Judaism and Pauline Christianity

[Abogado del Diablo]

Originally Posted by Ronald Pies MD

One Christian scholar, Prof. E. Glenn Hinson (Baptist Theological Seminary) writes in "The Early Church": " [Paul] went to Jerusalem for the first time three years after his conversion (Gal 1:18), where he spent fifteen days confering with Peter and James, Jesus' brother (Gal 1:19-20)..." If Hinson is right, could this be the "oral tradition" Prof. Michael Sugrue refers to in my quote, up above?

But what tradition was conveyed? Doesn't it surprise you that Paul writes so much about Jesus as a mystery revealed to him in the Hebrew scriptures but says naught about the events in the life or the teachings of an historical Jesus?

Paul never identifies who Peter and James actually are and one conducting a scientific analysis of the text should be careful not to project into the text meanings and details that may not be there. You can garner clues about Peter and James from the context, though nothing about an historical Jesus. Instead, it appears that these people were like-minded with Paul in experiencing this revelation of Jesus Christ, but they differed from Paul in their dedication to Torah. Paul later refers to them negatively because Paul holds that the law is fulfilled through the mystical actions of the Christ. Thus, Paul warns his gentile followers: "Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all."

The only story that is illustrative of who James was and what the Jerusalem Christians taught is this one from Galatians:

Originally Posted by NIV

11When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.


14When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

15“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

The picture that emerges is that the Jerusalem church visited by Paul was perhaps some early version of the Ebionites. As to whether they were directly connected to a Jesus of Nazareth and an historical human, Paul doesn't say one way or the other, aside from a cryptic reference to "James, the brother of the Lord." But that's a whole other discussion . . .

[Ronald Pies MD]

Dear Bananabrain--Such a humble pseudonym...perhaps alluding to the high concentrations of serotonin, a vital neurotransmitter, in bananas? In any case, thank you for your warm greeting and questions. And please accept my apology for loading so much material onto the website. My intention was actually to elicit feedback on what is, in fact, a term paper I am planning to submit for a rabbinics course. And, I'm happy to say that I was richly rewarded!
Re: your excellent questions, I have to plead partial ignorance. I'm not familiar enough with Jung's views to relate them confidently to Judaic teaching (though critics have always had dark thoughts about Jung and his view of the Jews, as you doubtless know). As for Freud--author of "Moses and Monotheism"--I think Freud had a good "academic" understanding of Judaism, but I don't know that he really grasped its "essence" (as Leo Baeck would later do). My main response to you is in relation to Judaism and cognitive-behavioral therapy; in particular, I have written on the many links between Rambam (Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides) and the cognitive-behavioral school of psychology. If you'd like to take a look, I can email you the galleys of the paper, which appeared in the Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy [Pies R: Maimonides and the origins of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy 11:21-36, 1997)]. I am hoping to put together a book on this connection, as well.

Best wishes, Ron Pies

[didymus]

A curious quote from Paul is in Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written; "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

What is your interpretation of this passage?

[Abogado del Diablo]

Originally Posted by didymus

A curious quote from Paul is in Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written; "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

What is your interpretation of this passage?

More midrash possibly. This time based on Deuteronomy 21:23, which is where it is written that "cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." The idea is that Christ suffered indignity and the curse of God as it says in Deut. 21:23 to save us from the curse of the law. It's easy to read into this a reference to Gospel account of the crucifixtion, but also easy to see it as more midrash based on Paul's revelation drawn from Hebrew scripture.

[Abogado del Diablo]

On this issue of Paul and oral tradition, Paul seems to pretty clearly indicate in Galatians 1 that there was no such reliance on any oral tradition in forumulating his Gospel:

11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when God, who set me apart from birth[a] and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

[bananabrain]

intention was actually to elicit feedback on what is, in fact, a term paper I am planning to submit for a rabbinics course. And, I'm happy to say that I was richly rewarded!

it looked like something of the sort. *wags finger* tut, tut. well, anyway, no harm done. a lot of people use this place as if it's a clearing-house for daft press-releases about their upcoming book/lecture/the latest message they've had from G!D or their toaster.

I'm not familiar enough with Jung's views to relate them confidently to Judaic teaching (though critics have always had dark thoughts about Jung and his view of the Jews, as you doubtless know).

well, yes, but it's more his political judgement that sucks. by the standards of antisemitism, his is fairly negligible when you consider his willingness to learn from judaism; at least imho.

As for Freud--author of "Moses and Monotheism"--I think Freud had a good "academic" understanding of Judaism, but I don't know that he really grasped its "essence" (as Leo Baeck would later do).

hmmm...i kind of agree, only i think there are a large number of criticisms that one might make of leo baeck. anyway, fair enough.

My main response to you is in relation to Judaism and cognitive-behavioral therapy; in particular, I have written on the many links between Rambam (Moshe ben Maimon, Maimonides) and the cognitive-behavioral school of psychology.

yes, i'd love to see that. tell me,was bruno bettelheim a C-Bist? i've read a little of his work. if so, does his approach touch on it?

have you been to limmud (see http://www.limmud.org )? i recommend it....or at any rate, the US version of it.

b'shalom

bananabrain

[Ronald Pies MD]

Thanks for the response....Re: Bettelheim, I see him more in the mode of Freud. In The Uses of Enchantment, he proposes a theory about Fairy Tales that argues they are a way of transmitting unconscious role models to children. The CBT folks are really Albert Ellis PhD, and Aaron Beck. A more popular variety of CBT is found in David Burns' book, Feeling Good. I'd be happy to forward the paper on Maimonides and CBT if you give me the right email address....Best, RP

[Excaliburton]

Dr Pies wrote:

Going back to Abogado's earlier query about Paul's sources, and whether there was any contemporaneous "oral tradition" of Jesus for him to draw on, or (as I have suggested) to turn away from. One Christian scholar, Prof. E. Glenn Hinson (Baptist Theological Seminary) writes in "The Early Church": " [Paul] went to Jerusalem for the first time three years after his conversion (Gal 1:18), where he spent fifteen days confering with Peter and James, Jesus' brother (Gal 1:19-20)..."

Since virtually all Christians accept the events of the books of Acts are real, it seems rather obvious there was an "oral tradition" that preached the teachings of Jesus prior to the writing of the gospels. But we must not confuse this "oral tradition" with any Talmudic Midrash/ "oral tradition" doctrine that Jesus so thoroughly denounced among the Pharisees as the "tradition of the elders".

Just because the preachings of the 12 apostles were done initially by voice rather than the written word is no reason to confuse these teachings with Pharisaic "oral tradition". After all, many ancient cultures had "oral traditions" that had nothing to do with the Midrash. The Vikings had an "oral tradition" called the Prose Edda that had nothing to do with the Talmudic Midrash "oral traditions".

PS And we should not forget that many of the early writings of the Ebionites have been lost or destroyed, so there may actually have been a written account of the life and teachings of Jesus long before the Gospels or the epistles of Paul were written.