The Radical Apostle Paul

This video is a recording of an interview of Marcus with Interfaith Voices about his book The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon which was co-authored with John Dominic Crossan. 

Multiple Pauls?

The interview begins with a discussion about why anyone cares how many Pauls there are or what his message is. Paul is the earliest and most important theologian of Christianity. Marcus makes the distinction that Jesus was more of a teacher than a theologian. There are some very oppressive passages in letters attributed to Paul. Such passages are oppressive to women and slaves, and suggest that everyone should be subject to the governing authorities. Many scholars believe these letters were actually written well after Paul and were intended to tone down the radicalism of Paul. Of the thirteen letters of Paul in the New Testament Marcus believes only seven of them were written by Paul due to literary style and historical situation. Within historical situation, Marcus cites rules about who can become a bishop being discussed when such rules were established after the initial Paul’s death. It is important to understand that writing in the name of a revered figure was common in that era and the writers were trying to leverage that figure’s authority.

Fitting Paul’s Christianity into Rome

This, second Paul was trying to tame down the radically egalitarian Christianity of Paul’s era to make it more compatible with the contemporary Roman empire. Christians could not own Christian slaves which put Christian communities at a disadvantage and at odds with the prevailing domination system and may have prevented new members from joining. Marcus points out that this happens with most new religions, they begin as radical new ideas and then soften over the decades to attract new slightly less radical members and support.

Paul on Homosexuality

The interviewer then asks about Paul’s stance on homosexuality. Marcus looks to one of the letters he attributes to the original Paul and notes that homosexuality is found among a long list of the vices of gentiles. The question then becomes is this a long list of things Paul cares about or is this a rhetorical flourish of how very evil these gentiles are. If he does care passionately does that matter to us? Paul was wrong about some things, for example he expected the second coming of Jesus in his very near future.

Before he was Paul, he was Saul

Early on Paul opposed Christianity, possibly because he saw it as loosening the boundary between Jews and gentiles. Part of the Jewish survival relies on maintaining sharp boundaries between Jews and everyone else.  Paul then had a conversion in which he had a strong and powerful experience of the sacred in which he saw a strong light that proclaimed itself to be Jesus. Afterward Paul would have thought of himself as a Jew living as one with Christ. The term Christianity did not come about until later.

Path to Peace

The interviewer then asks about how Christianity challenged the paradigm of power in the Roman empire. Religion supported violence which led to victory which ultimately led to peace. This “violence leads to peace” paradigm continues to be a justification for wars today.  The ruling Roman empire spoke of the emperor as ordained by God and savior of the world. Christianity spoke of Jesus as the son of God and savior of the world which was seen as a direct threat to the emperor. Jesus advocated peace through justice which conflicted with the Roman Empire’s peace through power, violence and the threat of violence. Justice meant access to the material resources needed for life and nonviolence. Nonviolent resistance against oppression was already in the roots of the Jewish tradition before Jesus and Paul. This image of Paul has been muted through the centuries with Christianity becoming a religion of the ruling powers and taking Paul’s meanings to be more about individuals’ relations with God and less about societal structuring.

Paul’s death

The New Testament doesn’t mention Paul’s death but early Christian tradition indicates he died around the year 64 during protests against the emperor Nero. Nero blamed Christians for a fire that had burned down part of Rome. He had a group of notable Christians arrested and put to death in a group. Paul likely died in an egalitarian group that paralleled the egalitarian society he wished to foster among people.