“Grace to you and peace.” (Eph1:2) John Dominic Crossen in In Search of Paul writes “It will not do….to put Rome’s “victory and peace” against Paul’s “grace and peace” as if that solved anything let alone everything. On the one hand, Paul too can speak of victory(but only once), replacing that peace triad just seen with a victory triad….On the other, any Roman imperial theologian would have told Paul the “victory” was “grace”, was a free gift from the gods… Again, if Paul spoke of accepting the “faith of Jesus Christ,”…a Roman opponent would have reminded him that the Acts of the Divine Augustus spoke of accepting the “faith of the Roman people”…The basic questions, therefore, are about means and not just ends, about methods and not just slogans, about the specific content of vision and the precise content of program.”
“Grace to you and peace.” (Eph1:2) John Dominic Crossen in In Search of Paul writes “It will not do….to put Rome’s “victory and peace” against Paul’s “grace and peace” as if that solved anything let alone everything. On the one hand, Paul too can speak of victory(but only once), replacing that peace triad just seen with a victory triad….On the other, any Roman imperial theologian would have told Paul the “victory” was “grace”, was a free gift from the gods… Again, if Paul spoke of accepting the “faith of Jesus Christ,”…a Roman opponent would have reminded him that the Acts of the Divine Augustus spoke of accepting the “faith of the Roman people”…The basic questions, therefore, are about means and not just ends, about methods and not just slogans, about the specific content of vision and the precise content of program.”
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