13. The trial of the Apostle Paul and his martyrdom (58–67 AD)

Information about the life of Paul

The source of information about the biography and activities of Paul of Tarsus is the New Testament (the Acts of the Apostles and the seven personal letters of Paul, which are considered authentic and are the oldest part of the New Testament). A total of 14 epistles are attributed to Paul of Tarsus:

• Epistle to the Romans,
• First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians,
• Epistle to the Galatians
• Epistle to the Philippians
• First Epistle to the Thessalonians and the Epistle to Philemon.

Hebrews was clearly not written by Paul; three so-called Pastoral Epistles (First and Second Epistles to Timothy and Epistle to Titus) - pseudepigrapha; the authorship of Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians is in doubt.

Paul's Hebrew name was Shaul (Saul in Greek tradition), and he was a native of the Cilician center of Tarsus[1] and a Roman citizen.[2] Paul came from the tribe of Benjamin.[3] According to Jerome, Paul's family came from the city of Gush Halav in Galilee, which may explain his Pharisaism[4] and study in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3; 23:6; 26:5). He was a student of Rabban Gamliel I, but neither his Greek nor Jewish learning was extensive.

In Acts 22:3 Paul says of himself: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, brought up in this city [that is, Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel, carefully instructed in the law of my fathers.” If this evidence from Acts, which is not, however, confirmed in the Epistles, is correct[5], then Paul studied the Torah and the art of its rabbinic interpretation from one of the most famous teachers of that time, Rabban Gamliel the Elder.

Examples of rabbinic interpretation can be found in the letters of Paul[6], and the interpreted text is not the Hebrew Torah, but its Greek translation, the Septuagint. In Paul's time, this translation was widely used among Diaspora Jews, whose native language was typically Greek (later, as opposition to Christianity grew, Jews largely abandoned the use of the Septuagint).

Paul was trained in the trade of making tents (Acts 18:3). Perhaps this is an indirect indication that Paul was going to become a rabbi: money could not be taken for teaching Torah, so all rabbis earned their living by one craft or another. In his letters, Paul mentions more than once that he was not a burden to the community because he fed himself (see, for example, 1 Cor 9:13-15).

In 1 Corinthians 7:8 Paul writes, “But to the unmarried and to the widows I say, It is good for them to remain as I am.” Whether Paul himself was single or a widower is not stated in the New Testament. However, since it was strange and even shameful for a devout Jew to remain single, it is quite possible that Paul was married but became a widower at an early age.

Laughing at the Bible?

The 1979 comedy “The Life of Brian,” directed and performed by members of the cult British comedy group Monty Python, was also a huge success. Catholics, Protestants and Jews, however, did not find it funny. They accused the filmmakers of blasphemy, speaking as a united front against this travesty of bigotry in all its forms.

Paul's work in spreading Christianity

Initially he was a fierce persecutor of Christians. Saul is first mentioned in Acts 7, in the scene of the stoning of Stephen. The preacher Stephen was put on trial for blasphemy by representatives of the synagogues of the “Hellenists” (Jews who came to Jerusalem from the diaspora and spoke Greek), in particular, immigrants from Cilicia (Acts 6:9)[7], one of whom could have been Saul. Acts describes Stephen's trial, but it is unclear whether he was sentenced to death or stoned by an angry mob that did not wait for the trial to end.[8]

According to the New Testament, he was sent by the high priest to Damascus to arrest and bring the local Christians to Jerusalem for trial. On his way to Damascus, Paul of Tarsus had a vision of Jesus (whom he had not met during his lifetime). The book of Acts says that on the way to Damascus he unexpectedly heard an unknown voice “Saul! Saul! Why are you chasing me?” and went blind for three days (9:8-9). Brought to Damascus, he was healed by the Christian Ananias and baptized (9:17-18).

Then the New Testament information about the further fate of Paul varies. The author of Acts claims that he arrived in Jerusalem, but local Christians could not accept him for a long time. Only the intercession of Barnabas reconciled Paul with the apostles (9:26-27). Paul himself, in his letter to the Galatians, reports that after Damascus he did not go to Jerusalem, but went to preach in Arabia, after which he returned to Damascus. And only three years later he dared to meet with the Apostle Peter (Gal. 1:17-18).

Paul of Tarsus began his missionary activity in Damascus, but developed it widely in Antioch, where shortly before this a group of followers of Jesus was formed from persons converted by the missionary Barnabas. The community consisted of local Jews and Judaizing pagans (the so-called worshipers or fearers of God - in Greek - sebomenoi ton theon or phobomenoi ton theon). Together with Barnabas, Paul began to propagate Christianity among Jews and pagans, and traveled for missionary purposes to the cities of Syria and Asia Minor.

In an effort to transform Christianity from a Jewish sect into a world religion, Paul of Tarsus came to the conclusion that the success of preaching Christianity among the pagans was due to the refusal to fulfill all the requirements of Judaism, especially the requirement of circumcision for male converts. Strong opposition arose among the Jewish Christians of Eretz Israel to the innovations of Paul of Tarsus. Some members of the Jerusalem Jewish-Christian community went to Antioch to oppose these innovations. They demanded from proselytes strict adherence to the precepts of Judaism. Disputes between Paul's supporters and his opponents required the convening of an Apostolic Council (Acts 15:1-6).

With his like-minded friend Barnabas, Paul went to Jerusalem, where he presented to the apostolic assembly (apparently in 57 AD) a report on the successes of his missionary activities; the requirement from converts to comply with all Jewish laws, according to Paul, will make it impossible to attract proselytes from among foreigners. After a heated debate, in which the Apostle Peter partially supported Paul, the leaders of the Jerusalem community allowed Paul of Tarsus to preach Christianity to the pagans, without requiring them to fully comply with the laws, but only obliging converts to abstain from idolatry, debauchery or incest, and the eating of blood and carrion.

Paul's trip to the cities of Asia Minor and Greece.

This compromise solution could not eliminate the differences between Paul and the zealots of the law, led by the Apostle Peter (whom Paul of Tarsus reproached for inconsistency and lack of understanding of the true teachings of Jesus). In the communities of Asia Minor and Syria, an open struggle developed between the Judeo-Christian apostles and the “apostle of the pagans.” Paul of Tarsus continued his missionary work in Greece and Macedonia, where at that time (50-60) small Christian communities had already formed in Corinth, Philip, Thessalonica and other cities. One of his most significant letters is the Epistle to the Romans, written in 58 in Corinth and addressed to the Christian community of Rome. In every city where there was a Jewish colony, Paul first preached in the synagogue, but, having failed to achieve success with the Jews, he turned to the Gentiles.

Hero of the new time

The new era, which came after the upheavals of the revolutionary 1968 and the emergence of hippie culture, demanded a new cinematic interpretation of the Bible. Films became freer and bolder in their interpretations of gospel stories. In 1973, Norman Jewison filmed Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar. In cinema, the rock opera created no less a sensation than on Broadway.

Arrest in Jerusalem and exile

Having launched widespread propaganda of Christianity in Greece and Asia Minor (in the city of Ephesus and other cities), Paul from Tarsus again went to Jerusalem (59) with the goal of transferring donations he had collected in its favor to the local Christian community, which consisted mainly of the poor. But there Paul faced the hostility of the Jews, among whom there were rumors that he had not only taught the Gentiles, but also the Jews of the Diaspora, to deviate from the laws of Moses, saying that it was not necessary to circumcise children and to observe customs (Acts 21:21) . During Paul's visit from Tarsus to the Jerusalem Temple, Jews from Asia Minor (Paul's fellow countrymen) who were present there attacked him and dragged him out of the Temple. The head of the Roman garrison arrested the apostle as a false prophet calling the people to unrest, and brought him to the “assembly of the high priests and the entire Sanhedrin.”

Paul of Tarsus, who declared himself “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee,” skillfully used the disagreement between the Sadducees and Pharisees over the question of the resurrection from the dead to sow discord among his judges, and his title as a Roman citizen to avoid the judgment of his fellow tribesmen and ensure the protection of Roman law. For two years Paul was under arrest in Caesarea, where he met with the nominal king of Judea, Agrippa II, and his sister Berenice. Interrogated by the new Roman ruler, procurator Festus, Paul insisted on his right as a Roman citizen to be tried in Rome by the emperor.

After a long and dangerous voyage through the winter sea, Paul arrived in Rome to consider his case (61 or 62), where he lived for two years under the supervision of the authorities, maintaining constant contact with the local Christian community, in which there was also a struggle between the Judeo-Christians and pagan Christians who denied the Law. While living in Rome, Paul continued his missionary work, writing pastoral letters to the Christian communities of Greece and Asia Minor. According to one legend, he left Rome to further preach Christianity and reached the “limit of the West” - Spain. However, a more common version is that Paul of Tarsus remained in Rome and died during the anti-Christian persecutions of Nero in 65 (according to another version - in 67-68). At the site of his burial, the disciples left a memorial sign, which allowed Emperor Constantine to find this place and build the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura there.

Artistic avant-garde from Italy

In Europe, film adaptations of the Bible were most enthusiastically pursued in Italy. Many Hollywood productions were filmed here, often at the Cinecittà studios in the south of Rome because it was cheaper there than in the US. Pier Paolo Pasolini directed his Marxist-Catholic variation on the theme of the life of Jesus. The film "The Gospel of Matthew" (1964) features mostly non-professional actors.

The Teachings of Paul and the Qumran Sect

Paul of Tarsus is often called the true founder of Christianity because of his exceptional role in the process of separation of Christianity from Judaism, which led to the sharp hostility of the Christian church to Judaism. It was Paul who replaced the image of the historical Jesus and his teaching with faith in Jesus - the son of God, who rose from the dead and with his death atoned for the sins of those who believed in him.

True, modern research has shown that these ideas were not the exclusive property of Paul of Tarsus: they are also contained in those parts of the New Testament (the Gospel, the Epistles of John, the Epistle to the Hebrews) that were not influenced by the Apostle Paul. Apparently, they arose on the same ideological and social soil that nurtured Paul's religious views. This assumption is confirmed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Epistles of Paul of Tarsus, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the theology of John the Baptist bear traces of the influence of the same ideological motives as the Dead Sea Scrolls; sometimes both use the same terminology.

That group of relatively late converts to Christianity, to which Paul of Tarsus belongs, belonged to Hellenized Diaspora Jewry and was influenced by the ideas of the Qumran community. But Paul subjected the ideas of his predecessors to radical revision; sometimes these ideas served him only as a starting point for the development of his own original views.

Along with his knowledge of the Torah, Paul's familiarity with the commonplaces of the Greco-Roman culture of his time: philosophy, literature, religion and, above all, rhetoric, is evident from the New Testament. According to a widely accepted version, Paul's letters were written in living, idiomatic Greek[9]. According to another, there is clear evidence of the use of word play, versification, which appears only in Aramaic[10]. Paul's hometown of Tarsus was one of the centers of Hellenistic learning, second only to Alexandria and Athens in this regard[11]. True, it is not known at what age Paul left Tarsus and went to study in Jerusalem, but it is known (Acts 9:30) that after his conversion Paul was forced to return to his homeland for a long time in order to avoid persecution from his former comrades.

It has been convincingly shown how widely the techniques of ancient rhetoric are used in Paul's speeches and epistles[12]. It may also be noted that many of the quotations or allusions to the works of secular ancient authors found in the New Testament are quoted by Paul, or at least put into his mouth.[13] Many researchers also tried to find traces of the influence of Asia Minor mystery cults in Paul’s theology[14].

The idea of ​​deliverance from sin (Paul of Tarsus does not give the idea of ​​original sin the exclusive significance that it acquired in later Christianity) thanks to the atoning sacrifice of Jesus reflects the indirect influence of the religious views of the Qumran community, expressed in the Scroll of Hymns (Megillat ha-hodayot). This idea is an immanent development of the sect’s teaching about “double” predestination.

These religious views find strong expression in Paul of Tarsus and serve a threefold purpose: to define Christianity as a distinct community, to challenge Jewish Law, and to argue for the doctrine of salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul defined the Christian community with the help of images contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls as a community of God's chosen ones, separated from the rest of the world, which lies in evil. The Qumran sectarians adhered to the dualistic doctrine of chosenness in order to justify their isolation from the Jewish people. Paul of Tarsus emphasized the idea of ​​​​the chosenness of the Jews, adopting the doctrine of “double predestination”: if not all the Jewish people accepted the Christian faith, this was necessary so that the pagans would accept it and thereby gain salvation. But in the end, “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26), “for God has imprisoned all in disobedience, that He might have mercy on all” (Rom. 11:32).

Paul of Tarsus used the Qumranite doctrine of the opposition of spirit and flesh to relegate the precepts of Jewish religious law to the sinful realm of the flesh and faith in Jesus to the sacred realm of the spirit. According to the Qumranite doctrine of predestination, belonging to the “sons of light” is determined not by a person’s own merits, but by God’s unconditional mercy. Paul of Tarsus, in contrast to the Qumran sect, which strictly observed mitzvot, argued that it is not the law, but only the grace of God that leads to a person’s salvation, and the law seems to interfere with the action of grace.

According to Paul, the appearance, death and resurrection of Jesus free the believer from sin, and therefore the Christian is freed from the obligation to keep the Law. For Paul of Tarsus, what is important is not the historical Jesus, the mitzvot-observing Jew, but the Christ the Savior, the heavenly, cosmic being with whom God supposedly created the world. This Jesus, who took on flesh, atoned for the sins of those who believed in him with his death, rose from the dead and returned to his Father in heaven. Paul did not create this Christology, but he inherited it from his predecessors and developed it with great talent and passion. In the Epistles of Paul of Tarsus there is no echo of the authentic teaching of Jesus. The few sayings of Jesus cited by the apostle do not serve as an illustration of Jesus’ own views, but as a substantiation of a new Christian teaching.

At the dawn of cinema

American director Cecil B. DeMille was one of the pioneers of the biblical film genre. The Ten Commandments, in color and sound, is a remake of his 1923 silent film of the same name. At first, the church was skeptical about Bible films. Later, however, she partially recognized the benefits of this new way of popularizing religious ideas.

Paul as the founder of Christian anti-Semitism

Due to his negative attitude towards Jewish religious law, Paul of Tarsus managed to become the main initiator of the separation of Christianity from Judaism and its transformation into a world religion. Christianity had to break ties with Jewish religious law precisely because many pagan proselytes were willing to observe only a few mitzvot. According to Paul, a pagan who converted to Christianity and kept the commandments is not a real Christian. The efforts of Paul of Tarsus to abolish the observance of the commandments bore fruit already in the 2nd century. Christians not only abandoned the observance of the ritual prescriptions of the Jewish religion, but also began to be prejudiced against the entire way of life of religious Jews. Although Paul himself did not require his Jewish followers to abandon the observance of mitzvot, their observance by Jews wishing to convert to Christianity was prohibited already in the mid-2nd century. This was also the position of the church in the Middle Ages.

The origins of Christian hostility to Judaism are based on the writings and decisions of Paul of Tarsus. Although Paul generally demonstrated love for the Jewish people and faith in their future salvation, in 1 Thessalonians he directly accused the Jews of “deicide” (1 Thess. 2:15-16). Paul of Tarsus's positive remarks about the Jews did not influence the church's attitude toward the Jews in the Middle Ages and the Reformation.

Paul's position on the issue of observance of the precepts of the Jewish religion by pagan proselytes aroused the protest of many members of the Jerusalem Christian community, including the Apostle Peter (see above). The matter did not reach the point of open schism, since the poor Jerusalem community was interested in the donations of fellow believers and in the spread of the new religion among the pagans, but those groups of Jewish Christians who did not join the emerging Christian church were characterized by hatred of Paul of Tarsus and his cause.

Paul's radical condemnation of the religious law could not be fully accepted by later Christianity, since it led to antinomianism, to the denial of all religious obligations. Paul's words were taken up and largely falsified by the Gnostic Marcion (who was credited by a number of historians with the authorship of Paul's letters from Tarsus), an open enemy of Judaism, the Jewish people and their God.

Paul of Tarsus played a crucial role in the formation of Christian dogma: he promoted the deification of Jesus, referring to him those biblical verses that talk about God, and in every possible way emphasized the idea of ​​​​salvation through the death of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. The Church adopted and strengthened Paul's idea of ​​original sin, but did not accept the idea of ​​predestination, associated with the idea of ​​absolute, unconditional Divine grace.

The church fathers before Augustine recognized the idea of ​​free will and the importance of good works in man's salvation. Augustine rediscovered Paul's teaching about the predestination of Divine grace and the ineradicability of human sinfulness; After the condemnation of the heresy of Pelagius (431), the Catholic Church practically accepted the teachings of Paul of Tarsus. Disputes around this doctrine resumed in the 9th century, but soon died out. Only M. Luther and J. Calvin revived - each in his own way - some of the most important elements of Paul's teaching (Paulinism). To this day, the debate continues between Christian theologians about the positive and negative influence of Paul on the face of Christianity. Paulinism influenced the so-called dialectical theology.

Orthodoxy considers Paul of Tarsus one of the two (together with the Apostle Peter) founders of the Christian church.

Spectacular stories from Hollywood

In the 1950s, Hollywood began making biblical epics with famous actors and crowds of extras. The film “The Ten Commandments” (1956) is considered a classic of the genre. Cecil B. DeMille filmed the Old Testament Book of Exodus, which tells the story of the Egyptian slavery of the Jews and their deliverance by Moses. The Prophet Moses was played by Charlton Heston (photo). The film won an Oscar for visual effects.

Literature

• David Auney
  The New Testament and Its Literary Environment. - St. Petersburg: RBO, 2000. - ISBN 5-85524-110-6

• Alain Badiou,
  Apostle Paul. Justification for universalism. - St. Petersburg: University Book, 1999. - ISBN 5-85133-062-7

• Rudolf Bultmann
  Favorites: Faith and Understanding. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2004. - ISBN 5-8243-0493-9

• James D. Dunn
  Unity and Diversity in the New Testament. - M.: BBI, 1999. - ISBN 5-89647-014-2

• Bishop Cassian (Bezobrazov)
  Christ and the first Christian generation. - M.: PSTBI, 2003. - ISBN 5-7429-0106-2

• I. A. Levinskaya
  Acts of the Apostles. Chapters I-VIII: Historical and philological commentary. - M.: BBI, 1999. - ISBN 5-89647-033-9

• Bruce M. Metzger
  The New Testament: Context, Formation, Content. - M.: BBI, 2006. - ISBN 5-89647-149-1

• Good News: The New Testament translated from ancient Greek. Educational publication with historical and philological notes. - M.: RBO, 2006. - ISBN 5-85524-323-0

• N. T. Wright
  What the Apostle Paul Really Said. - M.: BBI, 2004. - ISBN 5-89647-085-1

• Cleon L. Rogers, Jr., Cleon L. Rogers III
  A New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek Text of the New Testament. - St. Petersburg: Bible for everyone, 2001. - ISBN 5-7454-0545-7

• Interpretation of the New Testament: A Collection of Essays on Principles and Methods. - St. Petersburg: Bible for everyone, 2004. - ISBN 5-7454-0835-9

• McRae J.
  The Life and Teachings of the Apostle Paul. - Cherkasy.: Colloquium, 2009. - ISBN 978-966-8957-13-0

Monumental effects

Hollywood, meanwhile, continued to make spectacular, monumental films on biblical themes. The life of Jesus was filmed in 1965 by George Stevens in his drama The Greatest Story Ever Told. The film received 5 Oscar nominations. Christ was played by Swede Max von Sydow. Telly Savalas cut his hair short for the role of Pilate and kept this hairstyle throughout his subsequent film life.

Resurrection of the genre

It took the intervention of a master like Martin Scorsese to revive the biblical film genre. In 1988, the impressive epic “The Last Temptation of Christ” was released on movie screens, starring Willem Dafoe as the suffering Savior. The film is an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel The Last Temptation, which in turn is based on gospel stories.

Content

• 1 Sources
• 2 Life 2.1 Origin 2.1.1 Family and upbringing
• 2.1.2 Connections with Hellenism

Sources

The main sources of information about the life and preaching of Paul are the books of the New Testament: the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Epistles of Paul. Authentic messages are primary sources containing first-person testimony and contemporary to the events under study. The question of which of the 14 New Testament epistles traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, according to biblical criticism, indisputably belongs to him, is discussed below and in articles devoted to individual epistles. The evidence of the Epistles requires a critical approach. Paul is impartial and directly involved in the events mentioned, therefore, when reading the Epistles, it is necessary to take into account his inclination towards one or another interpretation of the facts. It is also necessary, as far as possible, to take into account the addressee of the letter and the situation in which it was written, since this affects the rhetoric of the letter and the nature of the proclamation of the Gospel (kerygma).

The Acts of the Apostles, dated by many scholars from the 70s to the first half of the 80s, was written after Paul's death and is a source containing second-hand information. A possible exception is the so-called "we" passages (Acts 16:10-17, 20:5-8, 27:1-16 - all three passages refer to Paul's sea voyages), in which the author suddenly begins the narration in the first person. . It is possible that by this he emphasizes that he was a witness to the events described; there is even an assumption that these are excerpts from a diary that Luke or someone else kept during the trip. The reliability of the evidence from the book of Acts increases significantly if they find at least indirect confirmation in the Epistles or other sources (including mention of certain realities by ancient authors, archaeological finds, etc.). For more information about the problems of sources and the historicity of Acts, see the article Acts of the Holy Apostles.

Paul's letters are the primary source of information about his faith, teaching, and worldview. The speeches of Paul quoted in Acts cannot be considered absolutely authentic. A comparison of the book of Acts, of which Paul is the main character in the second half, with references to places, persons and travels in the Epistles allows some reconstruction of Paul's life, especially during his missionary travels (ca. 46-61). There are a number of contradictions between the Acts and the Epistles; in such cases, as a rule, preference is given to the testimony of the Epistles.

Paul is mentioned several times in the writings of the apostolic men. Paul is also the actor or false author of a number of New Testament apocrypha, but the value of these books as sources of information about the historical Paul is immeasurably lower. Such apocrypha include the Acts of Paul, Pseudo-Clementine, the Acts of Peter and Paul, the Apocalypse of Paul, the apocryphal letters of and to Paul (including correspondence with Seneca), etc.