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Onesimos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

David Daube
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley

Extract

When Paul deems conversion to imply a “new creation,” he is in line with the Jewish tenet—valid to this day—which assigns a convert the position of a “child just born.” One consequence is that a pagan family coming over en bloc is in principle unaffected by incest taboos: they are no longer related. Still, the Rabbis, lest the unthinking might conclude that incest was being taken lightly, impose a restriction, pragmatic and variable—banning such unions as are illicit in the surrounding culture. Along with the maxim, Paul also adopts this proviso: he tells the Corinthians that their pride in their novel state must not lead to marriage with a stepmother, “fornication not found among the gentiles” (1 Cor 5:1). No tenet, he urges, not even one so fundamental, so cherished, as that of re-creation, is to be turned into a fetish. Glory becomes vainglory when the resultant actions are the opposite of beneficial to the individual, the opposite of upbuilding for the church. I am going to suggest that some passages in his Epistle to Philemon may have to be read bearing in mind the same counterpointal interplay: on the one hand, a radical concept of conversion; on the other, moderation from considerateness as an individual as well as from dedication to the church's welfare.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1986

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References

1 b. Yebam. 22a; 2 Cor 5:17. For details, see my following works: The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism (London: University of London, Athlone Press, 1956; reprinted New York: Arno, 1973) 113Google Scholar; “Pauline Contributions to a Pluralistic Culture: Re-creation and Beyond,” in Miller, Donald G. and Hadidian, D. Y., eds., Jesus and Man's Hope (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, 1971) 2. 223ff.Google Scholar; “Biblical Landmarks in the Struggle for Women's Rights,” Juridical Review 90 n.s. 23 (1978) 184ff.Google Scholar; and Ancient Jewish Law: Three Inaugural Lectures (Leiden: Brill, 1981) 8, 14ff.Google Scholar

2 Gen. Rab. on 12:6. The biblical text puzzlingly reports a “making” of souls. For the midrash, this is an allusion to a gathering in of heathens which, indeed, equals a making, a giving life.

3 “Pauline Contributions,” 227.

4 Eph 6:5–9; Col 3:22–4:1; 1 Tim 6:1–2; Tit 2:9–10; 1 Pet 2:18. Similarly, whereas the duties of both spouses are outlined in Ephesians, Colossians, and 1 Peter, only the wife's are in 1 Timothy and Titus; see Selwyn, Edward Gordon, The First Epistle of St. Peter (London: Macmillan, 1946) 182.Google Scholar

5 b. Yebam. 48b; Josephus Ant 2.2.4; see Daube, Ancient Jewish Law, 17–18.