Inside the Author-The Apostle Paul (Part 2 of 3)

Paul’s autobiography in gives us a rare firsthand perspective on the Pharisees in the first century. We otherwise hear about the Pharisees from outsiders (the Gospels, or the revisionist history written by Josephus in the late first century). Paul highlights three important concerns for the Pharisees: Jewish identity, the law, and zeal.

First, Paul says he is fully Jewish by both ancestry and circumcision. There were gentile proselytes, converts to Judaism who committed to keeping the law of Moses (including circumcision), and gentile God-fearers who worshiped God without adopting the entire Jewish law. But in Philippians, Paul suggests that being Jewish by birth was valuable and important to him before he became a follower of Jesus. Unlike the wealthy and powerful Sadducees, the Pharisees rejected the luxuries of Greco-Roman culture and refused to swear loyalty to Herod the Great and the Romans. At least some Pharisees were involved in the rebellions against Rome in the first century. They were Israel-centric, looking for the restoration of Israel as a nation under God.

Jewish identity relates to Paul’s second focus, the law—God’s gift to Israel, so that the people of God could be holy as God is holy (; ; ; ).

…the Law was God’s gift to Israel—his way of setting them apart from their pagan neighbors, of setting stipulations and boundaries for their conduct so that they might know how they were to love the Lord their God and to love each other. This is why in the Old Testament the righteous regularly express delight in God’s law (e.g., and 119

Psalm 19 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Fee, G. D., & Stuart, D. K. (1993). How to read the Bible for all its worth (3rd ed., p. 169). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Anyone familiar with the Gospels knows that the Pharisees were enthusiastic students, practitioners, and teachers of the law. We might be tempted to dismiss the Pharisees’ focus on the law as legalistic, or as an impossible burden. However, Paul himself says that he was righteous and blameless according to the law. Moreover, obedience to the law gained extra importance from the hope for national restoration. The Bible promises that, when the people are sent into exile as punishment for breaking the covenant, God will restore them when they repent and return to faithful obedience (; ; ). Living by the law and teaching others to keep the law, then, was a way for the Pharisees to participate in God’s salvation.

The Pharisees were very interested in Jesus (; ; ; ). Some Pharisees, including Paul, became followers of Jesus themselves (; ). But for most Pharisees, Jews who didn’t observe ancestral traditions—like Jesus, who broke the Sabbath; Stephen, who challenged the very heart of Jewish identity; and Peter, who ate with uncircumcised gentiles—were threats. Paul’s own zeal for God drove him to persecute Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem and beyond (; ). The Pharisees sought to protect Israel’s identity as the faithful, covenant people of God both in their practice and teaching of the law, and in their violence against lawbreakers.

To some extent, the animosity recorded in the New Testament between the Pharisees and Jesus and his followers comes from the similarities between the two groups. The Pharisees expected the messiah, the kingdom of God, and the resurrection of the dead (; ). But Jesus brought an unexpected kingdom, one which welcomed the “unclean” and “sinners,” collaborators with Roman rule (the tax collectors), and gentiles. To the Pharisees, this message threatened faithfulness to Israel’s covenant with God.[1]

[1] Reeder, C. A. (2019). Backdrops: Who Were the Pharisees? Bible Study Magazine, 11(5), 34–35.

Who Were the Christians Saul Persecuted?

By Caryn A. Reeder

If we had the chance to visit a church in the first century, we might not recognize it. Instead of a Sunday morning program, Christians met frequently throughout the week. They gathered in homes, marketplaces, and colonnades along the street. There were no worship leaders or pastors; everyone was welcome to share a story or teaching, a prayer, a song, food, and material resources. Our first-century sisters and brothers would likely find us to be pretty strange, too. What do we mean by “going to church,” for instance? The church is the living body of Christ. It is not a destination, but “the Way” (; ; ).

Despite our differences, the essential identity of the church as a missional community has not changed. In , Jesus charges the disciples to be his witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The rest of Acts and the New Testament letters tell the story of Jesus’ followers on the move, announcing the gospel of Jesus—especially the victory of his death and resurrection (for example, ; ; ; ; ).

The mission was at first Jewish. The earliest followers of Jesus were all Jewish, and they witnessed to Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem, the very heart of Judaism. They lived according to the law of Moses and worshiped in the temple (). James, the head of the Jerusalem church (and brother of Jesus), was renowned for his faithful, righteous piety.

Even when the followers of Jesus left Jerusalem to preach the gospel elsewhere, their primary audience remained the Jews (, ; ; ). However, church communities slowly incorporated gentiles (initially God-fearers like Cornelius who were already interested in Judaism, and then also people from pagan backgrounds). In the Syrian city of Antioch, a mixed church of Jews and gentiles sent Barnabas and Paul on their mission to Asia Minor (; ). Some churches were entirely gentile (see Galatians, 1 Peter). How to incorporate gentiles as followers of Jesus was a significant debate in the first century church ().

At the end of Peter’s speech to the Jewish pilgrims in Jerusalem at Pentecost, he calls them to repent. Those who do are baptized as a mark of their new identity (). They promptly “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). These four activities reflect the practice of the church across the New Testament.

The apostles, men and women who had known Jesus and could witness to his words and actions (especially his resurrection), passed their stories on to others (; ; ). At community gatherings, Christians told stories about Jesus, discussed the Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament), talked about God’s work in the world, and challenged each other to imitate Jesus (for example, ; ; ; ). They prayed together (, ; ; ; ). They also sang the psalms, and perhaps also new songs about Jesus (; ; ; ).

“Fellowship” in is the Greek word koinonia, an idea that reflects the common identity of the followers of Jesus (; ; ). Shared meals—both the Lord’s supper and potluck-style feasts—represent koinonia as a sign of hospitality, welcome, and relationship (note ; ). Fellowship also meant sharing each other’s burdens, providing for brothers and sisters in need locally and in other cities (for example, ; ; ).

The different communities of Jesus’ followers in the first century were one koinonia, bound together by their fellowship as the body of Christ. We are part of the same koinonia, carrying on their mission of witnessing to Jesus to the ends of the earth.

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.[1]

[1] Reeder, C. A. (2019). Backdrops: Who Were the Christians Saul Persecuted? Bible Study Magazine, 11(5), 36–37.

A New Hope and Divine Direction

Confronted by Oracles, the Persecutor Became an Apostle

By Joseph R. Dodson

A long time ago in a country far, far away, I was reading to my children for their bedtime story. In this pivotal chapter of Acts, the apostle Paul experiences a life-changing message that transforms his views about God and sets the trajectory of his gospel ministry.

When I got to the part where the Lord tells Ananias that Paul would become the apostle to the gentiles, my son Kinnon interrupted me. Being far too obsessed with “Star Wars” for a 6-year-old, Kinnon—whom we now appropriately call “Kenobi”—blurted: “Oh, oh, oh! Like the prophecy from Qui-Gon Jinn about how Anakin Skywalker is going to bring balance to the Force!” He kept rambling. Not wanting to rain on his Jedi parade, I replied, “Yeah, kinda, I guess. Maybe,” and then went on with my story. In retrospect, however, perhaps Kenobi was on to something.

Prophetic oracles aren’t just in the Bible or “Star Wars”; they also pepper ancient narratives, treatises, biographies, and speeches. In these writings, the utterances were often designed to be foggy, pregnant, vague, and misunderstood. This tended to hook audiences by making them curious as to how exactly the loaded words will come to pass. Readers, however, were trained to expect the oracle to unfold in surprising ways (such as the shocking manner in which Anakin and Paul actually fulfill their respective prophecies).

A prime example from the ancient world involves an oracle about Socrates. When Socrates was 40 years old, a friend told him about an utterance he had received from the high priestess of Apollo: “No man is wiser than Socrates.” On hearing this, Socrates went on a quest to challenge the oracle. Surely heaven was mistaken, he thought. There was so much he didn’t know. But how could the gods ever be wrong? In his search, he finally found a politician who was purported to be even smarter than Socrates. Therefore, he eagerly approached the man but soon walked away frustrated and dismayed. He had instantly realized he was, in fact, wiser than the politician—who, according to Socrates, was hardly as wise as he claimed. To be sure, the man knew how much he knew, but he did not—like Socrates—realize how much he didn’t know. The oracle, then, had led Socrates to a transformational epiphany, his famous paradox of wisdom. “I am wise,” Socrates inferred, because “I do not think I know what I do not know.”

In ancient literature, divine oracles could be communicated through extraordinary sounds from heaven and by flashes of fire in the sky. More often, though, the gods spoke to people through visions, prophecies, and dreams. The function of these oracles was (1) to affirm certain actions of a character or to declare the figure as faithful and just. Moreover, an oracle could (2) encourage or warn individuals in the story; (3) explain incredible happenings; or (4) foreshadow and foretell future events.

Prophetic oracles in Paul’s life and letters

As Luke relates the history of the early church in Acts, he often incorporates common literary elements of his day, drawing from both the Old Testament and ancient literature. As the narrative unfolds, we see the Lord communicating in the life of Paul through oracles for exactly the reasons mentioned above. For example, according to Acts,6 a light brighter than the sun flashed from heaven, and the Lord’s voice thundered from the sky telling Paul to get up and go into Damascus to await further instructions. Luke goes on to pair Paul’s message with another one given to Ananias:

“Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” ()

This utterance is fleshed out through the remainder of Acts and provides the dominating oracle for the second half of the book. The utterance also contains three threads that are foundational for Paul’s letters: (1) the rocky relationship between his ministry to his fellow Jews and his outreach to the gentiles, (2) his opportunity to preach before rulers and kings, and (3) his call to suffer for the gospel. Each of these threads, foretold in the oracle to Ananias, becomes a major theme of Paul’s ministry.[1]

[1] Dodson, J. R. (2019). Cutting Edge: A New Hope and Divine Direction: Confronted by Oracles, the Persecutor Became an Apostle. Bible Study Magazine, 11(5), 38–39.

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