Was Paul counting on his readers ignorance?

To: David John Marotta <H620@dmt03>, New Testament Greek Mailing List <NT-Greek@Virginia.EDU>
Subject: Was Paul counting on his readers ignorance?
From: David John Marotta <djm5g%Virginia.EDU@dmt03.mcc.Virginia.EDU>
Date: 07 Oct 92 13:28:15 EST

Ralph Henson writes:

>Do you think that Paul's Greek readers, and even the Jewish readers (who
>now spoke Greek and Aramaic) would understand the grammar of Genesis, or
>would they have had to rely on Paul's learned interpretation?

The question your asking is, is Paul really trying to make an arguement from
the Genesis account, or is he simply relying on his reader's ignorance
to snow them with an invalid argument?

I propose that Paul had taught with the Galatians for a time, and had
covered the Abraham story, expositing his interpretation of the text in
full detail.  Paul's use of the short hands "seed" verse "seeds" is to
remind them of this fuller teaching.  His readers, who sat under his
teaching for a while, were perfectly capable of hearing the stories from
Genesis and recognizing that Ishmael was not counted as those through whom
Abraham's seed would be named, while Isaac was, and that all the nations
would be respented among Abraham's seed.

I do not think Paul was relying upon his audiances ignorance so that
he could use a faulty argument from the grammar of Genesis.  What do
others think?

David John Marotta, Medical Center Computing, Stacey Hall
Univ of Virginia (804) 982-3718 wrk INTERNET: djm5g@virginia.edu
Box 512 Med Cntr (804) 924-5261 msg   BITNET: djm5g@virginia
C'ville VA 22908 (804) 296-7209 fax   IBM US: usuvarg8