Did Paul know Jesus?
Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2019 4:37 pm
I've always heard (and assumed) that Paul never met Jesus, but as I think about his timeline and what he says in his letters, I can't think of anything that precludes that he did, and I don't mean in the sense that they were pals or Paul learned anything from him, but in the sense that he knew of Jesus and his followers while Jesus was alive, like other Pharisees of the time did (according to the gospels).
As I think about Paul's timeline, I gather it is uncertain but that Paul more or less began to persecute Christians and then converted a few years after Jesus' death. But what I'm wondering now is why couldn't Paul have persecuted Christians (including even Jesus) while Jesus was alive?
I look at it this way. The gospels present the Pharisees and Herodians as plotting to kill Jesus (which seems plausible to me just for Jesus teaching against them and the oral Torah alone), and Paul was a Pharisee and in my view possibly also a Herodian (which I don't need to argue for here but which I do factor into my thinking). So if there is anything to the gospel presentation, and depending on where he lived at the time, perhaps Paul would have found Jesus as objectionable as other Pharisees (and Herodians) did.
If Paul is already thought to have persecuted Christians shortly after Jesus died, what difference would it really make if he had persecuted them while Jesus was alive like other Pharisees (and Herodians) did?
Jesus' rejection of the oral Torah could be relevant given what Paul says in Gal. 1:13-14:
As I think about Paul's timeline, I gather it is uncertain but that Paul more or less began to persecute Christians and then converted a few years after Jesus' death. But what I'm wondering now is why couldn't Paul have persecuted Christians (including even Jesus) while Jesus was alive?
I look at it this way. The gospels present the Pharisees and Herodians as plotting to kill Jesus (which seems plausible to me just for Jesus teaching against them and the oral Torah alone), and Paul was a Pharisee and in my view possibly also a Herodian (which I don't need to argue for here but which I do factor into my thinking). So if there is anything to the gospel presentation, and depending on where he lived at the time, perhaps Paul would have found Jesus as objectionable as other Pharisees (and Herodians) did.
If Paul is already thought to have persecuted Christians shortly after Jesus died, what difference would it really make if he had persecuted them while Jesus was alive like other Pharisees (and Herodians) did?
Jesus' rejection of the oral Torah could be relevant given what Paul says in Gal. 1:13-14:
Cf. Ant. 13.10.6 and Mk. 7:3-5:For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
... the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses ... [and] have the multitude on their side.
So why would Paul, as a zealous Pharisee, not have similarly objected to Jesus and his followers while Jesus was alive? Is the idea precluded by what he says in Gal. 1:22-23?The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”
For what it may be worth, I see that Paul says he had persecuted one church ("the church of God") and then was unknown to the (plural) "churches of Judea" after his conversion. Could this mean that Paul was unknown to the latter because they didn't exist as churches at the time of his persecution (when he says there was one church, "the church of God")? Could Paul have persecuted Christians ("us") when Jesus was alive, before the multiple churches in Judea had been established?I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”