Acts 2:16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.
Peter quoted from OT scripture... and with the Spirit of God rushing in that place... Im sure people believed it
The first qualifier we both should admit is that none of us were there. Having said this, Paul was trained as a Pharisaic Rabbi. Now, I should think a Pharisaic Rabbi teaching and preaching would do so with his handy dandy trusty dusty copy of the Old Testament in hand. I don't believe he taught from his letters, his letters if anything were extensions of his sermons, practical application as it were. It is possible some listeners were likely purely Gentile, but as Jewish enclaves were already well established far beyond Palestine, I would think that Paul at least in many if not most instances home based himself within these Jewish enclaves. By extension, those Gentiles Paul reached out to would have at the least been exposed to Jewish or pseudo-Jewish teachings.
This I do not feel is accurate. We are not discussing Medieval Europe where the clergy had a vested interest in keeping the masses ignorant. It is reasonably well known to scholarship that there have been some bright moments in history where "common" folk were allowed knowledge and learning, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Greco-Roman universe at that time was one such period. It was not uncommon at all for the typical person to speak two or three languages proficiently. Paul held Roman citizenship, which suggests he may have spoken Latin. Greek was frequently used throughout this region as a language of commerce. I suspect many were more literate than frequently given credit.
Agreed, and in the sense you and Wil suggest that Paul's letters were not yet canonized, they were not read in the makeshift synagogues where Paul preached as scripture. Later, particularly after Paul was imprisoned and executed, these letters took on greater meaning to the assemblies to whom they were first written, and from there the common sense wisdom and practical application lessons were shared among the various infant churches...at least when times allowed. There were some seriously grievous times when everything, OT and NT, had to be hidden and taught with the greatest discretion, until the time of Constantine. This encompassed the better part of 300 years, of the sect of Judaism called Christianity growing as an underground movement, with spectacular results! The harder Rome tried to end Christianity, the bigger it grew!
In that sense I agree with you, at that time. Under Constantine, about 325 AD, Paul's letters were formally canonized.
You are welcome, I responded primarily to clarify an issue raised by wil and furthered by yourself. I have chosen deliberately to sidestep the separate issue raised here: "Is it or is it not a requirement to believe the Bible as it exists today is the Word of God to be a Christian? Is it a Biblical requirement to believe it ALL to be a Christian?" I have done so to this point because my answer is dependent. For an orthodox position, I suppose the answer to be yes. For a more liberal position, the answer is relative, depending in part on whether one acknowledges Jesus as Divine or as a Spiritually Guided human, and in part on the status and prominence one grants to Paul.