Paul and the Apocalyptic Imagination
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Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 9. See also Paul and the Stoics (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), though here, Engberg-Pedersen fails to consider Paul’s indebtedness to Jewish apocalyptic. ↵
Ibid., Cosmology and Self, 3. ↵
Ibid., 34. ↵
John M. G. Barclay, “Stoic Physics and the Christ-event: A Review of Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul: The Material Spirit,” JSNT 33, no. 4 (2011): 406–14. Cf. Joseph R. Dodson, “A Review of Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul: The Material Spirit,” BBR 21, no. 3 (2011): 426–27. ↵
Barclay, “Stoic Physics,” 413. ↵
Ibid., 414. ↵
Wright, Faithfulness, 2:1397–98, 1404. ↵
Barclay, “Stoic Physics,” 413n11. ↵
Wright, Faithfulness, 2:1391. ↵
Ibid., 1407. ↵
Ibid., 1406. ↵
Regarding the latter, parallelomania results any time a scholar marginalizes the point that no matter how “Stoic” Paul may sound, the apostle never abandons his Jewish-Christian convictions that set him apart from the Stoics. See Samuel Sandmel, “Parallelomania,” JBL 81, no. 1 (1962): 1–13; Timothy A. Brookins, Corinthian Wisdom, Stoic Philosophy, and the Ancient Economy, SNTSMS 159 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 64–65. ↵
E.g. see Seneca, Nat. 3.27–30; Alexander Lycopolis 19.2–4; Stoicorum veterum fragmenta (henceforth: SVF) 1.107, 510–12; 2.526–620; Nemesius, SVF 2.625. Regarding the role of this theme in Greek literature, see Burkert, “Apokalyptik,” 240–43. ↵
See Bardo Maria Gauly, Senecas “Naturales Quaestiones:” Naturphilosophie für die römische Kaiserzeit, Zetemata 122 (München: C. H. Beck, 2004), 239; Edward Adams, Constructing the World, SNTW (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2000), 106; idem, The Stars Will Fall From Heaven (London: T&T Clark, 2007), 122–23; Christopher Rowland, “Paul as an Apocalyptist,” in A Companion to Jewish Apocalyptic Thought and the New Testament, ed. Benjamin E. Reynolds and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, forthcoming); A. A. Long, “The Stoics on World-Conflagration and Everlasting Recurrence,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 28, no. 1 (1985): 13–37. ↵
Cf. Hermann Gunkel in Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1895); Jaap Mansfeld, “Resurrection Added: The Interpretation Christiana of a Stoic Doctrine” VC 37, no. 3 (1983), 218–33; Collins, Seers, 329; Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “Posturing ‘Apocalyptic’ in Pauline Theology,” in The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts, WUNT 335 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). ↵
See John J. Collins, “Apocalyptic Eschatology as the Transcendence of Death” CBQ 36, no. 1 (1974), 21–43; Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven in Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 4–46. ↵
See, e.g., SVF 2.809; Seneca, Ep. 36.10; Lactantius, SVF 2.623; Simplicius, SVF 2.627; Origen, Against Celsus 4.68, 5.20; Alexander, On Aristotle’s Prior analytics 180.33-36; 181.25–31; Nemesius, 309.5–311.2. ↵
Since no complete work from Early and Middle Stoicism survives, it is difficult to reconstruct the philosophy of any respective Stoic from these periods or ascertain any particular innovation. See Long, Hellenistic Philosophy, 114; René Brouwer, The Stoic Sage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 3–4. ↵
On the dating and purpose of the Somnium Sciopionis, see J. G. F. Powell, Cicero (Warminster, UK: Aris & Phillips, 1990), 119–35. ↵
Georg Luck, “On Cicero’s ‘Dream of Scipio’ and its Place in Graeco-Roman Philosophy,” HTR 49, no. 4 (1956), 207–18. ↵
Marcia L. Colish, The Stoic Tradition From Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages (Leiden: Brill, 1985), 95. See also Burkert, “Apokalyptik,” 243; Powell, Cicero, 128, 158. ↵
Colish, The Stoic Tradition, 95. Cf. Luck, “On Cicero’s ‘Dream of Scipio,’” 207–18. ↵
Pheme Perkins, Resurrection (New York: Doubleday, 1984), 57. ↵
Cf. Tabor, Things Unutterable, 95. ↵
On the motif of fear in heavenly ascent stories, see Gooder, Third Heaven, 155. ↵
Powell, Cicero, 150. ↵
Africanus also hints at the cause of Scipio’s death. See Perkins, Resurrection, 57. ↵
Cf. Powell, Cicero, 153–54. ↵
Perkins, Resurrection, 58. ↵
Ibid., 156. ↵
Ibid., 158. ↵
See Perkins, Resurrection, 59. ↵
This essay was written during 37–41 ce. See Jochen Sauer, “Consolatio Ad Marciam,” in Brill’s Companion to Seneca, ed. Gregor Damschen and Andreas Heil (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 135–39; James Romm, Dying Every Day (New York: Knopf, 2014), 13–16. ↵
On the importance of Seneca in Stoicism, see John Sellars, Stoicism (Berkeley: University of California, 2006), 12; Brad Inwood, Reading Seneca (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 23–30. ↵
On Seneca’s uncertainty toward the afterlife, see Sevenster, Paul and Seneca, 224; Hoven, Stoϊcism, 110–15; James Ware, “The Salvation of Creation: Seneca and Paul on the Future of Humanity and of the Cosmos,” in Essays on Paul and Seneca, ed. Joseph R. Dodson and David E. Briones (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming). ↵
Seneca only mentions what happens to the wise souls, see Hoven, Stoϊcism, 113. ↵
With respect to this idea of the purification of the soul, “Nous n’en avons pas d’autre tmoignage,” within the Stoics—at least not clear ones, ibid., 110–15. ↵
On the Stoic’s meaning of eternal, see ibid., 120–23. ↵
On the motif of famous figures in ascent stories, see Gooder, Third Heaven, 152. ↵
Cf. Seneca, Ben. 6.22. ↵
The authorship of this play is uncertain; however, there are many arguments against Senecan authorship. See C. A. J. Littlewood, “Hercules Oetaeus,” in Brill’s Companion to Seneca, ed. Gregor Damschen and Andreas Heil (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 515–20. ↵
Christine M. King, “Seneca’s Hercules Oetaeus: A Stoic Interpretation of the Greek Myth,” Greece and Rome 18, no. 2 (1971), 215–22. ↵
Littlewood, “Hercules,” 516. ↵
John J. Collins, Seers, Sibyls and Sages in Hellenistic-Roman Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 92. Cf. Perkins, Resurrection, 62. ↵
William Bousset, “Die Himmelsreise der Seele,” Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 4 (1901): 136–69, at 136. ↵
Most scholars agree that, despite his use of the third person, Paul himself is the “man in Christ.” See Tabor, Things Unutterable, 114; Gooder, Third Heaven, 152. For a survey of the reasons scholars give for Paul speaking in the third person, see Margaret E. Thrall, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, vol. 2, ICC (London: T&T Clark, 2004), 778–83. ↵
On the timing of this vision, see Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, Second Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 267. ↵
See Hans Bietenhard, Die himmlische Welt im Urchristentum und Spätjudentum, WUNT 2 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1951), 161–86. For the different types of heavenly ascents according to Tabor, Things Unutterable, 69–97. ↵
On the relationship between 2 Cor. 12:1–5 and Gal. 1:11–17, see William Baird, “Visions, Revelation, and Ministry,” JBL 104, no. 4 (1985): 651–62. ↵
On the tradition of three heavens in Jewish thought, see Mark A. Seifrid, The Second to the Corinthians, PNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 439–40; Gooder, Third Heaven, 11–12; Baird, “Visions,” 655. Cf. Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 39. ↵
On Paradise, see Seifrid, Corinthians, 441–42; Tabor, Things Unutterable, 116–19; Rowland, The Open Heaven, 382–84; Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians AB (New York: Doubleday, 1984), 526. ↵
Cf. Slav. Enoch 8; Apoc. Moses 37.5. See Murray J. Harris, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 844–45; Wallace, Snatched, 255; Collins, Cosmology, 32. ↵
See Rowland, Open Heaven, 381–86. ↵
See also Gooder, Third Heaven
, 211–15; Rowland, “Paul as an Apocalyptist,” forthcoming. ↵
On Paul’s confusion here, see H. Windisch, Der zweite Korintherbrief, KEK (Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1924), 374–76; Segal, Paul the Convert, 39; Segal, “Heavenly Ascent,” 1349; Tabor, Things Unutterable, 57; Gooder, Third Heaven, 154; Wallace, Snatched, 259. ↵
Cf. Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 89. ↵
According to Wright, Er did not really die (N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God [London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003], 65). ↵
See Seifrid, Corinthians, 441. ↵
Scholars generally agree that Paul describes only one experience in 2 Cor. 12:1–10. See Furnish, II Corinthians, 542; Frank J. Matera, II Corinthians, NTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 278. ↵
Cf. Furnish, II Corinthians, 544; Baird, “Visions,” 661; Rowland, Open Heaven, 380. ↵
Cf. Rom. 8:26 and 1 Cor. 14:1-33. See Harris, Corinthians, 844; Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Paul, A Critical Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), 320; Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 556. ↵
This is assuming the Stoics would not consider this a parody, as Betz interprets it, Hans Dieter Betz, Der Apostel Paulus und die sokratische Tradition, BZHT 45 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1972), 72–95. In response to why Betz’s interpretation is unlikely, see Thrall, Corinthians, 776–77; Gooder, Third Heaven, 192–95. ↵
Cf. Rowland, Open Heaven, 22. ↵
Gooder, Third Heaven, 1. ↵
This is assuming the apostle did not mean κυρίου as a genitive of agency. As for how to interpret the genitive in ἀποκαλύψεις κυρίου, see Harris, Corinthians, 833; Wallace, Snatched, 252–53; Thrall, Second Corinthians, 774–75; Furnish, II Corinthians, 524; Baird, “Visions, Revelation, and Ministry,” 659; Barnett, Corinthians, 558. ↵
On whether to interpret this phrase as referring to inability or lack of permission, see Wallace, Snatched, 260–61; Tabor, Things Unutterable, 122–23; Gooder, Third Heaven, 201. ↵
Cf. Rowland, Open Heaven, 10, 26. ↵
Gooder, Third Heaven, 192–95, 213. ↵
Cf. Segal, “Heavenly Ascent,” 1352. ↵
Cf. Wright, Faithfulness, 1366–67. ↵
On a comparison between Paul’s understanding of demons and Satan with the Stoic worldview, see Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 93–101. ↵
“While resurrection and ascension must be viewed as different phenomena in the strict sense, they are so closely associated by Paul that one virtually implies the other” Segal, “Heavenly Ascent,” 1374. ↵
On the apocalyptic eschatology of 1 Corinthians, see Matthew Goff, “The Mystery of God’s Wisdom, the Parousia of a Messiah, and Visions of Heavenly Paradise,” in A Companion to Jewish Apocalyptic Thought and the New Testament, ed. Benjamin E. Reynolds and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, forthcoming). ↵
For more on the Stoic reaction to this passage, see Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 11. ↵
See Tabor, Things Unutterable, 9. ↵
Sevenster, Paul and Seneca, 217. ↵
See Powell, Cicero, 124. ↵
See ibid., 238. ↵
See Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 49. ↵
Collins, Seers, 97. ↵
On the apocalyptic eschatology in Romans, see Karina Martin Hogan, “The Apocalyptic Eschatology of Romans,” in A Companion to Jewish Apocalyptic Thought and the New Testament, ed. Benjamin E. Reynolds and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, forthcoming). ↵
Cf. 1 Enoch 46–48; 4 Ezra 7; 2 Baruch 50–51. ↵
Perhaps Paul even reckoned that they were simply annihilated as some Stoics assumed. See Sevenster, Paul and Seneca, 224; Hoven, Stoϊcism, 110–15; Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 101. ↵
Ernst Käsemann, “The Beginnings of Christian Theology,” in New Testament Questions of Today, trans. W. J. Montague (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 102; Engberg-Pedersen, Cosmology and Self, 9. ↵
Cf. Perkins, Resurrection, 56; Günter Wagner, Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries, trans. J. P. Smith (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1967), 268. ↵
See Sevenster, Paul and Seneca, 240. ↵
Regarding the relation to the apocalyptic dimensions of Pauline theology with Jewish tradition, see C. R. A. Morray-Jones, “Paradise Revisited (2 Cor. 12:1–12): The Jewish Mystical Background of Paul’s Apostolate. Part 2: Paul’s Heavenly Ascent and its Significance,” HTR 86, no. 2 (1993): 265–92; Loren T. Stuckenbruck, “Posturing ‘Apocalyptic’ in Pauline Theology,” in The Myth of Rebellious Angels: Studies in Second Temple Judaism and New Testament Texts, WUNT 335 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014). ↵
David E. Aune, The New Testament in its Literary Environment (Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox, 1987), 12. ↵
Brookins, Corinthian Wisdom, 228. ↵
deSilva, “Paul and the Stoa,” 563. Cf. Sevenster, Paul and Seneca, 240. ↵
Ibid., 563–64. ↵
E.g., the use of Stoic ideas and terminology in the Wisdom of Solomon. See Collins, Seers, 93 and 329. ↵
9
Second-Century Perspectives on the Apocalyptic Paul
Reading the Apocalypse of Paul and the Acts of Paul
Ben C. Blackwell
Introduction
As scholars debate how Paul is an apocalyptic theologian, the evidence they most often utilize, outside of Paul’s letters themselves, is Jewish apocalyptic material, and rightly so. However, other material can provide a lens on this question because our contemporary debates over the nature and extent of Paul’s apocalyptic theology are not new in the history of the reception of his letters. Indeed, some of Paul’s earliest exponents faced similar interpretive challenges and opportunities, and it is this reception history that will be our focus here. Rather than walking through nearly two thousand years of reception history to assess contemporary discussions, I will focus on the second century.[1]
Paul was not the only authoritative figure for the second century church, but he held a special position in the early church across the theological spectrum, and many drew from his life and letters. His interpreters found a rich diversity of ways for exploring and developing his theology through their own writings.[2] To be sure, none merely repeat Paul, and yet, we should not fault them for this, as they all were answering questions from their different contexts. Rather than being anachronistic distractions from the real meaning of Paul’s writings, studying the reception of these texts by later interpreters opens windows of meaning and approaches that we, as modern readers, might at times underestimate.[3]
No commentaries on Paul’s letters exist from this period, but other genres better reveal how various Christian traditions during this time re-appropriated his letters and theology for their own context. Within the wider Christian exploration of apocalyptic themes in the second century,[4] two key narratives that appropriate Paul’s memory stand out. An almost self-evident option is the gnostic Apocalypse of Paul, which recounts a heavenly journey by Paul.[5] In fact, with this original Coptic title—ⲧⲁⲡⲟⲕⲁⲗⲩⲯⲓⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ—this text likely represents the first explicit description of Paul as an “apocalyptic” figure by one of his interpreters. Another text equally focused on Paul (though here, from a proto-orthodox perspective) and infused with forms of apocalyptic thinking is the Acts of Paul, which is an apocryphal narrative of Paul’s ministry and martyrdom. Together, these two narratives give us a window on some of the diverse approaches to Paul and his apocalyptic theology in the second century.
In our study, we will see that both are permeated with traditional apocalyptic themes: the agency of God and that of other spiritual beings, revelatory experiences, individual eschatology, and political re-assessment. Though similar themes are utilized, the nature of the discussion and the combination of these themes are quite distinct. After a separate assessment of both texts, we will then reflect upon issues related
to contemporary debates.
The Apocalypse of Paul
A late second-century gnostic text, the Apocalypse of Paul is a relatively short work of just a few pages that describes a journey by Paul to the tenth heaven.[6] In the Apocalypse, Paul meets a small child, later revealed to be the Spirit, and is led from the fictive mountain of Jericho to the heavenly Jerusalem to meet the twelve apostles. Going directly to the third heaven, he progresses up to the tenth heaven. However, the third through the seventh heavens are under the control of “an old man in white clothing” (the demiurge) and his angelic minions, who attempt to prevent souls from ascending to the higher heavens. Indeed, in the fourth heaven, the narrator presents an extended scene where a soul is charged and punished by these angels. Through the help of the Spirit, however, Paul is ultimately able to ascend to tenth heaven. No detail is given about the higher heavens—the eighth, ninth, and tenth heavens—aside from Paul meeting there with the twelve apostles, his fellow spirits.