Friday, September 2, 2022

The Problem with Absolutizing Revelation 21:14 and the Apostleship of Paul

  

Unlike Paul and the author of Ephesians (see Muddiman 2001: 141), John of Patmos seems to dissent from the view that Paul is to be numbered among the apostles. He has already alluded to the possibility of there being ‘false apostles’ among the congregation in Ephesus (2:2; though Paul himself is aware of the same possibility, 2 Cor. 11:13); the message to the congregation in Thyatira has castigated ‘Jezebel’ for a practice which arguably she might have derived from Paul’s teaching (2:20; cf. 1 Corinthians 8–10; see Boxall 1998). Paul’s name is not to be found inscribed on the foundation stones of the holy city, for these bear only the twelve names. (Ian Boxall, The Revelation of St. John [Black's New Testament Commentary; London: Continuum, 2006], 303)

 

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