The Estraordinary Man

[Ben Masada]

THE EXTRAORDINARY MAN

The other day I picked up the book, "Crime and Punishment" and read it wholy in three days. The thing that touched me the most was the concept of the extraordinary man in the Philosophy of the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Dostoevsky postulates in his book that all people are somehow divided into the ordinary and the extraordinary. That the ordinary must live in obedience and have no right to transgress the Law, because they are, after all, ordinary. While the extraordinary have the right to comit all sorts of crimes and in various ways, to transgress the Law, because, in point of fact, they are extraordinary.

Moreover, that the extraordinary man has the right...that is, not an official right, but his own right, to allow his conscience to step over certain obstacles and transgress the Law and stay immune to punishment, considering that his action is salutary to the whole of mankind. Such an extraordinary man, he added further, is so rare that no more than one in ten thousand is born with such a broad independence.

Somehow, as I read about the Dostoevsky concept of the extraordinary man, I could not help thinking of Paul in Romans 7:25. Paul would praise God for the priviledge to be in harmony with God's Law in his mind, while serving the law of sin in his flesh. IOW, he was entitled to enjoy independence of the Law and the right to immunity as an extraordinary man. He agreed that the Law was good, but for ordinary men. He was extraordinary. (Rom. 7:12)

Paul proved so efficiently to be an extraordinary man that once he passed sentence of death to an incestuous man in the church of Corinth, whereas in absence. Obviously, an ordinary man could not be incestuous. He was under the Law. (I Cor.5:1-12) As Dostoevsky killed to prevent evil from its effect among men, Paul killed to prevent the effect of the yeast in the dough. (I Cor. 5:6) Obviously, evil could spread if he did not intervene.

The bottom line is that only extraordinary men could enjoy the status of Romans 7:25.

Ben

[Ben Masada]

Originally Posted by Ben Masada

THE EXTRAORDINARY MAN

The other day I picked up the book, "Crime and Punishment" and read it wholy in three days. The thing that touched me the most was the concept of the extraordinary man in the Philosophy of the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Dostoevsky postulates in his book that all people are somehow divided into the ordinary and the extraordinary. That the ordinary must live in obedience and have no right to transgress the Law, because they are, after all, ordinary. While the extraordinary have the right to comit all sorts of crimes and in various ways, to transgress the Law, because, in point of fact, they are extraordinary.

Moreover, that the extraordinary man has the right...that is, not an official right, but his own right, to allow his conscience to step over certain obstacles and transgress the Law and stay immune to punishment, considering that his action is salutary to the whole of mankind. Such an extraordinary man, he added further, is so rare that no more than one in ten thousand is born with such a broad independence.

Somehow, as I read about the Dostoevsky concept of the extraordinary man, I could not help thinking of Paul in Romans 7:25. Paul would praise God for the priviledge to be in harmony with God's Law in his mind, while serving the law of sin in his flesh. IOW, he was entitled to enjoy independence of the Law and the right to immunity as an extraordinary man. He agreed that the Law was good, but for ordinary men. He was extraordinary. (Rom. 7:12)

Paul proved so efficiently to be an extraordinary man that once he passed sentence of death to an incestuous man in the church of Corinth, whereas in absence. Obviously, an ordinary man could not be incestuous. He was under the Law. (I Cor.5:1-12) As Dostoevsky killed to prevent evil from its effect among men, Paul killed to prevent the effect of the yeast in the dough. (I Cor. 5:6) Obviously, evil could spread if he did not intervene.

The bottom line is that only extraordinary men could enjoy the status of Romans 7:25.

Ben

As a footnote to this thread, I would remind further about Paul that, in his little gospel of having made himself all things to all men in order to save at least some of them, he added that he would behave sometimes as do those under the Law, although, in reality, as he said, "I am not bound by the Law." (I Cor. 9:20,22)

What kind of man in this world is not bound by the Law? Only the extraordinary man in the concept of Dostoevsky. I am therefore persuaded that Dostoevsky did copy from Paul his idea of the extraordinary man.

Ben