The Apostle Paul and the Jewish People
Joseph Weissman recently wrote a solid and insightful piece entitled; Paul, Gamaliel & The Jews, which I featured here.
Joseph has now penned part-two, focusing on the Jewishness of the Apostle Paul and his [at times] rather fraught relationship with his own community:
With the thoughts of Howard Jacobson and Geza Vermes reaching wider audiences, reclaiming the Jewish Jesus is becoming increasingly popular. In late 2007, Time Magazine identified the “re-Judaising” of Jesus as one of the top ten ideas that will change the world. Yet whilst the “Jewish Jesus” is widely broadcast throughout the world, the “Jewish Paul” remains more low-key.
Having last left Paul before the Sanhedrin, we rejoin Paul in Jerusalem before Felix in Acts 24.
Paul has made reference to his former teacher Gamaliel in the Sanhedrin, and boasted of his Pharisaic belief in the resurrection of the dead, in order to avoid the judgement of the religious court.
Tags: Israel, Religion Society, Theology Doctrine Philosophy
July 24th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
This is one of those areas which I tend to differ to the NPP crowd..because, while it is shocking that Paul wasn’t a 16th century European Protestant, it is the truth that he was a Jew.
I know, I was shocked too.
July 24th, 2010 at 10:07 pm