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Paul and the Jesus Tradition: It Is Time for Another Look

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Stephen J. Patterson
Stephen J. Patterson
Affiliation:
Eden Theological Seminary
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Extract

Among the most vexing problems in the history of New Testament scholarship has been the relationship between Jesus and Paul. The problem is this: although Paul became one of the most prolific representatives of the movement that began with Jesus, by most modern accounts, he pays so little attention to the historical figure Jesus of Nazareth that, paradoxically, one has been forced to conclude that Paul really did not know much about Jesus, or perhaps even that Paul simply was not interested in the historical person Jesus. The discussion of the relationship (or lack thereof) between Paul and Jesus has a history that is both long and complex. But when one surveys the vast literature devoted to the subject one thing stands out: the major advances in the discussion have generally been achieved not by efforts to understand the apostle Paul better, but by new developments in the study of the historical Jesus and the theological program that has always attached itself to this thorny issue.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 84 , Issue 1 , January 1991 , pp. 23 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1991

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References

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26 “Rom 12:14 (cf. Matt 5:44); Rom 12:17 (cf. Matt 5:39); Rom 13:7 (cf. Matt 22:15-22); Rom 14:13 (cf. Matt 18:7 // Mark 9:42 // Luke 17:1-2); Rom 14:14 (cf. Matt 15:11 // Mark 7:15); 1 Thess 5:2 (cf. Matt 24:43 // Luke 12:39); 1 Thess 5:13 (cf. Mark 9:50); 1 Thess 5:15 (cf. Matt 5:38-48).

27 Cf. also 1 Cor 14:37, probably referring to 1 Cor 14:26-33a.

28 For a survey of the literature see Fallon, Francis T. and Cameron, Ron, “The Gospel of Thomas: A Forschungsbericht and Analysis,” ANRW 2, 25, 6 (1988) 4213Google Scholar-24.

29 Stendahl, Krister, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976)Google Scholar.

30 The debate over the precise identity of these “opponents” is well known. For a discussion of the options see Ellis, E. Earle, “Paul and His Opponents: Trends in Research,” in Neusner, Jacob, ed., Christianity, Judaism, and Other Greco-Roman Cults: Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty (4 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1975) 1. 264-98Google Scholar; for literature, see also Betz, Hans Dieter, Galatians: A Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Churches in Galatia (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979) n. 22Google Scholar.

31 The speeches and letter in Acts 15 are no doubt relatively late, reflecting conditions in the post-Pauline era.

32 The translation and divisions used throughout are those of Marvin Meyer in Kloppenborg, John S., Meyer, Marvin W., Patterson, Stephen J., and Steinhauser, Michael G., A Q-Thomas Reader (Sonoma, CA: Polebridge, 1990)Google Scholar.

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37 So Meeks, Wayne A., “The Image of the Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest Christianity,” HR 13 (1974) 196.Google Scholar For Thecla's disguise see the Acts of Paul and Thecla 3.25; 40.

38 See MacDonald, Dennis Ronald, The Legend and the Apostle: The Battle for Paul in Story and Canon (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983) 17–33Google Scholar.

39 In popular literature of the period the dangers a woman traveler might encounter are exploited for the purposes of titillation in Xenophon's Ephesiaca; for a readily available translation of this text see Hadas, Moses, Three Greek Romances (Library of Liberal Arts; Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964) 71–126Google Scholar.

40 This is Theissen's interpretation of 1 Cor 9:3-18; 2 Cor 11:7-15, 12:13; see his “Legitimation und Lebensunterhalt. Ein Beitrag zur Soziologie urchristlicher Missionare,” in Studien; ET: “Legitimation and Subsistence: An Essay on the Sociology of Early Christian Missionaries,” in idem, The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth (trans, and ed. Schutz, John H.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982) 40–54Google Scholar.

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42 For the position that Paul has composed the speech to mimic the wisdom style of those whom he opposes in Corinth see Pearson, Pneumatikos-Psych1Kos Terminology, 27-42; cf. Conzelmann, Hans, I Corinthians (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975) 57–60Google Scholar.

43 Koester, Helmut, “Gnostic Writings as Witnesses for the Development of the Sayings Tradition,” in Layton, Bentley, ed., The Rediscovery of Gnosticism, vol. 1: The School of Valentinus (Studies in the History of Religions 16; Leiden: Brill, 1980) 248–50;Google Scholaridem, Ancient Christian Gospels: Their History and Development (Philadelphia: Trinity, 1990) 55–62.Google Scholar Koester calls attention to similarities in the language of 1 Corinthians 1-4 and several sayings in the Gospel of Thomas. He suggests that a sayings collection common to both Thomas and Paul may account for such similarities. Cf. the similar remarks of James M. Robinson, “Kerygma and History in the New Testament,” in idem and Koester, Trajectories through Early Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971) 42–43. Robinson, however, points to Q rather than Thomas: “First Corinthians and Q have in common the issue of Jesus and Wisdom. It is possible that the Q material may in part have had a Sitz im Leben similar to the conflict in Corinth; that is to say, the prevalent Bultmannian assumption that the sayings of the Lord are not likely to have played a role in Pauline Christianity might not be as obvious as it has seemed.”

44 Eastern Syria is the provenance suggested most often for the Gospel of Thomas; see esp. Puech, H. -Ch., “The Gospel of Thomas,” in NTApoc 1: 286Google Scholar; Gospels and Related Writings (trans. Wilson, R. McL.; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963) 286Google Scholar; Guey, Julien, “Comment le ‘denier de César’ de l'evangile a-I-il pu devenir une pièce d'or,” Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique 15 (1960) 478–79;Google ScholarKlijn, A. F. J., “John XIV 22 and the Name Judas Thomas,” in Studies in John Presented to Prof. Dr. J. N. Sevenster on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, NovTSup 24 (1970) 88–96;Google Scholaridem, “Christianity in Edessa and the Gospel of Thomas,” NovT 14 (1972) 70–77;Google Scholarcontra Ehlers, Barbara, “Kann das Thomasevangelium aus Edessa stammen?” NovT 12 (1970) 284–317Google Scholar.

45 Koester, (Ancient Christian Gospels, 60)Google Scholar notes the connection, and suggests that Paul's comments amount to an ironic rendering of Gos. Thom. 2.

46 I refer here to Kloppenborg's formative layer of Q (or Q1), a collection of wisdom speeches in which there is no reflection upon the nature of Jesus' death as a saving event (Formation, esp. 171-245). Cf. Mack, , Myth of Innocence, 86Google Scholar.

47 This is the fundamental insight suggested by the collected essays of Robinson and Koester in Trajectories.

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49 Robinson, James M.Google Scholar, “Logoi Sophon: On the Gattung of Q,” in idem andKoester, , Trajectories, 76–85Google Scholar.