Simplelogic
Well-Known Member
"After the Risen Lord proved He had the same nail holes as He had on the cross, Jesus' final words just before He ascended into heaven were that the then Apostles should teach "everything that I commanded you...." Matt.28:20.
Jesus must have meant to teach all His commands prior to the Cross, and not simply any given after He rose from the dead and prior to Ascension. How do we know that?
The reason we know this is true is because none of the four gospels contain any post-cross commands. If Jesus meant by His command to teach the world "all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20) to teach only His commands post-resurrection, the four gospels would have contained such commands. However, there are none quoted except the command in Matt. 28:20 to teach Jesus'commands previously given. Hence, Jesus clearly meant by "everything I commanded you" to be His words in His earthly ministry before His resurrection.
Hence, Jesus could only have meant that post-Ascension the apostles were to teach the pre-Cross teachings of Jesus -- while He was clearly "in the flesh."
However, Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:16 is interpreted to justify rejecting this.
16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. (KJV)
The famous and influential evangelical theologian Rudolf Bultmann said 2 Corinthians 5:16 means we no longer know Christ in the flesh, i.e., we supposedly can dispense with Jesus's teachings when He was in the flesh. Paul tells us that only the messages Paul received from the resurrected Christ -- who supposedly no longer had flesh -- is the means to know Christ any longer. Indeed, Origen and Clement in the early church read "in the flesh" in 2 Cor. 5:16 to mean the period of Christ's earthly preaching. (See our discussion at this link.)
Read this way by Bultmann, Paul tells us we no longer know or need to know Jesus' message delivered pre-Resurrection when He was in the flesh.
This is also how the Christian theologian and physician Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) viewed 2 Cor. 5:16 in his book of 1911 Geschichte Der Paulinischen Forschung (J. C. B. Mohr) [Archive.org] at 191 (and in English translation, Paul and His Interpreters: The conception of authority in the Pauline writings (1918) at 36.) Schweitzer explained: "since the death and resurrection of the Lord [Paul believed] conditions were present that were so wholly new that they made his [Jesus's] teaching inapplicable." (Id.) Thus, Albert Schweitzer says this is what explains Paul's failure to mention any significant teachings of Jesus: "If we had only St Paul to guide us, we should not know that Jesus spoke in parables, that He spoke the Sermon on the Mount and taught His people the Lord's Prayer." http://jesuswordsonly.com/recommendedreading/175-pauls-contradictions-of-jesus.html
Jesus must have meant to teach all His commands prior to the Cross, and not simply any given after He rose from the dead and prior to Ascension. How do we know that?
The reason we know this is true is because none of the four gospels contain any post-cross commands. If Jesus meant by His command to teach the world "all that I have commanded you" (Matt. 28:20) to teach only His commands post-resurrection, the four gospels would have contained such commands. However, there are none quoted except the command in Matt. 28:20 to teach Jesus'commands previously given. Hence, Jesus clearly meant by "everything I commanded you" to be His words in His earthly ministry before His resurrection.
Hence, Jesus could only have meant that post-Ascension the apostles were to teach the pre-Cross teachings of Jesus -- while He was clearly "in the flesh."
However, Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians 5:16 is interpreted to justify rejecting this.
16Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. (KJV)
The famous and influential evangelical theologian Rudolf Bultmann said 2 Corinthians 5:16 means we no longer know Christ in the flesh, i.e., we supposedly can dispense with Jesus's teachings when He was in the flesh. Paul tells us that only the messages Paul received from the resurrected Christ -- who supposedly no longer had flesh -- is the means to know Christ any longer. Indeed, Origen and Clement in the early church read "in the flesh" in 2 Cor. 5:16 to mean the period of Christ's earthly preaching. (See our discussion at this link.)
Read this way by Bultmann, Paul tells us we no longer know or need to know Jesus' message delivered pre-Resurrection when He was in the flesh.
This is also how the Christian theologian and physician Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) viewed 2 Cor. 5:16 in his book of 1911 Geschichte Der Paulinischen Forschung (J. C. B. Mohr) [Archive.org] at 191 (and in English translation, Paul and His Interpreters: The conception of authority in the Pauline writings (1918) at 36.) Schweitzer explained: "since the death and resurrection of the Lord [Paul believed] conditions were present that were so wholly new that they made his [Jesus's] teaching inapplicable." (Id.) Thus, Albert Schweitzer says this is what explains Paul's failure to mention any significant teachings of Jesus: "If we had only St Paul to guide us, we should not know that Jesus spoke in parables, that He spoke the Sermon on the Mount and taught His people the Lord's Prayer." http://jesuswordsonly.com/recommendedreading/175-pauls-contradictions-of-jesus.html