Trouble Brewing in Galatia

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Last week we talked about Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica. The folks up there were impatient for the second coming that Paul had promised them. And yet nothing had happened after a couple of years. They were beginning to think they had been sold a bill of goods. In Paul’s first letter up there he had to tell them to ‘buck up, it won’t be long now.’

Things in Galatia was different. In Galatia, Paul’s message about Jesus was being delivered out of the Jewish synagogue. And it was attracting a lot of local gentiles. You gotta think everyone knew that this was not going to end well. 

  • How was Paul’s message different? Paul had decided his traditional Jewish education was not working for him. His  main message was that Christ alone was all you need for salvation. All those rituals required of strict Judaism? No need. Kosher diet? Superfluous. Circumcision? You gotta be kidding. This really pissed off the local Jewish leaders.
  • So what do you do if you’ve got an individual causing rifts in your local congregation? You appeal to the big guns in Jerusalem — Peter and James (Jesus’ brother). According to Peter and James, contrary to what Paul said, believers in Jesus were expected to participate in all the traditional Jewish rituals. All of them. Paul fought back, attacking both Peter and James in his letters. And while he was at it, he berated the Galatians for abandoning his message about Jesus and retracting back into the traditional Judaism. Paul was not a patient man.
  • How did it end? It’s hard to tell. It is not likely Paul and Peter ever shared a glass of wine together. But it is interesting that Acts (written 20 years later, after Peter was killed by Nero) says that Peter converted to Paul’s way of viewing things. Sure he did.

Which Was Paul’s First Letter?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Let’s take up Paul’s letters, written sometime between 50-60 CE.

Which letter was the first one? You might think that Romans was first because it appears first in the New Testament. Nope. Back in the day, the church authorities decided to arrange the epistles according to … length. Romans is the longest of Paul’s letters. Philemon is the shortest. And yes, there are New Testament books after Philemon, but they were not written by Paul. Thessalonians was chronologically the first, written around 52 CE.

What was happening in Thessalonica to cause Paul to write a letter? Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia (just north of Greece). The people there had become disenchanted with the whole Roman gods system and were looking for something else just as Paul came along on one of his early missionary trips. They kinda liked this new offshoot of Judaism (not called Christianity yet). But they were growing a little impatient waiting for the return of the kingdom of God that Paul had promised was imminent.

So what do you do if you hear about this unrest in 52 CE? You write them an inspirational letter. You encourage them to “stay the course … it won’t be long now.“ How inspiring was it? Ummmm, maybe something got lost in all the translations between then and now. Or maybe you just had to be there to get the full Paul effect in I Thessalonians. 

Question of the week:  Chronologically, which was Paul’s second letter?

Even More (and the last) Fun Facts About the New Testament

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

This week we finish up with three final things taken from a pop quiz that New Testament Professor Bart Ehrman gives his University of North Carolina students at the beginning of the school year. 

  • Name four gospels not in the New Testament
    • Gospel of Peter. Containing a detailed account of the resurrection.
    • Infancy Gospel of Thomas. Jesus could be a brat if he wasn’t picked first for the kickball team.
    • Proto-Gospel of James. About Mary’s birth and conception.
    • Gospel of Thomas. A collection of sayings of Jesus. No narrative.
    • Gospels of Philip, Mary, and Judas. These are all Gnostic gospels.
  • What does the term “Gospel” mean? It’s an old English term for good news, or evangelical books. The significance here is that they are not called histories or biographies, and were not intended to be read that way.
  • Who carried Jesus’ cross? It depends. Mark, Matthew and Ike say that Simon of Cyrene carried it. John says that Jesus himself carried it all the way. In one of the movie versions (Greatest Story Ever Told) the producers resolve the problem by having both Simon and Jesus carry it. Ok, then. But that’s not in the gospels.

Well, that was fun. We’ll return to Paul next week.

And if you want to see what the Chief Editor wrote about Gnosticism, check this out (it’s short and fairly interesting for a topic on Gnosticism):

https://www.soulcallministries.org/gnosticism/

MORE Fun Facts About the New Testament

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

We received a lot of positive emails last week about our random facts post. So we’re continuing this week with three more random things taken from a pop quiz that New Testament Professor Bart Ehrman gives his Univeristy of North Carolina students at the beginning of the school year. 

  • When was Jesus born? You’d think that would be an easy one. Nope. First, there is no Year Zero. We go from 1 BCE (Before Common Era) to 1 CE (Common Era). Sooooo, even if it were accurate (which it isn’t), which was it? It used to be BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini) when the monks did up the first Christian calendar. But that Christian way of dating fell out of favor in academic circles several years ago.
  • Four years off. And while we’re at it, a monk named Dennis the Short calculated the starting point for the birth year of Jesus, counting back from his place at the table in the sixth century. Somewhere he must have transposed a number. His new calendar started with Jesus’ birth in Year 1. But the Gospels indicate that Jesus was born during the reign of King Herod, who died in 4 BCE. We’ll bet that made for a bad performance review for Dennis that year.
  • Who wrote each of the Gospels? First, the title of each Gospel was based on the following:
    • Matthew. A disciple of Jesus.
    • Mark. Peter’s secretary.
    • Luke. Paul’s traveling companion.
    • John. A disciple of Jesus.
    • But none of these books were actually written by the people they were named for. They were all anonymous. The author never identifies himself in any of them. And the first actual record we have of the names of the four gospels is not until around 185 CE, a century after they were circulating. 

Some Fun Facts about the New Testament

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Today we have three random things taken from a pop quiz that New Testament Professor Bart Ehrman gives his Univeristy of North Carolina students at the beginning of the school year. These are fun.

  • How many books are in the New Testament? The answer is 27. But the more interesting observation (if you are into numerology) is that it is three to the third power. 3x3x3. Trinity. Three. Is that fun or what?
    • The more intellectual meaning from the 27 books is that each was written by a different author, in a different time in history. Plus they are not arranged in chronological order. That is especially overlooked sometimes in studying the Gospels, which have several overlapping stories, but quite a few differences and even contradictions. 
  • Where and In what language were they written? We have talked about this before, but it bears repeating. Jesus’ native language was Aramaic. But the books of the New Testament were written in Greek. And they were not written in Israel, but in various places throughout the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Rome was probably the most western site.  Side note:  The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
  • Why not Latin? Latin was spoken in the western part of the Roman Empire. But scholars believe most of the books were written in the eastern part, which was still dominated by Greek-speak. Plus Greek was the common language used for business and cultural exchange, much like English today. Having the New Testament books written in Greek made it easier for the Christian doctrine to spread across the entire Roman Empire.

What was Paul’s Thorn?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Let’s get to it:  Was Paul gay?

  • Paul says he is single. This in itself is very unusual for a Jewish male, and especially a Jewish religious leader, at the time. And Paul encourages his followers to remain single … if at all possible. But Paul admits that most people cannot control their sexual desires; they can get married.
  • Then there’s some of the other things Paul says. He talks about not being able to control his ‘member.’ OK, we’ll admit this is the English translation of the Greek. But it seems unlikely that it is a reference to having sin in his other appendages, such as arms and legs. And then:
    • “I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate”. (Romans 7)
    • “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it”. (Romans 7)
    • “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” (II Corinthians)
  • What if this is true? We acknowledge that there are multiple interpretations of Paul’s reference to his “thorn.” Some of the more traditional interpretations list an eye infection or some other non-controversial malady. But we can only imagine, if this interpretation is true, how much internal angst Paul must have gone through feeling his own natural inclinations were not in line with his religious beliefs.

What did Paul say (and not say)?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

This week let’s talk about what Paul said (and didn’t say) about himself and about Jesus.

  • Paul was not short on ego. He calls himself “blameless under the law.” He claims he was the best student in his class in rabbinical school. And that he had advanced far beyond his peers in pursuit of holiness. We know he liked to talk … a lot. There’s a story in Acts about Paul talking for so long, he put a boy to sleep and he fell out of a window. Paul healed him, then continued speaking.
  • Road to Damascus thing? Many of us have heard about Paul’s conversion on the Road to Damascus. But that story was written in Acts, by the same author who wrote Luke. And it was written 30 years or so after Paul’s death. Paul himself never mentions a conversion experience on the Road to Damascus.
  • So what did Paul say about Jesus? Paul is steeped in Jewish tradition (just ask him). So it was natural for him to draw parallels between Jewish traditions and Jesus.
    • The lamb that was sacrificed during certain Yom Kippur became a parallel for Jesus being sacrificed. So when Christians take up the wine and the bread on Sunday morning (it was Welch’s grape juice and wafers in my church) and say “Jesus died for my sins,” they are re-enacting a Jewish ceremony that Paul likely started.
    • Paul even says that Jesus died “in accordance with the scriptures.” What was he referring to there? It’s a reference way back to II Isaiah, which talked a lot about an archetype called the “Servant.” The “Servant” was supposed to find meaning in absorbing the world’s pain, bearing hostility, and even enduring death. The Gospel writers (writing 20 years after Paul’s letters) took this idea and ran with it … with their own embellishments.

How did the oral traditions of Jesus start?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

There are a lot of long gaps in the early history of the New Testament. Jesus died in 30 CE. Paul doesn’t start writing until 50 CE. And the first gospel (Mark) is not written until 70. What happened to continue the story of Jesus, especially in that period 30-50 CE before anything was written down?

This week we ran across some thoughts on this very thing from Bishop Shelby Spong. We’ve mentioned Spong several times in this newsletter. You’ve got to listen to his YouTube lectures to get a real appreciation of this iconoclast and how he unapologetically deals with the traditional Christian literal approach to the Bible. 

  • Part of the Jewish community. Spong points out that the early followers of Jesus were part of the regular Jewish community, attending the synagogue gatherings just like everyone. Here’s how one of those services might have gone:
    • First you get a long reading from the Torah (first five books of Old Testament).
    • Next you get some more reading from Joshua through Kings.
    • After that you get even more reading from Isaiah through Malachi. Did they stand or sit through all this? How did they stay awake?
    • Finally … someone else gets to stand up and talk about recent events. That’s when the followers of Jesus started relaying their stories around the life of Jesus. They also took that opportunity to point out how Jesus could be connected with many of these endless Old Testament readings everyone just sat through. This happened every week, year after year, until someone (I.e. Mark) finally put quill to parchment to create a combined story we call the first gospel.
  • Old Testament stories redesigned. This also explains why the gospels have so many parallels to stories and prophecies written in the Old Testament. For example, the feeding of the 5,000, flight to Egypt, and healing of lepers were all stories that were written in slightly different form in the Old Testament (think Moses and Egypt compared to Jesus and flight to Egypt). Mark even starts his gospel by saying “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ; as it is written in the prophets.”
  • Paul was part of the Jewish leadership. This also helps explain why Paul (at first a strict traditional Jew) persecuted these “followers of the way,” as the Christians were then called. After his conversion (circa 50 CE), these early Christians were still a part of the Jewish participants in the synagogue. But by about 90 CE, the Jewish traditionalists had had enough of this faction, and expelled them from from the synagogue (John even refers to it).

How much did Paul actually write about Jesus?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Paul’s letters are the first written account we have about Jesus. It’s not the gospels, which were written a minimum of 40 years after Jesus’ death. Even Paul’s letters are 20 years after his death.  Nothing in between! So you’d think Paul would have a lot to say regarding the life of the person he believed to be the Messiah. Not exactly.

  • Life details? Paul provides very little detail on the life of Jesus. No birth story, no mention of the names of Jesus’ parents, no miracles, and nothing about Jesus’ teachings or parables. The only familial thing he says is that he knows Jesus’ brother James (that was a strained relationship).
  • Paul’s major premise for his preaching is the crucifixion/resurrection.Yet he never mentions a betrayal story, Pilate, Herod, the soldiers, the two thieves, or any words Jesus may have spoken from the cross. No tomb. No Joseph of Arimathea. No angels. No guards. No women visitors on Sunday morning. 
  • James Tabor had some interesting observations in one of his latest blog posts — Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus is the closest we have in the New Testament of an eyewitness account of an encounter with Jesus. How did that shape his view of the resurrection? Hard to say whether Paul thinks of the resurrection as a physical resuscitation or a spiritual return to heaven. Paul says merely that “on the third day” Jesus was raised “in accordance with the scriptures.”  He writes quite a bit about this in I Corinthians 15. Here is an excerpt v 42-44. 

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.


We’re sure that clears it up perfectly. That’s what makes this so fun.

Birth Stories — Why Bethlehem?

~ Dana Horton ~ Leave a comment

Luke and Matthew are the only two Gospels that have a birth story. They both link Jesus’ birth to late in the reign of King Herod, which would put it around 4 BCE. Both Gospel writers also felt compelled to connect Jesus’ birth to Bethlehem (it’s complicated and has to do with the Old Testament prophecies and the lineage of King David). But they go about it in different ways.

  • Luke says Mary and Joseph were originally from Nazareth. Luke gets them to Bethlehem by creating a census (there’s no independent record of a census ‘of the whole world’ or even in the area in that time period). After the birth, they have him circumcised, go to the Temple in Jerusalem down the road, and return to Nazareth a few weeks later. No flight to Egypt. No wise men. 
  • Matthew says that Mary and Joseph were originally from Bethlehem. No census. Wise Men, but no stable. And there is a flight to Egypt and a return back to a different town — Nazareth. So in both accounts (and in Mark), Jesus starts his ministry from Nazareth.
  • Why the inventions? The Gospels are not intended to be read as historical accounts. The authors were creating mythical birth stories about their Messiah 50 years after his death. This was not an unusual practice in many religious traditions. 

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