BACKGROUNDS OF PAUL
Construct a
chronology of the life ad ministry of Paul.
Show how Paul’s background has influenced his theology (2000)
Examine how
far the Greek and Jewish background of Paul contributed to his theology. (2003)
“Paul was a
child of his time.” Explain the how
Paul’s background influenced his theology and ethics. (2005)
Describe with
examples how Paul’s Jewish heritage and his Hellenistic background gave him the
competence to present his theological thoughts relevantly through his epistles.
Paul was born in Tarsus, the capital
of Cilicia, probably around AD 10. His
parents gave him names: Saul (Hebrew –
Sa’ul = asked of God & Greek – Saulos),
found prior to Acts 13: 9 and Paul (Greek Paulos
& Latin Paulus) found in Acts 13:
9 and subsequently, in 2 Peter 3: 15 and in his letters. The former name was probably used in the
Jewish circles and the latter in the Roman circles, for he possessed a Roman
citizenship as well. He preferred, however, to call himself an apostle of the
Gentiles (Rom 11: 13). His pedigree runs
as follows: Circumcised on the eighth
day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of
Hebrews; as to the law a Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the Church, as to
righteousness under the law blameless” (Phil. 3: 5-6).
Just as Paul had two names so also he
spoke two languages: Aramaic at home and Greek in the Hellenistic synagogue and
elsewhere. Very little is known about his youth. He went to Jerusalem to study. According to Acts 7: 58, at the martyrdom of
Stephen (ca. AD 36) the witnesses
laid down their garments at the feet of a young man – according to Jewish
tradition, one who is between 24 and 40 years of age – named Saul. He had a
sister who lived in Jerusalem. Her son
is believed to have saved the life of Paul on one occasion (Acts 23: 16). As a young man he was exposed to both
Hellenistic and Jewish influences.
Paul’s Greek
Background
To what extent or in what way was Paul
influenced by the prevailing Hellenistic culture? The tendency in the past was to say that a
Hellenistic milieu explained the emergence of Paulinism. This view is not generally held at
present. Still, the thought world of
Paul and that of contemporary Hellenistic culture had much in common.
Tarsus was “no insignificant city”
(Acts 21: 39), a microcosm of the Hellenistic world, capital of Cilicia, a
Roman province since 66 BC. It was a
centre of commerce and trade as it lay on river Cydnus. It was also famous for
philosophers, especially those of the Stoic school, like Antipater, Archedemus,
Anthenodorus (he even governed the city for a period) and others. One born in such a place could not but have
been influenced by the atmosphere of this city.
According to L. Cerfaux, “There is a
direct and conscious influence exercised upon Paul by the terminology of
popular stoicism. Paul borrows from it certain words, some points of style and
even a few themes.” Paul did learn a
number of the elements of Greek culture as is seen in his use of concepts and
ideas like freedom, reason, nature, conscience, sobriety, virtue and duty.
His preaching sometimes reflects the
Cynic-Stoic diatribe (Rom 2: 1-20; 1 Cor.9).
His catalogues are similar to the catalogues of vices and virtues put
forth especially by Stoic philosophers (Gal. 5: 19-23). The style of the LXX has influenced him. He was probably acquainted with classical
authors as well: Menander (1 Cor. 15: 33), Epimenides (Titus 1: 12) and Aratus,
Epimenides (Acts 17: 28).
The influence of a Hellenistic culture
is seen in his use of images and terms derived from a city-culture (Jesus uses
images drawn from the countryside): Commonwealth
(Phil. 2: 30) and fellow citizens
(Eph. 2: 19) are Greek political terms; Phil 2: 16 contains an allusion to
Greek Games; account (Philm 18) is a
Greek commercial term; will (Gal. 3:
15) is a legal designation and slave-free
(1 Cor. 7: 22) is an expression drawn from the slave-trade.
Mystery cults were prevalent in the
Hellenistic World. It has been argued by the History of Religions School, in
particular by R. Reitzenstein (1861-1931) and W. Bousset (1860-1920), that Paul
is dependent on the mysteries. This
position greatly exaggerates the influence of the mysteries on Paul. In fact, much of what this school held has
been discredited. Their influence on him
could not appear to be employed in the same sense as the pagan mysteries
themselves. Col. 2: 8, for example,
suggests that he was aware of the mysteries.
But they did not influence him.
He does not use, for example, ‘being born again’ in baptism but of being
‘raised with Christ’ (Col. 3: 1). Paul
gives no room in his letters for the typically mystery terminology of initiated, made perfect and so on.
He was also a citizen of Rome (Acts
16: 37-39; 22: 24-30; 25: 9-12). It
implied that it is “a breach of the law for a Roman citizen to be bound; it is
a crime for him to be beaten” (Cicero).
Whenever he was, the might and majesty of Rome was behind him. Besides being proud of his citizenship, he
was proud of the Roman Empire (Rom. 13: 1-5; 1 Tim. 2: 1-3). The Oikoumene,
the one world that Alexander the Great dreamt of establishing, was realized on
the Roman Empire. This concept seems to
have influenced Paul in his outlook.
Further, the Pax Romana aided
his missionary work. “That he was born
and sojourned in a city which while Asiatic was increasingly Hellenized, a
crossroads of empire, and that he was a citizen of Rome, this contributed to a
universal vision, to his becoming par
excellence apostle to the nations.”
Paul and
Judaism
According to W.D. Davies, “Both
Hellenism and Judaism are Paul’s tutors unto Christ.” But it is Judaism which
is the more significant.
(1) Paul: a Hebrew born of Hebrews
Paul looked back with pride on his
life as a Jew of the Pharisaic tradition. As a Jew he thinks and expresses
himself in OT categories and images. He
quotes the OT (90 direct citations), usually according to the LXX. He seems to have led a specially good
knowledge of Isaiah, Psalms, Wisdom literature. In Jerusalem he studied under
Gamaliel, a disciple of Hillel (Acts 22: 3).
(2) Paul: a Rabbinical Student
Gamaliel was notably training Paul to
become a Rabbi. There is good deal of
Rabbinic exegesis in his letters. Let us
look at a few examples of this method.
(a) Homiletic
application of a text. Is. 49: 8 refers to the deliverance from
exile. In 2 Cor. 6: 2 Paul applies the
text to Christ and Christians. Thus he
exhorts the Corinthians to accept the grace, God offers them through Christ.
(b) Deduction
from a Biblical text. In 1 Cor. 14: 21-22 the text of Is. 28: 11-12
is appropriated and applied to the gift of tongues. It is a sign that the Spirit could be present
in the community where this gift appears. Paul is deducing from the meaning
implied in Isaiah that through the stammering lips of the prophets God’s
presence is indicated.
(c) Drawing a
conclusion from the strict meaning of the word.
In Gal. 3: 16 Plays on the word offspring found in Gen. 12: 7 to arrive
at his own conclusion.
(d) Typological
exegesis. Adam in Rom 5: 14 is a type of him who is to
come, i.e. Christ. Thus from the type
of exegesis he employs in his letters, we get sufficient evidence of his
Rabbinic training.
(3) The Law
The Law/Torah remained the
pre-occupation of the Pharisees (Ps. 1: 1-2).
“The torah meant to the Jews the sum and substance of all that is good
and beautiful, of all that is worth knowing.”
(4) Anthropology
Paul’s view of man is essentially
Hebraic and he derives it from the prophets: compare, for example, Is. 40: 6
with Rom. 8: 7.
(5) Prophetic nature
He has inherited the prophetic
intuition of the living God (Rom. 4: 17).
The holiness, the otherness of God was vivid to him (2 Cor. 5: 11; 7: 1;
Phil. 2: 12).
(6) Trade
As every Rabbinic student was expected
to possess a trade, Paul picked up the one of tent making (Acts 18: 3). A Rabbi is not expected to live on the Law.
According to the Jewish tradition. “A
father who does not teach his son a trade, teaches him to steal.” “To what is
to be compared a man with a trade? To a vineyard with a fence.” Later on he did
really work with his own hands (1 Thes. 2: 9; 1 Cor 4: 12; 2 Cor. 11: 27).
(7) Jewish Apocalyptic
Paul has certainly been influenced by
the Jewish apocalyptic. The
pre-occupation with the day of the Lord in 1 Thes. 4: 13 – 5: 11; 2 Thes. 2:
1-12, the evocation of the wrath of God in Rom. 1: 18-20, the sense that the
end of the world has come in 1 Cor. 7: 26, 29, 31; 10: 11, 32 and the general
resurrection in 1 Cor. 15, all bear out Paul’s debt to the apocalyptic.
Conclusion
After having given thought to the
Hellenistic and Jewish influences on Paul, it may be helpful to bear the
following in mind:
(a) Luke in Acts is emphatic in
presenting Paul, even after he had become a Christian and a missionary, as
still the convinced Pharisee (Acts 26: 2ff).
The real Paul seems to be completely different from this. He abandoned the former Pharisaic zeal and
counted everything as loss and refuse (Phil. 3: 6-7) in order to gain Christ
(Phil. 3: 8-9).
(b)
Jewish and Gentile thought were not wholly separate but were subject to
cross-fertilization, e.g. Sanhedrin
(Greek: Sunedrion = council), the
supreme religious authority, is a loan word.
(c)
The Qumran discoveries reveal the fact that Judaism was far being homogenous.
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