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Pauline Christianity

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The origins of Pauline Christianity lie in the teachings of Paul of Tarsus, who declared himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles", and its development in his circle and among his followers. In the history of Christianity, "Pauline Christianity" is a term commonly employed to specify the eventually dominant form taken by "official" or "catholic" (signifying "universal") Christianity, though it is also used in a technical sense for the teachings of Paul as recorded in the authentic Letters of Paul, for example, when distinguishing Paul's theology from that of the Johannine works. Most scholars and christians agree that Pauline Christianity evolved in to what are today the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, although there are certain churches who do not believe this. (see Landmarkism and Great Apostasy.)

Contents

Origins and Acceptance

The "Gentile church" as it was organized by Paul was amended by the tradition of Johannine theology in the 2nd century when it confronted and expelled heterodox teachings. In the 4th century, the "official" form of Christianity was protected by Constantine (although himself an Arian) and formalized as "Nicene Christianity" at the Council of Nicaea (325), and was finally authorized by Imperial sanction in the Theodosian decrees of 391 in both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.

Rival Doctrines

There were other interpreters of the message of Jesus: the Ebionites and Nazarenes form one contrast to Pauline Christianity; Gnosticism forms another. Paul and his followers denounced other formulations of the Christian oral tradition as heresies.

According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Ebionites denied that Paul was even born a Jew: "They declare that he was a Greek . . . He went up to Jerusalem, they say, and when he had spent some time there, he was seized with a passion to marry the daughter of the priest. For this reason he became a proselyte [through the Sadducee movement, hence his working for the Temple police] and was circumcised. Then, when he failed to get the girl, he flew into a rage and wrote against circumcision and against the Sabbath and the Law" (Panarion 30:16–19). Ebonites were the only group known to have accused Paul of this, as there is no record of this in the Hebrew historical writings of the Talmud.

Though second-century interpretations such as Marcionism, Montanism, and the teachings of Valentinius may usefully be compared to Pauline Christianity, by the fourth century, when the Council of Nicaea (325) had excluded Arianism from the continuation of the mainstream "catholic and orthodox" tradition, it is conventional to speak instead of mainstream Christianity as "Nicene Christianity", in order to differentiate it from contemporary emerging and competing doctrines.

Development and the apostle James

In the first couple of centuries after the Crucifixion, in opposition to this Pauline tradition—the forerunners of Catholicism—there were various rival philosophies and formalized churches evolving. An important figure presumed by some modern scholars to be excluded from Pauline Christianity was James, the brother of Jesus, also known as James the Just. James was Jesus' brother according to the Gospels ([Mark 6:3]; [Matt 13:55–56]) and Paul himself ([Gal 1:18]). "James the Just" was the head of the Christians in Jerusalem, according to Paul: "James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars" ([Gal 2:9]). Acts of the Apostles suggests that any conflict between James and Paul was resolved at the Council of Jerusalem, whose decision Paul and others were entrusted with delivering to the other churches; however, [Acts 21:21] indicates that problems persisted:

But they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

Paul defined the nature of his mission and, with disarming frankness to his Gentile audience, his technique in carrying it out effectively in [1 Cor 9:20–23]:

And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.

Modern Viewpoint

Some modern revisionists, notably Robert Eisenman, see Pauline Christianity as a method of taming a dangerous sect among radical Jews and making it palatable to Roman authorities. The difference between the teachings of Christ as continued by James and those perpetuated by Paul, according to Eisenman and others, can be explained in terms of the audience. Jesus preached primarily to Jews. He was baptized by John the Baptist and probably shared some of his views. He spoke and acted against what he believed was corruption in Herod's Temple and 1st-century Judaism, which Josephus divided into Sadducee, Pharisee and Essene sects. James continued this teaching focus as leader of the Jerusalem Church, with both Aramaic speakers ([Acts 1:19]) and Greek speakers ([Acts 6:1]). It was an eschatological movement, as was the movement of Jesus and John, and as such they anticipated that the Gentiles would turn to the God of Israel as prophesied in [Isa 56:6–8], for example.

The "Messianic Judaism" movement of the current era sees itself as manifesting the modern evolution of this teaching. They believe that Jesus was the manifest "Son of God" and the Messiah, but they identify themselves as Jews. In their view Paul, as the "Apostle to the Gentiles", was trying to take the teachings of Jesus and make them relevant and interesting to the polytheistic gentiles. In order for the fledgling Christianity to gain attention in the popular culture, the religion had to obtain certain characteristics common to the other gods and religions of that time.

The official teaching of Christian churches is that "Pauline Christianity" is a tautology, that Paul's organization is the only Christianity; furthermore, many conservative Christian scholars have concluded that Paul did not materially alter the teachings of Jesus. According to [Acts 15], James decreed that Christianity was for the Gentiles and not just for the Jews, and quoted the prophet Amos in support of this position. According to the New Testament report of it, the council of Jerusalem at which James presided entrusted Paul among others with bringing their decision to Antioch. Thus Christians question the supposed division between Paul and James the Just despite the tension between both groups recorded in Acts (in particular, [Acts 21]) and in the Pauline Epistles (for example, in [2 Cor 11:5] and [12:11] he calls his opponents eminent apostles, in [1 Cor 7:10–16] he gives his own teachings on divorce: "I say—I and not the Lord"). [Romans 11] is cited as evidence of harmony rather than strife between the two parties. In contemporary usage Paul made the division between those circumcised and those not circumcised, for example, in [Gal 2:7–9]. These terms are generally interpreted to mean Jews and Greeks, who were predominant. However, it is an oversimplification as 1st-century Iudaea Province also had some Hellenized Jews who were no longer circumcised, and there were also some Greeks (called proselytes or Judaizers) and others such as Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Arabs who were.

References

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