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Originally Posted by zeek
It's possible that the fact that Paul was educated gave him an advantage over the 12 apostles who weren't.
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No doubt his ability to connect Jesus' ministry with the OT into one coherent revelation has helped.
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Originally Posted by zeek
Despite the fact that Jesus chose all but Matthias to disseminate his teaching we have nothing from them. Jesus appointed them. Where are their teachings?
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Since I don't know it is simply conjecture. Perhaps their teaching is precisely what we see in the gospels and acts and therefore we have no need of writings from them. Perhaps the gospels, like Luke's writings, represent a thorough summation of all their teachings.
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Originally Posted by zeek
Was Paul suppressing the teachings of those who actually knew Jesus before the resurrection in favor his own Hellenistic gospel? If so, he succeeded.
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This is the problem of being a talented member, it tends to suppress others talents. That said I feel that the gospels are very well represented in the church teachings.
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Originally Posted by zeek
He boasts that he opposed Peter to his face because Peter disagreed with him about eating kosher food.
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The point was not about kosher food, that point was resolved earlier by Peter and his vision. The point of contention was about not eating with believers because they were not "Jews".
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Originally Posted by zeek
The Hellenists prevailed. Those that didn't accept it came to be called Judaizers when in fact they may have simply been adhering to the practices of Judaism like Jesus did as the Book of Matthew presents him. What do you think?
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I don't think the Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as a Judaizer. I define a Judaizer as one who requires believers to be circumcised, to convert to Judaism, to separate themselves from believers who have not converted, and who still keep the various animal sacrifices. I fully agree with Paul's understanding that Jesus death is the real circumcision and I fully agree with Peter's vision that Jesus death cleansed all of us so that we no longer have "clean" and "unclean" peoples.