Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] The Life of Paul in a Nutshell Written by Bart Ehrman, read by Mike Johnson now that I've provided an overview of the significance of Paul and his letters, my previous post, I can summarize what we know about his life. I begin by trying to give a 50 word version. Paul, originally a zealous Greek speaking Jew, vigorously opposed early Christians before having a vision of the resurrected Jesus that convinced him that the crucifixion was God's plan of salvation for both Jew and Gentile, leading him to spread his law free Gospel to Gentiles in major urban areas of the Mediterranean. Now I can provide a fuller summary of what we can know of Paul's life. We are fortunate that it is so well documented with a biographical account in the Book of Acts and a collection of seven letters that he himself wrote in which he occasionally mentions aspects of his past. But there are major difficulties as well. Because the key aspects of his life were already known among his converts in the churches he founded. In his letters he refers to it only rarely and often elusively. Unlike his original readers, we usually do not have the fuller story, making it difficult to piece together the entire puzzle. Moreover, when what we read in Acts overlaps with his own comments about his life and teachings, they are often at odds, making it difficult to rely on Acts as a reliable source of information.
[00:01:35] We also have numerous later legends about Paul, especially in the highly entertaining book of the late second century, the Acts of Paul, which includes the stories of Paul and thecla, his letter 3 Corinthians, and an account of his beheading. But there is little here that can help us to know what he really said and did.
[00:01:58] Most of our reliable information, therefore, comes from the few scattered references in passages such as Galatians chapters 1 and 2, and Philippians chapter 3, verses 4 through 6, along with his recollections of what he preached and what he teaches throughout the letters, especially 1 Thessalonians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians and Romans. Paul's comments in Galatians, chapter 1 clearly show that he was born and raised Jewish, and the fact that his native language was Greek shows he did not come from Israel. He indicates he was a highly religious Jew who kept the law of the Jews faithfully, claiming in fact that he was blameless in the righteousness required by the law.
[00:02:48] He also indicates he had been a Pharisee. The claims that he was a Roman citizen from Tarsus, trained in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel, are only from Acts and so cannot be trusted. He himself says nothing about them.
[00:03:04] He also indicates that when he first learned of Jews proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah, he found it offensive and potentially blasphemous and set out to destroy the church.
[00:03:18] He does not tell us what his persecution of Christians involved in the midst of his violent opposition. However, some three years after Jesus death, he had a vision of Jesus that made him realize he was still alive, or rather that he had returned to life. Paul does not talk about being blinded by the light on the road to Damascus as in the Book of Acts. This led to Paul's conversion. It was not a conversion from one religion to another, from Judaism to Christianity. Paul remained a faithful Jew. But he converted from opposing Christ to believing in him, from persecuting Christians to proclaiming their message. He did not think of Christianity as a different religion, but the correct understanding of the ancient faith of Israel.
[00:04:10] Most important, once Paul had his vision and came to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead, he drew a set of conclusions that not only affected his own understandings of God, Christ, and salvation, but that in the end transformed the Christian religion, opening it up not only to Jews, but also Gentiles. Had this not happened, it is difficult to see how Christianity could have spread as it did principally among former pagans, eventually taking over the Roman world. The views Paul developed probably very quickly appear to have come as necessary corollaries of the fact which he took to be a fact, that Jesus had been raised from the dead. If God raised Jesus, he must have been God's chosen one, whom he especially favored. If Jesus was the one God specially favored, then his death must not have been an accident, but part of God's plan. God's plan must have been that his chosen one had to die. But since he was specially favored by God, he would not have had to die for any sins or wrongs he had done. His death then, must have been for the sins of others. Thus Jesus death was therefore a sacrifice planned all along by God to bring salvation.
[00:05:30] If this was God's plan for salvation, then it must be the only way of salvation. If salvation could have been acquired some other way, God would not have had to sacrifice his Son, and his son would not have had to sacrifice his life.
[00:05:44] Jews, who belonged to the covenant of God and who observed the law were indeed his chosen people. But they needed the death of the Messiah to bring about their salvation, since it was the only way. Keeping the law, therefore, was not sufficient for salvation for Jews or anyone else. God's plan of salvation came apart from keeping the law. Therefore Keeping the law was not a requirement for being right for God. Only faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus could bring salvation. Jews, of course, would continue keeping God's law as his chosen people. But Gentiles who came to believe in Jesus did not need to keep the Jewish law. They needed only to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:06:31] Anyone who thought that keeping the law was a prerequisite for salvation misunderstood God's plan and and in fact was opposed to God.
[00:06:41] Paul believed God had revealed all this to him in the vision he had of Jesus. Moreover, he believed that since God had revealed it to him in particular, he was the one called to bring about the salvation of the world. God had appointed him to take the gospel to Gentiles. Almost immediately. Paul began a mission to convert pagans to faith in Christ. Paul's missionary endeavors may have started in the Nabataean kingdom, Arabia, soon after he had his vision. Galatians, chapter 1, verse 17.
[00:07:13] He indicates he did not consult with the other apostles in Jerusalem, Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, John, etc. And that he did not learn the message of the Gospel from them. Only after three years did he go to visit Peter to explain what he had seen and how he was ordained to take the message to the Gentiles.
[00:07:33] After that, Paul engaged in missionary work by moving from one city to another, mainly in Asia Minor, modern Turkey, Macedonia, and Achaia, modern Greece. He appears to have worked as a leather worker, allowing him to move from one place to another, set up shop, preach his message to customers, their families, and anyone else he came in contact with. As he converted a few pagans to renounce their ancestral religions to follow Jesus, he organized them into a small community, meeting with them as their numbers grew, instructing them in the Jewish scriptures and their new faith, urging them to convert others, and then leaving the city to move to the next and repeat the process.
[00:08:17] Paul often faced opposition from both Jews in local synagogues and Gentiles who considered him a troublemaker. He indicates that he was repeatedly beaten and flogged by opponents for his efforts. Second Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 23 to 25. He saw this as evidence that he was the true apostle of Christ, the one who suffered for the sake of others. He also faced opposition within his own churches as they grew and developed, and among other Christian missionaries who objected to his understandings of the faith. As he indicates in numerous places, e.g. galatians, chapter 1, verse Philippians, chapter 3, and 2 Corinthians.
[00:09:01] Paul is traditionally said to have ended his life in Rome, where he was martyred under Nero in the year 64. It may well be that he died around then, but we have no secure evidence of his final years or death in any of our earliest sources, apart from the letter of First Clement written around 95 CE, which indicates he had suffered martyrdom but suggests it may have been somewhere in the farthest reaches of the West Spain.
[00:09:31] First Clement, Chapter five.
