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#446230 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 05 August 2013 - 02:59 AM in Theology

I have to get back to writing so cannot post again for a while. Anyone who wants to ask a question or provide a comment on this paper please contact me on my email address on this page: http://sydney.edu.au...mansfield.shtml

I will get back to you as soon as I can.

God bless.



#446228 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 05 August 2013 - 02:49 AM in Theology

I hear your view Fortigurn.



#446226 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 05 August 2013 - 02:24 AM in Theology

well you are off topic then :)/>

it can be argued either way - it depends whether it was acting as a home or a house church when they taught him. Impossible to determine.

I don't attempt to do this - I say 'aside' means 'aside' - no more no less. One of many theories is to say they took Apollos home.

I don't think the author of 1 Tim is discussing roles, but a local issue. And we have the whole debate about 1 Tim being Deutero-Pauline to contend with as well - that is, if you want to be accepted in any scholarly debate.

any questions or arguments about this paper from anyone else? A guy at Bible.org had issues with Apollos being an apostle based on 1 Cor 4. Any thoughts on that?



#446224 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 05 August 2013 - 02:04 AM in Theology

Fortigurn, I ended my paper with 'this raises interesting questions about ...' so I'm not sure how you draw the conclusions you draw but they are not from this paper.

The historicity of Acts is a very pertinent issue now, particularly since Pervo wrote his commentary in the 21st century. J. B. Tyson is also relevant to this debate. The Jesus Seminar do not think there is anything historical in Acts and they formed this opinion in the 21st century. I have been to the seminar to hear about it.

The church met in Priscilla and Aquila's house - therefore *if* they took him home (which I do not think they did) they taught him in the house church, which was the public place where the church met, was it not? It could therefore be argued they taught him in this public space. But in my view, this argument is anachronistic, that is, retrojecting modern ideas (how church is conducted now in terms of public speaking) onto ancient texts.

Luke is not commentating on the space where Apollos was taught. Just as the author of 1 Tim is not discussing space when he says 'I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man'. Or do you think the word 'public' appears in this passage?

The interesting thing is that 1 Tim says a woman is not to teach ... yet Priscilla and Aquila did just that. It also says 'or to assume authority over a man' ... yet Priscilla and Aquila taught the apostle, Apollos. How fascinating!



#446222 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 05 August 2013 - 01:38 AM in Theology

It is a good question Fortigurn. Sometimes when I am all over a topic I forget not everyone else is. The thing is that ektithemi was thought to be a term that described a decree (as it does several times in the LXX, particularly in Esther), or the exposure of an infant. This was the basis of Dan Wallace's view that Priscilla and Priscilla were just, in a sense, reciting something to Apollos.

Wallace's view was dispelled by my argument that Priscilla and Aquila taught a precise point of Christian doctrine to Apollos, and that Paul's teaching (Luke also uses ektithemi to describe Paul's teaching) continued from morning till night, where some who heard him were converted and others were not. This did not look like recitation.



#446221 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 04 August 2013 - 10:37 PM in Theology

Hi Jon, I don't think Fortigurn mentioned anything about my paper, did he? Please correct me if I am wrong.

The issue in scholarship right now is whether Acts provides any historically reliable information. My paper addresses this issue and ends with a sentence 'this raises interesting questions about ...'

As part of a chapter in my PhD on John the Baptist it was vital to address the growing view in scholarship that Acts is a late document, not independent of the Pauline letters or Josephus.

Is there something specific you wish to ask about my paper?

Or about any other topic to do with Priscilla and Aquila teaching Apollos in Ephesus?

I think it would be fair to say that without reading the entire private correspondence in 2011 between Fortigurn and myself it would be hard to assess the arguments presented. Wouldn't you?

From my end I don't tend to keep emails that long. Also, as a PhD candidate different things become more or less important in my arguments as I go along. Arguments change accordingly, depending on my supervision. The historicity of Acts is a very pertinent issue at the moment.

If your interest is in whether Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos privately or at home, which is sometimes used to suggest that women cannot teach publicly, if you look up the Greek word for 'aside' in Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., rev. and ed. F. W. Danker (University of Chicago Press, 2000)(BDAG) you will find something like this:

the word 'aside' has five possible meanings, in BDAG, p. 883, 1–5. It can mean ‘to take something that meets a personal need, take, partake of food’ (Acts 27:36); ‘to promote one’s own ends, exploit, take advantage of’ (Demosth. 2, 7); ‘to take or lead off to oneself, take aside’ (Acts 18:26); ‘to extend welcome, receive in(to) one’s home or circle of acquaintances’ (1 Macc. 10:15; Rom. 14:1); or ‘to take or bring along with oneself, take along’ (Acts 17:5).

If the Greek word for house (oikos) appeared in Acts 18:24-28 then we could definitively say they took Apollos home, but oikos does not appear in the text.

Interestingly, even if it could be proven Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos home, it was there that the house church met (Rom. 16:3–5). The oikos that had once been ‘private’ prior to the arrival of the house church had become the public meeting place of the church.

But, for me, and certainly arguably, the most natural reading of this passage is that Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos aside in the synagogue immediately after they heard him teach, and instructed him. I don't think Luke is commentating on the space in which Apollos was taught.



#446199 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 03 August 2013 - 04:12 PM in Theology

The third hardest point to answer, again not mentioned in this particular paper, is that the word used of Priscilla and Aquila's teaching is also used of Paul's teaching in Acts 28:23, teaching that continued from morning to night. Priscilla and Aquila also taught Apollos a precise point of Christian doctrine. When this point was made to Dan Wallace, a scholar, who had written that the word for teach used of Priscilla and Aquila was a 'vanilla term', that simply meant lay out or expose, he commented: "You make a good argument for a more elevated understanding of ἐκτίθημι."

Anyone who is interested in my earlier paper please contact me on my email address on this page:
http://sydney.edu.au...mansfield.shtml



#446198 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 03 August 2013 - 03:57 PM in Theology

The next hardest point to answer in my view is not mentioned in this paper but refers to Priscilla and Aquila taking Apollos 'aside' to teach him (Acts 18:26). Some translations and commentators say 'aside' means 'home' or 'private' but these Greek words do not appear in the account of Apollos in Ephesus in Acts. We don't know where Apollos was taught.



#446197 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 03 August 2013 - 03:52 PM in Theology

I think the hardest point to answer in my paper is reconciling Apollos' leadership and possible apostleship in the Corinth church in c. 53 CE when compared to what some describe as his non Christian or Christian novice status in Ephesus just prior, in about c. 52 CE (as outlined in Acts). If he was a Christian novice, or non Christian until he was instructed by Priscilla and Aquila how do we account for his incredible rise to leadership in Corinth, and the catalogue of apostolic hardships that Paul indicates Apollos (and himself) had suffered in 1 Cor 4?



#446108 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 26 July 2013 - 07:26 AM in Theology

Hi Jan,
That's an interesting point. I checked out other usages of katecheo in the NT and it is used of Theophilus' instruction presumably in Christian matters (Luke 1:4); the Jews instruction out of the Law (Rom 2:8); of being instructed in the word (Gal 6:6); with the meaning 'inform' in Acts 21:21, 24; of Paul's instruction (1 Cor 14:19). The issue I would have with saying that Apollos was instructed by other disciples is that the text does not say that. It says 'he was instructed in the way of the Lord' by whom we do not know.

I had thought the phrase 'the way of the Lord', because of it's close ties to Isa 40:3, and the fact Apollos only knew of the baptism of John, could be the name for a catechesis of John the Baptist, but that is speculative. I suppose at one point or another every Christian was (and is) instructed, either by John the Baptist, Jesus, the apostles or other early Christian teachers like Priscilla and Aquila. Apollos also instructed others and was instructed by Priscilla and Aquila. As someone said at Oxford ecclesia - isn't it great that an apostle (Apollos) was teachable!

Thanks for your comment. Much appreciated. It made me think :)



#446106 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 26 July 2013 - 04:28 AM in Theology

Hello Jan, thanks for your comment. Do you have another way you think Apollos' instruction should be described? 'The way of the Lord' might reflect Isa 40:3 which has strong associations with John the Baptist. This connection is interesting in the light of Apollos only knowing of the baptism of John and being an early disciple. But it is a minor link. 'The way of the Lord' might also be associated with 'The Way' a group in early Christianity (Acts 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14). Some later manuscripts of Acts 18:26 have 'the way of the Lord' or 'the way' instead of 'the way of God'.



#446104 Priscilla and Aquila Teach an Apostle

Posted by beach24 on 26 July 2013 - 01:58 AM in Theology

This paper raises the possibility that Priscilla and Aquila taught an apostle, Apollos.

Here is the link: http://www.academia....each_an_Apostle