dear Terry...
you said: "Paul's arguments are not traditional Jewish thought so much as neo-Platonic myth-making with Judaism as a backdrop.
Had 70 c.e. not brought the END of functional Judaism there would have been no impulse to RE-IDENTIFY themselves as CHRISTIAN rather than merely messianic JEWS."...
well paul did understand that the other apostles were interested in keeping certain rules and regulations pertaining to the Jewish religious "identity"...and as the apostle to the gentiles he would be entrusted with the task of bringing the two groups...jewish and gentile into the one unified group. thus the church was "newly born" instead of the synagogue and new positions of authority were "newly born" within this structure instead of the inherited leadership of the jewish structure.(the practice of inherited authority that crept into the church through the papal system was in effect eliminated with the implementation of the unmarried and celebate priesthood).
ephesians 2:14-22
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.
Christ Our Cornerstone
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
...For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles-if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,(acts 9:15-20...from the Lord to Ananias) how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I wrote before in a few words, by which, when you read, you may undestand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:...
love michelle