The First Crack in Christianity – The Problem with Paul
HOW THINGS WORK: SPECIAL EDITION – CONSIDERATION #150
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Tuesday August 20, 2024
“That Saint Paul.... He's the one who makes all the trouble.”
– Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms.)
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
It is generally agreed that other than Jesus, Paul represents the most influential figure of the New Testament; with over half of the entire New Testament attributed to him. However, there is a sharp division in Christianity as to whether he was a good or bad influence on the new religion.
“Paul heavily influenced the resulting church due to the preservation of his writings, especially after the church canonized his epistles. Christianity became a Gentile religion that, following Paul, blended elements of paganism, Judaism, and Jesus. This constituted a vast deception in that the church came to see Jesus as Paul saw him, and it is Paul's Jesus that has come down to us through the church. The reformers reformed Paulinism, not the faith of Jesus.”
– G. Edgar Jones (Paul, The Stranger).
“Above all there results the chasm which separates Jesus from Paul and the conclusion that more than the historical Jesus ... it is Paul who really founded Christianity.”
– Günther Bornkam (Paul)
Originally, the main center of Christianity was the Jerusalem Church set up by the original apostles. It was also the center of “Christian thought,” which was still very interconnected with “Jewish thought.”
“Jewish-Christians [opposing Paul] ... must have been a very strong, widespread element in the earliest days of the Church.... They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with Judaism.... According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 they were the dominant element in the Christian movement.”
– W. D. Davis (Paul and Jewish Christianity)
After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Church in 70 CE by the Romans, the surviving church’s which had been founded by Paul became the dominant influence in Christianity; supported by the letters, or epistles, that he had sent them regarding how best to practice the new religion. Many suggest that Paul’s understanding and account of “the gospel” is uniquely different from that of Jesus and the early Jerusalem Church.
“We must distinguish between the various layers, or strata, to use an archaeological term, of early Christianity. The theology, the doctrines and the practices of Jesus, John the Baptist and Paul ... are not the same.”
– Yigael Yadin (The Temple Scroll--the Longest Dead Sea Scroll)
Essentially, many “free thinking” Christians argue that Jesus’ vision of Christianity has been “hijacked’ by Paul and turned into his vision of Christianity.
“The fateful thing is that the Greek, the Catholic and the Protestant theologies all contain the Gospel of Paul in a form which does not continue the Gospel of Jesus, but displaces it.”
– Albert Schweitzer (The Mysticism of St. Paul)
The critics of Paul’s influence on Christianity argue that Paul did not teach his followers true Christianity as supported by the Gospels, but a completely new “Gentile” religion based on his individual understanding of a divine revelation based on his unique experience of a “risen Christ,” as opposed to the earthly teachings of an earthly Jesus as recorded in the gospels. From their perspective Paul does not teach the message of Jesus, he replaces it with his own interpretation of that message, which includes pagan ideas and concepts.
“Saul of Tarsus ... broke from Jewish Law, and the religion thereby created was soon encrusted with pagan elements.”
– Shlomo Riskini (The Jerusalem Post International Edition - March 28, 1992).
“The separation between the doctrine of life and the explanation of life began with the preaching of Paul… who preached a metaphisico-cabalistic theory entirely foreign to Christ; and this separation was perfected in the time of Constantine…”
- Leo Tolstoy (My Religion)
Paul was many things. He was a Roman citizen, meaning he felt empowered to speak freely with minimal consequences. He was a Pharisee, giving him a deep and rich background in Jewish theology. He was educated in Greek philosophy, giving him a tendency toward rational deductive reasoning. Unlike the original disciples who were fisherman and various other “common” people, Paul was uniquely predisposed to consider and interpret Jesus’ message from a theological perspective. Peter may be the rock, but his words did not often lead to deep theological introspection.
“Paul was the only scholar among the apostles… and turned it to the best use after his conversion. Peter and John had natural genius, but no scholastic education; Paul had both, and thus became the founder of Christian theology and philosophy.”
― Philip Schaff (History of the Christian Church - From The 1st To The 20th Century)
There is really no doubt that Paul interprets and expounds on the teachings of Jesus. The question for many Christians is, “Did he get it right?”
CONSIDERATION #150 – The Problem with Paul
“Paul: he's in the Bible too. He is the fellow who theologized Christ almost out of Christianity. Look out for him.”
– Robert Frost (A Masque of Mercy)
Modern Christianity is certainly a theology viewed through the prism of Pauline doctrine. Whether or not this proved to be a positive or negative influence on the new religion depends on your perspective. However, much of what we now consider “traditional Christianity” is based on Paul’s letters describing his interpretation of what it was to be a “Christian.” Jesus, like Socrates, never wrote anything; Paul, like Plato, interpreted and wrote down everything. However, for Paul, there was also the other apostles and their gospels.
“Peter and Paul with respect to Jews and Gentiles preached two different Gospels..."
– Thomas Morgan (The Moral Philosopher)
“Paul transformed the religion of Jesus into a religion about Jesus.”
– Bart D. Ehrman (The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture)
“Paul ... is the real founder of Christianity as we live it today, which is completely different from the Christianity of Jesus.”
– Georg Baboukis (On the Way to One God)
The main complaint against Paul is that he doesn’t preach the “original gospel,” but his own “unique gospel,” that is different from what Jesus taught to his twelve disciples.
“Already during his lifetime Paul was considered an illegitimate Apostle and a falsifier of the Christian message.... For a long time, Judeo-Christianity rejected him completely, as a rival to Peter and James, the brother of the Lord.”
– Günther Bornkamm (Paul)
“The rapid diffusion of Paul's ideas can be attributed to his belief that the death of Christ signified the end of the [Mosaic] Law. In the course of one or two generations this concept became the common property of the Christian faith, although it stood in contradiction to the traditional teaching represented by the Apostles at Jerusalem.”
- Albert Schweitzer (Out of My Life and Thought)
“Paul had for the Jesus-communities of Jerusalem a scarcely veiled contempt.... 'Jesus is the Redeemer and Paul is his Prophet' – this is the whole content of his message.”
- Oswald Spengler (The Decline of the West)
Unlike the synoptic gospels, Jesus’ actual words and direct message seem somewhat lacking in the epistles of Paul. Many academics argue that there is way too much Paul and not enough Jesus.
“It is frankly disappointing to see how Paul hardly ever allows the real Jesus of Nazareth to get a word in.”
- Carl Gustav Jung (The Psychological Foundations of Belief in Spirits)
“I draw a great distinction between the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus and the Letters of Paul. Paul's letters are a graft on Christ teachings, his own gloss apart from Christ's own experience.”
– Mahatma Gandhi (Discussion on Fellowship)
“The writings of Paul have been a danger and a hidden rock – the causes of the principal defects of Christian theology.”
– Joseph Ernest Renan (Saint Paul)
For many, it is not that Paul simply expands on the ideas of Jesus, it is that he replaces them with “non-gospel” ideas that challenge the original message of Jesus.
“Jesus taught that to escape judgment a person must keep the central teachings of the Jewish Law as he, Jesus himself, interpreted them. Paul, interestingly enough, never mentions Jesus' interpretation of the [Mosaic] Law, and Paul was quite insistent that keeping the Law would never bring Salvation. The only way to be saved, for Paul, was to trust Jesus' death and resurrection…”
– Bart D. Ehrman (The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture)
“Paul of Tarsus ... He didn't understand Jesus at all. He wasn't even interested in Jesus; just in his own idea of the Christ.”
– Stephen Mitchell (The Gospel according to Jesus)
“Whatever Jesus had preached did not become the content of the missionary proclamation of Paul, nor of the churches from which his proclamation took its origin...”
– Helmut Koester (Ancient Christian Gospels)
“It rests with every professor of the religion of Jesus to settle with himself, to which of the two religions, that of Jesus or that of Paul, he will adhere.”
– Jeremy Bentham (Not Paul, But Jesus)
Paul’s gospel reflects the mystical nature of Paul’s relationship with the “risen Christ” as opposed to the physical expression of the “living Jesus.” This alone gives Paul’s gospel a metaphysical facet that invites comparisons with paganism and the mystery schools of the time.
“Within less than thirty years of the events narrated by the synoptics concerning the life and proclamation, death and resurrection of Jesus, Paul permits himself to compose a long and complex exposition of what this means, retaining, apparently, only the two final specific events, the death and the resurrection. Jesus' words are not cited (with the exception of those pronounced over the bread and wine at the Last Supper), his teachings are not remembered. The key terms have disappeared which he employed to designate himself, his mission and his immediate audience: the Son of Man, the Kingdom of God, the poor.”
– Juan Luis Segundo (The Person of Today confronting Jesus of Nazareth)
"There is absolutely no doubt that much of St. Paul's terminology derives from the Mystery Religions."
– Xavier Zubiri (The Philosophical Problem of the History of Religions)
"Paul imported into the Christian community a form of religion characteristic of the 'mysteries',... religious movements of initiation into secret rites and esoteric knowledge."
– Patrick Henry Reardon (New Directions in New Testament Study)
During the Age of Reason, many philosophers, including several founding fathers of the United States, openly challenged Paul’s influence on Christianity.
"It is not in the epistles we are to learn what are the fundamental articles of faith, where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other truths.... We shall find and discern those great and necessary points best in the preaching of our Savior and the apostles... Nobody can add to these fundamental articles of faith."
- John Locke (The Reasonableness of Christianity)
"Of this band of dupes and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus [leader], and the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus."
– Thomas Jefferson (Letter of April 13, 1820)
“All this [Paul's writing] is nothing better than the jargon of a conjurer who picks up phrases he does not understand to confound the credulous people who come to have their fortune told.”
– Thomas Paine (Age of Reason)
Many Enlightenment thinkers held Paul personally responsible for keeping “true Christianity” from taking hold in the world; therefore, keeping Enlightenment ideas and concepts from actually being implemented into the physical world.
"We know it to be certain that the teachings of Jesus, if it is only grasped and preached in its original strength, can and will exert in a yet higher measure vital and ennobling influences upon the further development of Christendom than have proceeded so far from the teaching of Paul."
– Hans Wendt (Die Lehre des Paulus verglichen mit der Lehre Jesu, 1894)
"It is now easy to understand why the Christianity of Jesus failed completely to establish itself politically and socially… whilst Paulinism overran the whole western civilized world, which was at that time the Roman Empire, and was adopted by it as its official faith."
– George Bernard Shaw (Androcles and the Lion)
"The reign in Europe of that order of unreason, unreasoning submission to the dicta of authority:... Saint Paul himself had opened the door to such impudent idiocies."
- Joseph Campbell (The Masks of God: Creative Mythology)
In the end, many theological scholars and philosophers hold Paul responsible for most of the “corruptions” plaguing the interpretation of modern Christianity.
"[The] Christian System ... [is] a degenerate form of Christianity, and the authorship of which ... [must be] ascribed to the Apostle Paul."
– Johann Gottlieb Fichte (Characteristics of the Present Age)
"It is of great importance, especially in Protestantism, to correct the enormous confusion Luther caused by inverting the relation and actually criticizing Christ by means of Paul, the Master by means of a follower."
– Søren Kierkegaard (My Task)
“It does not appear that the opinion of St. Paul, all things considered, ought to alter our opinion derived from the evangelists [the four gospels].”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (Last Supper)
The essential difference between Jesus’ message and Paul’s message is oddly captured in a simple non-theological comparison written by the early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.
“In the Gospels – as it seems to me – everything is less pretentious, humbler, simpler. There you find huts; in Paul a church. There all men are equal and God himself is a man; in Paul there is already something like a hierarchy, honours and official positions.”
– Ludwig Wittgenstein (Culture and Value)
However, although scholars and theologians often criticize this unique apostle, most average Christians find a deep spiritual connection in the words of Paul. New Testament verses attributed to Paul are among the most often quoted verses at Christian celebrations and funerals.
POSTSCRIPT
There is of course a counter argument to Paul being the arch-enemy and destroyer of Christianity. There is no doubt that according to the other apostles Paul was chosen for a reason. Generally, that reason is connected to bringing Christianity to the Gentiles. If true, his interpretation of the message would certainly be different from those spreading a “Jewish Christianity.” However, there once was a connection and balance between the two visions of Christianity that no longer exists.
Many argue it is unfair to make such harsh accusations against the apostle most responsible for expanding Christianity.
"It is the same fallacy which underlies the contrast frequently sought to be drawn between the religious standpoints of Christ and Paul. Paul never for an instant dreamt of putting himself on the same plane with Christ. Paul was sinner; Christ was Saviour. Paul was disciple; Christ was Lord. Paul was weak, struggling man; Christ was Son of God. Jesus achieved redemption; Paul appropriated it. These things involved the widest contrasts in attitude and speech."
– James Orr (“Christianity" International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Vol .I)
Paul may have a unique twist on the message of Jesus, but it is an interesting twist with deep spiritual insights. Insights that laid the foundation for a Christian theology lasting over two centuries.
“Controversy has arisen regarding Jesus versus Paul as scholars debate the different emphases and messages of Jesus and Paul. Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven. Paul did not. Paul preached justification by faith alone. Jesus did not. What are we to make of this? Can the two be reconciled? The answer depends on what is meant by reconciliation.
Let us be clear from the outset. The messages of Jesus and Paul were fundamentally different. Reconciliation of their messages cannot be done by harmonization. This is a fact we must accept. No one is helped by attempts to lessen the differences… No light comes from attempts to show that Paul “betrayed” Jesus or “perverted” His message. No value comes from those who maintain Jesus and Paul contradicted or disagreed with one another. Such offerings of strange fire move us further from the text and sound theology. Instead, we must seek a biblical understanding of the Scriptures for reconciliation.”
Jesus vs. Paul (Docterine.org)
This week we have considered the criticism from the detractors and sceptics of the apostle Paul and his influence on Christianity. In our next newsletter we will consider Paul’s theology in his own words.
Next week part-two, the Power of Paul…
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