Forum:
Paul and Jesus both highly skilled at connecting with people through use of language.
Writers who wrote what Paul wanted were editors familiar with rhetoric, giving advice.
Read Philemon to think about whether he was asking that Onesimus be freed or simply returned.
Does the Bible actually say Paul was a tentmaker? If so, where? It wasn't part of his autobiographical story in his letters. How do we know when we know? The word used is not tentmaker. It is a translation of Acts. The word used means scene backdrop. Paul did say he works with his hands.
Always comes back to the question, "What difference does it make?" It doesn't affect my belief that Jesus is Christ.
1. Paul started with vision. It begins in Acts with his conversion experience. He encountered the risen Christ and continually has revelations in the midst of sacrifice and vulnerability.
2. Paul was an enterpreneurial character, starting with nothing and ending with something.
3. He is practical/pragmatic. He went to cities along trade routes.
4. He's innovative and adaptible. There needs to be clearly articulated objective and evaluation. Is this working or not? (Be careful not to revere quotas and lose zeal. Don't let package be more important than vision and mission).
5. Paul could build and maintain community relationships through diversity, relying on partnerships and relationships with people.
6. Paul is extraordinarily positive.
7. He is constantly holding people accountable.
8. His mission is different in each context.
God Asclepus at Epidavros
Healing techniques included medicine, diet, exercise and contemplation. Emphasis was placed on the spiritual aspect of healing. The predisposition to be healed was an important component to being healed.
We only know Socrates through Plato. He took hemlock after being adjudged to have corrupted the young boys. Socrates' last words were I owe Asclepus a rooster, be sure to pay it. Jesus went to the asclepeon, he wouldn't have been able to avoid it, the cult was so prominent. There is indirect reference to it in the gospels.
Asclepus was a real person and Homer wrote about him in the 8th century.
Hippocrates was considered to be the 16th generation descendant of Asclepus. Staff and snake were his symbol first. Aesclepus was protected by centaurs as a child and learns of life over death from a snake.
Asclepus was son of God Apollo and mortal woman, Caronis, due to an affair over which her husband was furious and learned of it from a raven whose feathers were then white. He cursed the raven turning the feathers black.
Who else do we know that was the product of God and a human woman? This is synchretism, telling a story that paralleled well known stories, in Jesus' case, to demonstrate that he was even better. There was often the description of a celestial event that accompanied the birth of a king.
The pools at Bethesda were an Asclepeon.
Asclepus depicted with long hair and beard which is often how gods were depicted. Nero was depicted in a bust yesterday not clean shaven and it's believed that he was in mourning. There were also cynics who bucked the style of the day.
Theater has capacity for 15,000 people.
DS Taesung singing and Bishop Suda praying in their native languages.
Guest quarters, three stories high for people coming for healing. Got then out of polluted environment, ready for heading. They would be interviewed by doctors and put in incubator and induced to sleep. The god would appear in a dream and then the doctors would carry out the prescription. There's no evidence that Paul came here or that there was Christian influence.
Stadium for foot races.
Lunch at a restaurant on the beach with our feet actually in the sand.
Pergamon
Nafpleo
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