Was the Apostle Paul engaged in a kind of ethnocentric genetic replacement theology? Was Paul preaching that a Gentile's own ancestral cultural DNA lineage needed to be replaced with Israelite genes through the seed (sperm) of an ethnic Jewish Messiah?
According to Wikipedia the people of Rome were composed “mainly of Latin-speaking Italic people. The Latins were a people with a marked Mediterranean character, related to other neighboring Italic peoples such as the Falisci.” On the page for the Italic peoples it states, "The Italics were an ethnolinguistic group who are identified by their use of the Italic languages, which form one of the branches of Indo-European languages."
These Italic people would have had their own genealogy and ethnic lineage and religious heritage and culture. Paul was basically seeking to replace their ethnic and cultural lineage with his Messianic theology. In other words, through his supernatural mystery cult ideology, their entire ethnicity and culture and previous pagan religion of the past would be erased and replaced with a Jewish heritage and identity.
This is explained, in not exactly the words I use above, on the Data Over Dogma YouTube Channel, on Episode 26 (October 1, 2023), “A Jewish Paul with Matthew Thiessen”: where in this podcast episode, after discussing how Paul was basically embarrassingly wrong about the imminent apocalyptic end-times (the expected very soon return of Christ by Paul which he clearly got wrong), around twenty minutes these biblical scholars then discuss how in Romans 1: 18-32, it is basically Paul putting down non-Jews (Romans) who he describes as inherently sinful or vice-ridden by their ethnic nature as non-Jews; and how pagans trying to be perfect and holy by performing the Torah law codes is not good enough. At 30 minutes, Matthew Thiessen says that basically people don't want to see Paul as actually engaging in ethnic stereotyping in Romans 1: 18-32, but that is what he is doing.
This reminded me of Paul (or a pseudepigraphic author echoing his views) making a racist statement in Titus 1:11-13, where the author of Titus affirms the words of the Grecian poet Epimenides who said those who resided on the island of Crete (the Cretans) were, as a people or nation, “always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
Back to the podcast, Matthew Thiessen goes on to explain that for Paul, the Pagans/Gentiles needed to actually become ethnic Jews themselves. Beginning at 40 minutes, Thiessen basically explains that Paul was being ethnocentric; and at 44 minutes he explains that Paul believed that Pagan/Gentiles needed to literally become Abraham's sons (ethnic Jews) as his direct seed (meaning of Jewish genetic lineage).
Here is what Thiessen says at the 43-45 minute mark:
… Paul talks about Abraham in both Galatians and in Romans … Paul is adamant [in saying to his Jewish opponents regarding the solution for pagans/gentiles], “Oh yes, you're right, we have to follow Abraham, but you're doing it wrong.” There he makes a really complicated argument in Galatians 3 and 4 … [Paul] doesn't say you don't need Abraham as your father. He actually says, “Yea, you need to have Abraham as your father because God made a whole series of promises to Abraham and to his seed [i.e. Abraham's ethnicity]. [So] if you want those promises you have to become Abrahamic seed and Abrahamic sons to inherit them.” So there is a very, again, ethnocentric, if we want to use that word, I think it's a very dangerous word to use but I don't mind using it about Paul. There is an ethnocentric component that Abraham and [genetic] descent still matter for Paul and genealogy matters. And so the way that Paul creatively gets around it or creatively thinks through it, is Jesus is Abraham's seed through David and if the Messiah's spirit, his pneuma, his "stuff," gets into you and you [as a non-Jew] are placed in the Messiah [contained in his Jewish DNA/ethnicity] then you have also taken on a [Jewish] Messianic identity. So you become Messianic, and you become sons and seed [DNA] of Abraham too; and not in sort of like a wishy washy “spiritual way” that we [modern Lutheran/ Protestant influenced people] mean it, but spiritual in the way that ancients meant it. This pneuma has been inserted into you. There's a chapter [in my book] where I talk about it as some pneumatic gene therapy. I think Paul is really thinking your genealogy, your whole DNA structure, has changed radically because the spirit of the Messiah [i.e. the pneuma containing Jesus’ Jewish DNA] has invaded your body quite physically. And now you [as a pagan/gentile] got this connection [to Abraham’s Jewish genes] and so then you get everything [an ethnic Jew gets], including resurrection.
In his talk Gentiles as Impure Animals in the Writings of Early Christ Followers, Matthew Thiessen begins at the 2 to 8 minute mark by explaining that Mark, Matthew, Luke and Paul are all basically describing non-Jewish gentiles as impure animals. Matthew Thiessen begins by discussing how the Jesus-character in the Gospel of Mark responds to a person of Greek genetic descent as a dog. He goes on to explain that despite Christian apologetics, this really was in reality a product of Jewish ethnocentrism. Matthew Thiessen goes on to explain that the Gospels actually present Jesus as only going to Jews and not Gentiles, and the woman being called a dog was clearly meant as an ethnic slur.
At 8 minutes into the video, Thiessen discusses the Gospel of Matthew and how Matthew carefully edits Mark to remove certain things he doesn't like; but he does not remove the Israelite ethnocentrism. In fact, in chapter 15 of Matthew, he doubles down and contrasts the non-Jewish woman (an impure dog) with Israelites as pure sheep. Thus, Jews are holy sheep and gentiles are unholy dogs.
At 10 minutes, Matthew moves on to the Gospel of Luke and Acts. He says that Luke and Acts or Luke-Acts (the product of a single author) is not this safe haven for "Gentile friendly" information as some wish, but instead retains the same ethnocentrism discussed above. Thiessen then goes on to discuss Acts chapter 10, that describes Gentiles as impure animals. Thiessen explains that basically the author of Luke believes that Gentiles are born to be inherently genetically impure just like some zoological animals are impure by their nature. At 14-15 minutes, he explains that for Luke, a gentile is impure or unclean in the same way any other animal is unclean or impure. So that only a new act on the part of the God of Israel could rewrite a gentile's DNA and transform the gentile's formerly genetically impure DNA into a Jewish DNA in order to make them pure and holy. According to the Gospel of Mark, there is an essence to Gentile identity that fundamentally distinguishes them from Jews, as they are akin to impure animals and are by nature unfit for incorporation into holy Israel (God's chosen ethnic tribes).
At 15 minutes, he explains that the woman remains the dog in Matthew 15 because she is genetically impure; but she still benefits from pure Israel. Thiessen explains that the message of these authors is that Gentiles who enter into the Pauline movement remain Gentiles outwardly and thus are not to keep the ethnic aspects of the Jewish Law that apply only to ethnic Jews; yet whereas they were formally impure animals they have become purified and grafted into Israel through "pneumatic gene therapy," which is a process of replacing their non-Jewish DNA with the DNA of the ethnic Jewish Messiah. God has basically begun rewriting the DNA of these impure animals (gentiles) so that now they are becoming pure and holy. Paul literally calls his followers "holy ones," translated "saints" in most Bible translations. Gentiles become receptacles of the Sacred Pneuma.
At 16 minutes, Thiessen discusses how Paul also uses "dog language" to refer to the Philippians as Paul argues that his opponents are basically gentile dogs in sheep's clothing. In other words, Paul's enemies are called "gentile dogs" as an insult, which he does because they are trying to get his gentile "holy ones" (undergoing a supernatural process of gene swapping/pneumatic gene therapy) to become practitioners of the ethnic Jewish law codes; so Paul is basically saying that his gentiles "in Christ" are not fully Jews yet but still stuck in gentile flesh bodies, so they do not need to follow the ethnic codes of Judaism. They are instead saved with the pneuma of Christ in them and the hope of resurrecting into a new pure celestial body. In criticizing these opponents of his Paul refers to them as dogs.
At 23 minutes, he explains how in the Book of Enoch, non-Jewish nations are described by impure animals and in the final end of times or the End of History, it describes the inclusion of gentiles when they are transformed into white sheep (meaning pure Israelites) in 1 Enoch 93:7-8.
At about 29 minutes, he explains Galatians 3:28 as Paul not actually distinguish between Gentile dogs and Jewish sheep, but what he is saying is that in the end, ultimately those who are in Christ (genetically transformed through the DNA of Christ) become equal with Jews; but while on earth there is still a distinction in kind, because the Gentile is still in a mortal flesh body and still has Gentile DNA mixed with Jesus's Jewish DNA. So the finalization of the "pneumatic gene therapy," the complete transformation from an impure "dog" (gentile flesh-body) to pure "sheep" (pneumatic-body) does not occur until the resurrection: when the mortal body is laid in the grave and the new pneumatic body rises from the grave.
At 32 minutes, he goes on to explain that even with the language of how being in Christ there is no male or female, Jew nor Gentile, you still have differences in kind being maintained: wherein there is still a distinction between gender roles (man over the wife) and different ethnicities because the non-Jew is still stuck in the gentile flesh body prior to death and resurrection.
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