Calvin J. Roetzel; Paul, a Jew on the Margins: A Jew on the Margins. 2003.
"The dualism of apocalypticism knows three sets of boundaries: between the world above and the world below (cosmic), between this age and the age to come (temporal), and between the insider and outsider (social). Whether driven by persecution or by the repression and exclusion, or by other causes of distress and trauma, the authors of apocalyptic writings reveal the alienation felt by the community, and that alienation is mirrored in its experience of space and time. Thus, the social differentiation between insiders and outsiders is profoundly reinforced by a mythology cosmic scope and breathtakingly comprehensive in temporal reach.
That this dualism was replicated in a virulent hatred of the Jerusalem priesthood and the Roman oppressors is well documented at Qumram. These same polarities, however, also appear in the Pseudepigrapha: The fallen angels of 1 Enoch stands opposite of the host of heaven (1 Enoch 6-20); heaven and Sheol define the polarities of mythic space, where the "prison house of the [fallen] angels" contrasts with the realm of angels and, hence, the sinners with the righteous (21:10); the final, cataclysmic fire separates the wicked from the redeemed above in the Sibylline Oracles (2.285-310). The fate of the righteous is set in 4 Ezra by the challenge to Roman tyranny declared by the coming messianic kingdom (7:36; 12:32-34), and the nations and their idols are separated from Israel and its God in 2 Baruch (5:1,2; 7:2;13:12;48:27; 67:2;72:5;85:9)."
"The sense of having one's fate dictated by a by a final, climactic, fateful struggle so characteristic of these writing is also evident in Paul's letters. The difference is that Paul, and certainly much of the early church with him, believed that the resolution of that struggle was now beginning. God's righteous act was MANIFESTED in the victory over death made evident in the resurrection of Jesus. This triumph marked the beginning of God's move to reclaim a creation that manifestly was also being claimed by dark, sinister powers. The human landscape Paul knew was a dreadful place- tyrannized by principalities and powers (Rom. 8:38), fought over by a hostile "god of this world" (2 Cor. 4:4), subjected to death (1 Cor. 15:26, 54-55), enslaved by sin (Rom. 6:20-23), and threatened by Satan (1 Cor. 7:5), demons (1 Cor. 10:20-22), and the rulers of this age. According to Paul's gospel, this dark, demonic hegemony that for some seemed more real, its claims more insistent that the rule of God, was now being overthrown, and the resolution of that final desperate struggle was at hand." (NOT JUST THEM, WE TOO ARE ALSO IN THE SAME STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE PRINCIPALITIES OF THIS WORLD AND THE WORLD TO COME. SO "AT HAND" IS CONTINUAL, AND SATAN IS BEING OVERTHROWN BY CHRIST AS HE MAKES US WHOLE. IN CONTRAST PRETERISM SEES AT HAND AS REFERRING TO 70AD, WHICH IS WHEN THEY CLAIM THE STRUGGLE HAS PASSED.)
"BUT how did this cosmic mythology infiltrate the discourse of Paul with the community? We know of obvious cases in 1 Thessalonians where he distinguishes those who worship God from those who worship idols (1:6), where he juxtaposes his apostleship and ministry of encouragement against the ministry of deceit, uncleanness, guile, flattery, and crowd-pleasing gestures of others (2:3-10), where he positions the believer opposite the immoral, passionate, lustful Gentiles, and where he compares the "children of the day" with the children of "the night," the wakefulness of believers with the sleep of the unbelievers (5:5-6)."
"The same differentiation also appears in 1 Corinthians. First Corinthians 1:9 contrasts those called out of the world "into the fellowship of God's son" with the children of this world; 1:18 opposes those "perishing" to those "being saved"; 2:14-15 contrasts the "unspiritual" and the "spiritual," 5:! the pagans and the believers, 5:7 the old dough and the new, and 6:1-11 the "washed," the "consecrated," and the "justified" with the immoral, idolaters, the greedy, and the abusive. This differentiation is so pervasive in Paul's letters that it hardly needs further documentation."
"PAUL'S DUALISM IS DISTINGUISHED NOT BY A SEPARATION BETWEEN THE INSIDER AND OUTSIDER OR BELIEVER AND UNBELIEVER BUT BY A TENSION BETWEEN SEPARATION (those NOT IN CHRIST) AND INCLUSION (those IN CHRIST), OR BETWEEN DIFFERENTIATION AND DIFFUSION. PAUL'S ADJUSTMENT OF THE BOUNDARIES DEVIATES FROM THE USUAL PATTERN OF APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS OF HIS TIME." (page 23-24)
