Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The quest for the historical Paul sorting through our source is part one, a guest post by James Tabor.
[00:00:07] As you know, I hope I will be sponsoring an upcoming conference for non scholars on the Apostle Paul soon. That's September 21 22nd.
[00:00:16] We will have ten high level pauline scholars, each giving a 50 minutes lecture with Q and a dealing with various issues connected with pauline studies. This is going to be a good one, and in preparation for it, I've asked James Tabor, one of the ten presenters of the conference, to give us a couple of preliminary posts here on the blog dealing with some of the fundamental issues that scholars deal with, all centered on how can we know about what Paul really said and did? Turns out it's not simple.
[00:00:45] What can we reliably know about Paul, and how can we know it as is the case with Jesus? This is not an easy question. Historians have been involved in what's been called the quest for the historical Jesus for the past 175 years, evaluating and sifting through our sources, trying to determine what we can reliably say about him.
[00:01:05] As it happens, the quest for the historical Paul began almost simultaneously, inaugurated by the german scholar Ferdinand Christian Bauer. Bauer put his finger squarely on the problem. There are four different pauls in the New Testament, not one, and each is quite distinct from the other.
[00:01:23] New Testament scholars today are generally agreed on this point.
[00:01:28] 13 of the New Testament's 27 documents are letters with Paul's name as the author and a 14th. The book of acts is mainly devoted to the story of Paul's life and career, making up over half of the total. The problem is these 14 texts fall into four distinct chronological tiers, giving us our four pauls.
[00:01:49] Firstly, there's the authentic or the early Paul. This is found in one Thessalonians, Galatians, first and second Corinthians, Romans, Philippians and Philemon, so that's dated to the fifties and the sixties ad.
[00:02:03] Secondly, we have the disputed Paul or the Deutero Pauline epistles, that's second, Thessalonians, Ephesians and Colossians, dated between 81 hundred ad.
[00:02:14] Third is pseudopaul, or the pastorals, that's one and two, Timothy or Titus, and that's dated to 80 to 100 AD. And fourthly, we have the tendentious or legendary Paul that's found in the act of the apostles, dated between 90 and 130 ad.
[00:02:34] Though scholars differ as to what historical use one might properly make of tiers two, three and four, there's almost universal agreement that a proper historical study of Paul should begin with the seven genuine letters, restricting one's analysis to what is most certainly coming from Paul's own hand. This approach might sound restrictive, but it's really the only proper way to begin. The Deutreau Pauline letters and the Pascorals reflect a vocabulary, a development of ideas, and a social setting that belong to a later time.
[00:03:04] We are not getting Paul as he was, but Paul's name used to lend authority to the ideas of later authors who intend for readers to believe they came from Paul.
[00:03:16] In modern parlance, we might call such writings forgeries, but a more polite academic term is pseudonymous, meaning falsely named.
[00:03:25] Those more inclined to view this activity in a positive light point to a group of followers of Paul some decades after his death, who wanted to honour him by continuing his legacy and using his name to defend views with which they assumed he would surely have agreed. A less charitable judgment is that these letters represent an attempt to deceive gullible readers by authors intent on passing on their own views as having the authority of Paul.
[00:03:50] Either way, this enterprise of writing letters in Paul's name has been enormously influential since Paul became such a towering figure of authority in the church.
[00:04:00] The pastoral epistles first and second Timothy and Titus are not included in our earliest extant collection of Paul's letters, the so called Chester Beatty papyrus that dates to the third century AD.
[00:04:13] Paul's apocalyptic urgency, so dominant in the earlier letters, is almost wholly absent in these later writings.
[00:04:21] Among the Deutero Pauline, tier two Thessalonians was specifically written to calm those who are claiming that the day of judgment was imminent, the very thing that Paul constantly proclaimed. See two Thessalonians, chapter two, verses one, three.
[00:04:35] In tiers two and three, the domestic roles of husbands, wives, children, widows, masters, and slaves are specified with a level of detail uncharacteristic of Paul's ad hoc instructions in his earlier letters. See Ephesians, chapter five, verse 21 to chapter six, verse nine or colossians, chapter three, verse 18 to chapter four, verse one or one Timothy, chapter five, verses one to 16.
[00:05:01] Specific rules are set down for the qualifications and appointments of bishops and deacons in each congregation. See one Timothy, chapter three, verses one to 13 or titus, chapter one, verses five to nine.
[00:05:14] There's a strong emphasis on following tradition, respecting governmental authorities, handling wealth, and maintaining a respectable social order. See two Thessalonians, chapter two, verse 15, chapter three, verse six to 15.
[00:05:28] See one Timothy, chapter two, verses one to four, chapter five, verses 17 to 19 and chapter six, verses six to ten or titus, chapter three, verse one.
[00:05:39] The pastorals in particular are essentially manuals for church officers intended to enforce order and uniformity.
[00:05:47] Some have argued that the passing of time and the changing of circumstances might account for the differences. But detailed studies of the commonly used vocabulary in Paul's in undisputed letters, in contrast to the Deutreau Paul line and the pastoral letters, has settled the question for most scholars.
[00:06:04] I will make little use of these later documents in trying to reconstruct the historical Paul the Book of acts. Tier four presents a special problem in that it offers fascinating biographical background on Paul not found in his genuine letters as well as complete itineraries of his travels.
[00:06:25] The problem, as I mentioned in the introduction, is with its harmonizing theological agenda that stresses the cozy relationship Paul had with the Jerusalem leaders of the church and its over idealized, heroic portrait of Paul.
[00:06:38] Many historians are agreed that it merits the label, used sparingly with extreme caution.
[00:06:45] As a general working method, I've adopted the following three one, never accept anything in acts over Paul's own account in his seven genuine letters, cautiously consider acts if it agrees with Paul, and one can detect no obvious biases.
[00:07:03] And thirdly, consider the independent Data act provides as of interest but not of interpretive historical use.
[00:07:13] This last principle would include biographical information, the three accounts of Paul's conversion that the author provides, the various speeches of Paul, his itinerary, and other such detail.
[00:07:26] Before applying these principles, here's a skeletal outline of of Paul's basic biographical data drawn only from his genuine letters. That gives us a solid place to begin.
[00:07:36] Here's what we most surely know.
[00:07:39] Paul calls himself a Hebrew or an Israelite, stating that he was born a jew, circumcised on the 8th day of the jewish tribe of Benjamin. That's found in Philippians chapter three, verses five and six, and in two Corinthians chapter eleven, verse 22.
[00:07:55] He was once a member of the sect of the Pharisees. He advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries, being extremely jealous for the traditions of his jewish faith. And that's found in Philippians chapter three, verse five, and in Galatians chapter one, verse eleven.
[00:08:12] He zealously persecuted the Jesus movement, and we find that in Galatians chapter one, verse 13, in Philippians three, six, and in one Corinthians chapter 15, verse nine.
[00:08:25] Sometime around ad 37, Paul had a visionary experience. He describes as seeing Jesus and received from him his gospel message, as well as his call to be an apostle to the non jewish world. That's found in one Corinthians chapter nine, verse two, and in Galatians chapter one, verses eleven to chapter two, verse two.
[00:08:47] He made only three trips to Jerusalem in the period covered by his genuine letters. One three years after his apostolic call, when he met Peter and James, but none of the other apostles. That was around ad 40, the second 14 years after his call, around ad 50, when he appeared formally before the entire Jerusalem leadership to account for his mission and gospel message to the Gentiles. That's found in Galatians chapter two, verses one to ten, and a third, which he was apparently arrested and sent under guard to Rome around ad 56, and that's in Romans chapter 15, verses 25 to 29.
[00:09:25] Paul claimed to experience many revelations from Jesus, including direct voice communications, as well as an extraordinary ascent into the highest level of heaven, entering paradise, where he saw and he heard things unutterable. And that's found in two Corinthians chapter twelve, verses one to four.
[00:09:44] He had some type of physical disability that he was convinced had been sent by Satan to afflict him, but allowed by Christ so that he would not be overly proud of his extraordinary revelations. That's two Corinthians twelve seven.
[00:10:00] He claimed to have worked miraculous signs and wonders and mighty deeds that verified his status as an apostle. That's found in two Corinthians chapter twelve, verse twelve.
[00:10:10] He was unmarried, at least during his career as an apostle.
[00:10:14] That's in one Corinthians chapter seven, verses eight and 15, chapter nine, verse five. And in Philippians chapter three, verse eight.
[00:10:23] He experienced numerous occasions of physical persecution and deprivation, including beatings, being stoned and left for dead, and being shipwrecked. That's in one Corinthians chapter three, verse eleven and two Corinthians chapter eleven, verses 23 to 27.
[00:10:38] He worked as a manual laborer to support himself on his travels.
[00:10:42] That's in one Corinthians chapter four, verse twelve, and in one Thessalonians chapter two, verse nine, and also in one Corinthians chapter nine, verses 612 and 15.
[00:10:54] And he was imprisoned, probably in Rome in the early sixties ad and refers to the possibility that he will be executed. And that's in Philippians chapter one, verses one to 26.
[00:11:07] This is certainly not all we would want to have, but it's all we do have. And considering that we have not a single line written by Jesus or any of his twelve apostles, having seven of Paul's genuine letters is a poverty of riches.
