The Jesus Puzzle Point 5 The Ancient Greco-Roman Dualism of Platonism Sept 22

Point 5 of The Jesus Puzzle discusses the influence of Platonism on Paul. Here is point 5:

Point 5 of The Jesus Puzzle discusses the influence of Platonism on Paul. Here is point 5:

5) The ancients viewed the universe as multi-layered: matter below, spirit above. The higher world was regarded as the superior, genuine reality, containing spiritual processes and heavenly counterparts to earthly things. Paul’s Christ operates within this system.

The system or worldview this refers is Platonism, where that which is in the material world is an inferior counterpart to the "ideal" models above. 

Although there are similarities to what Paul believes here (in that Paul speaks of what is above and on the earth and below); it is not the same view. Paul holds to a creation that was originally good that longs for redemption to its former state. Romans 8:18-25 makes this view clear (along with the reference to the impact of Adam’s sin in Roman 5:12-21). Platonism sees nothing ultimately redeeming about the material world. 

If Paul’s Christ operated within the system Doherty suggests, then there would be no need for Jesus to return and judge the world or to restore it to its previous state, as the perfect realm above would be all that one would need to experience redemption. Now the Christian Gnosticism that emerged so clearly in the second century is a system of what has been called Neo-Platonism. Its redemption is strictly one of being taken back to the realm above with no further involvement in a corrupt earth. But this is not Paul’s view of Jesus. Paul anticipates a time when the redeemed with help with judgment one day, involving both the world and the angels, a perspective that is not Platonic (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).  In addition, Paul argues that what we do with our bodies does matter because the material part of our person will also be redeemed, part of the resurrection like that the Lord (=Lord Jesus Christ, v 11) experienced. The union we have with Jesus is one that involves spiritual and material elements as 1 Corinthians 15 also argues  s we have already argued in earlier posts on the Puzzle. 

Please note in citing the evidence of Paul’s view I use texts that are called the "Hauptbriefe" (text not debated as to their Pauline authorship).