Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Paul and the Crucified Messiah in First Corinthians by Bart D. Ehrman, Read by John Paul Middlesworth Historians usually have reasons for what they say. That is, when they make a historical claim, it is almost always based on a close reading of the surviving sources. When it's not, they're just blowing smoke. But if they're reputable scholars and are blowing smoke, that is taking a guess, they'll usually tell you I suppose that's one difference between an expert in any field and an amateur. The expert usually has a deep and nuanced reading of the sources that inform his or her views. I have to say, as you have probably noticed in your own areas of expertise, it is pretty easy if you are an expert to know who else is an expert and who is not. I say that as someone who is an expert in one or two areas, but an amateur in thousands When I have an interpretation of Hamlet or Lear that I bounce off my wife, who really is a recognized expert on Shakespeare, I realize that for the most part, I'm just taking a stab at something that she can take apart in a flash.
[00:01:11] As I have experienced on many an occasion, people on the blog regularly ask me what basis I have for saying something, and I completely encourage that kind of thing. That's what the blog is all about. Because my posts are only 1200 words or so on average, I often have to say things without giving the basis. And even when I give the basis, it is often in just a post or two when it deserves an entire chapter or long thread. Still, I'm always happy to indicate when I have evidence for an argument, when I'm simply making an educated guess, and when I'm actually just flipping a coin.
[00:01:48] I have often indicated that most Jews rejected the claims of Jesus followers that he was the Messiah because Jesus was just the opposite of what the Messiah was expected to be. As I sometimes put it, rather than a powerful figure who destroyed God's enemies, Jesus was a lower class peasant who got on the wrong side of the law and was squashed by God's enemies.
[00:02:11] Some readers have wondered if I'm blowing smoke on this one, and that indeed is worth asking. So let me tell you my reasons for thinking this is why the claims about Jesus were rejected by most Jews. The short answer is that this is how I am reading the sources that talk about it. One of the key sources for Jewish views of a crucified Messiah, interestingly enough, comes in the writings of Paul, who himself explains why it was so hard for Christians to convert Jews.
[00:02:40] Paul of course, was himself first a Jewish persecutor of the followers of Jesus, presumably offended at their claims about Jesus. Why else would he be persecuting them for their faith? And then an apostle of Jesus who knew a good deal about how the Gospel message, not just his, but other Christian apostles as well, was being received.
[00:03:00] There are several passages in Paul that are relevant to the question of why Jews, by and large, rejected the Christian message, but two are particularly important.
[00:03:10] The first is in 1 Corinthians. The letter of 1 Corinthians is unusually important and enlightening for understanding Paul's message and ministry. Corinth was a major port city and the capital of the Roman province of Achaia, what is now southern Greece. The ruins of ancient Corinth are a major archaeological site, and if you've ever been in that part of the world, very much worth visiting. According to the book of acts, Paul spent 18 months in Corinth establishing the church there. I don't know if that time frame is correct, but it's obvious from Paul's two letters back to the church in Corinth that he knew them well as the one who first converted them to faith and that he was very much concerned about them.
[00:03:53] It was a church filled with problems. There were massive divisions and feuds in the church. Some of the church members were taking others to civil court over their differences. Their worship services were chaos, as the most highly spiritual among them were trying to show off their superiority, for example, by speaking in tongues more than others in public for their weekly communion. The rich folk were coming early and eating all the food and getting drunk, and the poor folk who had to work were arriving late when there was nothing left to eat and drink. And there was crass immorality in the church, with one man shacking up with his stepmother and some men visiting local prostitutes and bragging about it in the congregation.
[00:04:35] This is the church that Paul addresses as the saints who are in Corinth. Sometimes, as recently in the NFL, the saints aren't as good as they should be.
[00:04:47] Paul addresses all these and other problems in his first letter to the community. In the context of that letter, he wants to stress early on that all the infighting and attempts to show one's own spiritual power and superiority are completely wrong and misguided.
[00:05:04] For Paul, the gospel is not about earthly power. Being a follower of Jesus means a life of weakness and pain. The gospel is not wise in the eyes of the world, but foolish, and that's why Jews have rejected it. Jews, says Paul, expect to see signs from God proving the powerful truth of the gospel chapter 1, verse 22 but instead all they got was Christ crucified.
[00:05:31] Not exactly a show of strength. Paul indicates that the fact that Jesus was crucified is the principal stumbling block for Jews, that is the thing that kept them from accepting the Gospel. That's the key. The crucified Christ is the stumbling block to Jews. The idea that the Christ Messiah would be crucified was a sign of weakness and evidence of absolute foolishness.
[00:05:59] 12325 Here then, Paul indicates the paradox of the Christian message. Contrary to what one might expect, God manifests his true power and wisdom in a way that strikes Jews as weak and foolish.
[00:06:15] No wonder most Jews didn't buy it. It didn't make any sense that a crucified man would be the Messiah.
[00:06:23] In my next post I'll show how Paul argues along a similar vein with a different metaphor in his letter to the Galatians.
