. (I can't see what you'll see for sure because the faculty page looks different from a student page.)

The nifty thing about this is that after you post here, the rest of us can go to the Roster link in the class, click on your name, and read what you have written. In this way, we can get to know each other a little as we also begin to get to know Paul and his letters.