Does Paul ever hint at a Pentecost event?

[Stefan Kristensen]

Looking at the communities of Paul and trying to create a picture of the religion that was Christianity, one could describe this phenomenon as a 'spirit-religion'. The spirit is the spirit of God, that can make humans take part in the very nature of God and his mind and his will. The spirit regenerates the humans physically within, making new creations, and along the way creates new special cognitive abilities, as well as providing 'gifts' such as prophecy and healing etc. Paul has many, many theological teachings, complex teachings about the nature of sin and the attitude of God now following the Christ event, and so on. But all that is purely theoretical on Paul's part. The teaching about God's spirit is different: This was a concrete thing, that the Christians obviously experienced and felt very clearly and concretely. It was a clear proof or at least a sign, that God had indeed acted, that the Christians are indeed different form every human in history up to that point, e.g. 1 Cor 2:4: "My speech and my preaching was ... by a show of spirit and force". But how did all this very important spirit thing come about? At what point in history, exactly, did this happen, and how - according to Paul?

In Acts 2 this event is narrated explicitly, where the apostles receive the spirit of God, so they "receive force" (Acts 1:8), some time after the ascension of Jesus. In this connection the prophecy from Joel 2 is cited, where God speaks about a certain time in world history, at the end of days, where he will "pour out" his spirit. In gMark the story ends even before any resurrection appearance, so any narration of a Pentecost type event must by cryptic (Mark 6:47-52?).

In gMatt at the resurrection appearance in Matt 28 there is no hint at all of the apostles getting the holy spirit. Jesus mentions it in the great commission though (Matt 28:19), hinting that as they go on and baptize the world, the ones who are baptized will receive the spirit. Jesus himself did indeed receive the spirit at his baptism (and is also conceived by it, of course), but the disciples themselves have not been baptized, and there is no explicit indication in this work (gMatt) that they will ever receive the spirit themselves.

Now, Paul says in 1 Cor 15:45 that Jesus "became a life-creating spirit". This is perhaps close to the 'Pentecost' event in gJohn, which is a wholly different story from the Pentecost event of Acts. In John 20:21-23 the resurrected Jesus himself, personally, breathes the spirit into the disciples in connection with the great commission.

My question is: This event, God's pouring of the spirit on the humans in the last days, seems to be the defining characteristic of the Christian faith and the Christian habitus, but as much as Paul talks about this spirit of God now dwelling in the 'church', does he ever hint at when this came about? For me this is a remarkable hole in the Pauline letters. He says that Jesus "was seen/appeared" after his resurrection (1 Cor 15), but what about the giving of the spirit? How did that come about according to Paul? Perhaps the question is better when it is refrased: Did the first apostles ever get baptized? If baptism is where one takes part in the resurrection force of Jesus and therefore receives the spirit, then how did the apostles get the spirit? What does Paul say about this?

[Stefan Kristensen]

It should be mentioned, that this special characteristic of early Christianity as the 'spirit-community', i.e. filled with God's spirit, also seems to have been a thing for the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls, if I'm not mistaken. I think they also operated with the notion that they had access to God's spirit in a collective fashion or something. Does anybody know if the scrolls ever mention how this came about, with the spirit dwelling among the community?

[Ben C. Smith]

I am not certain I would even expect there to have been a single spiritual event (a Pentecost, if you will) which sparked Christianity, or at least the spiritual aspect of Christianity. I imagine, rather, a heightened expectation of spirituality among certain sects (including Qumran, perhaps), a spirituality which could manifest itself at any time and to any individual person. Thus we get wandering prophets, as attested by Paul, the Didache, and the Johannine epistles; and we get instructions on how to treat prophetic utterances. It was a movement in which anyone could receive the spirit, much as we find in Romans 8 and in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. A prisoner on Patmos could see a vision; various seers could make the predictions now ensconced in Mark 13 and its parallels, and so on.

Only later, in the second and third generations and beyond, would the idea arise of a single event which spread from a select group (the apostles) to others. I take this to be Christian propaganda, meant to keep things flowing only in official channels.

There are dangers with making modern analogies, I know, but I think of the rise of Pentecostalism just over a century ago. Very often the events of 1906 at Azusa Street in Los Angeles are thought of as a sort of modern Pentecost event, but in reality there had been a specific wave of spiritual revivals arising in places as diverse as 1905 Wales and 1901 Topeka, Kansas, amidst a general upsurge in periodic revivals dating back to the sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Many of the earliest Pentecostals, just like many of the earliest Christians, also ignored barriers of race and gender; the spirit was a free gift to all of humanity, whether male or female, black or white. (And, just as in early Christianity, the normative social forces were right at the door, ready to rein things in again.)

[MrMacSon]

Looking at the communities of Paul and trying to create a picture of the religion that was Christianity ..

'the communities of Paul' seem to be communities he is trying to take under his wing; some seem recalcitrant.

It should be mentioned, that this special characteristic of early Christianity as the 'spirit-community', i.e. filled with God's spirit, also seems to have been a thing for the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls, if I'm not mistaken. I think they also operated with the notion that they had access to God's spirit in a collective fashion or something. Does anybody know if the scrolls ever mention how this came about, with the spirit dwelling among the community?

Do we get a similar sense of community in early Christianity?

We get, as you have alluded to, a sense Paul was interacting with communities. We have a sense of a Marcionite community. We have a sense of a school at Caesarea. But do we have information or evidence about other Christian communities or schools before the 4th century??

[neilgodfrey]

It has been suggested that the pentecost event in Acts was somehow related in some confused (or word-play?) manner with Paul's 1 Cor 15:6 reference to the resurrected christ appearing to the 500 at once. 500 = pentakosiois
(πεντακοσίοις)

[Stefan Kristensen]

I am not certain I would even expect there to have been a single spiritual event (a Pentecost, if you will) which sparked Christianity, or at least the spiritual aspect of Christianity. I imagine, rather, a heightened expectation of spirituality among certain sects (including Qumran, perhaps), a spirituality which could manifest itself at any time and to any individual person. Thus we get wandering prophets, as attested by Paul, the Didache, and the Johannine epistles; and we get instructions on how to treat prophetic utterances. It was a movement in which anyone could receive the spirit, much as we find in Romans 8 and in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. A prisoner on Patmos could see a vision; various seers could make the predictions now ensconced in Mark 13 and its parallels, and so on.

Yes, it was indeed a movement in which anyone could receive the spirit, but this was intimately tied up with Christ-belief. So how and when precisely did this come about - if we were to ask these Christians themselves? Would they really just answer: 'Well, Christ was resurrected and ascended to his heavenly throne, but this whole spirit thing probably just sort of came about, we dunno and we haven't really thought about it'. I don't think so.

It seems to me that according to Pauline Christianity, Jesus' deed on the cross was what enabled the salvation, the new covenant, the new creation. But the concrete tool that God would use for this, is the 'pouring out' of his spirit, or somehow making his spirit available in a way it hadn't been before. Without the spirit, no new creation, no new community, no new covenant, no salvation. But without the Christ event, no spirit. Paul is absolutely, positively, completely obsessed with 'God's spirit', it is at the absolutely center of his teachings and theology, but where, when and how in his own narrative of events, did this spirit thing happen, which is such a dominant feature of the communal existence? Surely Paul would have a clear and precise answer for that?

Two NT writings provide a precise answer for this: John 20 and Acts 2. Two different answers, judging with 'historical' glasses.

In Paul, Jesus "became a life-creating spirit" (1 Cor 15:45).
In gJohn, the resurrected Jesus comes and 'breathes' the spirit into the apostles as the new creation of the new humanity, the 'church' (John 20:22).
In Acts, the resurrected Jesus pours out the spirit upon the apostles at Pentecost from his enthronement in heaven (Acts 2:33).

There is the saying in the gospels of JtB, that whereas he himself baptizes with water, Jesus will "baptize with the holy spirit". Very well, Mark and Matthew, but why don't you guys narrate this for us? Is this something that happens outside of the time-span of your narratives?

Only later, in the second and third generations and beyond, would the idea arise of a single event which spread from a select group (the apostles) to others. I take this to be Christian propaganda, meant to keep things flowing only in official channels.

I disagree, because I think the element of the spirit within the community was evidently such a huge and dominant feature of this whole movement/sect/community, a pillar at the very core of their self-understanding and experience, that it is impossible to think that they didn't have some clear idea of when and how the spirit first was given to the Christ-believers. Did it happen at the very moment the very first Christian came to believe in the resurrection of Christ? Which would most likely be Kephas (or Peter) if we asked Paul. So Kephas saw the resurrected Jesus, and at that moment God's spirit came upon him and he was infused with it, as a natural correlative of faith?

In the later (written) narratives of the gospels, it seems clear that John's baptism does not confer the spirit. The first to receive the spirit in connection with baptism is Jesus. But who, then, was the next? Mark and Matthew don't provide a clear answer for this.

There are dangers with making modern analogies, I know, but I think of the rise of Pentecostalism just over a century ago. Very often the events of 1906 at Azusa Street in Los Angeles are thought of as a sort of modern Pentecost event, but in reality there had been a specific wave of spiritual revivals arising in places as diverse as 1905 Wales and 1901 Topeka, Kansas, amidst a general upsurge in periodic revivals dating back to the sermons of Jonathan Edwards. Many of the earliest Pentecostals, just like many of the earliest Christians, also ignored barriers of race and gender; the spirit was a free gift to all of humanity, whether male or female, black or white. (And, just as in early Christianity, the normative social forces were right at the door, ready to rein things in again.)

I think this analogy is very useful indeed. You distinguish here between what is "very often thought of" on the one hand (the Azusa Street events), and then "in reality" on the other hand (a broader wave of ideas). We could very easily compare this to the early Christians' narrative about themselves on the one hand and then reality on the other. Here I'm interested first and foremost in the narrative of the Christians, or rather in Paul's narrative. He must have had one, I'm sure, but does he ever hint at it, apart from possibly 1 Cor 15:45 ("he became a life-creating spirit")?

[Stefan Kristensen]

It has been suggested that the pentecost event in Acts was somehow related in some confused (or word-play?) manner with Paul's 1 Cor 15:6 reference to the resurrected christ appearing to the 500 at once. 500 = pentakosiois
(πεντακοσίοις)

Very interesting, I didn't know that. Do you remember who have suggested this?

For me it makes sense that, historically, the perceived experience of God 'pouring out' his spirit in the end times was connected with the first perceived experiences of the resurrected Jesus. That these two things, historically, are intimately connected: The resurrection belief and the belief in the 'pouring out' of God's spirit. It makes sense that the first experiences of the resurrected Jesus was at the same time an ecstatic experience, afterwards explained as God's 'pouring out' of his spirit.

[Stefan Kristensen]

Looking at the communities of Paul and trying to create a picture of the religion that was Christianity ..

'the communities of Paul' seem to be communities he is trying to take under his wing; some seem recalcitrant.

It should be mentioned, that this special characteristic of early Christianity as the 'spirit-community', i.e. filled with God's spirit, also seems to have been a thing for the sectarians of the Dead Sea Scrolls, if I'm not mistaken. I think they also operated with the notion that they had access to God's spirit in a collective fashion or something. Does anybody know if the scrolls ever mention how this came about, with the spirit dwelling among the community?

Do we get a similar sense of community in early Christianity?

We get, as you have alluded to, a sense Paul was interacting with communities. We have a sense of a Marcionite community. We have a sense of a school at Caesarea. But do we have information or evidence about other Christian communities or schools before the 4th century??

I think the Pauline letters clearly witness a religious movement, stretching from Jerusalem to the communities of Paul's letters, centered around the belief in and the idea of the resurrection of the executed (crucified?) messiah and the gift of the spirit from God to all Christ-believers.

[andrewcriddle]

It has been suggested that the pentecost event in Acts was somehow related in some confused (or word-play?) manner with Paul's 1 Cor 15:6 reference to the resurrected christ appearing to the 500 at once. 500 = pentakosiois
(πεντακοσίοις)

Very interesting, I didn't know that. Do you remember who have suggested this?

Most sources trace this back to Gerd Ludemann e.g. Heretics but I suspect the idea is older.

Andrew Criddle

[MrMacSon]

I think the Pauline letters clearly witness a religious movement, stretching from Jerusalem to the communities of Paul's letters, centered around the belief in and the idea of the resurrection of the executed (crucified?) messiah and the gift of the spirit from God to all Christ-believers.

When do you think Paul and his religious movement were active?