There are vast deposits of high-grade gold in Paul's Greekness that Civilization must reFind and mine anew.
That gold is in the Greek groundedness that Mathematics and Physics are an aspect of the Divine.
I have read the claim that such an assumption was overtaken by thought out of Aristotle and so we severed that reverential Awe that is possible in the sciences. But in Paul's time, [I'm intuiting this- my dancing heart sees/knows it] this Spiritual Discernment was "ploughed through" the assumptions for educated Jewish subjects of the Roman Empire, schooled in (**find/name the greeks he would have memorized and sung and known. what did he know of Pythagoras? he knew the poet of technology of the times, engineering as a poem, yes indeed. Speaking of which,I want an epic 21st century mathematical premise put out as a piece of poetry, or music. both.).
Are there classicists today who are immersed in the assumptions and understandings of Paul and his peers? What are such people called?
Notes:
1.
http://spindleworks.com/library/rfaber/aratus.htm
2. aratus art
http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/paul-quotes-hometown-poet-in-athens-speech/
3.
http://www.freewebs.com/reformationalphilosophy/Sewell/Acts17.pdf
4. a defensive view that may be useful to contemplate:
http://www.letusreason.org/Current56.htm
One of the most influential testimonies to Christianity was when Saul of Tarsus, perhaps Christianity's most rabid antagonist, became the apostle Paul. Saul was a Hebrew zealot, a religious leader. Being born in Tarsus gave him the opportunity to be exposed to the most advanced learning of his day. Tarsus was a university city known for its stoic philosophers and culture. Strabo, the Greek geographer, praised Tarsus for being so interested in education and philosophy. 10/17:469
Paul, like his father, possessed Roman citizenship, a high privilege. He seemed to be well versed in Hellenistic culture and thought. He had great command of the Greek language and displayed dialectic skill. He quoted from less familiar poets and philosophers:
For in him we live and move and exist [Epimenides], as even some of your own poets have said, "For we also are His offspring" [Aratus, Cleanthes] (Acts 17:28). Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals" [Menander] (1 Corinthians 15:33). One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" [Epimenides] (Titus 1:12).
Paul's education was Jewish and took place under the strict doctrines of the Pharisees. At about age fourteen, he was sent to study under Gamaliel, one of the great rabbis of the time, the grandson of Hillel. Paul asserted that he was not only a Pharisee but also the son of Pharisees (Acts 23:6). He could boast: "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions" (Galatians 1:14).
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6. "Strabo, the historical geographer of the period, ranked Tarsus even above Athens and Alexandria as a center of intellectual life. Athenodorus, the Stoic teacher of Caesar Augustus, had come from Tarsus."6Historian F.F. Bruce also mentions that the Stoic teacher Athenodorus returned to Tarsus in 15 B.C.E. to teach, and become involved in local politics: "Athenodorus, who could number the Emperor Augustus among his pupils, returned to his native Tarsus in 15 B.C. and reformed the civic administration."7 It is within the context of this intellectually stimulating university community that Paul is born, unquestionably being exposed to the university's dominant Stoic philosophy while growing up in Tarsus. Historian Howard Clark Kee makes this speculation about the influence of Stoic philosophy on Paul:
"It is not surprising, therefore, that traces of Stoic ethics and religious vocabulary may be found in the letters of Paul. Perhaps the sympathy of Paul with the Gentiles is traceable in part to the impression made upon him by the earnestness of the Stoic preachers who stood in the streets and market places of the city, seeking to inculcate virtue in their listeners."8
