Easier, yes. Well trained, I agree. But I wish you'd stop looking at such issues from the wrong end of the telescope. Our job is to read Paul without injecting post hoc interpretations of orthodoxy, not embrace them. As long as you can't let go of Christ described with the theonym by necessity, you won't be able to read Paul for what he says. I understand that "brother of the Lord" is hard for you, if it doesn't refer to Jesus. Tell me though, what does the name Ahijah mean?To me it's easier to interpret if you are NOT correct: Jesus is the first fruits of resurrection/transformation (1 Cor 15:20), his followers will join him on parousia, in this sense the relationship Jesus/followers becomes horizontal, which warrants viewing all of those as "brothers".If I am correct about Paul's usage of κυριος, ie as a theonym for the Hebrew god and as a title for Jesus, who would then like to interpret Gal 1:19's "James the brother of the Lord"?
But assuming you are correct: perhaps there was a "Brotherhood of the Lord (Yahweh)", which would imply the Jewish zeal of its members? But that sounds pretty blasphemous, and probably that's why there were (almost?) movements called so in the history. I'm curious to hear your take.
Paul doesn't use αδεφος ("brother") in a biological sense, always relating it to fellow religionists. When he talks of biological issues, he usually adds "according to the flesh" so you get his meaning (Rom 1:3, 9:3). So your biological interpretation doesn't reflect Paul, nor your take that Lord here must refer to Jesus. And strangely Acts, which we assume is post-Pauline, knows nothing about Jesus' brother being leader of the Jerusalem community, which you'd expect the text to trumpet, if it were part of the tradition, but nada.
If brother indicates a religionist according to Paul's understanding, then the phrase "brother of the Lord" must add extra meaning. As we have no contemporary literature to help us understand, my best guess is that it indicates a "brother" with religious status, eg a community leader.
If you can't come to this literature afresh, you'll just keep rehashing orthodox theological spin.
Statistics: Posted by spin — Sat Jan 04, 2025 12:01 pm