Paul's Literary Victory

We read the New Testament beginning with the four Gospels. On the other hand, if we were to read it chronologically, we would start with the letters of Paul. By no means can all of those attributed to him and bearing his name be regarded as from his hand or dictated by him to scribes.

Scholars generally, with some notable dissensions, regard only seven of the letters authentically from Paul: 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians and Philemon. The latest scholarly view is that they all date from about 50 to the early 60s CE.

A second set of three letters bearing his name – Colossians, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians – are believed to have been composed between 80 and 100 CE by unknown disciples of Paul. British scholar N.T. Wright holds that these three were also probably from Paul but in a different style than the previous seven.

The three letters known as “pastorals” – 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus are generally regarded a pseudonymous and from the early decades of the 2^nd century CE when the church was much more organized than in Paul’s time.

In his book, Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity, (Simon & Schuster, 2012) James D. Tabor cites the narratives of the resurrection of Jesus in Mark and Matthew in particular as the basis for his conviction that Paul influenced the report in those gospels of the Christian community’s earliest tradition.

By examining reports of all of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, Tabor discovered that only Mark and Matthew provide truly credible details, few as they are. He concluded that these appearances occurred only in Galilee, not in Jerusalem, as the Luke and John state. They were of “a visionary nature” especially in Matthew. This is confirmed, Tabor believes, by a late 2^nd century text in the pseudonymous Gospel of Peter and the appendix to John’s Gospel (ch. 21). He finds the reports in the other gospels of post-resurrection sightings of Jesus in Jerusalem as a resuscitated human corpse from a later tradition and much less credible.

Tabor also points out that if Paul’s report of his own call to be an apostle is valid, he was the first apostle, not the last. He bases this claim on Galatians 1:15-17 where Paul claims to have been “set apart before I was born.” Later in this same passage Paul also stated that he had spent three years in Arabia. Tabor speculates that this was a time of retreat, possibly in the region where Mount Sinai was traditionally located. As Tabor writes: “Like the Twelve he had his own ‘three years’ with Jesus.”

Tabor further reminds us that in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, Paul speaks of a mystical experience where he “presumably saw both the glory of God as well as Jesus in his glorified state.” Paul also spoke of his physical limitation, “a thorn in the flesh,” that kept him humble despite this remarkable experience. Of this whole episode Tabor comments: “Paul had tasted in a proleptic way the glorification that would be revealed at the second coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven.”

Thus Paul’s literary victory and the fundamental theme of the whole New Testament is based on the perceptions of the resurrection and the anticipation of Christ’s return at some unstated but imminent time in the near future.