Ian Poole - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Independent writer researching early Christianity
Address: Liverpool, UK
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Antioch is often understood as James interfering with Paul's mission, but that does not tally wit... more Antioch is often understood as James interfering with Paul's mission, but that does not tally with the situation. The situation is given in Galatians 2 11-21 : But when Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Cephas before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
In my book Hiding from the Light (available from Waterstones online) among other topics the case ... more In my book Hiding from the Light (available from Waterstones online) among other topics the case was made that the death of Jesus was a political-Machiavellian evenaction of the Herodian family and not a 'religious' dispute with Judaism. Members of Jesus' family were undeniably killed by Herodians: John the Baptist and James b. Zebedee. The book proposes that the 'Saul' who 'watched' the murder of Stephen was an Herodian, and that James the Just was dispatched in a clever intrigue by Agrippa II. Corroborative evidence will be deduced from the Gospel of James and from the apocryphal Gospel of Peter Chapter 5 of James contains his attack upon the 'rich' for their ill-treatment of the poor. The traditional view is that the 'rich' were taken to be the Sadducean aristocracy; a view which devolves eventually from Josephus' classification of Jewish society. As we have been at pains to point out (Poole, 2013) this crude departmentalisation has distorted research by allocating a religious outlook to a financial position. James is decrying the greed and avariciousness of an economic clique, who may, or equally may not, have the religious views of the Sadducean sect. My proposal is that we take the target of James' ire to be not specifically the Sadducees, but the Herodians. Their profligate spending had raised taxation and increased the yoke upon the average person. This is borne out by the wording of Chapters 4 and 5 The Herodians certainly 'lusted' (4 2): their well-documented biographies provide undeniable evidence. They also 'killed' quite freely. Whether 'war' in this verse means the act of warfare or the state of mind is not pertinent: it describes the Herodians. It would be tortuous indeed to apply this to the Sadducees. Equally to say that the Sadducees were 'adulterers and adulteresses' (4 4) would not be claimed even by their most steadfast opponents. And to say of the Sadducees that they 'think that the scripture sayeth in vain' (4 5) is the very opposite to the conventional viewpoint.
Hiding from the Light , 2020
If 'Paul' and 'Saul' are identified as the same person endless contradictions arise, which have e... more If 'Paul' and 'Saul' are identified as the same person endless contradictions arise, which have expended vast amounts of ink to explain away. If they are regarded as entirely different people whom Luke has (accidentally or otherwise) fused into a single story, then many contradictions disappear.
Drafts by Ian Poole
Antioch is often understood as James interfering with Paul's mission, but that does not tally wit... more Antioch is often understood as James interfering with Paul's mission, but that does not tally with the situation. The situation is given in Galatians 2 11-21 : But when Cephas was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Cephas before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
In my book Hiding from the Light (available from Waterstones online) among other topics the case ... more In my book Hiding from the Light (available from Waterstones online) among other topics the case was made that the death of Jesus was a political-Machiavellian evenaction of the Herodian family and not a 'religious' dispute with Judaism. Members of Jesus' family were undeniably killed by Herodians: John the Baptist and James b. Zebedee. The book proposes that the 'Saul' who 'watched' the murder of Stephen was an Herodian, and that James the Just was dispatched in a clever intrigue by Agrippa II. Corroborative evidence will be deduced from the Gospel of James and from the apocryphal Gospel of Peter Chapter 5 of James contains his attack upon the 'rich' for their ill-treatment of the poor. The traditional view is that the 'rich' were taken to be the Sadducean aristocracy; a view which devolves eventually from Josephus' classification of Jewish society. As we have been at pains to point out (Poole, 2013) this crude departmentalisation has distorted research by allocating a religious outlook to a financial position. James is decrying the greed and avariciousness of an economic clique, who may, or equally may not, have the religious views of the Sadducean sect. My proposal is that we take the target of James' ire to be not specifically the Sadducees, but the Herodians. Their profligate spending had raised taxation and increased the yoke upon the average person. This is borne out by the wording of Chapters 4 and 5 The Herodians certainly 'lusted' (4 2): their well-documented biographies provide undeniable evidence. They also 'killed' quite freely. Whether 'war' in this verse means the act of warfare or the state of mind is not pertinent: it describes the Herodians. It would be tortuous indeed to apply this to the Sadducees. Equally to say that the Sadducees were 'adulterers and adulteresses' (4 4) would not be claimed even by their most steadfast opponents. And to say of the Sadducees that they 'think that the scripture sayeth in vain' (4 5) is the very opposite to the conventional viewpoint.
Hiding from the Light , 2020
If 'Paul' and 'Saul' are identified as the same person endless contradictions arise, which have e... more If 'Paul' and 'Saul' are identified as the same person endless contradictions arise, which have expended vast amounts of ink to explain away. If they are regarded as entirely different people whom Luke has (accidentally or otherwise) fused into a single story, then many contradictions disappear.