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Stand and Hold Fast Together: An Embodied, Relational Reading of Paul’s Creed in 1 Cor 15:1-11

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins his teaching on the resurrection with a creedal reminder of the gospel (vv1-11). Paul’s framing of the brief, creedal statements in verses 3b-5 is quite remarkable. In 15:1-3, he intersperses three repetitions of εὐαγγέλιον (gospel) and its cognates with four metaphors that describe embodied engagement with the gospel: standing (ἵστημι, v1), holding (κατέχω, v2), receiving (παραλαμβάνω, v1, 3), and giving (παραδίδωμι, v3). After repeating the creedal form of the gospel, Paul then emphasizes Jesus’ resurrection appearances to one, twelve, five hundred, and “all the apostles” (vv5-7), counting himself among the “we” who proclaimed (κηρύσσω, v11) what the Corinthians now believe. What might we make of the vivid, even “crowded” images that surround Paul’s creedal recitation of the gospel, particularly in context of his overarching message to the Corinthians? In this paper, I read Paul’s creed with an eye to embodied cognition, wherein knowing and knowledge are understood, in part, to be embodied and embedded in a context and community. Hanne de Jaegher’s (2007, 2019) body-oriented enactive theory of social cognition, participatory sense-making, and Esther Meek’s (2011) covenant epistemology form a backdrop for this reading. De Jaegher’s theory assumes that cognition is embodied action; she understands knowledge and the process of coming to know intersubjectively, placing cognition and sense-making not just within the biological boundaries of the brain and mind, but within and among a group of persons. Meek’s project challenges what she terms “reductionist” accounts of knowledge, in which coming to know is conceived of as an impersonal, objective, third-person act of cognizing information, facts, statements, and proofs. Instead, she proposes that all knowing and coming to know emerge from the person’s ontological dependence on God the Creator; following this, knowing and knowledge also emerge from one’s embedded, embodied relationship with the created world and other persons. In reading Paul’s creedal language through this heuristic of embodied cognition, I draw out ways in which Paul describes knowledge of the gospel as not merely noetic, but as a fully-orbed knowing that involves whole-bodied engagement with and embeddedness in a community of believers.

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Recent Publications

The Spirit and Renewal (Part 1): Definitive & Progressive Sanctification - Sherif Fahim

'New Creation' in Paul - Sherif Fahim

Justification, Sanctification, and Union with Christ: Fresh Insights from Calvin, Westminster, and Walter Marshall - Sherif Fahim

Death in Second-Century Christian Thought The Meaning of Death in Earliest Christianity - Jeremiah Mutie

The Quest for Early Church Historiography From Ferdinand C. Baur to Bart D. Ehrman and Beyond - Jeremiah Mutie

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Early Witnesses to the Syriac Text of Acts 15 with an Investigation into the Text of Acts 15 in the Didascalia Apostolorum and with and Appendix on the Western/Jacobite Peshitta Manuscript Tradition for Acts - Daniel McConaughy

The Star and the Magi in Jacob of Serugh and the Early Syriac Tradition - Daniel McConaughy

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