As far as I know, the majority opinion is not that one can conclude that Jesus was a real person based on the letters of Paul alone. That is a minority position. If you claim that we can be confident that Jesus was a real person based on the letters of Paul alone, that is a minority position, outside the mainstream. That doesn't make it wrong, but you have to recognize its a minority position.
And as for such a claim, the case is not simply whether or not Paul claimed that Jesus "had become flesh". Indeed virtually every person in the Jewish scriptures is portrayed as a real flesh and blood person, yet today it is widely accepted that the majority of figures from the Torah were purely mythical. Moses, Abraham, Noah, etc., etc., all mythical. We don't conclude that they were mythical because we found documents claiming that they were entirely spiritual, but rather because of the nature of the stories and how the stories are now known to have been written.
Do you think that Paul's claim that Jesus was "in the line of David" is legitimate? Why would Paul make such a claim? Why would someone think that a random homeless preacher from a poor family in Galilee was "in the line of David"? The claims that Paul makes about the nature of Jesus, when he does make them, are clearly being made on a scriptural basis. Jesus is "in the line of David" because the scriptures that revealed Jesus say so.
Let's also not forget that Enoch was described as a flesh and blood person too. Do you think that Enoch was real? Enoch was claimed to have traveled up to the heavens and his flesh was dissolved before it was revealed to him that he was "the Son of Man". So was Enoch a real person then? The Book of Enoch, also, of course, is just one example of a text that tells us explicitly the "beings of flesh live in the heavens".
Virtually every hero and god of Hellenistic culture was claimed to have either lived on earth or to have taken the form of flesh at some point. Many of them were believed to have been real literal people. Some even had graves. That doesn't make them real. Do you think Hercules was real?
When people talk about real people they don't say stuff like, "He was of the seed of David," they say stuff like, "He was a great guy and a wonderful teacher. He taught us so many important things. He helped people and he's going to come back and save us all." Paul never says anything like that.
Prof. McGrath,
As far as I know, the majority opinion is not that one can conclude that Jesus was a real person based on the letters of Paul alone. That is a minority position. If you claim that we can be confident that Jesus was a real person based on the letters of Paul alone, that is a minority position, outside the mainstream. That doesn't make it wrong, but you have to recognize its a minority position.
And as for such a claim, the case is not simply whether or not Paul claimed that Jesus "had become flesh". Indeed virtually every person in the Jewish scriptures is portrayed as a real flesh and blood person, yet today it is widely accepted that the majority of figures from the Torah were purely mythical. Moses, Abraham, Noah, etc., etc., all mythical. We don't conclude that they were mythical because we found documents claiming that they were entirely spiritual, but rather because of the nature of the stories and how the stories are now known to have been written.
Do you think that Paul's claim that Jesus was "in the line of David" is legitimate? Why would Paul make such a claim? Why would someone think that a random homeless preacher from a poor family in Galilee was "in the line of David"? The claims that Paul makes about the nature of Jesus, when he does make them, are clearly being made on a scriptural basis. Jesus is "in the line of David" because the scriptures that revealed Jesus say so.
Let's also not forget that Enoch was described as a flesh and blood person too. Do you think that Enoch was real? Enoch was claimed to have traveled up to the heavens and his flesh was dissolved before it was revealed to him that he was "the Son of Man". So was Enoch a real person then? The Book of Enoch, also, of course, is just one example of a text that tells us explicitly the "beings of flesh live in the heavens".
Virtually every hero and god of Hellenistic culture was claimed to have either lived on earth or to have taken the form of flesh at some point. Many of them were believed to have been real literal people. Some even had graves. That doesn't make them real. Do you think Hercules was real?
When people talk about real people they don't say stuff like, "He was of the seed of David," they say stuff like, "He was a great guy and a wonderful teacher. He taught us so many important things. He helped people and he's going to come back and save us all." Paul never says anything like that.