Paul and the Apostle John

I’ve done a good bit of thinking about Matthew and Paul and only a little about the relationship between Paul and other Apostolic writers. By the way, you can read my essay on Matthew and Paul and essays on Paul and the other Gospels in the book Paul and the Gospels (T & T Clark 2011) edited by Michael Bird and myself. See the book in our sidebar.

Recently I read an interesting description of the relationship between Paul and the Apostle John’s Revelation – a description I would extend to John’s Gospel as well.

Paul operated from within Judaism with a view to the broadest horizons of humanity. There is certainly evidence of tension and conflict with Jews over the work Paul undertook, but his energies were directed to Gentiles and his problem-solving efforts were not concentrated on pacifying relations with Jews or “Jewish Christians.” In addition to may specific difference in the ares listed above, the Apocalypes differs substantially form Paul in its orientation toward Jewish readership, its preoccupation with Jewish relations to Pagan religion and culture. Paul and John share a conviction that Gentiles will enter God’s people as a significant element of the end times. They differ in the location from which they observe, comment upon, and facilitate such a phenomenon and in the conditions they understand as applicable to Gentile entry. The metaphor of an expatriate may describe Paul aptly: he is a Jew living outside of Judaism for the sake of Gentiles and, in a longer perspective, for the sake of Jews. John, on the other hand, lives within Judaism, even if it is within a Diaspora Judaism, and strives to separate himself and his community from the broader Greco-Roman cultural complex, convinced that Gentiles will join in such a retreat.

The author of the quote is John Marshall in a book titled Parables of War: Reading John’s Jewish Apocalypse (Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2001, p. 196). I would affirm all but the “expatriate” metaphor Marshall employs at the end of the passage. In my view, Paul was no more an expatriate than John. Paul, like John, remained very much within Diaspora Judaism.

The last sentence applies equally to John and Paul: “[They] live lives within Judaism, even if it is within a Diaspora Judaism, and strives to separate [themselves] himself and [their] his community from the broader Greco-Roman cultural complex, convinced that Gentiles will join in such a retreat”.