{"id":1195,"date":"2013-09-19T16:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T16:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/09\/paul-the-jew-as-founder-of-christianity.html"},"modified":"2013-09-19T16:42:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-19T16:42:00","slug":"paul-the-jew-as-founder-of-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/09\/paul-the-jew-as-founder-of-christianity.html","title":{"rendered":"Paul the Jew as Founder of Christianity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
The notion that Christianity depends on \u201cgrace\u201d and Judaism on \u201cworks\u201d is a terribly unfortunate misunderstanding of Judaism. What divides Paul from Judaism is his insistence that God\u2019s justifying forgiveness is only extended to those who accept his Christ faith. In Paul\u2019s thinking, instead of humanity divided as \u201cIsrael and the nations\u201d which is the classic understanding of Judaism, we have \u201cIsrael \u201cafter the flesh\u201d (i.e., the Jewish people), non-Jews whom he calls \u201cthe nations,\u201d (i.e., Gentiles) and a new people called \u201cthe church of God\u201d made of all those whom he designates as \u201cin Christ\u201d (1 Corinthians 10:32).<\/span><\/div>\n
One thing historians of religions often emphasize is that no religious tradition is a static monolithic entity. Whether we are talking about Hinduism, Buddhism<\/a>, Christianity, or Islam, the varieties and diversity within each tradition are rich and complex. Judaism is no exception. In the time of Jesus, which historians often refer to as the \u201clate 2nd Temple period\u201d we find within the varieties of emergent Judaism multiple interpretations of almost every subject imaginable \u2014 the nature of God, the coming of the Messiah, free will and determinism, and explanations for the causes of sin, suffering, and evil. At the center of it all was the practical matter of how one is to observe and follow the Torah, or what was believed to have been the revelation of God to the people of Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai. One of the things we most emphasize in courses on the \u201cJudaisms\u201d of this period is this matter of diversity as we see it reflected in the so-called Pseudepigrapha literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, the Mishnah, and other rabbinic writings.<\/span><\/div>\n
For a general overview of Judaism\/s of this period I would recommend a few basic books: Shaye Cohen,\u00a0From the Maccabees to the Mishnah<\/em>; James Vanderkam,\u00a0An Introduction to Early Judaism<\/em>; Seth Schwartz,\u00a0Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E<\/em>, and most recently, Daniel Boyarin,\u00a0The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ<\/em>, which questions whether even the adoration and heavenly status that Jesus\u2019 first followers gave to him as heavenly \u201cLord and Christ\u201d was particularly \u201cun-Jewish.\u201d I maintain that Jesus was and remained a Jew and never entertained the establishment of a new religion.<\/span><\/div>\n
In contrast, it was Paul who might actually be called the \u201cfounder\u201d of Christianity, with its distinctive theological doctrines. Even though Jews disagreed on how one might reflect and live out all the teachings and commandments of the Sinai revelation, especially regarding what came to be called\u00a0halacha<\/em>\u00a0(literally \u201cthe way\u201d or \u201cthe walk\u201d), that is how to fulfill the various commandments, in general religious Jews, who took seriously the revelation of Torah, agreed on the obvious point that Israelites of all persuasions were obligated to live according to the commandments in order to be faithful to the Covenant. Historians and scholars seem to be in almost universal agreement that what is called \u201cthe Jesus movement,\u201d as represented by the teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, was a movement within the various Judaism\/s of its time and is most properly understood in this way, rather than as a \u201cnew\u201d religion, separate from the mother faith.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The notion that Christianity depends on \u201cgrace\u201d and Judaism on \u201cworks\u201d is a terribly unfortunate misunderstanding of Judaism. What divides Paul from Judaism is his insistence that God\u2019s justifying forgiveness is only extended to those who accept his Christ faith. In Paul\u2019s thinking, instead of humanity divided as \u201cIsrael and the nations\u201d which is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPaul the Jew as Founder of Christianity?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The notion that Christianity depends on "grace" and Judaism on "works" is a terribly unfortunate misunderstanding of Judaism. 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