Paul the Jewish Theologian

A Pharisee among Christians, Jews, and Gentiles

Young, Brad H.

• Editorial: Baker Academic
• Año: 1995
• ISBN:
  9781441232892
• Categoría: Theology & Religion
• Categoría: Biblical Studies

Paul the Jewish Theologian reveals Saul of Tarsus as a man who, though rejected in the synagogue, never truly left Judaism. Author Young disagrees with long held notions that Hellenism was the context which most influenced Paul's communication of the Gospel. This skewed notion has led to widely divergent interpretations of Paul's writings. Only in rightly aligning Paul as rooted in his Jewishness and training as a Pharisee can he be correctly interpreted. Young asserts that Paul's view of the Torah was always positive, and he separates Jesus' mission among the Jews from Paul's call to the Gentiles.

Introduction

Intensive research over many years has brought the writer of the present book to a deep conviction that there is nothing in the teaching of Paul—not even the most mystical elements in it—that did not come to him from authentic Judaism.

Joseph Klausner

THE New Testament describes the Apostle Paul as a Pharisee who comes to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, boldly proclaiming the gospel as the power of the God of Israel unto salvation, to the diverse peoples in distant parts of a Gentile world. Working in a largely pagan environment, the one who is referred to in the book of Acts as Saul of Tarsus establishes churches as the Apostle Paul. Paul has been referred to as the “second founder of Christianity.” He has been called a “mystic.” Now he is referred to as a “Gnostic.”[1] The consensus of scholarship has come to view him as a Hellenistic Jew who departed radically from his Judaism. Scholars view him as being influenced by his upbringing in the Stoic environs of Tarsus and various streams of thought flowing forth from paganism, Greco-Roman culture, popular Hellenistic philosophy, mystery religious cults, and Gnostic systems. Seldom is the origin of Paul’s faith seen as rooted in Pharisaism.

This book begins with a different set of presuppositions. Paul calls himself a Pharisee. We should listen to what Paul tells us about himself. In fact, there is no evidence anywhere in the New Testament that he departed from his firm convictions as a Pharisee. Paul is a Jewish theologian who anchored his beliefs in the Hebrew Bible and the teachings of his eminent mentors in Jerusalem. He is a Hebrew of the Hebrews rather than a Hellenist of the Greeks. Fresh evidence from the literary discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as renewed interest in the analysis of rabbinic literature place the Apostle Paul squarely within the Judaism of the land of Israel and not the Hellenism of Asia Minor, although surely there was much interaction between Hellenism and Judaism in the first century and this influenced Pharisaism.

Paul is a Pharisee who has been rejected by the synagogue and misunderstood by the church. The synagogue could not accept the profile of Paul’s style of Pharisaism. For one thing, under the direction of the Sadducean high priests, he persecuted the early church. The leader of the Pharisees in those days, Rabban Gamaliel, fought hard against this type of religious persecution. For another thing, many Pharisees could not accept Paul’s messianism based on his vision as he traveled the road to Damascus.[2] The early church, on the other hand, largely rejected the Jewish heritage of Paul by denying his Pharisaism. For the church, Paul is a former Pharisee. When he stopped persecuting the church, he departed from his Pharisaism. As a Pharisee, he was evil. As a Christian, he parted ways with his Judaic heritage to become a Christian.

Paul, however, considered himself to be a Pharisee throughout his entire life. He was proud of his Judaic heritage and his upbringing in Jerusalem. He studied the sources of his faith diligently. In many ways, Paul should qualify as a valuable source for the study of Pharisaism. He proclaimed himself to be a Pharisee in the line of Pharisees. He was dedicated to his faith and lived an observant life. In modern times, few people are as dedicated to their religious convictions as Paul. He practiced the life of Pharisaism in accordance with his family background and his training in the land of Israel.

By his belief in Jesus on the basis of his own dramatic encounter with the risen Messiah, Paul’s religious fervor reached a higher plateau. For him, faith in Jesus as Messiah brought deeper conviction and enrichment. Above all, his energies were redirected toward the Gentile world. The Jewish apostle sought to call the pagan nations to a faith in the one God of Israel by preaching the message of Jesus the Messiah, “For, ‘everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’ ” (Rom 10:13).

By rejecting the Judaism of the Apostle Paul, unwittingly the church has adopted an anti-Semitism that echoes the teachings of Marcion, the second-century heretic who rejected the Old Testament for his interpretation of Paul’s writings. Sometimes, as Christians, we have accepted Paul’s teachings about Jesus while rejecting his love of the Hebrew Bible as well as his Judaic heritage. Abraham Joshua Heschel has noted the difficulty with this approach to Christian theology:

The Christian message, which in its origins intended to be an affirmation and culmination of Judaism, became very early diverted into a repudiation and negation of Judaism; obsolescence and abrogation of Jewish faith became conviction and doctrine; the new covenant was conceived not as a new phase or disclosure but as abolition and replacement of the ancient one; theological thinking fashioned its terms in a spirit of antithesis to Judaism. Contrast and contradiction rather than acknowledgement of roots relatedness and indebtedness, became the perspective. Judaism a religion of law, Christianity a religion of grace; Judaism teaches a God of wrath, Christianity a God of love; Judaism a religion of slavish obedience, Christianity the conviction of free men; Judaism is particularism, Christianity is universalism; Judaism seeks work-righteousness, Christianity preaches faith-righteousness. The teaching of the old covenant a religion of fear, the gospel of the new covenant a religion of love . . .[3]

Today people long to understand Paul and his teachings. The time has come for a reevaluation of the foundation pillars of Paul’s thought. His theology is rooted in Torah-true Judaism. His Pharisaism is evident in his teachings concerning the resurrection of the dead and in his interpretation of the Bible. He reveals knowledge of Jewish hermeneutics and halakah. When Paul is viewed as a Pharisee, many aspects of his teachings concerning grace and law are better understood. This is especially true when one realizes that the apostle was solving problems in congregations made up of both Jews and Gentiles.

Krister Stendahl has reminded us of the necessity for reading Paul’s message in context:

The main lines of Pauline interpretation—and hence both conscious and unconscious reading and quoting of Paul by scholars and lay people alike—have for many centuries been out of touch with one of the most basic of questions and concerns that shaped Paul’s thinking in the first place: the relation between Jews and Gentiles.[4]

The context is the social and theological upheaval created among the early Christians when the pagan Gentiles began to enter the fellowship of believers. Paul approaches the situation from his Jewish heritage.

After all, Paul is a Pharisee living among the Christians, Jews, and pagan Gentiles. He is a bridge builder. He confronts hostilities from many factions in the church as well as from the Greco-Roman world in which he ministers. As a Jewish theologian, he labors diligently to win acceptance for non-Jews among all Christian believers, some of whom are most assuredly proselytes who converted to Judaism before they believed in Jesus. These ex-Gentile believers as well as many Pharisees in the early Jesus movement would demand total conversion, including circumcision for all Gentile converts. Paul the Pharisee argues against the requirement of circumcision for non-Jews coming to faith in the Messiah. Many would be offended by his gospel of grace. So Paul is a Pharisee among the Christians. It is his liberal attitude and free interpretation of the Torah that invites trouble for the apostle to the Gentiles.

Gaining awareness and insight into Paul’s Jewish background promises to open new horizons for interpreting the message of this most controversial figure in nascent Christianity.

Paul the Jewish Theologian

Let us plunge straight in and begin with Paul’s origins. It must be stressed quite emphatically, against a current trend in scholarship which seeks to see Paul exclusively as a “Hellenistic Diaspora Jew,” that in his own testimonies, in the letters, the Pharisee connected with Jewish Palestine stands in the foreground, to whom Jerusalem seems to be more important than anywhere else. Only from Luke do we learn that he came from Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, and that he was a citizen of both Tarsus and Rome. Paul the author of the letters no longer thinks this part of his past worth mentioning; it seems to him to be much more remote than his time as a Pharisee in Palestine.

Martin Hengel

PAUL was Jewish. He was a theologian. But is it possible to describe Paul as a Jewish theologian? Sometimes Paul’s rich Hebrew heritage has been hidden from view because of his work among the Gentiles. After all, first and foremost Paul is remembered as a Jewish apostle to the Gentiles. Such a career is doomed to stir up debate. Paul’s life has never disappointed the journalist breed of individual who is looking for some kind of religious or political ruckus. As a pioneer theologian, Paul created problems for his own people—the Jews—as well as for the Gentiles. Going beyond his own culture and faith, Paul crossed over into diverse cultural settings and interfaith relationships. Yet he still referred to himself as a Pharisee.

Paul stepped outside his own Jewish environment to assume a leading role in an international outreach to the multiethnic peoples of Asia Minor. He was sent to the Gentile nations. So perhaps the first question that we should ask relates to Paul’s own background: Was Paul influenced more by Tarsus or Jerusalem? While he was born in Tarsus, Paul lived and studied in Jerusalem.[1] Was he authentically Jewish in his approach to his religious teachings and efforts to bear witness to his experience? Later in life, Paul worked primarily among the Gentiles. Indeed, he challenged the dominant religious views of his time, preaching against the syncretistic religious pluralism and various forms of idolatry he encountered everywhere he went.[2] Through the coming of the Jewish Messiah he saw the righteousness of God revealed to those who were far away. Clearly Paul’s work among the Gentiles and our unfamiliarity with ancient Judaism make understanding his Jewish theology difficult. In spite of this, his mission to the Gentiles is deeply rooted in his Jewish way of thinking. His upbringing as a Pharisee molded his character and guided his teachings. His writings, moreover, have both captured the hearts of many disciples and enraged numerous antagonists.[3] As a religious genius who built bridges between diverse communities and as a letter writer who treated complex issues of faith and practice, Paul has always excited lively debate within his circle of followers as well as among his adversaries. Often we misunderstand Paul: first, because we do not know the problems he was trying to solve, and second, perhaps even more significantly, because we do not know very much about his Jewish faith and culture. The Judaism of Paul must be the starting point for any serious analysis of his writings.

Reading the epistles of Paul with comprehension, consequently, presents quite a challenging undertaking. After all, reading someone else’s mail tends to be confusing and oftentimes reveals some unexpected surprises. Studying the Pauline epistles has been compared to the popular television game show Jeopardy!. To play this game, contestants are given an answer to a hidden question. Then they must guess what the question is, based upon what they can learn from the answer. The audience delights in watching the contestants struggling with the answers, trying to identify the questions. It is much more entertaining than simply asking the contestants questions that they are expected to answer. By way of comparison, studying Paul’s correspondence is like reading answers without the questions. The student of Paul’s writings is forced to guess what the original questions surrounding his correspondence really were.

In a similar way, eavesdropping on one side of a phone conversation can be a very perplexing enterprise. One cannot always be sure of the topic under discussion. In the Epistles, one line is open, and modern-day readers are eavesdropping. Paul answers questions for his friends and treats serious matters of faith and practice for the congregations with whom he corresponds. The other line, however, is not connected.[4] Today no one knows what was the exact nature of the diverse problems confronting the original readers of Paul’s epistles. That line is closed.

Nonetheless, one thing is certain. The Jewish apostle to the Gentiles is well known for the controversy he stirred up wherever he traveled. Times were changing in the Roman Empire, and Paul was a major figure in the blossoming movement of Jesus’ followers, which was spreading beyond the borders of the land of Israel. Paul’s teachings flow from what David Flusser has called the second stratum of Christianity.[5] The first stratum was laid in the life of Jesus and in the movement of his earlier followers, who were active before Pauline thought became so influential. Jesus labored among his own people on the soil of the land of Israel, whereas Paul crossed the border, breaking down walls of separation between Christians, Jews, and Gentiles. But surely the message of Paul would be better appreciated if the questions he treated were more accessible to later readers. No doubt the apostle invited dialogue with his correspondence and sometimes desired an interactive response. The reader of Paul’s congregational correspondence must remember that these epistles are open letters. Each reader must try to decipher the message and understand its significance within Paul’s original context.

What makes Paul so difficult to understand? Why do scholars and ordinary readers of the apostle’s letters come up with such different answers to questions concerning Paul’s life and teachings? First, as has been mentioned already, a number of key issues can be resolved only by correctly identifying those questions Paul was answering. But the major difficulty in grasping Paul’s thought is really context. We misunderstand Paul because we do not understand his Jewish faith. Without esteeming Paul’s Judaism, we cannot comprehend his message. Striving to identify the questions Paul was answering is a first step. But the serious reader of Paul’s letters must struggle with the thinking of a Pharisee who studied in Jerusalem. A more intimate knowledge of Paul’s Judaism unlocks the mysteries of his religious experience. So the Judaism of Jerusalem, rather than the paganism of Tarsus, seems to be the foundation for Paul’s approach to the problems besetting the early Christian congregations to whom he directed his correspondence.

Much of the controversy ultimately stems from questions concerning Paul’s own background. Was Paul a hellenized Greek Jew from Tarsus? Or was he a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel in Jerusalem? Did he cancel the Torah once and for all? Have works of Torah lost significance because of faith? Did he exclude the Jewish people from the family of God by speaking of the church as the new Israel that completely replaced the old? Did he deny the teachings of Jesus and become the second founder of Christianity? What is crucial for Pauline theology? What would be his “ultimate concern”—to use the overly burdened terminology of yet another famous theologian named Paul but with the family name of Tillich? The Apostle Paul did not belong to the circles of systematic theologians from Germany or any other Western nation. This Paul’s theology was rooted in Judaism from late antiquity, and his family heritage was Jewish stock. He was from the Middle East. His mentality was quite different from that of the West. How, then, can the modern reader of Paul, whether he or she ascribes to the apostle’s doctrine or admittedly feels uncomfortable with some of his ideas, make peace with the enthusiastic Jewish preacher to the Gentiles?

To make peace with Paul, we must listen carefully to the apostle’s message in his original cultural context. The starting point is crucial. When the starting point is Paul’s Jewish theology, many issues of his cultural environment are resolved. To study Paul, we must begin somewhere. Where we begin, moreover, determines the course of research and the impact of the final conclusions. Most scholars begin in Tarsus. Here, however, I will contend that Paul’s theology is more a product of Jerusalem than of Tarsus. Paul never canceled Torah, but made the necessary distinctives between Jews and Gentiles in the mysterious plan of God. He taught that the Gentiles were grafted into the olive tree Israel, and he never intended for a replacement theology to take root in the Christian church. In dealing with matters of concern among the Christian communities, Paul upheld the teachings of Jesus as well as the authority of the law and the prophets. Ultimately, Paul discovered self-fulfillment and personal pride in his mission of leading the pagan...

Índice

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword Cheryl Anne Brown
• Foreword Burton Visotzky
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Paul the Jewish Theologian
• 3 Pentecost, the Nations of the World, and the Apostle Paul
• 4 Judaism and Christianity: Diverse Perspectives on Torah
• 5 The Torah: Roots of Grace and Faith in Paul’s Message
• 6 Torah: The Dead Letter or the Living Word?
• 7 The Transcendence of Torah in Paul’s Teachings
• 8 Love as the Foundation of Christian Ministry: The Model of 1 Corinthians 13
• 9 The Essence of Paul’s Jewish Faith
• 10 Seven Pillars of Paul’s Jewish Theology
• Bibliography and Study Aids
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Names and Subjects
• Notes
• Back Cover