A reading of what are generally accepted to be 'genuine' documents of the primitive Church raises some interesting points. One feature of interest in the current essay consists of the figures Paul and Peter and the Pauline and Petrine strands respectively associated with each. Essential, Paul was a minister for the Gentiles, Peter for the Jews. But surely this would have led to some tension.
Research was guided mainly by the prior work of Ferdinand Christian Baur who radically challenged Roman Catholic doctrine by asserting and citing textual tensions between the two. For this essay, Matthew's Gospel, the book of Acts plus the first four of Paul's epistles (Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and Galatians) have been accessed. The choice is once again influenced by Baur (and others) who holds that these are textually and historically the most genuine.
After Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist, the first person to join him is the fisherman Peter, who is also referred to as Simon, Simeon and Cephas (4:18). It is interesting to note that further in the gospel, Jesus actually says that unless the disciples' "righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees" (who were strict upholders of the Mosaic law) they will not enter Heaven (5:20). Similarly in 10:5-6 we get Jesus urging his apostles not to go the Gentiles but rather to "the lost sheep of Israel." It will be interesting to compare this to Paul's later activities.
Peter rises to further prominence later on in the gospel (16:13-21) when he identifies Jesus as the Christ. For this, Jesus names Peter his rock (which is the meaning of his name in Latin) and further, gives him the keys to the Kingdom of God, declaring that all the Peter binds or looses on Earth will accordingly be bound or loosed in Heaven. Peter is also one of the three present on the mountain where the Transfiguration takes place (17:1-11).
Peter is told in 19:27-30 that the Apostles will end up judging the "twelves tribes of Israel." Surely this can be seen a Judeo-centric conception of Christianity. This all changes however with the resurrection. Indeed, because of it, all authority in heaven and on Earth is given to Jesus and because of this (why?), 28:19 reads: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (My emphasis.) So what we see here is a fundamental shift in Jesus' attitude as expressed in prior parts of the Bible. We can then hypothesise that without a resurrection, Christianity is meaningless (which Paul later does!) but also that the tendency to proselytise Gentiles would not have had ground without this closing remark in Matthew's gospel.
We now arrive at the book of Acts. We see from the outset that Peter becomes the most active of the Apostles. It is he who says they require another to make the Twelve (1:12), he who addresses the crowd (2:14) and he who takes the lead to baptise the willing converts and thus they should "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit"(2:38). It should be pointed out that at this stage all the people present are Jews.
Further on, Peter heals a crippled beggar "in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" (3:6). In 3:16, "the God of out fathers has glorified Jesus" refers to the Jewish God. Acts goes on to talk about how the Jews rejected their saviour, which is what was written. In 3:35 we get a quote from Genesis, which says that through Christ offering himself, all people will be blessed. In Chapter 4, Peter is put in jail but released out of fear of popular reprisals. There is a consolidation of believers.
Peter's authority in the early Church is also consolidated. In Chapter 5 we see a man and woman struck down by the Holy Spirit because they had been false with Peter passing judgement. Further, in 5:15, Peter's shadow heals people. In a discussion with the Pharisees (5:30-32) Peter argues that it was the God of their fathers who exalted Jesus. This appeases one of the accusers.
There is an explicit differentiation made between "Grecian Jews" and "Hebraic Jews" in 6:1 where the widows of the former were not receiving as much food as those of the latter. To solve this, seven men are designated to be in charge of food distribution. This brings Stephen into the picture, who is the first to say that Jesus "will change the customs of Moses handed down to us" (6:14). Interestingly, 6:11 mentions "some men" as raising the charges. These nameless men appear in the Pauline epistles as well, whenever trouble is raised. Stephen proceeds in an attempt to justify what he said, including the line "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears" (7:51). This line, which talks not about circumcision being the Mosaic act, but about hearts and ears, makes a return with Paul.
Stephen is stoned for this blasphemy. This ushers in Saul (who is later called Paul) who joins in the stoning and "gives approval to his [Stephen's] death" (8:1) and is initially opposed to the Christians, in 8:30 going from house to house destroying the church. As a consequence, all but the apostles are disperse, which paves the way for Gentile expansion.
In Chapter 9, Saul is converted. Perhaps more importantly, it is revealed to Ananias of Damascus that Saul is the Lord's "chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel" (9:15). In 9:26-31, Saul tries to join the disciples, but they fear him; he is shown to the apostles by Barnabas.
The Book of Acts reverts to talking about Peter, who again heals a paralytic (9:34). Of greater interest however is his vision of the white sheet draped in food forbidden by Mosaic law (10:9) and how he tells the Lord he cannot eat the meat. The Lord replies: "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean" (10:15). In 10:28, Peter at first declares that it is against Jewish law for a Jew and a Gentile to associate or visit each other. Further, Cornelius (who is a Gentile) reveals that an apparition visited him. This leads Peter to conclude that "God does not show favouritism" (10:34). Peter is amazed and begins to talk, but in 10:44-45, the Holy Spirit comes and the circumcised believers are astonished that even the uncircumcised can receive it. Thus, Peter resolves to baptise the Gentiles "in the nature of Jesus Christ" (10:47).
Initially in Chapter 11 Peter is criticised (verse 2) yet by the end, all the believers agree that "God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life" (verse 18). In 11:20 we get mention of the church at Antioch, which is the location where preaching of the Way (that is, the Way of Christ) is first done to non-Jews. In fact, in 11:26 Saul reappears and it is stated that the church there first identifies itself as Christian.
In the following chapter, Saul is teaching and preaching with others in Antioch. In 13:16 he asks for attention, initially addressing "Men of Israel" then "you Gentiles who worship God". Furthermore (13:27), he denounces the people of Jerusalem for not recognising Jesus. Perhaps the crux of Paul's vision finds expression in 13:38-40, which is where he says: (i) Jesus forgives sins; and (ii) everyone who believes in him finds justification for everything that Mosaic law cannot justify. This then can be taken as setting up Paul's almost-manic drive to convert the Gentiles. In 13:46-48, the Jews are told that Saul turned to the Gentiles after being rejected by the former. He provides a quotation and the passage ends with the Gentiles happy at the prospect of eternal life.
Perhaps in an effort to justify Paul's mission, Acts 14:10 provides an account of his miracle work where he (much like Peter) enables a crippled man to walk. Chapter 15 details the Council at Jerusalem, where different currents are voiced. In essence "some men" show up at Antioch (15:1) (again, who are these men?) and allege that only though circumcision can a person be saved. Paul and Barnabas then decide to clarify this question by going to Jerusalem. There, during a council of apostles and elders, Peter speak and basically says that God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles too (15:8) and that therefore it is through the grace of Lord Jesus that people are saved (15:11). Paul and his companion relate their deeds at Antioch and along the way. The Council reaches the conclusion that it should not be made difficult for Gentiles to convert to God (15:19). Rather they decide to write a letter in which they outline a few rules that converts should observe, rather than undergoing circumcision. The letter appears in 15:23-29 and has the following requirements: abstinence from-(i) food sacrificed to idols; (ii) blood; (iii) the meat of strangled animals; and (iv) sexual immorality.
It is interesting to see what Paul does in the case of a half-Jew, half-Greek. Timothy is one such and 16:3 plainly states that Paul performs a circumcision because of the Jews in the area to which they are headed. In 16:4-5, it is Paul who gladly delivers the resolution of the Council and hence rightly "the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers." Paul does some wandering about the place, preaching in Athens to Epicureans and Stoics (17:18) and ends up in Ephesus, where again is repeated that fact that he has declared to both Jews and Greeks that "they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus" (20:21).
In 21:17 we are told of Paul's arrival back at Jerusalem. In 21:20, Paul is made aware that the local Jewish converts are "zealous for the law". However there are reports that Paul himself does not practise Mosaic law. They resolve to have Paul undergo a purification ceremony (21:24). Yet this does not work for the crowd want to kill him. He is held prisoner and winds up in Rome. At this point our interest in Acts ends
We move now to a different kind of Biblical text, the epistle. In Romans 1:5, Paul speaks of the obedience that comes through faith. It must be remembered that Romans was a letter written to a group of believers who at the time were facing persecution. They were also Gentiles and so we shall be focusing on the Gentile aspects. In 1:14, Paul says he is bound to Greeks and non-Greeks, the foolish and non-foolish, again emphasising his bipolarity and through that the universality of Christianity. In 1:16, he says "everyone who believes, first the Jew, then the Gentile". Are we to take this to mean preference? Certainly not from what he says. It most probably refers to temporal order. This is shown again in 2:9-10 and in 2:11, we see a repetition of the phrase "God does not show favouritism."
We see more of Paul's Gentile theology in 2:12-16. What we get is basically an argument whereby the law is not the one the Jews receive through circumcision, but rather one that anyone (Jew or Gentile) can achieve through righteousness. By this suave manoeuvre, Paul does away with the complications of Mosaic law. He solidifies this argument with 2:25: "Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you become as though you had not been circumcised." So here he lowers the significance of the physical act of circumcision. The following verses say just that, summing up with 2:29, which tells us "circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code." So here we have a distancing from Mosaic law and an embrace of the Spirit which imbues all Christians (it descended both on Peter and on Paul). The idea of a circumcision of the heart is Paul's. Recall that in Acts 7:51 (see above) Stephen said something along the same lines.
In 3:21 Paul alerts his reader to the difference between "righteousness from God" and "the law". Further down, he rhetorically asks if there is one God for Jews, another for Gentiles. Since there is only one, He must be the God of both and He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by the same faith (3:29-30). In the next verse, he says (confusingly) that we uphold the law by faith and do not nullify it.
In 4:12 he gives the example of Abraham's faith before his circumcision. Further, Paul says that Abraham became the father of all nations. In 9:6 we get: "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel" and in consequent verses, Paul moves to provide further examples that even though all people come from God, not all are Jews. Paul proceeds to compare the Gentile who has achieved righteousness by faith with the faithless Jew who observes the law but does not attain righteousness (9:30-32). Surely such claim when heard by Jews would have been inflammatory! He goes on to say in 10:4 that Christ is the end of the law and offers righteousness to all who believe and once again repeats his message of the lack of difference between Jews and Gentiles in 10:12.
In 11:11, Paul moves to tell the Jews that because of their transgression, salvation falls to the Gentiles and in 11:13 he says he is preaching to the Gentiles in hope of arousing envy and thereby saving his own people. In 14:14, we get the Pauline version of clean and unclean food. Basically, he has the liberal view that no food is unclean in itself unless someone sees it that way. Rather strange however is 14:20-21 where he says "all food is clean" yet meat and wine "will cause your brother to fall."
In 15:16, Paul sums up his position as minister to the Gentiles, cementing the stance he has had all along. In 15:27, Paul attempts to tie the Jews and Gentiles together, saying that an exchange of spiritual blessing has taken place from Jews to Gentiles and material one should take place from Gentiles to Jews. Thus ends our look at Romans.
1 Corinthians is the second of four letters attributed to the historical Paul. Like Romans, he is writing to a Gentile readership. In 10:10-17 we have an account of Paul's urging for unity. Rather interesting is his comparison between Jews and Greeks and how each group has a stumbling block with respect to the idea of Jesus as Christ (1:22-25).
There is something to observe about the letter. We notice its humanness. That is, it is clear to see the Paul after all was a man, because 7:10 begins: "I give command (not I, but the Lord)" and 7:12 says: "I say this (I, not the Lord)". Thus we see the difference: in the first quotation, he is using the Lord's word, whereas in the second one he has transferred some of that authority onto himself, for it is what he says.
In 9:20 we see the emergence of Paul the chameleon, adopting any relevant guise he can in order to win over believers. In 10:15 we are once again told to eat everything at the meat market, for none of it is unclean. He again asserts that all people are the same because they are baptised under one Spirit (12:13). Yet in 14:34 he requires women to remain silent in worship because it is the Law. Surely there may be a contradiction.
Briefly mentioning 2 Corinthians, Paul in 5:17-18 says that the old has gone, the new has come and that Christ can be seen as reconciliation between God and us. In 11:21-23, again we see Paul the chameleon.
Now on to the last epistle generally attributed to Paul, Galatians. In 2:7, we see Paul explicitly stating that he was entrusted with converting the Gentiles, Peter the Jews. In 2:11-21 we are told how Peter withdraws from associations with the Gentiles after the visit of certain men (again, whom?). Paul confronts him and the two disagree. Paul goes on to give him a good lecture. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify Gentiles through faith and Paul proceeds to provide quotations (3:8-9).
In 3:10-14, Paul produces a nice argument that once again shows that the old law is no longer valid now that Christ has been resurrected: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law."
In 5:2 Paul goes as far as to say that if the Gentiles become circumcised, Christ will not have any meaning to them. Similarly, 5:6 dismisses the whole circumcised-uncircumcised debate by stating that what counts is faith finding an expression through love. Through 5:16-18, Paul gives prominence to the Spirit, saying that the law no longer needs to be observed, for if one if guided by the Spirit, he will inevitably be removing his "sinful nature." And in 6:11-15 there is again the repetition of the ideas that circumcision is not important and Jesus is the Christ and therefore it is out with the old and in with the new. There we end our textual sampling.
What we have seen throughout the above examples is the active pursuit of Gentile converts. That is to say, the letters are written by the pen of a determined and knowledgeable proselyte, who after encountering the resurrected Jesus became convinced it was his mission to save the Gentile world.
The arguments for the distancing from Mosaic laws (including the much discussed circumcision) are generally clever, often featuring quotations from the very law the tract is trying to stamp on. There are hints of the tension that evidently existed between Paul and Peter, yet the Books are so written that these are subtle. It is interesting to note that the Book of Acts opens with Peter, who dominates it, not to mention he was Jesus' first follower and that Jesus named him his rock and gave him the keys to the Kingdom of God. Then, after Stephen's stoning, an initially antagonistic Saul emerges, who is converted and thence becomes the Way's most active minister. It is interesting also that Saul becomes Paul at one point in the Acts.
From reading the four epistles, one can see the roots of contemporary church worship being sown: for example, Pentecostal Christian women cover their head in church. Paul was no doubt a fascinating figure and his ability to distance Christ from his Judaic past is astonishing. Who knows where today's Christianity would be without him.
By Andrew Staker
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Conzelmann, Hans. (1973) History of primitive Christianity. Nashville, USA: Abingdon Press.
Eliade, Mircea. (1987) The Encyclopedia of religion. New York: Macmillan.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. (1884-1968) History of the expansion of Christianity 1. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode.
McManners, John. (1990) Oxford illustrated history of Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press.
The Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV)