A LSO BY J AMES D. T ABOR
The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find
That Reveals the Birth of Christianity
(with Simcha Jacobovici)
The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus,
His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity
Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for
Religious Freedom in America
(with Eugene V. Gallagher)
A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among
Christians and Jews in Antiquity
(with Arthur J. Droge)
Things Unutterable: Pauls Ascent to Paradise in Its Greco-Roman,
Judaic, and Early Christian Contexts
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C ONTENTS
T O MY ESTEEMED TEACHER
J ONATHAN Z. S MITH
WHO FIRST TAUGHT ME TO MAKE
THE FAMILIAR STRANGE
AND THE STRANGE FAMILIAR
T IMELINE OF M AJOR E VENTS AND F IGURES
63 B.C. | Roman conquest of Palestine by Pompey; Judea made a province |
31 B.C.A.D. 14 | Rule of Augustus, 1st emperor of Rome |
374 B.C. | Rule of Herod the Great, King of the Jews, over Palestine |
4 B.C. | Death of Herod the Great and uprisings in Galilee and Judea |
5 B.C. | Birth of John the Baptizer, Jesus, and Paul |
4 B.C.A.D. 39 | Rule of Herod Antipas, son of Herod, over Galilee and Perea |
A.D. 1437 | Rule of Tiberius, 2nd emperor of Rome |
A.D. 29 | Execution of John the Baptizer |
A.D. 30 | Execution of Jesus |
A.D. 37 | Conversion of Paul to the Nazarene movement |
A.D. 3741 | Rule of Caligula, 3rd emperor of Rome |
A.D. 4154 | Rule of Claudius, 4th emperor of Rome |
A.D. 50 | Jerusalem conference |
A.D. 5156 | Paul preaches in Asia Minor and Greece, writes his early letters |
A.D. 54 | Rule of Nero, 5th emperor of Rome |
A.D. 56 | Pauls final trip to Jerusalem: confrontation with James |
A.D. 62 | Execution of James the brother of Jesus |
A.D. 6467 | Pauls imprisonment in Rome and his execution |
A.D. 6979 | Rule of Vespasian, 6th emperor of Rome; destruction of Jerusalem, A.D. 70 |
PREFACE
DISCOVERING PAUL
Is it not striking that this oldest and most foundational Christian creed jumps from Jesus birth to his death and resurrection, entirely skipping over his life?
How did it happen that the way Jesus came into the world, and how he leftChristmas and Eastercame to define Christianity itself? Here Catholics, mainstream Protestants, and Evangelicals all agree. To be a Christian is to believe in the virgin birth and resurrection of Christ, and thus to participate in the salvation Christ brought to the world as God-in-the-flesh. Where did this emphasis on the entrance and exit points of Jesus heavenly existence come from, and how did it achieve such centralityeven above that of Jesus life and teachings?
This book is a historical investigation of the origins of this particular way of defining and understanding Christianity. As we shall see, such an understanding of the Christian faith, confessed by millions each week in church services all over the world, originates from the experiences and ideas of one manSaul of Tarsus, better known as the apostle Paul not from Jesus himself, or from Peter, John, or James, or any of the original apostles that Jesus chose in his lifetime. And further, I maintain that there was a version of Christianity before Paul, affirmed by both Jesus and his original followers, with tenets and affirmations quite opposite to these of Paul. This is the lost and forgotten Christianity of James the brother of Jesus, leader of the movement following Jesus death, and the Christianity of Peter and all the apostles. In other words, the message of Paul, which created Christianity as we know it, and the message of the historical Jesus and his earliest followers, were not the same. In fact, they were sharply opposed to one another with little in common beyond the name Jesus itself. Discovering how such a state of affairs came about has been the quest, as well as the adventure, of my life.
I began my first serious encounter with the apostle Paul over forty-five years ago as a college student. I took a Greek reading course called The Letters of Paul. That course introduced me to Paul and his world in such a profound way that I was never the same. Day by day, phrase by phrase, we read through Pauls writings in the original Greek in a small seminar setting. We discussed every aspect of Pauls letters, their ideas, and their background. I became hooked for life on Paul and that college course marked the beginning of my lifelong spiritual and intellectual quest to understand Paul and his place in the formation of Christianity. Like Jacob wrestling the angel at the river Jabbok, I lay hold on Paul and swore that I would not let go until I understood his complex ideas and probed his mysterious depths. In this book I share with my readers what I have discovered over the past forty-five years.
I decided by my sophomore year in college that I wanted to pursue a professional career as a New Testament scholar with majors in Greek, Bible, and history. I had never encountered anything so fascinating, so alluring, as the historical investigation of the origins of Christianity. It was as if one were probing into the very foundations of our civilization in an effort to assay our most basic assumptionswhat the Germans call our Weltanschauung. Philosophy, history, and literature all fascinated me, but it was this history of ideas, and particularly these religious ideas, that became my intellectual passion.
Years later, at the University of Chicago, I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on Paul, and my first book, Things Unutterable, dealt with Pauls mystical experiences and his unique message set in the context of the Hellenistic religions of his time.
Visit any church service, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Greek Orthodox, and it is Paul, and Pauls vision of Jesus, that are centralin the theological language of the hymns, the words of the creeds, the content of the sermons, the invocation and benediction, and of course, the rituals of baptism and the Holy Communion or Mass. Whether birth, baptism, confirmation, marriage, or death, it is predominantly Paul who is invoked to express meaning and significance.
The fundamental doctrinal tenets of Christianity, namely that Christ is God born in the flesh, that his sacrificial death atones for the sins of humankind, and that his resurrection from the dead guarantees eternal life to all who believe, can be traced back to Paul, not Jesus. Indeed, the spiritual union with Christ through baptism, as well as the communion with his body and blood through the sacred meal of bread and wine, also traces back to Paul. This is the Christianity familiar to us, the Christianity of the creeds and confessions that separated it from Judaism and put it on the road to becoming a new religion.
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