CLICK HERE FOR INDEX TO THIS SERIES ON ST PAUL

By way of introduction to today's commentary Dr Ian Elmer writes: "In last week's reflection on the Year of Paul, we spoke of how Paul was "put in his place" by friends and foes alike. The impetus for that commentary came from Victor Furnish's 1993 presidential address to the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Washington D.C. where he spoke of the difficulties of delineating the 'historical Paul' from the 'churchly Paul' (Furnish, 1993). This week, I would like to reflect on the second of these constructs, the 'churchly Paul'."

Constructing the "Churchly" Paul...

From the very earliest years after Paul's death, his disciples in the late first-century Church attempted to press-gang the departed apostle into the service of their causes.

The authors of Colossians and Ephesians, encountering opponents within the communities Paul left behind, wrote letters in Paul's name, appealing to Paul's authority to settle disputes and debates.

From these letters emerges, what Victor Furnish (1993: 5) called, a "Paulusbild"; a new exalted "view" of Paul as apostle and martyr, whose sufferings "are said to have completed Christ's afflictions, and to have been, like Christ's own, on behalf of the whole church" (e.g., Col 1:23-25; 4:10; Eph 3:1; 4:1).

Luke's spin on Paul in Acts, similarly, presents Paul as God's "chosen instrument" who strives laboriously, risking his own life (Acts 9:23-29; 20:19), to proclaim the Gospel "before Gentiles, kings and the whole people of Israel" (Acts 9:15-16). Like Jesus, Paul heals the sick (Acts 19:11-12) and raises the dead (Acts 20:10), is falsely accused of apostasy and blasphemy by a Jerusalem mob (Acts 20:21, 27-29; Cf. Acts 18:12-13), is arrested, and is tried before the Sanhedrin (Acts 22:30-11), the Roman Governor (Acts 24:1-25:12) and Herod Agrippa (Acts 25:23-26:29).

Acts is a Greco-Roman hero tale (Mack, 1995: 228-239) whose protagonist, Paul, embarks on perilous journeys to the "ends of the earth" (cf. Acts 1:8), is caught up in civil strife and riots (Acts 19:23-41; 17:13; 20:27-36), survives snake bite (28:3-7), suffers imprisonment (Acts 16:16-40; 28:16) and shipwrecks (27:27-44), and, ultimately, preaches even in Rome (28:17-31), the centre of the world's greatest empire. In reaching Rome, Paul completes the mission that was first begun by Jesus in Galilee (Lk 4:14-15, 43) and prophesied by Simeon in the Jerusalem Temple (Lk 2:31-32; cf. Lk 8:1; Acts 28:31).

A corresponding Paulusbild emerges from later "Pauline" texts, like 1 Clement, the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus), the letters of Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna. The author of 1 Clement (5:2-7) places Paul alongside Peter as one of two apostolic pillars of the Church, whose "great example of endurance" won him a place in heaven (cf. Polycarp, Phil. 9:2).

The Pastorals hail Paul as the preeminent apostle, whose faithful endurance and righteous living is the model for all Christian living (1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 2:10-12; 3:10; Titus 2:2, 12). This is a far cry from Paul's own self-abasement as "the least of the apostles" (cf. 1 Cor 15:9-11), and his gospel proclamation of radical freedom in the Spirit (1 Cor 1:18-2:16; Gal 3:1-5; 5:16-26; cf. Rom 12:1-2).

In the Pastorals, Paul's Gospel is rendered down to mere appeals for strict adherence to "sound doctrine" (1 Tim 1:10-11) and "godly living" (1 Tim 6:3). And "Paul is himself reduced to the guarantor of apostolic doctrine (1 Tim 1:11; Titus 1:3) and the prototypical Christian man (e.g., Titus 1:1)" (Furnish, 1993: 6-7).

The myth; the prototypical convert; the exemplary Christian; the model martyr…

At the hands of these, his later disciples, Paul's story became hagiography and his memory was invoked only to press conformity upon the pew-warmers (Collins, 1975). The man became the myth; the prototypical convert; the exemplary Christian; the model martyr; and only one of the apostolic pillars of the Church.

Paul has been "put in his place" within the evolving orthodoxy of the Church; but, in so doing, he has been isolated from his historical place; from his culture and his religious heritage, from his social world, and even from the Church of his own day, including the congregations that he himself founded (Furnish, 1993: 7).

The Year of Paul presents us with an opportunity to rediscover the historical Paul; to read his letters afresh; to consider his message anew; and, perhaps, to find a new place for Paul in our reflections on our own faith journeys.

CLICK HERE FOR INDEX TO THIS SERIES ON ST PAUL

Bibliography and Further Reading:
For those who are looking for resources on Paul that are both reliable and readable, I can recommend the following:
F. Collins, "The Image of Paul in the Pastorals", LPT 31 (1975), 147-73.
V. Furnish, "On Putting Paul in His Place" JBL113 (1994), 3-17.
B. Mack, Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of the Christian Myth (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995).
B. Witherington III, The Paul Quest: The Search for the Jew of Tarsus (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1998).
Photo Credits:
The headline image of St Paul has been sourced from an icon which you will find at: www.airmaria.com.

What are your thoughts on this commentary?
You can contribute your thoughts in our forum.

©2007 Ian Elmer

[Ian's Take Archive]