Grace Institute: The Pauline Epistles: Overview: Part III

Overview Survey of the New Testament: The Pauline Epistles Winter 2006

Previous: Part II - The Background: Judasim & the Roman Empire

The Author: The Life of the Apostle Paul

A Hebrew of Hebrews

Context of Acts 22

Towards the end of his recorded missionary journeys, Paul decides to return to Jerusalem . Paul's Christian friends warn him that he is a wanted man in Jerusalem and if he returns he will surely be imprisoned. Nonetheless, Paul is sure that this is the path God has for him.

Sure enough, as soon as Paul arrives in Jerusalem , there is trouble. Jews from Asia had reported to the Jewish authorities that Paul had been preaching against the Law in synagogues throughout Asia Minor and into Greece . He had been teaching that Gent iles could have a relationship with God outside of the Law. This was a position with which many Jews within the church struggled, let alone those Jews outside the church. Interestingly, it was not the fact that Paul was teaching that Jesus was the Christ which upset the Jews, but that the Law was moot because of Christ. This issue, with which the church itself had been struggling, ultimately became more of a dividing line between Jews and Christians than the Messianic claims of Jesus!

In this context Paul falsely accused of having brought a Gentile into the temple, which was a clear violation of Jewish law and was punishable by death. As a result, the entire city erupts into chaos as a lynch mob tries to seize Paul. In the midst of the chaos, Roman troops arrest Paul for disrupting the police. However, because of his standing as a Roman citizen, Paul is allowed to address his Jewish accusers and defend himself. Acts 22 records this address in which Paul gives a defense of his teaching.

Paul's Upbringing (Acts 22:1-3)

The author of Acts tells us that Paul gives his defense speech in Acts 22 in the Hebrew language rather than Greek. The effect of this is that the crowd becomes silent. The accusation against Paul is that he is preaching a message of salvation for the Gentiles outside of the Jewish traditions, so just by speaking in Hebrew he catches the crowd off guard and they become intrigued by what he might be saying to them.

He starts defense with an autobiography. Paul is a Jew. He may have been born in the Greek city of Tarsus , but he had been sent to Jerusalem for his education. Indeed, he was tutored by the famous conservative Jewish rabbi Gamaliel and taught strict adherence and zealous defense of the Jewish law (Acts 22:3).

Throughout his epistles, Paul made note of his Jewish heritage. No one would be able to accuse him of being more Jewish than he (2 Corinthians 11:22 ). He was a son of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1), and his Jewish name, Saul, comes from the most famous Benjaminite, King Saul. He had been circumcised eight days according to Jewish Law, and was raised as a Pharisee. Pharisees believed in a literal and strict interpretation of the Jewish law. And by using such a strict interpretation, Paul was able to claim that he was blameless under the law (Philippians 3:6). Indeed, Paul was “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5).

While Paul was indeed a Hebrew of Hebrews, he also could fit well into the Gentile world. He inherited Roman citizenship from his father. Roman citizenship would be given as an honor for services rendered to a Roman official, perhaps by Paul's father. Nonetheless, Paul would use his citizenship to his advantage throughout his journeys.

Paul Persecution of the Church (Acts 22:4-5a)

Paul was so zealous in his defense of the Law that when a new sect called “the Way” arose teaching a more liberal understanding of the law, he actively persecuted its members (Acts 22:4). Acting under orders of the High Priest and the Jewish ruling council, he imprisoned and was complicit in the execution of those in this sect (22:5). He was present and complicit in the execution of the first Christian martyr, Stephen (Acts 8:1, 22:20).

Paul's persecution of the church was something which he would come to deeply regret. While before his conversion to Christianity he had been “acting in ignorance” (1 Timothy 1:13 ), he always considered himself the “least of the apostles” because of his persecution of the church (1 Corinthians 15:9). His forgiveness for his violent harassment of the church also gave him a deep appreciation for the grace of God (1 Timothy 1:14 ).

Conversion and Cal l

Events on the Road to Damascus (Acts 22:5b-16)

On one occasion Saul sought to go to Damascus in Syria to round up the Christians and return them to Jerusalem for persecution (22:5b). On the road to Damascus Paul encounters Jesus. A bright light comes from heaven, and he hears a voice cry out “Saul, why are you persecuting me.” Paul asks who it is that is calling to him from heaven. The voice responds, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.” Paul asks Jesus what to do, and Jesus instructs him to go on to Damascus , where he would be given instructions ( 22:10 ). However, he had to be led to Damascus because he had been blinded by the bright light ( 22:11 ). In Damascus , Paul meets Ananias, another devout, conservative Jew ( 22:12 ). Ananias miraculously heals Paul's physical blindness ( 22:13 ) and his spiritual blindness ( 22:14 -16).

His Call as Apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17 -21)

After his conversion, Paul's desire was to preach the gospel to the Jews. After all, he was trained as a Pharisee. He knew the law; he knew the Jewish mind. He had better training and education than any of the apostles did. What better person to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah? So Paul went to Jerusalem and preached convincingly to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ (Acts 9:22 ). But this was not to be Paul's calling.

While he was able to use his education and training to make convincing arguments supporting Christ to the Jews, his ministry was ineffective. Paul's preaching in Jerusalem brought opposition by the Jews, and at the same time, the Christians were skeptical of his conversion thinking he may be working undercover and seeking to expose him (Acts 9:26). So, one day while in the Jewish temple, Paul had a vision in which Jesus commanded him to leave Jerusalem ( 22:17 -18). Paul tried to argue with Jesus, telling him of how his background made him the perfect person to preach to the Jews ( 22:19 -20). But Jesus again told him to leave for “I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

While Paul would always earnestly desire for his countrymen to accept Jesus as their Messiah (Romans 9:2-3), this was not to be his calling by Jesus. He was to be the apostle to the Gent iles. This was Paul's calling from before he was born (Galatians 1:15 -16)). This was a calling not from the other apostles (Galatians 1:17 -24).

So Paul was taken by Barnabas and they left Jerusalem (Acts 9:27 -30) and for many years Paul waited in Arabia and Damascus to fulfill the calling of the Lord (Galatians 1:17 -21).

His Basis of Apostolic Authority

Paul had seen the glory of God, recognized Him as Lord. The Lord identified himself as Jesus. Paul may not have been an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus, but this serves as Paul's witness of Jesus resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:8). This put him on-par with the apostles who had walked with Jesus and had been eyewitnesses to his life and his resurrection (1 Corinthians 9:1).

Paul had been called by Jesus himself to be His apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15, 22:21, 26:16-18). His calling as such did not come from the other apostles, but from Christ himself (Galatians 1:11-12). The other apostles, having heard of Paul's calling, accepted and affirmed him as the apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:2, 9).

Nonetheless, there would be many who doubted Paul's role as an apostle, both in Jewish Christians who struggled with his teaching that Gentiles did not have to follow the Jewish Law to be Christian and amongst the Gentile Christians who did not like his teaching. Paul's defense of his own apostleship becomes one of the major sub-themes raised throughout his epistles.

Mission and Ministry

The Missionary Journeys

Antioch : The Sending Church

In Acts 11:19, persecution spreads the Christians out from Judea and Samaria, to the city of Antioch . At first the Christians only share with the Jews in Antioch, but soon some men from Christians from Cyprus arrive in Antioch and begin proclaiming the gospel to the Greeks (11:20). This concerns the apostles, so Barnabas is sent to investigate ( 11:22 ). Barnabas investigates and finds that that many are coming to believe in Antioch . He then travels to Tarsus to find Paul, and the two of them stay in Antioch and teach them for a year.

Antioch was a very large city, second only to Rome itself in population. Because of its size and political influence, the church in Antioch becomes an important center for Christianity, second only to Jerusalem itself. This is the first church to preach to the Gentiles. This is the first church where disciples are called Christians.

This is the first church to send out missionaries. In Acts 13:1 this church in Antioch sends Barnabas and Paul on a mission to Asia Minor to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. After years of waiting, Paul begins to fulfill the calling he received from Christ.

Paul's Itineraries

Paul's first missionary journey took him and Barnabas through central Asia Minor, probably as far up as southern Galatia (Acts 13-14). It is at the end of this journey that Paul and Barnabas find themselves back in Jerusalem defending their ministry to the Gentiles at the Jerusalem Council.

As Paul and Barnabas head out on their second missionary journey, they part company due to a disagreement over whether or not to take John Mark with them on the journey (Acts 15:36ff). Barnabas and Mark sail to Cyprus, while Paul takes Silas as his partner and they head back to Asia Minor. However God tells Paul that they are not to continue in Asia Minor, but are to cross the Aegean Sea in Europe (Acts 16). Paul's second missionary journey takes him into Macedonia and Greece, where he establishes churches in Philippi (Acts 16:11-40), Thessalonica (Acts 17:1-9) and Corinth (Acts 18). Paul stays in Corinth for 18 months supporting and teaching in the church there. At the end of that 18 month period he returns briefly to Antioch.

Paul's third missionary journey is dominated by a two year stay in the city of Ephesus. Rather than a “journey” like the first and second trips, this really is a description of Paul's move to Ephesus and his leaving Ephesus as he journeys back to Jerusalem (Acts 19). While in Ephesus, Paul's ministry is so impact that “all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).

After two years in Ephesus, Paul is determined to go to Rome. But for Paul, the road to Rome goes east out of Ephesus towards the city of Jerusalem. Paul would go to Jerusalem because he knew that he would be arrested, after which he would appeal to Caesar, as was his right as a Roman citizen, thus providing him with a trip to Rome with all expenses paid by the Roman empire. This brings us back to Acts 22, where he is arrested and after several years of sitting in a jail in Caesarea, he is finally brought to Rome to await his trial before Caesar. That is where the book of Acts ends.

The rest of Paul's life is the subject of much conjecture. Tradition has that he was acquitted in his trial, and afterwards he traveled to Spain to establish churches there. Eventually he returned to Rome where he was finally arrested and martyred late in life.

Paul's Process

Wherever Paul went preaching, he followed a consistent pattern. First, Paul earned his living not by requiring donations from the churches. He was a tentmaker (Acts 18:3), and supported himself in this ministry. This freed him from the accusation that his preaching was just for the money (2 Corinthians 11:7-10) and keep him from being a burden to the churches he established (1 Thessalonians 2:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8).

Throughout Paul's journey, whenever he came to a city, he followed a similar pattern in his preaching. He always began teaching Jews in the synagogue, leading many Jews to Christ. Those Jews, however, who did not believe eventually throw him out of the synagogue. So Paul then begins preaching to Gentiles in the city. As such, the churches he establishes throughout Asia Minor and Europe are built on the foundation of Judaism, but have strong Gentile presence. These mixed Jewish and Gentile churches represent in a microcosm the greater melding of Jew and Gentile into something new and unique, the church.

His Hardships

Throughout Paul's journeys he faced tremendous persecution, both from Jews who disliked his teaching and from Gentile authorities. He had been whipped with 39 lashes on five different occasions, thrice beaten with rods, three times shipwrecked, and even stoned and left for dead. He was imprisoned in Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Rome. In fact, he probably spent nearly as much time in prison as he did during his missionary journeys.

In addition, Paul speaks of having a “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:7. There is much conjecture as to what this ailment is, including a persistent temptation, a physical ailment, or bad eyesight. But whatever the weakness, and whatever hardship Paul endured, he always looked to Christ for his strength (2 Corinthians 12:9) and he counted it a privilege to share in the suffering of Christ (Colossians 1:24).

The Pauline Epistles

The Character of Paul

The Apostle Paul's missionary journeys were very important to the spread of Christianity amongst the Gentiles. But his greater legacy would not be the churches he established throughout the Roman Empire, but thirteen letters he sent to encourage, teach and even chastise these churches.

In fact, Paul's real strength lies not in his charisma or in his speaking abilities, but in his writing. Paul was, in fact, probably a rather unimpressive individual.

The apocryphal book, The Acts of Paul and Thecla describes Paul as:

…a man small in size, bald-headed, bandy-legged, well-built, with eyebrows meeting, (and) rather long-nosed… [1]

In addition, from the scripture, it appears that he had bad eyesight, was prone to having a temper, and was a poor public speaker (2 Corinthians 11:6).

For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” (2 Corinthians 10:10 NASB95)

His letters express sometimes his extravagant joy (Philippians 1:3-4) and other times his deep depression (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). Yet he always shows an intensity and zeal for the cause of Christ. His writing was bold and theologically deep.

While Paul's letters may be “weighty and strong,” they have a simple, warm conversational style. The texts seem to indicate that Paul dictated his letters to a scribe, resulting not in well edited and rhetorically concise treatises, but in a more free flowing discussion. It is as if we are sitting having a conversation with a friend rather than sitting in a lecture hall listening to a professor.

Accreditation of Paul's Letters

In fact, Paul's writing was perceived sometimes as being too deep. As we study the Pauline epistles, we will find that, while his theology is profound, his writing style sometimes is a bit confusing. We are not alone in this observation, as the apostle Peter found Paul difficult to read as well:

",,,just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. " (2 Peter 3:15-1,)

Peter acknowledges that Paul's letters can be difficult to understand, and that they are often distorted. But Peter also equates Paul's letters to scripture. Peter tells his readers that they should adhere to the principles found in Paul's letters, and strive to understand what Paul is saying so as to avoid doctrinal error.

Nature of Paul's Letters

Often time Paul is perceived by modern biblical scholars as having developed a different theology than the other apostles or even Christ himself. For this reason he is often considered the “second founder” of Christianity. Such a charge would have been considered a great insult to Paul. Throughout his epistles he affirms that the gospel he teaches is the same gospel taught by Christ and the apostles. In Galatians 1 he shows that his message has been confirmed by the apostles. Finally, Peter himself confirms the inspiration of Paul's letters.

Such a view of Paul's letters comes from two misunderstandings:

1. Missing the Theme

The development of the major themes in Paul's letters is missed in the minutia. Paul is perceived by many readers as a harsh legalist enforcing a difficult morality upon the church. To see Paul in this way is to miss the fact that the theme of most of Paul's letters is “justification by faith” and is written to oppose legalists who would impose strict moral codes as a means to salvation.

This misunderstanding comes from those who disagree with Paul's condemnation of homosexuality or struggle with Paul's requirement that a wife should submit to her husband. In both of these examples, the reader has missed both the immediate context and the overall theme of his letter.

2. The Occasional Nature of the Epistles

The Pauline epistles are letters written to specific people in specific situations. The epistles are addressing their specific concerns and issues. Paul is not writing a theological textbook or expounding a systematic teaching of doctrine. When reading Paul's letters we are looking in on private correspondence. It is like listening to only one side of a telephone conversation and not knowing who is on the other side.

Paul's decision to include or exclude certain items from his letters relate to specific controversies facing his readers. Often he glosses over important subjects because he has already taught them about these topics and they understand it well. Other times he dwells on relatively minor points because these are areas of debate within that church.

Therefore one can not assume that the epistles contain the whole of Paul's doctrine. In fact, Paul's speeches recorded in the book of Acts may give us a better understanding of Paul's gospel than the epistles. If that is the case, we find that Paul's speeches directly parallel the teachings of Peter, Stephen and others in the New Testament church.

As R. Alan Cole states:

None of Paul's letters (not even Romans) are theological treatises, thought they are profoundly theological in content. They were called into being by the needs of particular situations; the balance and presentation of doctrine is therefore what was appropriate in the circumstances [2].

Paul is not reinventing Christianity. His teaching is very much consistent with that of Christ and the apostles. However, his letters do allow us to see how the gospel of Christ should be applied to certain specific situations.

Interpretation of Paul's Letters

Therefore having an understanding of to whom and where each epistle was written is critical to understanding Paul. Background studies become a critical tool in the study of the Pauline epistles.

After completing our background study, we then must remember some basic rules when interpreting the Pauline epistles [3]:

• The text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or his readers.
• Wherever we share common particulars with the readers, it is the same to them as it is to us.
• We need to distinguish between the central core of the message of the epistle and what is dependent on or peripheral to it.
• One must distinguish between what Paul presents as inherently moral and what he presents as a cultural expression.

Footnotes

1. The Acts of Paul and Thecla . Excerpted from Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8 . Accessed on line at http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0816.htm on January 8, 2006.
2. R. Alan Cole. “The Life and Ministry of Paul.” The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998). Electronic edition STEP file.
3. Grodon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2003).

Bibliography

______. Stoicism," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004. http://encarta.msn.com. 1997-2004. Microsoft Corporation .

Blomberg, Craig L. Jesus and the Gospels. Nashville TN: Broadman & Holman. 1997.

Bruce, F. F. Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1979.

Cole, R. Alan. “The Life and Ministry of Paul.” The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998. Electronic edition STEP file.

Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2003.

Gundry, Robert H. A Survey of the New Testament. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan. 1994.

Hoehner, Harold W. “Between the Testaments.” The Expositor's Bible Commentary . Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998. Electronic edition STEP file.

Michaels, J. R. “Paul in Acts and Letters.” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, ed. Downers Grove IL: Intervarsity Press. 1993.

Rupprecht, Arthur A. “The Cultural and Political Setting of the New Testament. The Expositor's Bible Commentary . Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998. Electronic edition STEP file.