Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatians?

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Giuseppe
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Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatians?

Post by Giuseppe »

The suspect is risen when I read the following:
But what, in Jerusalem, has exactly three pillars? What image is this, to which James, Cephas, and John are compared?

We do know of a structure that is renowned for having two pillars: Solomon's Temple, as described in florid symbolic detail in 1 Kgs 7 and 2 Chr 3, where the pillars are given the names Jachin (more literally Yakhin) and Boaz. The pillars are at the entrance to the temple, and the Book of the Kings has the king standing "at the pillar" to make declarations before God and the people.
https://parrhesia-lalein.blogspot.it/20 ... -john.html

The idea that James, Peter and John - as ''Pillars'' - ''make declarations before God and the people'' remembers very closely the fable known as Acts of Apostles.

Besides, the fact that the Pillars support the Temple, and given the pauline equation ''new temple=community of the believers'', then why did Paul concede a so great honour to his great enemies?

The name ''Pillars'' seems to have a so dogmatic and fixed meaning (the implicit and reluctant admission by Paul that they and only they were the true founders of the church) that the idea seems very late, very along the lines of Acts's desire to make Paul a servant of Peter & company...

What do you think about?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by Giuseppe »

In addition: why there was a need of new ''Pillars'' for a new ''Temple'' when the old Temple was still there in Jerusalem before the 70?

There is something that doesn't fit... :( :( :(
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
davidbrainerd
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by davidbrainerd »

So, our modern expression "pillars of the community" or some similar notion you don't think existed back then?
John2
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by John2 »

Everyone's favorite scholar Eisenman argues that Paul's reference to James, Cephas and John as pillars could be connected to the idea that a Zaddik/Righteous One is a "pillar of the world," e.g., Hag. 12b:
And the Rabbis say: The earth stands on twelve pillars, as it is stated: “He set the borders of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8). Just as the children of Israel, i.e., the sons of Jacob, are twelve in number, so does the world rest on twelve pillars. And some say: There are seven pillars, as it is stated: “She has hewn out her seven pillars” (Proverbs 9:1). Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua says: The earth rests on one pillar and a righteous person is its name, as it is stated: “But a righteous person is the foundation of the world” (Proverbs 10:25).

http://www.sefaria.org/Chagigah.12b?lang=bi
The concomitant to this is ... that once 'the Zaddik' -in this case James- was removed, existence of the city could no longer, like Sodom and Gomorrah in mythological tradition, be sustained and its destruction was assured. This whole process related to the application of these 'Zaddik,' 'Pillar,' and 'Protection' epithets to James' person. Even in the circumscribed materials that have come down to us, the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem ... was tied by exegetes to his death.

https://books.google.com/books?id=XhJcW ... ar&f=false
Last edited by John2 on Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:04 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Giuseppe
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by Giuseppe »

Mmm...
John and James are named ''Sons of Thunder'' in the gospels.
And Peter is by definition a ''Rock'', the basilar pillar of a structure.
So, our modern expression "pillars of the community" or some similar notion you don't think existed back then?
''pillars'' means here something slightly different. It means not simply ''pillars of the community'' but ''pillars of the new Temple that is the Church'', a pauline idea that is strange to find in Jerusalem, where Paul is hated. Aren't we said that the Pillar James went to old Temple daily? How can he be a pillar of a new Temple? Or the ''Gate'' of a new Temple?
Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua says: The earth rests on one pillar and a righteous person is its name, as it is stated: “But a righteous person is the foundation of the world” (Proverbs 10:25).
It is my opinion that James the Pillar was named ''Just'' because he adored the Just God of the Jews, in opposition to the Good God adored by Marcion. Therefore the idea that James is Pillar is strictly linked with the his presumed ''Justice'': real observance of the Law in anti-marcionite sense.

Again, I'm a bit perplexed: all this fits better the II CE conflicts.

Could John, James and Peter call themselves as ''Pillars'' - meaning that ''The earth rests on one pillar and a righteous person is its name, as it is stated: “But a righteous person is the foundation of the world” - BEFORE that an anti-nomian Paul came to meet them in Jerusalem?
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Stuart
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by Stuart »

This article by Ernst Barnikol might be useful to see how one scholar evaluated it.
https://depts.drew.edu/jhc/barnikol.html

Herman Detering gives the best analysis of the Marcionite text, and judges the names were present. only "and Barnabas" (who is missing entirely from the Marcionite letter) was nos not present. He based this on the citation below

Marc, 5.3.6: »Bene igitur quod et dexteras Paulo dederunt Petrus et Iacobus et Ioannes, et de officii distributione pepigerunt, ut Paulus in nationes, illi in circumcisionem, tantum ut meminissent egenorum, et hoc secundum legem creatoris, pauperes et egenos foventis, sicut in evangelii vestri retractatu probatum est«. Same order in D G d g Hieron., Ambrosiaster, Victorin (s. HARNACK 71*.)
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Ben C. Smith
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Re: Is the name ''Pillars'' a late interpolation in Galatian

Post by Ben C. Smith »

Giuseppe wrote:Could John, James and Peter call themselves as ''Pillars'' - meaning that ''The earth rests on one pillar and a righteous person is its name, as it is stated: “But a righteous person is the foundation of the world” - BEFORE that an anti-nomian Paul came to meet them in Jerusalem?
Roger David Aus has a chapter about the pillars in his book Barabbas and Esther. He points to lots of later Jewish statements which regard the three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) as the three foundations, or pillars, of the earth. Here is one such text from Rosh Hashana in the Talmud:

Further says R. Eliezer: Whence do we know that the patriarchs were born in Tishri? From the passage [I Kings, viii. 2]: "And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto King Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim" (strong), which is the seventh month; i.e., the month in which Ethanim, the strong ones of the earth (the patriarchs), were born. How do we know that the expression ethan means strength? It is written [Numb. xxiv. 21] ethan moshabhekha, "strong is thy dwelling-place," and it is also written [Micah, vi. 2]: "Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and (ve-haëthanim) ye strong foundations," etc.

He writes on page 118:

The early and almost interchangeable terms pillar/foundation/support must have been a customary way of designating the three Patriarchs, as two later sources show. Midr. Pss. 1/15 states that the earth's standing on three pillars (עמודים: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) is a "popular saying." In addition, Cant. Rab. 7:8 §1 has Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the first, and thus probably oldest, explanation of the "popular oath": "By him who established the world on three pillars" (עמודים).

This would explain why Paul says that Cephas, James, and John seem to be pillars; he regards Jesus Christ as the new foundation (1 Corinthians 3.10-12), as is fitting for a mixed body of Jews and Gentiles, not a reconstituted triad representing the Patriarchs, which would be business as usual.

Just a thought.
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