THE APOSTLE PAUL - Part I



Note:  In this post I am beginning a short series that examines the evolution of salvation theology at the very beginning of Christianity.  What I find intriguing is that the earliest known documentation of this event is not the gospels but rather the epistles of the Apostle Paul, a rather enigmatic figure, who shows up on the Christian scene after this event, "as one untimely born" 1Cor. 15:8.  The question that arises is whether Paul is writing from what he was taught after his conversion which later are compiled in the four gospels of the New Testament or does Paul's theology shape and influence how the gospels are eventual written.

I like Paul.

I need to say that up front because as you read this post, you may be led to think otherwise. For instance, I don't agree with everything Paul says, or, to be more specific, I don't agree that everything that has been attributed to Paul is Paul speaking; as in, his being named the author of the letter to the Hebrews, the two Timothy letters, and Ephesians.  

Paul is, in my opinion, the first authentic Christian.  In fact, many people consider Paul to be the founder of Christianity. I won't argue that.   There can be no doubt that Paul's letters shaped and continues to shape Christianity.  What I like most about Paul is that the letters he wrote reveal an authentic human who writes from both the head and the heart.

Paul's letters strike me as a rarity in ancient literature because of the personal content that is poured into them.  What I find in Paul's letters is a mind grappling with a newfound faith-source.  Paul is constantly torn between his conflicting identities; that of his former identify as Saul and his converted identity as Paul.  In Paul I find a combination of characteristics the likes of Jacob and Jeremiah  found in Hebrew Scriptures, a person who struggles with who he is and then is compelled to talk about it.  As such, Paul becomes an interesting character study whose writings invite a certain degree of analysis.

What intrigues me most about Paul is that his letter predate all other canonical literature in the New Testament.  The layout of the New Testament canon is misleading; in that, it is not concerned about the chronological order of the writings it contains. Instead its format begins with the "historical" account of Jesus ministry and life, then proceeds to Acts of the Apostles and finally to the letters of Paul and others.  It gives the impression of being in chronological when in fact it is not.  What is also confusing is that Paul's letters are not in any chronological order and begins with what might be considered his last epistle, the Epistle to the Romans, which presents what many might consider his most mature theological writing.

My reason for writing this post is to examine, Paul's understanding of the resurrection event which is so central to his theological perspective.  This may sound like a waste of time to devout Christians who readily believe in and accept the physical resurrection of Jesus on Easter and who assume that their understanding of the resurrection is the same as Paul's understanding.  I contend, however, that Paul's view of the resurrection is not what most Christians think it is or understand why it becomes so central in Paul's theology to the point of excluding almost everything that Jesus said or did prior to his death and resurrection. 

As a historical figure, it is difficult to know Paul.  One can deduce from his writings something of his mind and theological perspective.  We also have the Acts of the Apostles that give us some idea of Paul within the historic context of his time.  The tendency by modern Christians is  to ignore the contentious environment Paul's ministry caused and the role it played in forming his theology.  In this post  I will briefly delve into what I feel leads Paul to interpret Jesus' resurrection in a way that is unfamiliar to most, even though, it is quite evident in his letters.

Finally, as an introduction to Paul, I am positing that all four of the gospels are likely to have been influenced by Paul's theological view of the resurrection event rather than they influencing his theology. Whether Paul's particular view of Jesus' resurrection was entirely Paul's idea cannot be fully established.  What can be established is that he is the one who writes about it.

Pauline theology becomes the foundation upon which orthodox Christianity is built.  I contend that Paul's theology was catapulted into eventual dominance as the result of a singular historical event that changed the religious landscape Paul's time. I will explain further along in this post.  For the moment I need to say a few words about Paul as a person.

PAUL AND PARADOX

Paul is a paradox of tragedy and ecstasy all rolled into one package.  He's both slave of Christ and freed by grace.  Given this dichotomous mix, Paul does what most of us do, try to find a balanced emotional response to our inner conflicts.  He suffers in his joy and rejoices in his suffering.

Paradox abounds in Paul's very fabric.  Paul as Saul persecuted the early Christians. Paul is the Johnny-come-lately apostle.  He never knew Jesus prior to Jesus's death and resurrection. Throughout his ministry Paul readily identified and prided himself as a being a Pharisee in several of his letters. He comes to know Jesus through revelation via a vision.  As a result of his conversion and persecutory past, Paul is reluctantly received into the Church at Jerusalem and sent as a missionary to spread the gospel to Jews throughout the Roman empire to help support the Church in Jerusalem.

Paul is also a product of two world views.  He is both a Jew and  a Roman citizen. Not much is made of this until his arrest in Jerusalem where he reveals that he is a "natural born" citizen of Rome.  There has been much speculation about this with some putting forth that Paul's father was awarded citizenship or bought it at some point.  A more likely scenario, in my mind, is that Paul's father was a natural born Roman citizen and his mother was Jewish, since being Jewish is conveyed through the mother, not the father. It is clear that Paul was raised Jewish which could mean his father was a gentile follower of Judaism. 

As an apostle sent to spread the gospel to the Jewish communities located in larger cities of the empire, Paul finds that his most willing converts are not Jews, but rather gentiles who are attracted to Judaism or who are intrigued by Paul's message.  His familiarity with the Hellenized world likely provided a urbane patina to his delivery of the gospel.  For Example, Paul's familiarity with Greek mythology and philosophy is evident in his speech to the Athenians in the Agora ( Acts 17: 16-34).

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES - THE GOSPEL OF PAUL

Paul's journey into Christianity is strictly about his relationship to the resurrected Christ he encountered on the road to Damascus. Paul's vision-like encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus is crucial to understanding Paul. The only thing Paul sees in this encounter is a bright light, but the voice he hears is identified as being Jesus.  The experience left Paul physically blind, and spiritually confused. It was for Paul  a religion-shattering moment.

The Acts of the Apostles traces the history of the early church from the point of Jesus' ascension into heaven through Paul's supposed final journey to Rome.  The first six chapters of Acts do not mention Paul, but rather spends time talking about Peter and setting the stage for Paul's arrival at the end of Chapter 7, the account of Stephen's martyrdom, has Paul holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death.

Acts attempts to fill in the blanks to what Paul alludes to in his Epistles.  Undoubtedly the Acts of the Apostles was written after the time of both Peter and Paul and would place it somewhere in the vicinity of last two decades of the first century CE, if not slightly later.  From chapter seven to the end of Acts, chapter twenty-eight, Acts follows the travails, travels and trials of Paul  The Acts of the Apostles clearly places Paul, not Peter or even Jesus, as the major architect of the Christian Church. 

PAUL AND CHRIST

Paul's relationship to the historical Jesus; the Jesus who lived in Galilee, told parables, healed the sick, preached in the synagogues and on the mountain tops is non-existent.  He knows Jesus only after the fact of his life on Earth.  As such, Paul makes mention of only one direct quote that was attributed to Jesus before his crucifixion and that is in relation to the Last Supper, what is commonly referred to as the word of institution (1Cor. 11:24-25).  The only other quote Paul makes is asking Christ to remove his thorn in the flesh to which Christ tells him in some manner, "My grace is sufficient..." (2Cor. 12:9). That's all Paul ever presents as a direct teaching he received from Jesus mentioned in his epistles. 

Everything Paul talks about in his epistles refers strictly to Jesus as the Christ.  Paul never mentions Jesus's birth, his relationship with his disciples, Jesus' mother, any of Jesus' parables, his Sermon on the Mount, his miracles.  There is no way of knowing what Paul actually knew about the earthly ministry of Jesus.   As far as Paul is concerned (based on his epistles) the only activities of Jesus' human life on this planet, relevant to Paul's ministry, started on Maundy Thursday and ended on Good Friday.  Easter begins a whole new chapter when Jesus becomes, in Paul's lexicon, the risen Christ.

PAUL'S ADOPTION MATRIX

One of the curious terms used by Paul, particularly in his epistle to the Romans, is the word adoption. It is used three times in this epistle:  Roman 8:15, 8:23, and 9:4.  He also uses it in Galatians 4:5. Why adoption and not a straight out claim that everyone, by virtue of one's birth, is a child of God as intimated in Genesis 1 is, in my opinion, one of the perplexing questions that Paul's epistles raise.

Paul's use of adoption appears to be a theological attempt at bridging a religious gap that was the result of Judaism's indelible link to the Jewish people and the fact that Christianity, in its nascent years, was very much linked to Judaism as an emerging Judaic sect, not the separate religion it is today.

Paul's world was largely polytheistic, and in an empire that was cosmopolitan; where people could largely practice whatever religion they chose as long as they gave their due to the imperial religious cult, ethnic religions were viewed with suspicion by the Romans.  Rome tolerated Judaism in order to keep the peace.  Palestine, as a province within the empire, was allowed to practice its religion, Judaism, without interference and by extension Rome offered limited protection to Jewish communities that existed throughout the empire.  Rome did not particularly like Judaism which viewed its accommodation of it as a practical annoyance, and in less than a decade of Paul's death, Rome would actively attempt to eliminate it.

This was the tense environment in which Paul is writing.  This environment undoubtedly shaped Paul's theological perspective. Paul's initial mission was to bring the gospel of Jesus to ethnic Jews who were not familiar with this new brand of Judaism.  The object was to garner adherents and financial support for the church in Jerusalem.  Given the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the empire, many Jewish synagogues had a gentile following, some were proselytes, some remained gentile followers.  As a result, Paul's message appears to have resonated with this gentile audience more than with the ethnic Jewish community.

Given the tenuous situation these Jewish communities were in undoubtedly led the leaders of the synagogues to avoid as much conflict and attention of the Roman authorities as they possibly could. They tried to avoid at all costs anything that would draw negative attention to them or that would undermine the continuity of  these communities.   Paul's new version of Judaism was not well received by these leaders.  After being thrown out of the synagogue in more than one city and on more than one occasion, Paul carried his message to the streets which caught the attention of other gentiles and the gentile church began to grow. This created tension between the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and Paul.

[Side Note:  The tension in the Book of Acts is attributed to the Pharisees who were members of the Church in Jerusalem.  It should be noted that during Jesus' time the Pharisees were intrigued by, if  not, friendly towards Jesus. That they get a bad reputation in the gospels may have more to do with the contentious relationship they had with Paul within the Church  at Jerusalem which was later written back into gospel narratives.  It was Sadducees who sought to kill Jesus, not the Pharisees. In fact, Luke 13:31 says the Pharisees warned Jesus that Herod was out to kill him.]

What Paul experienced in his ministry was surprise at the capacity for faith of those outside the Jewish community.  As such, faith becomes the cornerstone for Paul's paradigmatic shift in theology, but this is not easy path for Paul to take.  As a Pharisee, Paul is well aware of the legal obstacles that stood in the way of a straightforward path to inclusion of gentiles into this new Judaic sect called, "The Way."  While he works for the inclusion of gentiles into the church, he struggles within himself on how to address the turmoil it creates. 

It seems reasonable that what comes to bear on Paul's thought process is not his Judaic upbringing but rather his Hellenized one. Paul is simply trying to present his case in the form of Socratic argument: "If this then that..."  and so on.   In order to do so, however, Paul had to base his premise on something that would enable him to make logical argument that would support the inclusion of gentiles into the church without having to become Jewish.

THE RESURRECTION RESET

To accomplish this Paul establishes a new paradigm based on the concept that Christ's resurrection is a new creation, a reset of God's original creation.  Jesus becomes the Christ of God, the new Adam of God's new creative order.  Jesus, as the Christ of God becomes the heavenly (spiritual) first born Son of God by virtue of being raised by God from the dead as the first fruit of a new spiritual creation. [1Cor. 15:45, 2 Cor. 5:15, and Gal. 6:15]


Of course this leads to a host of questions. What does this mean for the Chosen People, the Jews?What does this mean for the rest of humanity?  Paul begins walking a fine theological line.  In making Jesus the first-born, the spiritually-natural born Son of God by virtue, not of his physical birth by Mary, but by his divine birth of being resurrected to new life by God the Father, Paul levels the playing field.  There is no Jew or Greek, no male or female, no slave or free man [Gal 3:28]. Ethnicity and any other identifying mark that differentiates us on earth (on this side of life) is removed, means nothing.

As a Jew, Paul saw himself as child of Abraham and as a Christian Paul saw himself more than that; he saw himself as a child of God through "adoption."  Paul reads this formula back into who he identifies as a true child of Abraham - one who has faith in Christ Jesus as one's Lord and savior. The argument becomes rather convoluted in his Epistle to the Romans. Paul speaks specifically about the patriarch of the Judaism, Abraham's, faith and connecting Abraham's faith to faith in Christ as synonymous types. In fact, Paul reads Christ into almost every important event in the history of the Hebrew people. 

At the reset point of Jesus' resurrection, Paul says the best we can get to on this side of life is adoption.  We can be adopted as children of God, made heirs with Christ by faith in the resurrected Christ Jesus.  We have to wait, however, for our own spiritual rebirth at the time of final resurrection. This becomes Paul's answer to the issue of whether a male individual needs to become a Jew; that is, circumcised before being identified as a Christian because such identities mean nothing in the light of Jesus' resurrection and God's new creative order.

Paul's point is that the only thing necessary for salvation is to have a faith like Abraham's, a faith embedded in Christ Jesus.  In trying to bridge the ethnic gap of who is considered a Christian and who is not, as with all attempts to differentiate who is and who isn't saved, Paul, in my opinion, fails to make the definitive leap of faith of full inclusion of the human species as beneficiaries of God's grace. 

Paul's use of adoption implies that everyone is at the reset point on this side of life and, as yet, is not a natural/spiritual born child of God. This theological point will continue to shape Christianity's theological perspective throughout the millennia to the present. It will figure prominently in Augustine's doctrine of original sin.  The logical result of Paul's adoptive matrix says if you're not a child of God than you must be a child of someone else - a godless child of the world, a child of the flesh.  The term "flesh" is oft repeated in Paul's letter to the Romans as a pejorative. Adoption on this side of life becomes the assurance of becoming a full heir with Christ at the final resurrection.

Another logical consequence is that the adopted do not choose the adoptive parent, the parent chooses the child. Paul falls extremely short of saying that everyone is adopted.  In fact, he falls short of saying that adoption is open for everyone.  Instead, Paul works from the perspective that not everyone is going to be saved; that some will be lost, including, those who claim to be children of Abraham.  As such Paul introduces the Church to the concept of predestination [Roman 8:29 & 30 which is further developed in a work some attribute to Paul, Ephesians 1:5 & 1:11]. It is important to remember that although Paul worked for inclusion, he lived in a world of dualism and his thought process was dualistic.

Paul also takes issue with Judaic law and spends a great deal of time discussing this.  While he cannot find it within himself to outright deny its relevance he tries to mitigate its redemptive effectiveness. Paul argues that the law is effective on this side of life, but it cannot lead one to become a child of God; that only faith in Christ Jesus can accomplish that as an act of God's grace through no personal merit any person's part - It's not something we choose. 

A CATAPULTING EVENT

Near the end of Acts, we read that a compromise is reached with the leaders of church in Jerusalem and James, the younger brother of Jesus.  The Church in Jerusalem will accept uncircumcised male gentiles into the fold on the condition that they keep from things offered to idols, and from ingesting blood and meat that was strangled, along from refraining from fornication (Acts 21:25).

As part of the compromise it is evident that Paul must take a penitential, atoning stance, having to shave his head, and purify himself and commit to being "orderly and keeping the law."  (Acts 21:24).  Ironically, as Paul is making a show of penitence for his endeavors in Jerusalem he is arrested, tried before the Sanhedrin, claims his Roman citizenship and is packed off to Rome to be tried by Caesar.  We never know for sure how things turn out for Paul. 

What catapults Paul's letters to the authoritative level they now have is not that his views were accepted by the church in Jerusalem, because they clearly were not, but rather the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, which not only saw the destruction of the Temple but also the church in Jerusalem.  This event would also foster the split between Judaism and Christianity.  Paul's reasoning did not win the debate with Pharisees within the church at Jerusalem and it is the Pharisees who survived the events of 70 CE and kept Judaism alive.  Since there was a clear division between Christianity and Judaism, the Pharisees end up being unjustly vilified, for the most part, in the Christian gospels.

Had the events of 70 CE not occurred, one can only wonder if Paul's epistles would have remained as influential as they became.  Paul's theological perspective was shaped both by his experience of the risen Christ and his experience with the conversion of gentiles to Christianity. Paul defines Jesus' resurrection as a reset point in story of human salvation - "If Christ be not risen, then is your preaching vain, and your faith is also vain." [I Cor. 15:14] 

What evolves from Paul's personal struggle over inclusion and his adoptive theology will be the subject of future posts.

Until then, stay faithful.