I’m
continuing to work through Larry Hurtado’s Lord
Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Grand Rapids, MI
and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, ©2003). Hurtado notes that
Paul provides the best source we have for looking at Palestinian Jewish
Christianity of the 30s and 40s, prior to Paul’s missionary journeys, and prior
to the writing of his letters.
He talks
about Paul’s qualifications:
Paul’s Jewishness
In chronological terms, and in terms of
its pervasive relevance, the first factor to take very seriously is Paul’s
Jewish religious background and its continuing effect in his Christian beliefs
and life… precisely because Paul is remembered mainly for his efforts to win
believers among Gentiles, it is important to recognize that the formative
religious tradition for him was Judaism of the Roman period.
It is clear that even in his role to
the apostle to the Gentiles Paul’s motives and conceptions were heavily
indebted to biblical and Jewish categories. For example, he likened his
apostolic appointment to a prophetic calling (Gal 1:15, echoing Isa. 49:1), and
he seems to have seen his mission to the Gentiles in terms of passages in
Isaiah about the nations coming to worship the God of Israel (e.g., Rom 15:21,
quoting Isa. 52:15) (87).
Jewish Monotheism
Jewish insistence on the uniqueness of
the God of Israel and the exclusive validity of worship offered to their God
made them unique (and in the eyes of some, notorious) among the ethnic groups
of the Roman Empire. Their religious exclusivity provoked significant questions
and difficulties as well, for virtually all aspects of Roman-era life were
linked to the gods and were charged with a certain religious character.
Two features of Jewish monotheism are
especially important for appreciating the historical significance of the devotion
to Christ that is reflected in Paul’s letters. First, in addition to refusing
to accept and worship any of the other deities of the Roman religious environment,
conscientious Jews also maintained a distinction between the God of Israel and
any of the exalted figures who could be seen as prominent in God’s entourage,
such as principal angels or revered human figures like Moses or Enoch. This
distinction was most clearly maintained in discouraging the worship of these
figures; and devoted Jews insisted that worship was to be given to God alone. In
light of this attitude, the level of reverence for Christ reflected in Paul’s
letters is historically remarkable …
Second, the Jewish monotheistic stance
forbade apotheosis, the divinization of human figures, and thus clashed with a
major theme in pagan religion of the time. Philo’s quip about Gaius Caligula’s
claim to divinity aptly illustrates Jewish attitudes, and is all the more
important in coming from a diaspora Jew who in some other respects shows a
cosmopolitan attitude: “Sooner could God change into a man than a man into God”
(91-92).
Paul as a Convert
It is necessary to appreciate the
nature of Paul’s zealous preconversion stance in order to grasp the
significance of the change in his religious convictions. Study of the
Phineas-zeal tradition in ancient Jewish sources has provided us with valuable
help in catching the force of Paul’s allusion in his references to his
religious “zeal.” The offenses mentioned in ancient Jewish sources as
justifying (even demanding) “zeal” of the type associated with Phineas were
serious: idolatry, perjury, sorcery and poisoning. Against fellow Jews publicly
committing such offenses, the devout Jew was authorized to take vigorous
action, which could even involve the death of the offender. The rationale seems
to have been that the religious integrity of the Jewish people, the collective
Jewish responsibility to exhibit faithfulness to the God of Israel was at
stake. If, as seems likely from his references to his own preconversion
actions, Paul saw himself as carrying out this sort of firm disciplinary
effort, then he was responding to something he found deeply offensive, even
dangerous, in the beliefs and practices of the unfortunate Jewish Christians on
the receiving end of his zeal Consequently Paul’s shift from this attitude to
an enthusiastic participation in the Christian movement is remarkable, and must
have involved profound changes in his religious views.
As a convert, especially having moved
from opposition against the Christian movement to being an adherent, Paul had
to undertake a rather thorough reformulation of his religious views, indeed his
whole religious “self.” As anyone acquainted with political or religious
converts (or even with smokers who become nonsmokers!) will know, a radical
shift in commitment often involves a more enthusiastic and also a more thoroughly
thought-out appropriation of the views to which one converts than may be
characteristic of those whose acceptance of the position came less
traumatically.
This is part of the reason why we sense
in Paul’s letters that we are dealing with both an enthusiast and a “thinker,”
or at least with someone who has given a good deal of consideration to his
religious views; and it makes Paul’s letters all the more valuable as
historical sources. In them we have affirmations of Christian beliefs and
practices that are accompanied by, or give indications of, a rationale for
them. Having worked out his understanding of his Christian beliefs in various
Christian communities of the very earliest years of Christianity, he gives us
at least a glimpse of the sorts of reflections going on in such groups.
Moreover it is reasonable to think that
the basic Christological views that he embraced and espouses in his epistles
reflect the beliefs he had previously found objectionable and had opposed so
vigorously. In fact, in a number of places Paul recites traditional
formulations that likely illustrate the beliefs of those he persecuted, beliefs
he that accepted as a convert (e.g., Rom. 4:24-25; 1 Cor 15:1-7; 1 Thess 1:10)
(94-96).
Paul’s Gentile Mission
Another distinctive feature of Paul,
and the third key factor to bear in mind in considering Paul’s letters, is his
mission to the Gentiles…Over against some other Jewish Christians, Paul insisted
that faith in Christ was sufficient basis for the full inclusion of Gentiles as
partakers in God’s salvation, fellow members of the ekklesia, and fellow heirs of Abraham (e.g., Gal 2:1-5, 11-18; Rom
4:13-17). And he insisted that the Holy Spirit-empowered obedience to Christ
was the defining content of their ethical obligation (e.g., Gal 5:6, 13-26)…
Paul includes the belief that “Christ
died for our sins” among the traditions that he received and among the beliefs
common to him and the other Jewish Christian leaders he refers to in 1
Corinthians 15:1-11. But Paul’s mission required him to develop the rich
implications of Christ’s redemptive death that he presents in passages such as Galatians
3:1-29 and Romans 3:9-31. In these passages Paul seems to be presenting his own
reflections [or “revelation”] rather than simply reciting Christological tradition.
Particularly in his views of how Christ is to be understood in relation to the
Torah, it is likely that Paul’s Christology shows the effects of his special
mission to the Gentiles.
Nevertheless, given Paul’s concern to maintain
links with, and acceptance of his mission in, the Jerusalem church, and given
also his need to present arguments for his own views with premises that could
command the assent of those with whom he disagreed, we should be careful about
attributing too much originality and distinctiveness to him. Though he drew
practical inferences that were apparently not shared by all, specifically as to
Gentile Christian obligations and the proper Jewish Christian attitude toward
Gentile converts, it is not at all clear that in other respects the beliefs
about Christ and the devotional practices reflected in his letters constitute a
major departure from prior Christian tradition (96-98).
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