The earliest extant reflections and discussion of the significance of the person and work of Jesus are found in the letters of St Paul. From his own evidence Paul was a devout Pharisaic Jew who was zealous in his observance of the Law of Moses. He writes to the Galatians: “I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors”(Gal 1-14) and to the Philippians:

• If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member 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 1:14)

As a persecutor of the followers of Jesus, Paul knew what they were claiming about their master. Obviously, he was outraged by their assertions and was determined to stamp out this festering abscess on his beloved Judaism.

Paul’s Opposition to the Followers of Jesus

There is no evidence that Paul had ever met Jesus personally, so his knowledge of Jesus must have been through the stories and rumours that circulated about him.

Given that we do not know a great deal about Pharisaism before the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E. we can at least affirm that members of this group within Judaism were dedicated to the Torah of Moses and to the tradition of the Oral Law, which interprets, develops and expands the written Torah. They set great store by the ritual laws that deal with table and dietary practices, ritual purity and the observance of Sabbath and festivals (Jacob Neusner,The Rabbinic Traditions concerning the Pharisees before 70, i-iii,Leiden: Brill, 1971).

The following issues would have jarred with Paul the Pharisee:

• Jesus of Nazareth was Israel’s messiah. This claim of Jesus’ followers was not so outrageous in itself except that it was well known that Jesus had been condemned and crucified as a criminal. The idea of a crucified messiah was unthinkable. Such a person could not qualify as God’s special agent as he would be cursed under the Law of Moses, which states: “When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him that same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut 21:22-23).
• Jesus’attitude to the Law of Moses was irregular to the point of being disrespectful.This piece of hearsay would have infuriated the Pharisees who attached great importance to Sabbath observance. They saw the disciples of Jesus following their master in a lax attitude to the laws regarding Sabbath. The gospels relate a number of episodes in which the Pharisees object to Jesus’ behaviour on the Sabbath (Mk 2:23-28; 3:1-6; Lk 6:6-11; 14:1-6; Jn 9:1-40). Matthew makes the point that Jesus’ attitude so upset the Pharisees that they plotted to kill him (Mt 12:1-14). It is important to keep in mind that Jesus was not showing disrespect for the Law but was working from a different set of priorities. For him people were more important than observance of the Law and if there were a decision to be made in favour of one over the other then the Law would take second place. Jesus insisted that the Sabbath was made for human beings not humans for the Sabbath (Mk 2:27). The Gospels present the Pharisees in a rather bad light, reflecting a later period as the early Church broke from Judaism.  However, their relationship with Jesus himself was complicated. Jesus did not see himself as breaking the Law, but his overriding commitment was to the proclamation of the reigning presence of God, rather than external legal practice.  This necessarily led to conflict between Jesus and Jewish leadership.

See James D. G. Dunne, Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), Ch 3: ‘Fact or Fiction: How Reliable are the Gospels?’ 3-21

• Jesus’ identity as messiah was vindicated when he was raised from the dead. While the Pharisees believed in bodily resurrection from the dead (see Acts 23:6-8)they could not countenance the notion that a crucified criminal, whose regard for the Law bordered on contempt, could possibly have his mission and teachings authenticated by being raised from the dead by God.
• Jesus replaced Moses. Instead of the salvation of Israel being tied up with the Exodus event and the Torah handed down from Moses, the followers of Jesus were claiming that salvation was to be found only in Jesus (cf. Jn 14:6). The early Church did not reject the role of Moses, or the Mosaic tradition.  However, it was assumed into the teaching of Jesus and thus changed.  Matthew is especially interested in the relationship between Moses and Jesus.

All of these concerns struck the Pharisees as symptoms of blatant and intolerable disregard for the hallowed traditions of Israel. In view of the passionate personality of Paul that comes through in his letters it is easy to visualise him flying at the sect of Jesus followers with highly charged emotional zeal in order to stamp out their heresy.

Paul’s Conversion

One of the likely problems with Judaism was its exclusivity and its focus on ethnic identity with the people of Abraham. The Jesus who was preached by the ‘people of the way’, as the early Christians referred to themselves, was a universal figure who taught that a sound relationship with God was the key to membership of the kingdom or reign of God.

The insight by which Paul saw the truth of the Christian message or kerygma is described by him as a revelation of Jesus the Christ, Son of God. Paul wrote:

“But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles…” (Gal 1:15).

Paul regarded his conversion and his divine commission top reach Jesus Christ to the Gentiles as two aspects of the one revelation. From this point on Paul has a very different view of Jesus and a further outcome of his conversion is that he has a different view of the Law of Moses. Prior to this, the Law had governed his life and his relationship with God. Now he saw that Jesus was the one God sent to bring salvation to the whole world by making things right between humanity and the Almighty. Jesus was now Paul’s and everyone else’s way to God.

Christology in Paul’s Letters

There are two things we need to bear in mind here:

• Not all the letters of the New Testament which bear Paul’s name are authentically Pauline. Some are disputed, and others are clearly not from his pen. We will not have time to fully explore the Christology of the Deutero-Pauline material or the Christology of the other New Testament letters, however if you wish to pursue this, further information is available;

Two attached documents:

• ‘Christology of Deutero-Pauline Letters’
• ‘The Christology of Other New Testament Letters’

1. Jesus Christ played a role in the plan of God by reconciling an alienated humanity to God (Rom 5:10-11).
2. The human condition was enslaved by the sinfulness generated by the disobedience of Adam.  This has been reversed by the new creation established by Jesus obedience and God’s response in the death and resurrection.
3. Christ is the new Adam who is the perfect image of God (2 Cor 4:4)
4. Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God and rewarded for his obedience. (Rom 1:4; Phil 2:9-11)
5. Christ’s resurrection is a mark of his victory over sin and death (1 Cor 15:54-57) and is a guarantee of resurrection for all his faithful followers. (Rom 6:5; 1 Cor 15:52)
6. The Christian “puts on Christ” in an attempt tolive and die as he did, in order to attain this resurrection.
7. Christ was sent from God into the world (Gal 4:4) and Paul intimates that he was with God participating in the work of creation (1 Cor 8:6). This notion of pre-existence is not developed but merely hinted at in the Pauline correspondence.
8. Jesus Christ will come again at the parousia (1Cor 11:26; 1 Thess 4:13-5:11). This will spell the ultimate end of sin and death, and God’s reign will be established in the world to come.
9. Jesus Christ, then, for Paul is the Son of God,the promised Messiah, who suffered and died to save humanity.

The corollary of Paul’s Christology for Christians may be summarised by the following points:

1. Those who are committed to Christ become part of the body of Christ.
2. Members of the body of Christ have a unique relationship with Christ and with each other
3. This commitment involves living according to the values of Jesus Christ. This has ethical and behavioural implications.

Please read the following Pauline letters:

• 1 and 2 Thessalonians
• 1 and 2 Corinthians
• Galatians
• Philippians
• Romans

Readings

“The Climax of Israel’s Story“, chapter 3 of Frank J. Matera, New Testament Christology, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1999.

Note: Matera argues that Israel’s story of salvation underlies Paul’s world-view. This story began with the covenant God made with Abraham and was firmly established in the Sinai covenant. Different episodes of the salvation story are told throughout the Hebrew Bible and for Paul the story comes to its climax in the saving action of Jesus Christ. Matera sets his study of Paul’s Christology within the parameters of Israel’s story of its relationship with Yahweh.

Ecclesiology	(Gk ekklesia =assembly, church) – the theology of church.
Eschatology	(Gk eschaton =end, extreme limit) – the study of the last things, i.e. the reign of God, resurrection, death and beyond, heaven, hell, the second coming of Christ.
Paraenesis	a Greek word meaning ‘exhortation’. The paraenetic sections of Paul’s letters contain exhortations, encouragement and practical recommendations.
Parousia	Greek for ‘presence’ or ‘coming’; refers to the second coming of Christ.
Soteriology	(Gk soter =saviour) – the study of salvation, including the theory and expression of how the death, resurrection and exaltation of Christ are aspects of our salvation.
Sitz im Leben	German for ‘place in life’ referring to the real-life context or setting of a given text.

A short glossary of terms for this reading:

Consider the following questions based on the reading: The Climax of Israel’s Story

1 and 2 Thessalonians

1. How will the wrath of God be experienced?
2. What is meant by Matera’s statement that ‘Jesus is God’s eschatological agent’?
3. Identify the 5 Christological points brought out by Matera from the Thessalonian letters.

1 and 2 Corinthians

1. identify the focal events of Christ’s saving activity which the Thessalonian and Corinthian letters have in common?
2. Explain how Christ can be called the ‘wisdom of God’in Paul’s terms. How does Paul square this with the crucifixion?
3. Explain why Paul deals with the issue of resurrection in 1 Corinthians.
4. What does Paul use his ‘Adam Christology’ to explain?

Galatians

1. What crisis is Paul addressing in his letter to the Galatians?
2. How does Paul answer the claim that only the descendants of Abraham can benefit from the promise of salvation that was made by God to Abraham?

In the course of his discussion of Galatians Matera argues that Gal 4:4 implies that Jesus of Nazareth was the human or incarnate form of the pre-existent Son of God (See footnote #36). In other words, he indicates that Paul was expressing the idea that later became known as the Incarnation. This position had already been contested by Scottish scholar James D.G. Dunn in his outstanding work Christology in the Making (2nd ed. London: SCM, 1989). You will notice that scholars can use the same points to support different arguments.

Reading

James D.G. Dunn Christology in the Making, 40-44, 284-285.

Romans

1. What explanation does Paul give for God’s sending the Son into the world?
2. What, in Paul’s terms, was God’s purpose in giving Israel the Law of Moses? What bearing does this have on Paul’s view of Christ?

Philippians

1. List three examples used by Paul to show that the followers of Christ have been incorporated into the true or spiritual Israel of God.
2. Explain what is meant by the ‘faith of Christ’in the context of the Philippians hymn.

Based on Matera’s observations about Paul’s Christology complete the following statements:

1. Christ is saviour, that is, God’s agent of human salvation, which he brought about by…
2. The final event of this salvation will be…
3. By alluding to God’s sending of the Son Paul hints at…
4. Paul refers to Christ as the new…
5. Christ’s resurrection has the following implications for the believers…
6. Three key titles used by Paul for Jesus are…
7. Jesus Christ is God’s Son and our Lord’. The individual terms in this statement mean…
8. To say Christ is the climax of Israel’s history means, in Paul’s terms, that….

Reading

Geza Vermes, “The Christ of Paul,” in The Changing Faces of Jesus, London:Penguin, 2000, 76-115

Further Reading

L.W. Hurtado, “Paul’s Christology,” in The Cambridge Companion to St Paul. Edited by James D.G. Dunn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.185-198.

Pamela Eisenbaum. “Is Paul the Father of Misogyny and Antisemitism?” Crosscurrents 50. 4. 2000-1.