PAULINE THEOLOGY [ISBE]
I. THE PREPARATION
1. The Pharisee
2. Saul and Sin
3. Primitive Christianity
II. THE CONVERSION
2. The Spirit
3. The Unio Mystica
III. FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS
1. Abolition of the Law
5. Moral Example
6. Function of the Law
IV. SPECIAL TOPICS
1. The Church
2. The Sacraments
I. The Preparation.
In order to understand the development of Paul's theological system, it is necessary to begin with his beliefs as a Pharisee. The full extent of these beliefs, to be sure, is not now ascertainable, for Pharisaism was a rule of conduct rather than a system of dogmas, and great diversity of opinions existed among Pharisees. Yet there was general concurrence in certain broad principles, while some of Paul's own statements enable us to specify his beliefs still more closely.
1. The Pharisee:
Saul the Pharisee believed that God was One, the Creator of all things. In His relation to His world He was transcendent, and governed it normally through His angels. Certain of these angelic governors had been unfaithful to their trust and had wrought evil, although God still permitted them to bear rule for a time (Col 2:15; compare Enoch 89:65). And evil had come into humanity through the transgression of the first man (Rom 5:12; compare 2 Esdras 7:118). To lead men away from this evil God gave His Law, which was a perfect revelation of duty (Rom 7:12), and this Law was illumined by the traditions of the Fathers, which the Pharisees felt to be an integral part of the Law itself. God was merciful and would pardon the offender against the Law, if he completely amended his ways. But imperfect reformation brought no certain hope of pardon. To a few specially favored individuals God had given the help of His Spirit, but this was not for the ordinary individual. The great majority of mankind (compare 2 Esdras 7:49-57), including all Gentiles, had no hope of salvation. In a very short time the course of the world would be closed. With God, from before the beginning of creation, there was existing a heavenly being, the Son of man of Dan 7:13, and He was about to be made manifest. (That Saul held the transcendental Messianic doctrine is not to be doubted.) As the world was irredeemably bad, this Messiah would soon appear, cause the dead to rise, hold the Last Judgment and bring from heaven the "Jerus that is above" (Gal 4:26), in which the righteous would spend a blessed eternity.
See PHARISEES; MESSIAH; PAROUSIA.
2. Saul and Sin:
Rom 7:7-25 throws a further light on Saul's personal beliefs. The Old Testament promised pardon to the sinner who amended his ways, but the acute moral sense of Saul taught him that he could never expect perfectly to amend his ways. The 10th Commandment was the stumbling-block. Sins of deed and of word might perhaps be overcome, but sins of evil desires stayed with him, despite his full knowledge of the Law that branded them as sinful. Indeed, they seemed stimulated rather than suppressed by the divine precepts against them. With the best will in the world, Saul's efforts toward perfect righteousness failed continually and gave no promise of ever succeeding. He found himself thwarted by something that he came to realize was ingrained in his very nature and from which he could never free himself. Human nature as it is, the flesh (not "the material of the body"), contains a taint that makes perfect reformation impossible (Rom 7:18; compare 8:3, etc.). Therefore, as the Law knows no pardon for the imperfectly reformed, Saul felt his future to be absolutely black. What he longed for was a promise of pardon despite continued sin, and that the Law precluded. (Any feeling that the temple sacrifices. would bring forgiveness had long since been obsolete in educated Judaism.)
There is every reason to suppose that Saul's experience was not unique at this period. Much has been written in recent years about the Jews' confidence in God's mercy, and abundant quotations are brought from the Talmud in support of this. But the surviving portions of the literature of the Daniel-Aqiba period (165 BC-135 AD) give a different impression, for it is predominantly a literature of penitential prayers and confessions of sin, of pessimism regarding the world, the nation and one's self. In 2 Esdras, in particular, Saul's experience is closely paralleled, and 2 Esdras 7 (of course not in the King James Version) is one of the best commentaries ever written on Rom 7.
3. Primitive Christianity:
Saul must have come in contact with Christianity very soon after Pentecost, at the latest. Some personal acquaintance with Christ is in no way impossible, irrespective of the meaning of 2 Cor 5:16. But no one in Jerusalem, least of all a man like Saul, could have failed tq learn very early that there was a new "party" in Judaism. To his eyes this "party" would have about the following appearance: Here was a band of men proclaiming that the Messiah, whom all expected, would be the Jesus who had recently been crucified. Him the disciples were preaching as risen, ascended and sitting on God's right hand. They claimed that He had sent on all His followers the coveted gift of the Spirit, and they produced miracles in proof of their claim. A closer investigation would show that the death of Jesus was being interpreted in terms of Isa 53, as a ransom for the nation. The inquirer would learn also that Jesus had given teaching that found constant and relentless fault with the Pharisees. Moreover, He had swept aside the tradition of the Fathers as worthless and had given the Law a drastic reinterpretation on the basis of eternal spiritual facts.
This inwardness must have appealed to Saul and he must have envied the joyous enthusiasm of the disciples. But to him Pharisaism was divine, and he was in a spiritual condition that admitted of no compromxses. Moreover, the Law (Gal 3:13; compare Dt 21:23) cursed anyone who had been hanged on a tree, and the new party was claiming celestial Messiahship for a man who had met this fate. The system aroused Saul's burning hatred; he appointed himself (perhaps stimulated by his moral desperation) to exterminate the new religion, and in pursuit of his mission he started for Damascus.
Saul must have gained a reasonable knowledge of Christ's teachings in this period of antagonism. He certainly could not have begun to persecute the faith without learning what it was, and in the inevitable discussions with his victims he must have learned still more, even against his will. This fact is often overlooked.
II. The Conversion.
The immediate content of Paul's conversion was the realization that the celestial Messiah was truly Jesus of Nazareth. This was simply the belief of the primitive church and was the truth for which Christ had died (Mk 14:62). But it involved much. It made Christ the Son of God (Rom 8:32; Gal 4:4, etc.), "firstborn of (i.e. "earlier than") all creation" (Col 1:15), "existing in the form of God" (Phil 2:6) and "rich" (2 Cor 8:9). In the Messiah are "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden" (Col 2:3), to be manifested at the end of time when the Messiah shall appear as the Judge of all (2 Cor 5:10, etc.), causing the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor 15:45, etc.). All this was given by Paul's former beliefs and had been claimed by Christ for Himself. That this Messiah had become man was a fact of the immediate past (the reality of the manhood was no problem at this period). As Messiah His sinlessness was unquestioned, while the facts of His life proved this sinlessness also. His teaching was wholly binding (1 Cor 7:10,11; that the writer of these words could have spared any effort to learn the teaching fully is out of the question). The conversion experience was proof sufficient of the resurrection, although for missionary purposes Paul used other evidence as well (1 Cor 15:1-11).
Faith in this Messiah brought the unmistakable experience of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:2; Gal 3:2, etc.; compare Acts 9:17), demonstrating Christ's Lordship (1 Cor 12:3; compare Acts 2:33). So "the head of every man is Christ" (1 Cor 11:3; compare Col 1:18; Eph 1:22; 4:15), with complete control of the future (1 Cor 15:25), and all righteous men are His servants ("slaves," Rom 1:1, etc.). To Him men may address their prayers (2 Cor 12:8; 1 Cor 1:2, etc.; compare Acts 14:23).
Further reflection added to the concepts. As the Lordship of Christ was absolute, the power of all hostile beings must have been broken also (Rom 8:38; Phil 2:9-11; Col 2:15; Eph 1:21-23, etc.). The Being who had such significance for the present and the future could not have been without significance for the past. "In all things" He must have had "the preeminence" (Col 1:18). It was He who ministered to the Israelites at the Exodus (1 Cor 10:4,9). In fact He was not only "before all things" (Col 1:17), but "all things have been created through him" (Col 1:16). Wisdom and Logos concepts may have helped Paul in reaching these conclusions, which in explicit statement are an advance on Christ's own words. But the conclusions were inevitable.
Fitting these data of religious fact into the metaphysical doctrine of God was a problem that occupied the church for the four following centuries. After endless experimenting the only conclusion was shown to be that already reached by Paul in Rom 9:5 (compare Tit 2:13, the English Revised Version, the American Revised Version margin), that Christ is God. To be sure, Paul's terminology, carried over from his pre-Christian days, elsewhere reserves "God" for the Father (and compare 1 Cor 15:28). But the fact of this theology admits only of the conclusion that was duly drawn.
2. The Spirit:
A second fact given directly by the conversion was the presence of the Spirit, where the actual experience transcended anything that had been dreamed of. Primarily the operation of the Spirit was recognized in vividly supernatural effects (Rom 15:19; 1 Cor 12:5-11, etc.; compare 2 Cor 12:12; Acts 2:4), but Paul must at first have known the presence of the Spirit through the assurance of salvation given him, a concept that he never wearies of expressing (Rom 8:16,23; Gal 4:6, etc.). The work of the Spirit in producing holiness in the soul needs no comment (see HOLY SPIRIT; SANCTIFICATION), but it is characteristic of Paul that it is on this part of the Spirit's activity, rather than on the miraculous effects, that he lays the emphasis. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," etc. (Gal 5:22); the greatest miracles without love are more than useless (1 Cor 13:1-3); in such sayings Paul touched the depths of the purest teaching of Christ. To be sure, in the Synoptic Gospels the word "Spirit" is not often on Christ's lips, but there is the same conception of a life proceeding from a pure center (Mt 6:22; 7:17, etc.) in entire dependence on God.
Further reflection and observation taught Paul something of the greatest importance for Christian theology. In prayer the Spirit appeared distinguished from the Father as well as from the Son (Rom 8:26 f; compare 1 Cor 2:10 f), giving three terms that together express the plenitude of the Deity (2 Cor 13:14; Eph 1:3,6,13, etc.), with no fourth term ever similarly associated.
3. The Unio Mystica:
The indwelling of the divine produced by the Spirit is spoken of indifferently as the indwelling of the Spirit, or of the Spirit of Christ, or of Christ Himself (all three terms in Rom 8:9-11; compare 1 Cor 2:12; Gal 4:6; Eph 3:17, etc.). The variations are in part due to the inadequacy of the Old terminology (so 2 Cor 3:17), in part to the nature of the subject. Distinctions made between the operations of the persons of the Trinity on the soul can never be much more than verbal, and the terms are freely interchangeable. At all events, through the Spirit Christ is in the believer (Rom 8:10; Gal 2:20; 4:19; Eph 3:17), or, what is the same thing, the believer is in Christ (Rom 6:11; 8:1; 16:7, etc.). "We have become united with him" (Rom 6:5, sumphutoi, "grown together with") in a union once and for all effected (Gal 3:27) and yet always to be made more intimate (Rom 13:14). The union so accomplished makes the man "a new creature" (2 Cor 5:17).
Paul now saw within himself a dual personality. His former nature, the old man, still persisted, with its impulses, liability to temptation, and inertnesses. The "flesh" still existed (Gal 5:17; Rom 8:12; 13:14; Eph 4:22; Phil 3:12, etc.). On the other hand there was fighting in him against this former nature nothing less than the whole power of Christ, and its final victory could not be uncertain for a moment (Rom 6:12; 8:2,10; Gal 5:16, etc.). Indeed, it is possible to speak of the believer as entirely spiritual (Rom 6:11,22; 8:9, etc.), as already in the kingdom (Col 1:13), as already sitting in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). Of course Paul had too keen an appreciation of reality to regard believers as utterly sinless (Phil 3:12, etc.), and his pages abound in reproofs and exhortations. But the present existence of remnants of sin had no final terrors, for the ultimate victory over sin was certain, even if it was not to be complete until the last day when the power of God would redeem even the present physical frame (Rom 8:11; Phil 3:21, etc.).
As the first man to belong to'the higher order, and as the point from which the race could take a fresh start, Christ could justly be termed a new Adam (1 Cor 15:45-49; compare Rom 5:12-21). If Cor 15:46 has any relation to the PhiIonic doctrine of the two Adams, it is a polemic against it. Such a polemic would not be unlikely.
A most extraordinary fact, to the former Pharisee, was that this experience had been gained without conscious effort and even against conscious effort (Phil 3:7 f). After years of fruitless striving a single act of self-surrender had brought him an assurance that he had despaired of ever attaining. And this act of self-surrender is what Paul means by "faith," "faith without works." This faith is naturally almost anything in the world rather than a mere intellectual acknowledgment of a fact (Jas 2:19), and is an act of the whole man, too complex for simple analysis. It finds, however, its perfect statement in Christ's reference to `receiving the kingdom of God as a little child' (Mk 10:15). By an act of simple yielding Paul found himself no longer in dread of his sins; he was at peace with God, and confident as to his future; in a word, "justified." In one sense, to be sure, "works" were still involved, for without the past struggles the result would never have been attained. A desire, however imperfect, to do right is a necessary preparation for justification, and the word has no meaning to a man satisfied to be sunk in complete selfishness (Rom 6:2; 3:8, etc.). This desire to do right, which Paul always presupposes, and the content given "faith" are sufficient safeguards against antinomianism. But the grace given is in no way commensurate with past efforts, nor does it grow out of them. It is a simple gift of God (Rom 6:23).
III. Further Developments.
1. Abolition of the Law:
The adoption by Paul of the facts given by his conversion (and the immediate conclusions that followed from them) involved, naturally, a readjustment and a reformation of the other parts of his belief. The process must have occupied some time, if it was ever complete during his life, and must have been affected materially by his controversies with his former co-religionists and with very many Christians.
Fundamental was the problem of the Law. The Law was perfectly clear that he--and only he--who performed it would live. But life was found through faith in Christ, while the Law was not fulfilled. There could be no question of compromise between the two positions; they were simply incompatible (Rom 10:5 f; Gal 2:16; 3:11 f; Phil 3:7). One conclusion only was possible: "Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom 10:4). As far as concerned the believer, the Law was gone. Two tremendous results followed. One was the immense simplification of what we call "Christian ethics," which were now to be determined by the broadest general principles of right and wrong and no longer by an elaborate legalistic construing of God's commands (Rom 13:8-10; Gal 5:22 f, etc.; compare Mk 12:29-31). To be sure, the commandments might be quoted as convenient expressions of moral duty (Eph 6:2; 1 Cor 9:9, etc.; compare Mk 10:19), but they are binding because they are right, not because they are commandments (Col 2:16). So, in Paul's moral directions, he tries to bring out always the principle involved, and Rom 14 and 1 Cor 8 are masterpieces of the treatment of concrete problems by this method.
The second result of the abolition of the Law was overwhelming. Gentiles had as much right to Christ as had the Jews, barring perhaps the priority of honor (Rom 3:2, etc.) possessed by the latter. It is altogether conceivable, as Acts 22:21 implies, that Paul's active acceptance of this result was long delayed and reached only after severe struggles. The fact was utterly revolutionary, and although it was prophesied in the Old Testament (Rom 9:25 f), yet `the Messiah among you Gentiles' remained the hidden mystery that God had revealed only in the last days (Col 1:26 f; Eph 3:3-6, etc.). The struggles of the apostle in defense of this principle are the most familiar part of his career.
This consciousness of deliverance from the Law came to Paul in another way. The Law was meant for men in this world, but the union with Christ had raised him out of this world and so taken him away from the Law's control. In the Epistles this fact finds expression in an elaborately reasoned form. As Christ's nature is now a vital part of our nature, His death and resurrection are facts of our past as well. "Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). But "the law hath dominion over a man" only "for so long time as he liveth" (Rom 7:1). "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ" (Rom 7:4). Compare Col 2:11-13,20, where the same argument is used to show that ritual observance is no longer necessary. In Rom 6:1-14 this argument is made to issue in a practical exhortation. Through the death of Christ, which is our death (6:4), we, like Him, are placed in a higher world (6:5) where sin has lost its power (6:7), a world in which we are no longer under Law (6:14). Hence, the intensest moral effort becomes our duty (6:13; compare 2 Cor 5:14 f).
This release from the Law, however, does not solve the whole problem. Evil, present and past, is a fact, Law or no Law (on Rom 4:15b; 5:13b; see the comms.), and a forbearance of God that simply "passes over" sins is disastrous for man as well as contrary to the righteous nature of God (Rom 3:25 f). However inadequate the Old Testament sacrifices were felt to have been (and hence, perhaps, Paul's avoidance of the Levitical terms except in Eph 5:2), yet they offered the only help possible for the treatment of this most complex of problems. The guilt of our sins is "covered" by the death of Christ (1 Cor 15:3, where this truth is among those which were delivered to converts "first of all"; Rom 3:25; 4:25; 5:6, etc.). This part of his theology Paul leaves in an incomplete form. He was accustomed, like any other man of his day, whether Jew or Gentile, to think naturally in sacrificial terms, and neither he nor his converts were conscious of any difficulty involved. Nor has theology since his time been able to contribute much toward advancing the solution of the problem. The fatal results of unchecked evil, its involving of the innocent with the guilty, and the value of vicarious suffering, are simple facts of our experience that defy our attempts to reduce them to intellectual formulas. In Paul's case it is to be noted that he views the incentive as coming from God (Rom 3:25; 5:8; 8:32, etc.), because of His love toward man, so that a "gift-propitiation" of an angry deity is a theory the precise opposite of the Pauline. Moreover, Christ's death is not a mere fact of the past, but through the "mystical union" is incorporated into the life of every believer.
Further developments of this doctrine about Christ's death find in it the complete destruction of whatever remained of the Law (Col 2:14), especially as the barrier between Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:15 f). The extension of the effects of the death to the unseen world (Col 2:15; compare Gal 4:9; Eph 4:8) was of course natural.
5. Moral Example:
The death of Christ as producing a subjective moral power in the believer is appealed to frequently (compare Rom 8:3; Gal 2:20; Eph 5:2,25; Phil 2:5, etc.), while the idea is perhaps present to some degree even in Rom 3:26. From a different point of view, the Cross as teaching the vanity of worldly things is a favorite subject with Paul (1 Cor 1:22-25; 2 Cor 13:4; Gal 5:11; 6:14, etc.). These aspects require no explanation.
There are, accordingly, in Paul's view of the death of Christ at least three distinct lines, the "mystical," the "juristic," and the "ethical." But this distinction is largely only genetic and logical, and the lines tend to blend in all sorts of combinations. Consequently, it is frequently an impossible exegetical problem to determine which is most prominent in any given passage (e.g. 2 Cor 5:14 f).
6. Function of the Law:
Regarding the Law a further question remained, which had great importance in Paul's controversies. If the Law was useless for salvation, why was it given at all? Paul replies that it still had its purpose. To gain righteousness one must desire it and this desire the Law taught (Rom 7:12,16; 2:18), even though it had no power to help toward fulfillment. So the Law gave knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20; 7:7). But Paul did not hesitate to go beyond this. Familiar in his own experience with the psychological truth that a prohibition may actually stimulate the desire to transgress it, he showed that the Law actually had the purpose of bringing out all the dormant evil within us, that grace might deal with it effectually (Rom 5:20 f; 7:8,25; compare 1 Cor 15:56). Thus the Law became our paidagogos "to bring us unto Christ" (Gal 3:24; see SCHOOLMASTER), and came in "besides" (Rom 5:20), i.e. as something not a primary part of God's plan. Indeed, this could be shown from the Law itself, which proved that faith was the primary method of salvation (Rom 4; compare Gal 3:17) and which actually prophesied its own repeal (Gal 4:21-31). With this conclusion, which must have required much time to work out, Paul's reversal of his former Pharisaic position was complete.
IV. Special Topics.
1. The Church:
As Christ is the central element in the life of the believer, all believers have this element in common and are so united with each other (Rom 12:5). This is the basis of the Pauline doctrine of the church. The use of the word "church" to denote the whole body of believers is not attained until the later Epistles (Col 1:18; Phil 3:6; Eph 1:22, etc.)--before that time the word is in the plural when describing more than a local congregation (2 Thess 1:4; 1 Cor 7:17; Rom 16:16, etc.)--but the idea is present from the first. Indeed, the only terms in Judaism that were at all adequate were "the nation" or "Israel." Paul uses the latter term (Gal 6:16) and quite constantly expresses himself in a manner that suggests the Old Testament figures for the nation (e.g. compare Eph 5:25 with Hos 2:19 f), and time was needed in order to give ekklesia (properly "assembly") the new content.
The church is composed of all who have professed faith in Christ and the salvation of its members Paul takes generally for granted (1 Thess 1:4; Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:8, etc.), even in the case of the incestuous person of 1 Cor 5:5 (compare 3:15; 11:32). To be sure, 1 Cor 5:11-13 makes it clear that the excommunication of grave sinners had been found necessary, and one may doubt if Paul had much hope for the "false brethren" of 2 Cor 11:26; Gal 2:4 (compare 1 Cor 3:17, etc.). But on the whole Paul's optimism has little doubt that every member of the church is in right relations with God. These members, through their union with Christ, form a corporate, social organism of the greatest possible solidarity (1 Cor 12:26, etc.) and have the maximum of responsibility toward one another (Rom 14:15; 1 Cor 8:11; 2 Cor 8:13-15; Gal 6:2; Eph 4:25; Col 1:24, etc.). They are utterly distinct from the world around them (2 Cor 6:14-18; 1 Cor 5:12, etc.), although in constant intercourse with it (1 Cor 5:10; 10:27, etc.). It was even desirable, in the conditions of the times, that the church should have her own courts like Jews in Gentilecities (1 Cor 6:5 f). The right of the church to discipline her members is taken for granted (1 Cor 5; 2 Cor 2:5-11). According to Acts 14:23 Paul made his own appointments of church officers, but the Epistles as a whole would suggest that this practice did not extend beyond Asia Minor. For further details see CHURCH GOVERNMENT; MINISTRY. A general obedience to Paul's own authority is presupposed throughout.
The church is, of course, the object of Christ's sanctifying power (Eph 5:25-30) and is so intimately united with Him as to be spoken of as His "body" (1 Cor 12:27; Col 1:18; Eph 1:23, etc.), or as the "complement" of Christ, the extension of His personality into the world (Eph 1:22 f). As such, its members have not only their duty toward one another, but also the responsibility of carrying Christ's message into the world (Phil 2:15 f, and presupposed everywhere). And to God shall "be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever" (Eph 3:21).
2. The Sacraments:
As the union with Christ's death is something more than a subjective impression made on the mind by the fact of that death, the references to the union with the death accomplished in baptism in Rom 6:1-7 and Col 2:11 f are not explained by supposing them to describe a mere dramatic ceremony. That Paul was really influenced by the mystery-religion concepts has not been made out. But his readers certainly were so influenced and tended to conceive very materialistic views of the Christian sacraments (1 Cor 10:5; 15:29). And historic exegesis is bound to construe Paul's language in the way in which he knew his readers would be certain to understand it, and no ordinary Gentile reader of Paul's day would have seen a purely "symbolic" meaning in either of the baptismal passages. Philo would have done so, but not the class of men with whom Paul had to deal. Similarly, with regard to the Lord's Supper, in 1 Cor 10:20 Paul teaches that through participation in a sacral meal it is possible to be brought into objective relations with demons of whom one is wholly ignorant. In this light it is hard to avoid the conclusion that through participation in the Lord's Supper the believer is objectively brought into communion with the Lord (1 Cor 10:16), a communion that will react for evil on the believer if he approach it in an unworthy manner (1 Cor 11:29-32): i.e. the union with Christ that is the center of Paul's theology he teaches to be established normally through baptism. And in the Lord's Supper this union is further strengthened. That faith on the part of the believer is an indispensable prerequisite for the efficacy of the sacraments need not be said.
See, further, GOD; PAROUSIA; PRAYER; PREDESTINATION; PROPITIATION, etc.
See under PAUL.
Burton Scott Easton


Legendary labor: How many babies is too many?
DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK
BY BILL SONES AND RICH SONES, PH.D.
Q. If Countess Margaret of the village of Henneberg, the Netherlands, didn't really give birth to 365 children on Good Friday of 1276, what might she have given birth to?–J. Roberts
A. Wooden plates in the village still commemorate this "strangest miracle in the world," says Jan Bondeson in The Two-Headed Boy and Other Medical Marvels. As the text on the baptismal church tells it, Margaret had insulted a poor woman with a pair of twins in her arms, who then cursed the Countess to "have as many children as there are days in the year." Or so the legend goes.
Today, it is obvious that it is physiologically impossible to give birth to 365, or even 36, children in one birth, says Bondeson. In 1971, a set of nine children was born in Sydney, Australia. A German woman "with prodigious belly" supposedly gave birth to 11 in 1501.
Regarding Countess Margaret, two gynecologists in the1930s suggested the 365 children may have really been a "hydatidiform mole." Here the diseased placenta takes on the appearance of "a bunch of grapes," actually cysts, possibly a hundred or more of different sizes and shapes. After their spontaneous expulsion, the patient might bleed to death–the fate of the Countess.
The people of the time understandably may have likened the cysts to children, and the legend was born. Nowadays these moles occur once in about 2,000 pregnancies, but ten times that in developing countries, which "speaks in favor of the disease being by no means unknown in Holland of the 13th century."
Q. Baby's on the way: Whether a boy or a girl is roughly 50-50, but if you bet even odds on a girl every time– in absence of fetal testing to take away the gamble– you'd either lose your shirt or clean up. Which is it? – B. Affleck
A. The shirt goes. Demographers know that the sex ratio at birth is typically about 105 males to 100 females (51 percent vs. 49 percent) and that this holds generally across societies, says Bart Holland in What Are the Chances? Thus, if you always bet on boys and an opponent bets on girls, your profit margin in the long run would be about as good as a Monte Carlo casino on a roulette wheel! But males have a higher mortality rate at every age, from birth on, so the surplus proportion of boys shrinks with every passing year of age, until finally widows far outnumber widowers.
Q. A rabid Pittsburgh Steelers fan loves to go to football games with "Steelers" emblazoned on his forehead. He doesn't use paints, inks, tattoos, or the like. So what is his trick? Clue: Try asking his dermatologist. – M. Jackson
A. "Dermographia," or "skin-writing," occurs in about five percent of the population, who experience a linear itchy hives-like swelling within minutes of stroking the skin with an object, says Heather Brannon MD on Dermatology.About.com. (This is in contrast to healthy people who when scratched have a linear reddening without the itching.)
Fortunately for this Steeler-ite, the reaction generally resolves within hours. The tendency to be dermographic may last for weeks or years, possibly preceded by a viral infection, antibiotic therapy or emotional upset. In most cases, however, the cause is unknown, says Dr. Brannon. Dermographia, or dermatographia, can be uncomfortable but isn't serious, saysMayoClinic.com. Often it goes away on its own, or antihistamines may help. "People with this condition should avoid irritating their skin whenever possible."
Send strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich at email@example.com


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Burnham-On-Sea History > 1607
Flood in the Bristol Channel - Was it a UK tsunami?
into the devastating 1607 flood that affected Burnham-On-Sea and the
Bristol Channel in January 1607 has, since 2002, been the subject of
a study between Dr Simon Haslett, Head of Geography at Bath Spa University
College, author of Coastal Systems and Dr Ted Bryant, School
of Geosciences at the University of Wollongong, Australia, author of
Tsunami: the Underrated Hazard.
occurred around 9am on the '20th January 1606', although in the modern
calendar this is the 30th January 1607. The event is recorded on plaques
in a number of churches, including those at Kingston Seymour in Somerset,
and in Monmouthshire at Goldcliff, St. Brides, Redwick and Peterstone.
The breaking of the sea bank at Burnham-On-Sea led to some 30
villages being utterly inundated, and their cattle destroyed,
and men, women and children besides. The accounts state that 28
people were drowned at Huntspill and 26 at Brean, a death toll
that was repeated in many other villages.
At Appledore, Devon,
a 60 tonne ship was well-laden and ready to sail and was driven
by the wave onto marshy ground well above high tide, likely never
to be recovered.
In Barnstaple, Devon,
the wave burst open doors that were locked and bolted and knocked
down many walls and houses, one of which was the house of a James
Frost in that the roof and walls collapsed and killed both him
and two of his children.
Near Newport, Gwent,
a wealthy women, Mistress Van, lived four miles from the sea and
although she saw the wave approaching from her house she could
not get upstairs before it rushed through and drowned her.
In Monmouthshire, "a
maide child, not passing the age of foure years: it is reported
that the mother thereof, perceiving the waters to breake so fast
into her house, and not being able to escape with it, and having
no clothes on, set it upon a beame in the house, to save it from
being drowned. And the waters rushing in a pace, a little chicken
as it seemeth, flew up unto it [the child], (it being found in
the bosome of it, when helpe came to take it [the child] downe)
and by the heate thereof, as it is thought, preserved the childe's
In Monmouthshire, "Another
little childe is affirmed to have been cast uppon land in a cradle,
in which was nothing but a catte [cat], the which was discerned
as it came floating to the shoare, to leape still from one side
of the cradle unto the other, even as if she had been appointed
steresman to preserve the small barke from the waves furie".
In Monmouthshire, "A
certain man and woman having taken a tree for their succour, espying
nothing but death before their eyes, at last among other things
which were carried along, they perceived a certain tubbe of great
bignesse to come nearer and nearer unto them, until it rested
upon that tree wherein they were, committed themselves, and were
carried safe until they were cast upon the drie shore".
In Monmouthshire, "more
than did, had perished for want of food, and extreme cold, had
not the Rt. Honble. Lord Herbert .... sent out boats to relieve
the distresse .... himself goping to such houses as he could minister
to their provision of meate and other necessaries".
Seymour plaque reads: "An inundation of the sea water by overflowing
and breaking down the Sea banks; happened in this Parish of Kingstone-Seamore,
and many others adjoining; by reason whereof many Persons were drown'd
and much Cattle and Goods, were lost: the water in the Church was five
feet high and the greatest part lay on the ground about ten days. WILLIAM
that the 1607 flood was due to a tsunami was first put forward by Haslett
and Bryant in a scientific paper published in 2002 in the journal Archaeology
in the Severn Estuary.
of historical documents exist that describe the event and its aftermath.
An area from Barnstaple in north Devon, up the Bristol Channel and Severn
Estuary to Gloucester, then along the South Wales coast around to Cardigan
was affected, some 570 km of coastline.
population was devastated with at least 2,000 fatalities according to
one of the contemporary sources.
parts of the coast the population never recovered from the social and
and Bryant were led to think that the 1607 flood was caused by a tsunami,
rather than a storm, for a number of reasons:
1. Some historical accounts indicate that the weather was fine e.g.
"for about nine of the morning, the same being most fayrely and
brightly spred, many of the inhabitants of these countreys prepared
themselves to their affayres" and the ship at Appldedore (see above)
is unlikely to be ready to sail in stormy weather.
2. The sea appears to have been "driven back" i.e. retreated
out to sea, before the wave struck, a classic tsunami herald.
3. The wave appeared as "mighty hilles of water tombling over one
another in such sort as if the greatest mountains in the world had overwhelmed
the lowe villages or marshy grounds. Sometimes it dazzled many of the
spectators that they imagined it had bin some fogge or mist coming with
great swiftness towards them and with such a smoke as if mountains were
all on fire, and to the view of some it seemed as if myriads of thousands
of arrows had been shot forth all at one time."
This is very similar to descriptions of more recent tsunami, such as
the tsunami associated with the eruption of Krakatau in 1883, where
accounts refer to the sea as being 'hilly', and the reference to dazzling,
fiery mountains, and myriads of arrows, is reminiscent of accounts of
tsunami on the Burin Peninsula (Newfoundland) in 1929, where the wave
crest was shining like car headlights, and in Papua New Guinea in 1998
where the wave was frothing and sparkling.
speed of the wave appears to have been faster than a storm flood as
the wave is 'affirmed to have runne
. with a swiftness so incredible,
as that no gray-hounde could have escaped by running before them'.
summer of 2004, Haslett and Bryant embarked on field work in the area
to record any physical impacts of the proposed 1607 tsunami that might
still be left in the landscape. They found:
Erosion of rock at the coast
that is characteristic of erosion caused by high velocity water flow.
This includes two large chunks of farmland on the Severn Estuary north
of Bristol that were simply washed away, one where the foundation of
the Second Severn Crossing is, and the other is now the reservoir for
the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station;
The deposition of layers
of sand over wide areas at the time, discovered in boreholes in the
ground from north Devon to Gloucestershire to the Gower;
Large boulders that are only
easily moved by tsunami waves have been found stacked like dominoes
at and above the high tide limits all along the coast.
of tsunami enable Haslett and Bryant to estimate the scale of the proposed
tsunami wave and its affects.
height - In the open sea area between north Devon and Pembrokeshire,
the wave was just under 4m (13ft) high, but as it entered the constricting
funnel-shaped Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, the wave increased
in height to 5m (16ft) along the Glamorgan coast, 5.5m (18ft) along
the Somerset coast, and over 7.5m (25ft) high, by the time it reached
the Monmouthshire coast. This increase in wave height due to the funnel-shape
of the estuary is exactly the same as the process that creates the famous
Tsunami speed - The speed (velocity)
of a tsunami is related to its height, so as it moved up estuary and
got squeezed between the opposing shores of England and Wales, it got
faster, striking the coast at just over 12 m/sec (27mph) in north Devon
and southwest Wales, to just under 14 m/sec (31mph) along the Glamorgan
coast, to 14.5 m/sec (32mph) in Somerset, and over 17 m/sec (38mph)
in Monmouthshire. This agrees well with the contemporary observations
regarding the speed of the wave.
Tsunami inundation - On the flat
coastal areas the tsunami was able to penetrate a considerable distance
inland. The maximum inland penetration possible of a moving tsunami
wave in north Devon and southwest Wales would have been just under 2.5
km (1.55 miles), in Glamorgan just over 3 km (1.86 miles), in Somerset
just under 4 km (2.5 miles), and in Monmouthshire just under 6 km (3.7
miles). This agrees well with the accounts of the wave reaching up to
4 miles inland at Cardiff and in Monmouthshire. The fact that the floodwaters
reached further inland in places, such as to the foot of Glastonbury
Tor (14 miles inland) is due to the fact that the landsurface actually
slopes landward in many of the coastal wetland areas, such as the Somerset
Levels, so once the wave collapsed the water flowed landward under gravity
rather than back to the sea.
cause of the proposed tsunami is not yet known, but the possibilities
include a landslide off the continental shelf between Ireland and Cornwall,
or an earthquake along an active fault system in the sea south of Ireland.
This fault system has apparently experienced an earthquake greater than
magnitude 4 on the Richter scale within the last 20 years, so the chance
of a bigger tsunami earthquake is a possibility. It may also have been
a combination, in that an earthquake might have triggered a submarine
article was adapted from the findings of a Bath
Spa University College study issued
by Dr Simon Haslett FGS, FRGS.
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According to Ayurveda, the kidneys are made up of the "Rakta" and "Meda" dhatus. Treating these two dhatus is also an effective way to treat the kidneys. Medicines used are: Patol, Saariva, Patha (Cissampelos pareira), Musta (Cyperus rotundus), Kutki (Picrorrhiza kurroa), Chirayta (Swertia chirata), Guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia), Chandan (Santalum album) and Shunthi (Zinziber officinalis).
Lastly, the known cause of chronic renal failure is treated using medicines which also act upon the kidneys. Vascular (related to the blood vessels) diseases like renal artery stenosis and inflammation of the artery walls(vasculitis) can be treated using medicines like Arogya Vardhini, Tapyadi Loha, Mahamanjishthadi Qadha, Kamdudha Vati, Manjishtha (Rubia cordifolia), Bhrungraj (Eclipta alba), Saariva, Kutki and Sarpagandha (Rauwolfia serpentina). Primary glomerular diseases like membranous nephropathy and glomerlonephritis can be treated using Punarnava, Gokshur, Saariva and Manjishtha. Secondary glomerular disease resulting from diabetes, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis etc. can be treated accordingly, using the medicines appropriate for those diseases. Similarly, suitable Ayurvedic medicines can be given for other causes like polycystic kidneys, prostate enlargement and neurogenic bladder.
n ancient Ayurvedic herbal treatment for heart disease, has been discovered to be as effective as leading prescription heart medications. The best part of Ayurvedic medicine, is that you have none of the negative side effects found in traditional prescriptions.
Terminalia arjuna is an enormous tree that grows wild throughout much of South Asia � and its bark contains natural alkaloids and other chemicals effective in treating heart ailments and metabolic diseases.
This is good news for the many people who are worried about their current heart health � and for the many others who are trying to guard against heart problems later in life. Heart disease is still the Number 1 killer of people in the U.S., despite the fact that recent decades have brought many advances in heart medicine, including open-heart surgery � the procedure that most people hope they would never experience.
Ayurveda considers that neurological disorders are caused primarily due to imbalance in the function of Vata. A careful history and a detailed Ayurvedic Pulse reading and investigations would reveal the diagnosis and the intricacies of the complex chain reaction involving various sub doshas. Most neurological disorders take long time to see significant improvements.
Ayurvedic approach however may not be a permanent cure to most of the diseases. But they give far better results compared to modern medical approach alone. Combined with Ayurvedic treatments and Yoga therapies and Pranayama, majority of the neurological disorders respond very well. The quality of life improves and in many cases, slowly, over a period of time, many neurological disorders can be cured. More research is required to predict which ones could be cured and how long it takes to cure.
The damage caused to the brain tissue or the thin axonal sheath of the nerve does not regenerate. However, in many cases the adjoining nerve tissue is capable of taking over the lost function over a period of time. The focus of Ayurvedic treatment aims to make the patient understand the possibilities and limitations of the disease and undergo Ayurvedic treatments, which give invaluable benefits.
Arthritis is one of the most pervasive and common diseases in the world. Arthritis is inflammation, characterized by pain, stiffness & swelling of one or more joints and connective tissues.Arthritis is a general term used to indicate any rheumatic disorder that cause pain, stiffness and swelling of the joints. As Arthritis is an inflammatory condition if not treated as early as possible the one-way progression of the inflammation may lead to permanent destruction. In Rheumatoid Arthritis, inflammation affects different joints with different power. It has been found that damage to bones begins in the early stages that is in the first or second year of the inflammation. Therefore, RA demands early, expert diagnosis.
Signs and Symptoms
Joint swelling and pain
Loss of weight
Swollen nodules Loss of appetite


Seeing Through Illusions: Making Sense of the Senses
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Visual illusions have the capacity to both puzzle and delight: whether the swirling colours and vibrations that appear from simple concentric patterns, or surreal tricks of perspective, or the ephemeral shapes that appear as we stare into a random scattering of dots. They remind us that, contrary to the experience of everyday life, what we perceive isnt always true. In "Seeing Through Illusion" renowned neuropsychologist Richard Gregory explores what visual illusions can tell us about how our brains perceive the world. Looking at optical tricks and many other extraordinary phenomena, Gregory explains how scientists use them to peel back the normal processes of perception, and to reveal how the brain performs the remarkable feat of representing the real world with the kind of richness and success which we experience every day and take for granted. And these visual illusions can not only tell us about how our brain works, but they can also reveal its past. For as our nervous systems evolved, so the ways in which they perceived the visual world grew more sophisticated, moving from simple stimuli of light and darkness to the complex levels of cognition we have today. Traces of earlier stages remain buried within our brains like stratified layers, laid down through evolutionary time, and we learn how the study of different kinds of illusions helps us to glimpse these layers. Interweaving science with reflections on art and philosophy, fascinating psychological case-studies, and some amazing visual phenomena, this book reveals that we really can see through illusions.


Although it was a beautiful day here, weatherwise, it was a rather discouraging day for me personally. I'm not sure why - it was a fairly ordinary day. Some friends came by in the morning unexpectedly, and I had to scramble to find a meal to cook for them (Mexicans - if a family of Mexicans ever comes to visit you, know that you should provide a fairly substantial meal no matter what the time of day, and also that you will have to coax them to eat it. They will refuse, but just load up the plates and push. That's what's expected.).
May 1, 2008 — Researchers began a nationwide initiative to track climate change by recording the timing of the first bud, first flower, and seed dispersal for plants across the country. They encouraged people to record information in their own neighborhoods and plan to compile those findings to build a comprehensive record of the changing climate.
Could the emergence of spring provide clues to climate change? Some researchers think so and now, you can be part of the scientific process studying global warming, just by observing what's blooming in your own backyard.
This spring, there may be more to those buds and blossoms in your backyard than meets the eye. The timing of when plants bud or flower is changing and nature's calendar is getting warmer earlier. While studying climate change, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. is recruiting volunteers across the country to monitor their back yards.
"Scientists can't be everywhere," Sandra Henderson, Ph.D., a science educator at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., told Ivanhoe. "We need these extra sentinel eyes on the landscape, if you will."
Henderson spearheads Project BudBurst. "Well, it may not seem like a lot when a plant blooms earlier or later. What the plant does is it starts giving us clues to the climate. When you start tracking this long-term we can see when those changes occur," she explained.
Botanists anxiously await Project BudBurst's findings. "I think there's validity to that if you are willing to look at it over the long term and things are very different from one season to the next, but it's really averages you have to consider," Dan Johnson, curator of native plant collections at the Denver Botanic Gardens in Denver, Colo., told Ivanhoe. Volunteers record weekly data online. "Project Budburst allows individuals an opportunity to learn more about climate change through participation," Dr. Henderson said.
Project budburst will be repeated year after year, so volunteers will build their own archive of evidence from their own backyard.
PROJECT BUDBURST: Participants choose a plant or plants to observe, then begin checking their plants at least a week before the date of the average budburst. They are looking for the point at which the buds have opened to reveal visible leaves. Participants report that data, and continue to observe the plant for other events such as first leaf, first flower, and also seed dispersal. Project BudBurst takes the records that participants input, then creates maps of these events across the United States.
WHAT IS PHENOLOGY? The science of phenology is the study of the timing of the life cycle of plants and animals. It focuses on establishing how and why plants and animals undertake processes at certain times of the year, for example when to hibernate, flower, and reproduce. Phenology has a long and distinguished history. In Japan and China, cherry and peach blossom festivals extend back more than a thousand years.


Additional National References
Setting the maximum dose and pivot dose
The doses defined below, can be used in cases where few references exist for using the balance method.
A maximum dose is one that cannot be exceed under any circumstance. It leaves open the option to spread lower doses.
A pivot dose is one from which we can make adjustments, more or less. It therefore requires adjustment rules, dose X + or - Y, Y decreases or increases if such condition (climate, variety, soil ...) exists. A pivot dose is associated with adjustment rules.
Elements of a decision for nitrogen fertilization on fruit and vegetable crops
Fertilization tips for perfume, medicinal and aromatic plants
Consideration of ammonia volatilization of mineral fertilizers


Oxidative stress plays a key role in the pathogenesis of aging and many metabolic diseases; therefore, an effective antioxidant therapy would be of great importance in these circumstances. Nutritional, environmental, and chemical factors can induce the overproduction of the superoxide anion radical in both the cytosol and mitochondria. This is the first and key event that leads to the activation of pathways involved in the development of several metabolic diseases that are related to oxidative stress. As oxidation of essential molecules continues, it turns to nitrooxidative stress because of the involvement of nitric oxide in pathogenic processes. Once peroxynitrite forms, it damages via two distinctive mechanisms. First, it has direct toxic effects leading to lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation, and DNA damage. This mechanism involves the induction of several transcription factors leading to cytokine-induced chronic inflammation. Classic antioxidants, including vitamins A, C, and E, have often failed to exhibit beneficial effects in metabolic diseases and aging. Melatonin is a multifunctional indolamine that counteracts virtually all pathophysiologic steps and displays significant beneficial actions against peroxynitrite-induced cellular toxicity. This protection is related to melatonin′s antioxidative and antiinflammatory properties. Melatonin has the capability of scavenging both oxygen- and nitrogen based reactants, including those formed from peroxynitrite, and blocking transcriptional factors, which induce proinflammatory cytokines. Accumulating evidence suggests that this nontoxic indolamine may be useful either as a sole treatment or in conjunction with other treatments for inhibiting the biohazardous actions of nitrooxidative stress.


Research in immunotherapy
Immunotherapy uses the immune system to help destroy cancer cells. It is sometimes called biological therapy. Some types of immunotherapy are already in use. Immune checkpoint inhibitors (types of monoclonal antibodies), interferon and interleukin are types of immunotherapy being used to treat cancer.
Find out more about immunotherapy.
Researchers continue to study other ways of using the immune system to destroy cancer cells. They are also looking at combining different immunotherapies, using immunotherapy with chemotherapy or radiation therapy, giving immunotherapy after surgery and treating earlier stage cancers with immunotherapy.
Monoclonal antibodies are made in the lab. Monoclonal antibodies find and bind to a specific antigen (such as a protein) on a cancer cell that triggers the immune system to attack and destroy those cells. Monoclonal antibodies are both an immunotherapy and a targeted therapy.
Researchers are developing new monoclonal antibodies to treat many different types of cancer. They are also studying ways to make monoclonal antibodies more powerful by attaching them to chemotherapy drugs or other substances. Research is also looking at ways to make them safer and work better.
Cancer treatment vaccines
Most people think of vaccines as something that prevents you from getting a disease or infection. And they’re right – the HPV vaccine, which is already in use, prevents cervical and other HPV-related cancers. But researchers are also developing vaccines to treat cancer. Cancer treatment vaccines help the immune system to fight cancer by:
- slowing or stopping cancer growth
- destroying cancer cells
- shrinking a tumour
- preventing the cancer from coming back
Tumour cell vaccines are made from weakened or killed cancer cells. The cancer cells are collected from the person with cancer who is being treated or from another person with a similar type of cancer. They are changed (modified) in a lab to make them easier for the immune system to recognize and attack them. These cancer cells are then given radiation to make sure they are all killed and then the killed cancer cells are injected into the person. The cancer cells injected into the body will stimulate an immune response so the immune system destroys them and the similar types of cancer cells still in the body.
Antigen vaccines use proteins or parts of proteins (called antigens) that are unique to specific cancers or that are found in higher than normal amounts on cancer cells. When the antigen vaccine is injected into the person, the vaccine causes an immune response that helps the body to attack cancer cells.
Dendritic cell vaccines are made from a person’s white blood cells (immune cells that help to fight infection and disease). In the lab, the white blood cells are exposed to cancer cells, antigens found on cancer cells or chemicals that turn them into a specialized type of white blood cell called a dendritic cell. The dendritic cells are then injected back into the person and help other immune cells in the body find and attack cancer cells.
Vector-based vaccines are made from viruses, bacteria or yeast cells that have been changed (modified) in the lab to deliver antigens found on cancer cells. But the modified viruses, bacteria or yeast won’t cause disease or infection. Vector-based vaccines deliver more than one type of antigen, those from cancer cells and those found on the virus, bacteria or yeast cell. This helps to increase the chance that the immune system will mount an attack against the cancer cells in the body. Some research is studying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to treat leukemia.
Oncolytic virus therapy
Oncolytic virus therapy uses a genetically modified virus (a virus that has its genetic information changed) to infect and destroy cancer cells. The virus can be injected directly into the tumour where it goes into cancer cells and makes copies of itself. This causes the cancer cells to burst and die. As the cells die they release antigens and other chemicals that trigger the immune system to start attacking cancer cells, including those that haven’t been infected with the virus.
Adoptive T cell transfer therapy
Adoptive T cell transfer therapy uses a person’s own T cells to fight cancer. There are 2 different approaches to adoptive T cell transfer.
In one approach, doctors take T cells from a person’s tumour and look for the ones that are best at finding cancer. These T cells are grown in large numbers in the lab and then injected back into the person. The goal of this approach is that the large number of T cells given to the person will attack and destroy the remaining cancer cells in the body.
Another approach is called chimeric antigen receptor therapy (CAR-T). With this type of adoptive T cell transfer, T cells are taken from the person with cancer and changed to have special receptors that can recognize specific antigens on cancer cells. The T cells are then given back to the person where they multiply, attack and destroy the cancer cells.
A foreign substance that stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies against it.


Q: A friend of mine has recommended a stock to me, but it is trading at more than $100 per share. Wouldn't I be better off investing in a lower-priced stock like $20 per share that has more upside promise?
A: Suppose I tell you that Company A's stock is selling for $20 per share and another stock in the same industry, Company B, is selling for $120. Which would you rather buy?
The right answer is "I don't know." The reason I didn't give you nearly enough information to determine which company's stock you should consider buying. On its own, the price per share of a stock is meaningless.
While Company B's stock is selling for six-times as much per share, suppose its profits are also six-times as great per share. The level of a company's stock price relative to its earnings or profits per share helps you calibrate how expensively, cheaply or fairly a stock price is valued.
The stock price per share divided by the company's annual earnings per share is how you determine the price-earnings (P/E) ratio. P/E ratios can be calculated for individual stocks as well as entire stock markets.
Suppose you have a choice between investing in two companies, and both company's stocks are selling at a P/E of 15. If one company's revenue and profits are growing 40 percent per year and the other company's revenues and profits are flat, which would you buy?
Because they are both trading at a P/E of 15, the fast-growing company appears to be the better buy. Even if it just continues to sell for 15 times earnings, its stock price should increase 40 percent per year as its profits do.
Remember that just because a stock price or an entire stock market seems to be at a high price level doesn't necessarily mean that the stock or market is overpriced. Always compare the level of a stock to the level of that company's profits, or the overall market's price level to overall corporate profits. The price-earnings ratio captures this comparison. Faster-growing and more-profitable companies generally sell for a premium (higher P/Es). Also remember that future earnings, which are difficult to predict, influence stock prices more than current earnings, which are old news.