Paul Is Often Considered Second

¶ … Paul is often considered second only to Jesus in his contribution to Christianity. Be Specific.

Paul vs. Jesus: The proselytizing and the religious interpretations of the Apostle Paul

Jesus died a practicing Jew, yet gave birth to a religion that became separated, and then polarized from the Jewish faith. Part of the reason for the separation of Judaism from the ethnic community that produced Jesus has to do with the framing of Jesus' teaching through the perspective of the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul was born a Jew, like Jesus, and even persecuted Jesus' followers in his old identity as Saul. Once converted, Paul became an eager proselytizer of his version of the Gospel. Paul's specific focus was to bring the words of Jesus to gentiles rather than to his fellow Jews. Because gentiles came to dominate the ranks of the new religion of Christianity Paul's version of the religion became extremely influential in shaping the trajectory of its theology.

In Galatians 3:28, Paul writes: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." The sameness of identity means that Christians and Jews are now equal: it also means that Christians do not need to adopt Jewish practices to become followers of Christ. Given the length of time Paul devotes to this subject in Galatians, it was evidently a subject of great controversy for the early, mixed Christian community. Paul states that not only do Christians not have to be circumcised and keep the laws of kashrut, but to do so is an affront to Jesus. "Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?"(Galatians 4:21). Jesus' ministry is a ministry of the heart, not the law; it is a ministry of belief, not rituals. Mosaic Law was instated merely to keep people obedient and good until the coming of Christ could make them morally perfect: "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4-4:4-5). Jesus brings salvation to all human beings, even pagans: "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods" (Galatians 4:8).

Paul writes that the words of the Old Testament are meant to be taken metaphorically: Abraham had two children, one by a free woman, and one by an enslaved woman. Pagans were enslaved to false idols, and to go back and engage in the idolatry inherent in the rule-based nature of Mosaic Law is just as bad as paganism. "Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace." (Galatians 5:3-4). "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" (Galatians 5:6).

Paul's statement that Christ's ministry is a spiritual rather than a physically enacted ritual community confirmed the religiously separate nature of Jesus' teachings in the eyes of many gentiles. Paul's stress on the spirit's importance vs. exterior actions would have a profound effect on Christianity's worldview, which stressed outward asceticism and interior humbleness and spiritual cultivation. In Protestantism, the division between the exterior and interior self would also create a divide between the secular and sacred world. In the secular world a human being could engage in a mundane life, provided he or she still attended to the spiritual world of the church and Jesus. Thus, the commonly expressed cliche that it is 'inside that is what is important, not what is outside' could be said to have its roots in Pauline philosophy.

Jesus' expressed relationship with Judaism is far more ambiguous than Paul's. In fact, he praises Mosaic Law at times, particularly the commandments: "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19). However, he also expressed skepticism of the value of the dietary laws of kashrut, a core principle of Leviticus: "For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.' (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods 'clean.')" (Mark 7:19). Jesus was highly critical of the most legalistic, rule-bound elements of the Jewish community of his day, the Pharisees: "Jesus replied, 'And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them'" (Luke 11:146).

But although Jesus had a clear interpretation of Judaism that differed from those of the authorities, that does not mean he was not Jewish. In fact, the actions of the Bible demonstrate that Jesus was entirely embedded in the Jewish culture of his day: "Jesus presented continuously as going into the synagogue on the Sabbath. He is presented as going up to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage holidays, specifically in John, for any number of pilgrimage holidays, and in the synoptic gospels, most importantly, for Passover" (Fredriksen 1998). The ritual Mass that Christians celebrate today as a communal, symbolic meal of Christ's sacrifice came later -- Jesus himself celebrated the traditional Passover Seder.