The 1 Corinthians 15 creed was formed around AD 30-33 (AD 34-35 at the latest). Right?
• …the creed dates to within 3 years of Paul’s conversion.
The underlying assumptions, concepts, and technical terms used in the creed cater best to a Jewish audience. Right?1
• …it uses loaded terms, meaningful only for those familiar with Jewish concepts.
◦ …e.g. the “Christos”, meaning the Jewish messiah (a complex concept).
◦ …e.g. “the scriptures”, meaning the Jewish Bible (the Tanakh, i.e. Old Testament).2
◦ …e.g. “raised”, indicating the complex Jewish eschatological resurrection.
• …it assumes the “scriptures” (the Old Testament) are something to be revered.
Those who formalized the 1 Corinthians 15 statement were, to a significant degree, personally familiar with the leaders of the Jerusalem church. Right?
• …it uses Peter's less familiar Aramaic name.1
• …it mentions the name “James” (Jerusalem church leader)2
Whoever fashioned this creedal statement formed it in a mileau where it was commonplace to mention or discuss Jesus's twelve apostles. Right?
• …it uses the abbreviated term “the twelve” which is associated with Jerusalem.1
The traditions that Paul inherited and relayed were habitually (if not strictly) traditions formed by the Jerusalem church.
Right? [Forthcoming] This is relevant because Paul was relaying a tradition which he recieved from elsewhere.[Forthcoming]
The Jerusalem church was at least circulating the essential message of the 1 Corinthians 15 creed.
Right?
• …Paul says of the creed in v.11, “Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”1
• …in comparing the creed with known beliefs of the Jerusalem church, we see the are identical. [Forthcoming]