Why I'm Interested...

One of the reasons I’m so interested in these new, ancient texts, is that they may illuminate some of
the stranger parts of the Christian Testament. There are some really peculiar ideas that were clearly circulating in the days of the early Christ Movement. Some are criticized by Paul, and others are affirmed. Most of these strange texts never make it into the lectionary, so we rarely consider them. They're like that cognitive dissonance that our gestalt-oriented minds simply screen out and fail to notice.

But consider:

Affirmed (at least partially) by Paul: 

• Being baptized on behalf of the dead (a practice continued today by Mormons). 1 Corinthians 15:29 (ESV) — "Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?" 
• Celibacy 1 Corinthians 7 "from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none…For the present form of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman and the virgin are anxious about the affairs of the Lord, so that they may be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about the affairs of the world, how to please her husband. I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered devotion to the Lord….So then, he who marries his fiancée does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better. A wife is bound as long as her husband lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord. But in my judgment she is more blessed if she remains as she is." 
• Jesus' teaching that we are all divine (John 10:34) Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 
• Etc. 

Rejected by Paul: 

• Belief that the Resurrection has already happened. 2 Timothy 2:17–18 (ESV) — "Hymenaeus and Philetus…have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some." 
• Immortality of the Soul 1 Corinthians 15:22-23, 50-52 "as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ….What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed." 
• Etc.

I'll be looking for parallels and contrasts in the extra-canonical texts.

--Jack Lohr