Why Christianity Owes So Much To Paul | Quest For The Real Paul | Parable

the program you're about to see is the story of the man some claim was the founder of christianity not jesus but the apostle paul in recent years scholars have put forward a lot of new ideas about paul in the next hour or so we'll hear from a number of them some of their conclusions are at odds with each other and at odds with how traditional christianity has viewed paul but when we put paul back into his first century context and listen carefully to his own words from within that culture we arrive at a new and challenging view what does this mean in practical terms for those who value paul's teachings and those of jesus of nazareth that's what we're about to find out [Music] at that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria as for saul he made havoc of the church entering every house and dragging off men and women committing them to prison saul of tarsus better known as the apostle paul a violent and arrogant persecutor of the early followers of jesus but his life took a dramatic turn following a startling encounter on the road to damascus who was paul some claim he was the founder of christianity if anyone could be labeled maybe as a christian you might think it's paul until you back off a bit and look we think of paul as a christian because we're standing on top of 20 centuries of the development of christianity the idea that that paul tried came to start a new religion is is about as absurd as the idea is that jesus came to start a new religion the early christian movement was clearly a jewish movement jesus and paul mary magdalene the beloved disciple they're all jews some scholars are introducing us to an unfamiliar paul a jewish teacher who would be embarrassed by the popular notion that he gave up on his ancestral faith it's a view that challenges traditional christian ideas and engages us in a journey of discovery a quest for the real paul with over 1 billion adherents worldwide christianity makes a claim on every sixth person on earth yet what most 21st century christians believe and do differs greatly from what the early new testament church taught and practiced the christian church today in almost any form is very very different from the christian church of the first century it's no surprise then that both jesus the jew and paul the jew have been misinterpreted and misunderstood how that happened and what it may mean for us today is the subject of this program hello i'm david hume i'm glad you could join us today as we begin a journey of discovery a quest to find new insights into the man we know as the apostle paul as author of over half the books of the new testament paul casts a long shadow over contemporary christianity visitors to the vatican encounter the apostle as they file past this statue on their way into saint peter's basilica paul's massive influence is well expressed by tatalini's giant sculpture in one hand paul holds a sword and in the other a scroll with scriptural text but it's strange that as familiar as paul is to us some scholars now insist that for centuries many people have misunderstood what paul the jew taught about the law of god they've claimed that for paul the law had no practical application in everyday life and that he attacked it vociferously insisted that this jewish apostle to the gentiles did away with the need to keep the law but how did these ideas come to be so widely accepted we know from an early date that paul's writings were regularly misunderstood in fact his fellow apostle peter says that many in the first century struggled with paul's writings often explaining them wrongly in all of paul's letters there are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures peter said that many claim to understand the hebrew scriptures but that the opposite was true they didn't understand and they even twisted their meaning he said the same was true about paul's writings so how did paul come to be so misrepresented in the early days of christian development three prominent individuals had a long-lasting and profound impact marcion the catholic bishop constantine the roman emperor and martin luther the protestant reformer marcion was thought to have been the son of a second century bishop in pontus on the southern coast of the black sea he was openly anti-jewish and tried to rid the church of the hebrew scriptures he believed that the religion and the literature of the jews was not something christians should associate themselves with his ideas were to do away with the connection between between christianity and judaism and to indicate that the the old testament was a record of a failed religion and it should be destroyed and actually had been destroyed by jesus himself marcion cast him as a man who did away with jesus teachings about keeping god's law he put forward the idea that paul was anti-jewish and against the god of the hebrew scriptures he took some of the appalling epistles and some of the book of luke and he edited them very extensively to eliminate anything that had any connection seemingly with judaism or with the old testament with the heretic martian we can see bubbling up the kind of thing that paul was aware might bubble up somebody who went right through the new testament writings excluding the bits which made it look as though christianity really was the fulfillment of judaism and turning christianity into a new sort of pagan religion as a result of marcion's teachings church leaders had to excommunicate him and brand him a heretic but even though he and his arguments were rejected marcion's anti-jewish ideas have continued to reverberate within mainstream christianity christians without knowing it i think today have distilled certain versions of the faith that end up sounding a lot like marcion and i think it's it's still a heresy today it's probably best characterized in the church today in the form of the antinomianism the position against the law that is very much a part of many many christian denominations today despite the fact that martian was thrown out of the catholic church influential leaders and theologians carried his anti-jewish and anti-law ideas forward at the beginning of the fourth century constantine the first roman emperor who claimed to be christian enshrined anti-jewish practices in the catholic church christianity under constantine becomes a form of imperial roman culture one christian denomination is favored with his patronage many have doubted constantine's initial conversion to christianity since it was only on his deathbed that he verbalized his personal commitment what he helped create was a very different religion here's the roman emperor with all his pomp and pageantry turning christianity essentially into a sort of pagan mystery religion of sorts i think paul would have been nauseated by it constantine's influence no doubt pushed judaism and christianity away from one another or accelerated that process which i think was already underway even before constantine's time i think paul would have been distressed by it the type of christianity that constantine is patronizing is very different from the type of christianity that paul is enunciating more christians are persecuted after the conversion of constantine than before precisely because they're targeted by by one particular branch constantine did not allow christians to celebrate easter based on the date of the passover as kept by the jews he declared such dating heretical though it was thoroughly biblical when constantine almost by imperial edict stated in one of his letters let us therefore have nothing more in common with these pitiful jews who are the murderers or murderers and parasites of our lord and therefore this irregularity that was passover observance had to be changed constantine's approach seeped into the preaching and writing of two of the most influential church fathers of the fourth century john chrysostom and augustine of hippo both men tried to mix hebrew and greek ways of thinking and at the same time perpetuated the emperor's anti-jewish bias this was a radical departure from the original understanding of the new testament church christianity as we know it today has been a conscious effort that began in the second third and fourth centuries and continued on to the present time of attempt to blend uh he break thought with neoplatonic philosophy and the two just simply don't mix this philosophical blending began to produce theological concepts such as the trinity an idea that paul never taught if we think of paul as an orthodox christian we will only misinterpret him that much more he's living in a period where he's not thinking in a trinitarian manner the idea of the trinity hasn't been conceived yet his letters will have jesus christ in them they will have god the god of israel god the father in them he will talk about the spirit of god and those are the textual origins that will be used to formulate the doctrine of the trinity but paul's not thinking in a trinitarian way coming forward to the time of the protestant reformation we find that its most famous leader martin luther also added to the confusion about paul's teachings luther did for all sorts of interesting historical and personal reasons polarize law and gospel in a way which i think does not do justice to the much more nuanced account that we find in paul luther was opposed to the catholic idea that performing good works could earn salvation in so doing he took paul out of his jewish context and used some of paul's arguments to fight against the catholic church because luther thought paul was anti-jewish his misuse of paul meant that over time all things jewish came to be viewed as degraded and degenerate even by scholars a great deal of christian scholarship has begun from an anti-jewish premise in part influenced through luther and in part influenced simply through stereotypes that have come down through the centuries luther's anti-jewish views added fuel to the fire of anti-semitism what shall we christians do with this rejected and condemned people the jews first to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whenever will not burn believing the end of the world was very near luther thought the jews would convert to his form of christianity when by the end of his life they hadn't luther venomously denounced them from his deathbed demanding that all jews be expelled from saxony we must drive them out like mad dogs so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy and are their other vices his language was so inflammatory that the lutheran church apologized for his words albeit 400 years later by the 20th century the misunderstanding over luther's use of paul's writings was firmly embedded and remains the view of many despite the apology for his anti-jewish outbursts john gager believes we've had the wrong image of paul almost from the beginning the dominant reigning view of paul beginning in his lifetime and coming down into the early part of the 21st century is wrong completely from top to bottom the idea that he was a jewish man who overthrew his jewish roots and taught that all things jewish are to be discarded turns out to be remarkably inaccurate and illogical geiger believes that paul was a keeper of the law and that he taught jewish believers in jesus to do as they'd always done and yet to accept jesus as the long-awaited messiah it's clear that he expects israel to continue to observe the torah to live faithfully and this is of course the central category for paul when it came to the non-jews however gager believes paul was a man with a variable approach he says that he taught the gentiles not to worry about the law of moses and only to accept christ israel must live faithfully according to the torah just as gentiles must live faithfully according to the message which paul preaches about the figure of jesus as their new redeemer but some say these approaches to paul just don't make sense when they put the apostle back into his first century in jewish context they say it's illogical that he would have taught more than one version of the gospel message to the early church and i think the evidence is that gentiles generally conform to what would be seen by outsiders as a judaic form of life they're not meeting on sunday you know worshiping in a church they know nothing of easter or christmas or any of the christian calendar they're going to be going to meetings on the sabbath the seventh day sabbath this would be consistent with paul the jews practice as a follower of jesus the jew paul made his position clear in a letter to the mostly gentile church at corinth when he wrote imitate me just as i imitate christ paul did not misunderstand jesus message of the kingdom of god a message that suggested that there was a way other than the roman way of violence a message that suggested that everyone male female slave free even i think jesus would take it as far as jew gentile should all worship the one god the picture of a jewish apostle who had one set of teachings for the jews and another for everyone else or who gave up on practices such as the sabbath and holy day observance is at odds with the biblical record and with logic celebration of the jewish festivals and celebrating a celebration of the sabbath was an ongoing given almost there was no attempt again to break away from these historical and biblical practices that the church in its earliest days had obviously continued on because they just continued to be a part of the jewish community it's very interesting that paul even encourages if not enjoins the observance of passover upon gentile christians in the book of corinthians toward the end of his life the apostle spent time imprisoned here in rome and it's almost certain that he died here but his life and teaching before he came to rome is intensely interesting his practice and example as recorded in the book of acts as he traveled allows us to gain insight into the controversy that surrounds him it's important that we go back to the original biblical accounts to discover the unfamiliar poll jill levine admits that scholarly debates over paul can get confusing so what then is the person in the street to do well the first sense that any the first step that anybody should take is to read what paul says before they read what any of us biblical scholars have to say it's to the new testament we now turn as we try to discover the real paul in a nearby church santa maria del populo there's a reminder of the dramatic change of heart paul experienced as a young man ironically this church is thought to be the original burial place of the emperor nero now dedicated to jesus mother mary in the character chapel is this work from 1601 by caravaggio it's probably the most famous painting of what is known as paul's conversion here we see him apparently stunned into surrender to christ and bathed in bright light from heaven above as he journeyed he came near damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him saul saul why are you persecuting me and he said who are you lord then the lord said i am jesus whom you are persecuting as is often the case with depictions of historical events the artist creates his own vision of reality here paul a jewish pharisee is wearing a crimson colored roman tunic paul was a roman citizen but it's unlikely that he would have worn roman clothing and the horse dominating the scene is nowhere to be found in the biblical account there's no evidence that paul was on horseback he and his companions would probably have walked 150 miles from jerusalem to damascus the account tells us that paul was taken into damascus where he remained blind for three days he was baptized he regained his sight and became a follower of jesus but what was he doing on the road to damascus in the first place it's a story that begins in jerusalem just after the crucifixion of jesus of nazareth [Music] the book of acts describes the event when saul witnessed the stoning of the first new testament martyr stephen saul looked on the murder with favor this event inflamed saul to indulge in more persecution then seoul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the lord went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of damascus so that if he found any who were of the way whether men or women he might bring them bound to jerusalem saul was extending his persecution far and wide to other members of the new sect but then came his sudden and dramatic encounter with jesus on the road to damascus and that changed everything saul began to see things literally through newly opened eyes but does that mean paul as he now became known had to renounce his faith he was after all a jew of the sect of the pharisees did he suddenly become non-jewish the answer is clear from the scriptures how did he describe himself in the early church like his traveling companion and biographer luke paul sometimes referred to his new faith as simply the way even later in life when paul described what he'd done to the early church he still used the same language he said i persecuted this way to the death nowhere does paul speak of two ways one for jews and another for gentiles he certainly recognized that they came from jewish and gentile backgrounds but as followers of the way he emphasized that there was no difference between them there is neither jew nor greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in christ jesus paul also spoke of these jewish and gentile followers of jesus as simply the church of god showing that he regarded them as a unified group he said to those at corinth that they should give no offense to the jews or to the greeks or to the church of god for paul there was one church not two paul's experience on the road to damascus led him to a complete turnaround in his attitude toward the followers of jesus he became part of that group of people who comprised the early new testament church of god their belief was a continuation of the way of life god had revealed in the hebrew scriptures but which judaism of the first century had failed to properly represent those scriptures had also foretold the appearance of the messiah but judaism as a whole would not recognize the messiah in the person of jesus but does this mean that paul was there for a convert to a new religion the old perspective on paul is that he became a christian and that that meant something other than being jewish it's captured very nicely in a children's christian cartoon i once saw where paul is going on the road to damascus and he has the jewish male head covering the kippah on his head he gets knocked to his feet the shining light is on him jesus speaks to him and he for the rest of the cartoon he doesn't have a keep on anymore finished he's christian christianity is so easily imagined as somehow the opposite of judaism because that's how christianity has presented judaism to itself in the centuries long after paul in paul's lifetime christianity is only understandable as an extreme form of judaism and paul himself thinks of himself as a jew paul did not see himself as an apostate as somebody who abandoned his jewish faith far from it in christ he has discovered it he believes in christ scripture is fulfilled the promises of the prophets have come to pass and so i think if you were to ask paul in modern terms today he would say at last i've become a true jew because of messiah jesus for paul this was what judaism was really all about and it wasn't a matter of there was judaism and we now see why it was wrong and here is something new it's a matter of discovering what judaism is really all about in the light of the fact that god had sent the jewish messiah at last and it turned out to be the jesus who died on a cross in modern terms we tend to think of a convert as someone who's changed religion but for paul conversion meant a deeper understanding and belief in his existing religion this means he had more in common with jesus and the jews than ever he did with the early church fathers who invented a very different religion paul isn't converting from judaism to something else he's joining a jewish group within judaism we know this from what he told the leaders of the jews at rome and it came to pass that after three days paul called the chief of the jews together and when they were come together he said unto them men and brethren though i have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers yet was i delivered prisoner from jerusalem into the hands of the romans this was paul's approach as he began his ministry soon after his experience on the road to damascus in fact he was soon in the synagogues there telling the jews all about his experience but does this mean that he abandoned his cultural and educational roots this is what many have believed for centuries and although paul is spreading jesus gospel to gentile churches paul consistently identified himself as a jew a hebrew of hebrews of the tribe of benjamin according to the law of pharisee paul never left that jewish connection in fact he seems to boast in it we can learn more about paul the jew by studying his education and background we know from the book of acts that he was born in tarsus a greek speaking city in asia minor tursis had become the capital of the roman province of cilicia in 64 bc and a major city of the eastern roman empire located on a fertile plain on the river kidness it was about 10 miles from the sea in paul's time the two trade routes to the east and south met about 50 miles away and continued on through the city 20 miles to the north is a narrow gorge known as the silesian gates the only pass through the taurus mountain range linking the near east and the city of ephesus on the aegean sea cleopatra the macedonian princess who became queen of egypt honeymooned in the city with mark antony this ancient roman gate is named for both cleopatra and paul under the romans tarsus became a center for agriculture and the manufacture of fabric much as it is today by paul's time there was a university established here practiced in the teaching of greek philosophy its schools were said to rival those of athens and alexandria but how did this play out in paul's life we know from the new testament that he was a roman by birth that he was a skilled writer practiced in greek philosophy and fluent in hebrew and greek paul was also educated in jerusalem at the feet of the well-known rabbi gamaliel so he was schooled in the religion and practice of the jews to a very high degree i advanced in judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers and so from this exceptional background emerged an exceptional man paul would later write about his pedigree if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh i more so circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel of the tribe of benjamin a hebrew of the hebrews concerning the law a pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church concerning the righteousness which is in the law blameless the persecution of the church in jerusalem had driven many believers back to their original homes in the cities and territories of the roman empire [Music] some had gone up the coast of phoenicia some to cyprus and some came here to antioch where they established a new congregation soon they were joined by others including non-jews who were attracted to the way the first century jewish historian josephus said that antioch was third among the cities of the roman world after rome itself and alexandria antioch was a commercial center and the capital of rome in syria in paul's time its population was around 500 000 it's located on the irantes river and although 18 miles from the sea it had its own seaport named seleucia there were important connections between this city and jerusalem the builder of jerusalem in the first century bc herod the great had also paved and put colonnades along the main street of antioch [Music] today there are not many jewish people left in antioch but in the first century there was a very large community here and generally in the synagogues outside of judea there were at least three groups of people to be found a synagogue community in the diaspora would have jews and interested gentiles as its group within the group of interested gentiles some gentiles might be so interested that they might be right on the border of thinking of making an exclusive commitment to judaism those are the people we call proselytes which is just the greek word for convert once those gentiles become jews convert to judaism they as paul says in galatians they're obligated to live completely jewishly to keep the whole torah to keep the whole law and then there's this this other group of interested pagan gentiles who are god fearers and do jewish things with their jewish friends so paul encountered at least three kinds of people in the synagogue diaspora jews whose first language was greek proselytes gentiles who'd adopted judaism god fearers pagan gentiles who acknowledged the god of israel and we could also add other pagans who were curious gentile onlookers in antioch a large number of gentiles have become converts to judaism to do so they'd undergone the essential ritual of circumcision but god fearers were not required to undergo circumcision and a large number of people became followers of jesus amongst the four groups in the synagogue antioch has long been famous in the christian world and luke says that it was the first place that the followers of jesus were called christians but this is not necessarily a compliment and not a term that they used of themselves if you read the greek carefully and literally that it was in antioch that the followers of the way were first called christians it doesn't say that they called themselves and so it suggests the possibility that it was a term applied perhaps by roman authorities to the followers of jesus there's definitely no no understanding of paul's uh perceiving himself to be a christian within the framework of how we perceive christians or would define christians in our time nowhere in the new testament does paul use the word christian to describe the followers of jesus or the early church it's a surprise to learn that christianity as we've come to know it didn't even exist in the first century so what were these people including paul and the gentiles amongst them if they weren't christians look he's preaching the hebrew god yahweh or jehovah he's telling the gentiles about the hebrew bible which it's translated into greek but essentially abraham isaac jacob so instead of reading about zeus and apollo and the pantheon they're going to start telling jewish stories if you look at his letters he refers to these stories as if they either know them or should know them our father abraham consider isaac he expects these so-called gentiles or pagans to be very judaized according to the book of acts the early church referred to itself as the way the greek term is hodos and we actually know that term from the word odometer it's connected i think with the jewish term halacha the way we walk the path that we follow so paul could not have considered himself a christian as we understand the term today he was simply a follower of jesus a follower of the way a member of the church of god he had come to antioch from tarsus at the invitation of barnabas soon the two of them were set apart by god for a special work agreed to by the other leaders here their first destination was salamis in cyprus [Music] the island of cyprus was the home of barnabas and it's not surprising that it was the first place the men visited depending on the winds it would have taken only a short time to sail the 135 miles or so from seleucia to salamis salamis was the capital of cyprus during the greek empire in paul's time it was the major commercial center today it's in the turkish inhabited part of the island the city lies in ruins after the 7th century arab invasions [Music] when paul and botamist came here they spoke in several local synagogues indicating there were a large number of jews in the city this was become the pattern in paul's teaching he would go first to the synagogue speak to the jews gentile proselytes and god fearers amongst them he would tell them that the messiah had come and prove it from the hebrew scriptures these after all were the people with whom he had a common background if paul's message had contradicted the hebrew writings and traditional worship it's not likely that anyone would have listened nothing more is recorded of this stay in salamis though we know that later barnabas returned to cyprus to visit the believers paul and his party made their next stop on the west coast at paphos the roman administrative capital it was to be a very significant visit the beginning of paul's interaction with the larger greco-roman world to the west the ancient harbor of paphos was the first port of call in cyprus for roman vessels traveling through the mediterranean here paul came into contact with the roman governor of cyprus the pro-consul sergius paulus it's a name that's been found on three inscriptions three roman inscriptions one of which identifies a curator of the river tiber in rome and it's dated about the time that paul would have been here sergius paulus was convinced by paul's teaching and became a believer especially when paul showed his spiritual advisor the jewish magician by jesus to be a fraud sergius paulus came from antioch of pasidia in central asia minor where his family owned large amounts of land it was this city that barnabas and paul was soon to travel did the pro-consul suggest that the travelers go next to his home region to deliver their message to his family after all they could have given help and support and contacts in the roman colony it seems a good enough reason for paul to have left here and gone to perga on what is today the southern turkish coast from perga the two travelers made a difficult journey across the challenging taurus mountains before reaching the colony of antioch of pisidia antioch was about 3 600 feet above sea level the city was founded in 301 bc and for much of that time jews had lived there it was an administrative center in the province of galatia and named a colony in 25 bc by the emperor augustus by paul's time some of the inhabitants were descendants of roman soldiers who'd retired there so the community paul visited was both jewish and gentile the city was undergoing extensive building during his several stays there its magnificence was said by some to resemble that of rome when paul and barnabas arrived in antioch luke tells us they went into the synagogue on the sabbath day the leaders of the congregation asked the jewish visitors to speak to the people paul addressed them as sons of the family of abraham and the god fear is amongst you so here's a clear indication that he was speaking to two distinct groups of people in the synagogue some of the same kinds of people that were in the church in antioch in syria synagogue communities in the diaspora where paul goes in the first century would have consisted of i think in many cases as many as 50 percent gentiles many in the roman empire were impressed with judaism which was regarded as a very old religion perhaps even the primary religion many romans adopted the hebrew god and judaism was granted special religious freedoms in some parts of the empire including freedom to worship on the sabbath so it would not have been so strange for romans to be in the audience in the synagogues outside of judea [Music] paul's speech in the synagogue was so effective that some jews and god fearers joined with him the gentiles asked that the same message be given to them the next sabbath when we're told that almost the whole city came together to hear the word of god if paul were teaching against the law would he have been able to convince jews in the synagogue who became followers of jesus not to keep the sabbath and why would the gentiles have asked paul to meet with them the next sabbath if meeting on that day was not their regular custom further would paul have asked jewish and gentile believers to do different things for example would he have asked the jews to meet on the sabbath and the gentiles to meet separately on sunday how could they ever have been united on that basis how could the church ever have met together the only logical conclusion is that he taught them both the same thing to worship on the same day the sabbath remember that he refers to them in the singular as the church of god not two different groups with different beliefs and practices from here paul and barnabas went southeast about 90 miles to iconium iconium in ancient phrygia became part of galatia in 25 bc it was connected to antioch by a roman road known as the via sebasti paul visited iconium more than once during his ministry and he wrote a letter to the churches in the surrounding area of galatia again paul and barnabas went into the synagogue and many jews and gentiles were convinced but then the remaining jews became upset and poisoned the minds of the gentiles against the new believers but in spite of this paul and barnabas kept on teaching for quite some time it was only when a violent plot against them was discovered that they fled for their lives the next two cities on paul and barnabas journey lystra and derby were connected by an unpaved road today there's virtually nothing to be seen of these cities following their visit paul and barnabas retraced their steps strengthening the new believers and appointing elders to take care of the new churches arriving back at perga they soon boarded a ship bound for their home base at antioch in syria once back at antioch controversy began to grow a matter of what paul was teaching especially to the gentiles now came to a head it was to become a major discussion in the new testament church one that required a council decision and a visit to jerusalem what exactly was the issue in the syrian antioch church there were many different groups of people but they were all united in their belief then some men came from judea and upset their peace they were likely believers but followers of the sect of the pharisees though they had no instructions to do so from jerusalem they demanded circumcision of followers of the way who were gentiles unless you are circumcised according to the custom of moses you cannot be saved paul and barnabas had not required circumcision of the people they taught nor had the church at antioch met any such demand the argument could not be settled so paul and baramus were sent to confer with the apostles in jerusalem to seek a decision they were received positively when they reported how the church developed among the gentiles but again contention arose but some of the sect of the pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of moses these pharisees were insisting that the gentiles be circumcised so that their understanding of the law of moses could be maintained after much debate the apostles and elders in jerusalem decided that adult gentiles did not have to be circumcised this was a clarification of how the law of moses would be applied to gentiles entering the community of the church what paul had taught was upheld is correct the jerusalem church also decided that the gentiles should abstain from things polluted by idols from sexual immorality from things strangled and from blood what's often missed is that these four prohibitions came from the time of moses and govern the entry of gentiles into the nation of israel they were in that respect part of the mosaic law there is no indication in the book of acts that the gentiles should not keep the law what had happened in respect of circumcision is that the law was simply clarified when paul returned to antioch there was joy that his teaching had been upheld soon he and a colleague named silas set out on a second journey revisiting many of the same cities that paul had been to before and going to several new locations as well [Music] one of the cities paul and silas came to was philippi in macedonia what is today northern greece the city was founded in 360 bc by the father of alexander the great philip ii once the romans conquered macedonia in 168 bc they built the ignatian way joining the adriatic and aegean seas and philippi became a major trading and military center many veterans retired here so its population was largely roman the language spoken was mainly latin and the city was in some respects a miniature rome paul goes to philippi he goes out on the sabbath day to a place where he thinks people be gathering for prayer it you could call it culture but it's jewish culture it's not pagan culture they're meeting on the jewish holy day they're in some way addressing prayers to the jewish god reading the jewish scriptures and yet they're gentiles we find this through paul's letters too in passing he can mention christ our passover he doesn't stop to explain oh by the way there's this obscure jewish festival you probably have never heard of it assumes they've heard of it seeking out people to meet with on the sabbath paul went outside of the city of philippi to the riverside this is the river gangeti's nearby philippines it seems that when there was not a synagogue in a city it was not unusual for people to gather by the river when paul came here he met with a group of women who met regularly on the sabbath nothing unusual for paul then to join them because he was a sabbath keeper himself it seems that a number of them were persuaded luke writes that certainly one of them was a worshiper of the god of israel one of those listening was a woman from the city of thyatira named lydia a dealer in fine purple cloth she was already a god fearer and the lord opened up her heart to respond lydia was a gentile god fearer not a jews she was also a seller of purple dye or purple cloth something that the romans used in the manufacture of clothing which means she was very likely a woman of considerable social standing once she and her household heard paul's message they were baptized became followers of jesus and members of the church of god and when she and her household were baptized she begged us saying if you have judged me to be faithful to the lord come to my house and stay so she persuaded us paul obviously did judge her faithful and he and his party stayed with her for a little while next they went on to thessalonica capital of the province of macedonia about a hundred miles away thessalonika was made a free city by the romans in 42 bc it had good relations with rome and was never a colony having its own form of government the emperor was held in highest esteem and the cult of emperor worship thrived in the city it's apparent from the letters that paul wrote to the church that eventually formed here we know those letters as first and second thessalonians that he and silas met with considerable success and they worked very hard as usual they went first to the synagogue now they came to thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the jews then paul as his custom was went into them and for three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures some jews were persuaded by paul's teaching as well as others described as devout greeks including leading women all of these people were part of the same synagogue so the commonality here that we're seeing is that all of these people worship the same god the new congregation that formed here under paul's leadership was composed of jews and gentiles proselytes and god fearers those jews who were not persuaded raised a riot in the marketplace bringing a wrongful accusation before the city's rulers they said that paul and silas were troublemakers teaching that jesus not caesar was king as a result the rulers required paul and silas to leave the city that evening they left the believers for berea about 50 miles to the southwest berea is in the foothills of the olympic mountains a little off the beaten track but an important town in paul's time prosperous and with a jewish population this is part of the restored jewish quarter with its synagogue here paul came and he spoke with the jews and he said he found them to be more fair-minded than the ones in thessalonica these people were willing to examine the scriptures daily to see whether what paul said was true soon a congregation was founded and amongst them were also worshippers who were gentile in origin men and women of high born status in all of this there's no indication that paul taught anything against the hebrew scriptures before long however paul's opponents arrived from thessalonica and stood up the people once again so the new believers sent him on his way to athens where he would wait for his colleagues to arrive it was to be a momentous visit the site of paul's well-known exchange with the athenian philosophers when paul arrived in athens and as he waited for his colleagues to arrive he became more and more concerned at the idolatry he saw all around him he was astonished by the number of temples statues altars and objects of worship to the greek gods and the roman emperors so many in fact that the greek geographer strabo wrote that athens must be the chosen residence of the gods indicating that there were more statues there than he could take the time to write about for paul the commandment keeper and the follower of jesus idolatry was a sin breaking one of the ten commandments [Music] and here at the famous acropolis visitors can still see what's left of those times paul would have seen the parthenon and inside the 40-foot colossal golden ivory statue of athena parthenos the virgin athena goddess of athens in paul's time athens had declined in importance from its previous classical days of greatness it was primarily an intellectual and cultural center as usual paul went first to the synagogue and reasoned with the jewish and gentile worshipers but he also spoke in the famous marketplace where the greek philosophers met down below the acropolis here in the forum or marketplace paul came into contact with the epicurean and stoic philosophers who met for debate and discussion in the porches or stowa around the market area this central area was also filled with statues and temples when paul told the crowd about jesus and the resurrection he received a mostly negative response some of the philosophers insulted him by calling him a babbler a picker of scraps of religious or philosophical knowledge others were concerned enough about the introduction of new gods to challenge the athenian religious order that they took him to the areopagus the official court of the government of athens and they brought him to the areopagus saying may we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak for you are bringing some strange things to our ears therefore we want to know what these things mean paul's defense was masterful he described how during his stay in athens he'd come upon an altar to the unknown god such altars did exist the second century writer parsonas mentioned seeing them in athens so paul could never have been accused of introducing a new god when he said that the unknown god was the very god he represented paul's main argument was that the worship of many idols is nothing to do with the one true god who created everything that god is not found in temples made with human hands such as those up on the acropolis paul was telling them that idolatry is wrong and because the world is sinned in many ways this being just one of them god will send a man to judge the world the man he will send has already been resurrected from the dead at the mention of the resurrection some turned away from paul's speech but others believed him among them a man named dionysius a leader of the areopagus and a woman called damaris and several others from here paul moved on 50 miles to the west to the commercial capital of the area corinth where he was to have much success classical corinth was founded in 1000 bc and almost completely destroyed by the romans in 146 bc nearly 100 years later julius caesar rebuilt the city as a roman colony by the 50s a.d it was fast becoming the wealthiest city in southern greece from this vantage point on the acro corinth almost 1900 feet above the peloponnesian peninsula it's easy to see why in paul's time the city was so important from an administrative and commercial viewpoint like most cities with port facilities corinth fostered a mobile and decadent society but its everyday moral problems were only made worse by local religious practices the geographer strabo claimed that in the first century bc one thousand female slave prostitutes who'd been dedicated as offerings were active at the temple of aphrodite it's known that the temple which was associated with immorality was restored in roman times in any case the prostitutes brought much wealth to the area and probably worked in the city down below in this challenging and corrupt environment paul stayed for 18 months and established a group of followers of the way this inscription on white marble was found on the leckian road near corinth's forum in its entirety it probably read synagogue of the hebrews archaeologists speculate that it was placed over the door of a synagogue built a little before or after paul's visit it demonstrates that there were enough jews in corinth to warrant such a building the new testament confirms this at the time of paul luke tells us that paul went to the synagogue every sabbath in corinth and spoke with the jews and the gentiles the proselytes and god fearers eventually the jews would no longer listen so paul went solely to the gentiles in this city two of them became members of the church one named justice who lived by the synagogue and another the synagogue ruler crispus once he joined other corinthians joined with him but soon opposition from the jews boiled over perhaps one of the reasons was that crispus whose title ruler of the synagogue could mean public benefactor of the synagogue had become a follower of the way thus the jews had lost a god-fearing financial supporter so they brought paul before the roman pro council gallio and accused him of teaching people to worship god against the law in effect of promoting an illegal religion it was an illogical argument paul as a jew as a pharisee as he described himself deeply believed that his gospel was was embedded in the torah and and his argument both with gentiles and presumably with jews with whom he argued was that this is not my own invention i have received it in a revelation from god and if you understand the torah properly you'll see it there too judaism was a legally recognized religion in the roman empire galio saw the case against paul as an internal jewish matter and threw it out effectively recognizing the followers of jesus as a legal part of judaism this allowed the church in corinth to flourish so what did paul teach the members here in corinth did he do as he done in other places these two extant letters to the church here tell us all about it for i received from the lord that which i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death till he comes here in a brief passage we see that paul was willing to follow jesus his master exactly and doing what he did on his final passover evening with his disciples and this is something that was written 20 years after paul's experience on the damascus road but did paul recommend that followers follow jesus in other ways for example did he expect them to keep the sabbath and the holy days just as the jews of that time did and as jesus himself had done we find in a passage in corinthians where paul writes to jews and gentiles that he expects them to keep a feast that the ancient israelites had kept therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened for indeed christ our passover was sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven nor with a leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth when he speaks of keeping or observing the feast he's speaking of the feast of passover and the days of unleavened bread something that jesus himself kept now the feast of unleavened bread drew near which is called passover then came the day of unleavened bread when the passover must be killed and jesus sent peter and john saying go and prepare the passover for us that we may eat even in the gentile world paul was following jesus example down to the letter in observing the holy days that god had commanded of ancient israel in the old testament [Music] paul traveled next to the city of ephesus then a major port on the other side of the aegean sea to do so he came here to cancria corinth's eastern port people traveling to jerusalem from greece could easily have used ephesus as a resting place it was the capital of the roman province of asia and home to the most beautiful structure on earth of its time the temple of artemis known to the romans as diana she was the greek goddess of hunting and fertility and most of the inhabitants of ephesus worshiped her paul lived and taught here for up to three years the new testament shows that his approach was consistent with the pattern he'd established in cities previously visited when paul first came here he went as usual to the local synagogue but he didn't stay long because he wanted to be in jerusalem as soon as possible he said i must by all means keep this coming feast the feast or festival that he refers to is the biblically commanded feast of pentecost which occurs in may or june so this again gives a clue to paul's own personal practice and surely what he would have taught gentile believers luke also refers to holy days as calendar markers on their journeys clearly both of them thought of keeping the holy days as they plan their travels [Music] when paul returned here he came over land from jerusalem and antioch and it began where he left off teaching in the local synagogue which he did for about three months it was only when people there rejected what he had to say and spoke critically of the way that he started teaching daily in a local philosopher's school where he met with much success this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in asia heard the word of the lord jesus both jews and greeks though most of the jewish community rejected paul's message some did believe but he had his greatest success amongst the god-fearing non-jewish population of the city and the surrounding area it may be that during paul's time ephesus and asia in general saw more growth than any other from here paul went on to macedonia and greece where he continued teaching and encouraging the believers there for another three months on his return from greece a little bit later paul again stayed here in philippi luke tells us that they departed philippi after the days of unleavened bread which are associated with the jewish passover season he also tells us that paul was anxious to get back to jerusalem in order to keep the feast of pentecost so here we have a couple of examples of paul and his colleagues jews and gentiles alike keeping the jewish holy days according to ben witherington in his commentary on the book of acts paul kept here in philippi either the jewish passover or a christianized version of it john god takes the argument a little bit further well i think that he would have been keeping the pass over first of all with those who were part of his own jewish community his own jewish family but that he would also have been observing the passover with those and who were believers in jesus from the gentile world who were as paul said in times past gentiles but now had become a part of the commonwealth of israel i think paul's thinking was that these people who were in times past pagans who were which the gentile term gentile came to connote uh had become a part of the commonwealth of israel by being adopted into that family through their faith in jesus as the messiah after paul left philippi on his way to jerusalem by sea he avoided a stop at ephesus perhaps he feared he would be delayed by enemies instead he sailed a little further south to the port of miletus paul called for the ephesian eldest to come and meet him here in miletus he felt that it would be the last time they'd have an opportunity to get together and so he spent time urging them to follow his example and to live the new way of life according to god's spiritual law you know doc told them why he was going to jerusalem in such a hurry to keep an annual holy day something they knew that was his practice and something he doubtless encouraged them to continue to practice after his departure from this point forward paul's life is the story of the continuing expansion of his ministry in the places we visited and the continuing intrigue against him by the jews and others this opposition led to two periods of imprisonment for him and his eventual death in rome it's there that we now return in conclusion [Music] it's thought that the apostle died here in rome in the 60s a.d during the reign of the emperor nero nero was out of town and it said that someone beheaded paul on nero's orders and this may be the prison where he was kept before that happened above you can see the sign that tells us this is the prison of the apostles peter and paul and while there's no direct evidence that peter was ever in rome there's certainly biblical evidence that paul was and there are other sites here in rome that claim a connection with the apostle [Music] it's said that paul was buried in rome at what is now called san paulo foreign the church of saint paul outside the walls the building stands where a previous church was constructed in the time of the emperor constantine evidence was found that associated the first church with paul it was an inscription on a slab of marble that read paulo apostolo martiri the martyr the apostle paul in recent excavations archaeologists believe they've confirmed that paul's remains were placed there tradition has it that a roman matron lucina had paul buried in her vineyard of course apart from the biblical references to his impending death this is hearsay and legend as we've seen we can know of paul his life and times and his journeys across many parts of the roman empire comes from the new testament not from tradition as we've discovered on our journey today the image that most people have of the apostle paul is really quite distorted and not all of the scholars we've talked to would agree with the main conclusions we've reached when asked what we should do as a result of the jewish heritage that's been uncovered some would probably say very little i find increasing numbers of christians today who want to recover the jewish roots of christianity and i think that's splendid but there's a way to do it and a way not to do it i don't think it's appropriate for christians to be celebrating those jewish festivals why because christianity as we know it today is primarily a gentile phenomenon jesus the jew does not offer jewish practices to christians christians were never expected from the gentile world to adhere to jewish practices and jewish laws james tabor would not agree that paul taught his listeners whether gentile or jew to avoid the teaching and practices of jesus the jew i think these followers of paul are essentially following the rhythms of jewish life as how i would put it they're very familiar with the calendar with the holy days and clearly driving some sort of meaning out of these days and as professor taber points out the historical record clearly demonstrates that these jewish patterns continued among many people well into the fourth century in antioch this is a time of chrysostom the great christian preacher he's very anti-jewish he's very proud that christianity has become the replacement of judaism but in half of his sermons he's telling people don't go to the synagogue i don't want any of you going to the synagogue anymore quit keeping the sabbath don't listen to your jewish neighbors about what you should eat and so it's very clear that even that would be in the 4th century in a major city christians that would call themselves christians are still having this exchange with jews and being interested in jewish things but does that mean we should change our approach today tom wright thinks that it's too simplistic to say that we should reject modern church practices and go back to what the early new testament followers of the way did he believes that the church has rightly moved beyond the beliefs and practices of the first century followers of jesus in many ways it's obvious if you go three or four hundred years down the track that the later church develops in all sorts of ways which the earliest christians would never have imagined um you know all the kind of paraphernalia that we associate with the high imperial period of the fourth and fifth centuries and so on but in fact when you look at the evidence things are much more complicated as usual than a simple either or would make out yet other scholars like john garr would say that we must return to the beliefs and practices of those early days if we're to come into line with the original teachings of jesus and paul i think we have to go back first of all and get a new appreciation for the bible of jesus and the apostles because this is this is foundational to our faith and realize once and for all that the faith of jesus and of the apostles was a hebraic faith that it was solidly rooted in the hebrew scriptures and then begin to sort out what we're doing in christianity and what we believe in christianity that is founded on the book after studying and teaching about paul for over 30 years my own conclusion is that he taught a consistent message paul was not divided in his mind as to the beliefs and practices he taught that means it would have been illogical for him to teach his audiences two different messages paul was not the founder of christianity as some have said as a jew intent on following his master jesus of nazareth he taught both jews and gentiles to live the same way they kept the seventh-day sabbath observed the biblical holy days and knew nothing of easter or christmas or the trinity after all the centuries of christian development it comes as a shock to many to discover that the original church was so very different as one writer said following the end of the first century it's as if a curtain falls on the new testament church for several decades when that curtain rises an entirely different church with different practices is in place this explains why the perspective we've explored in this program has not really been heard before and it's one that demands our attention if you'd like to know more please go to our website at www.vision thank you for joining us today i'm david hulme

Channel: Parable - Religious History Documentaries

Views: 85,223

Keywords: parable, parable channel, parable documentary, religious history, religious history documentary, bible documentary, bible documentary bbc, jesus documentary, paul apostle, who was paul, who is paul in the bible, was jesus fake, was jesus not the real, who were the apostles, christian mystery, real christian origins, real christianity, real start of christanity, christianity origins, jesus history, christianity history, christian mystery documentary

Id: rHq4CE4QqeE

Length: 70min 50sec (4250 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 10 2021