This Part 2 is the continuation of the series topic “Paul the Apostle (1) – Law and Works”. This won’t contain a full recap of what was covered in (1). I urge you to first reference the verses in Part 1!
In Part 1, 15 Bible characters or writers of Bible books were identified as ‘witnesses’ to the Lord’s commandments. God required 2 or 3 witnesses to evidence a serious matter. No mere man or single witness is authorized by God to alter His written principles! As inspired by the Holy Spirit (HS), all 15 ‘witnessed’ in the Bible books that God’s moral principles/laws/commandments are valid for mankind.
Principles not just for ancient Israel, but also for gentiles in Genesis (Abraham, Ge.26:5), as well as peoples in all nations. Re.7:4-8 notes the 144,000 of the tribes of Israel. Plus, v.9 “Behold a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and tongue standing before the throne of the Lamb.” Gentiles too. And Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments.”
If a so-called prophet or Bible teacher arises who contradicts the (15) Bible witnesses, his testimony or agenda is suspect. One such was Joseph Smith, the prophet of Mormonism. And Charles Taze Russell, who taught false dates of Jesus’ return to the society which became Jehovah’s Witnesses.
What about Paul? Some Bible readers view Paul as a false apostle! Or, he vacillates between teaching obedience to God’s commandments…and leniency or indifference. Which is the real Paul?
Some years ago my wife remarked, “Paul is like a chameleon; he seems to change color”. Yes, there’s controversy regarding Paul’s writings. As I considered her remark, the concept and verses took shape in my mind. So I’m calling this sequel, “Paul the Apostle (2) – The Chameleon?”.
In Ro.11:13, Paul called himself “an apostle to the gentiles”, to “the uncircumcised” in Ga.2:7-8. Paul knew about God’s principles seen in the book of Genesis, and the early gentiles. The Lord said of the gentile Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws”. And Paul referred to Christians as the spiritual children of Abraham (Ga.3:29).
Paul knew the Old Testament (OT), and God’s laws & commandments therein. Paul said several times, “It is written”, as he quoted the obedient writers of OT books. Several times Paul (and Jesus) appealed to the authority of the written word of God, prefacing the citation with, “It is written”.
Examples: Ac.23:5 Paul said “It is written, ‘Don’t speak evil of the ruler of your people”. Paul was referring to Ex.22:28 of the Law. Paul wrote of the Lord in Ro.14:11, “It is written, ‘Every knee shall bow to Me”. Paul was quoting Is.45:23 of the Prophets. And Paul wrote in 1Co.3:19, “It is written, ‘He [God] traps the wise in their own craftiness”. Paul was quoting Jb.5:13 of the Writings/Psalms. These three examples reflect Paul referencing all three sections of the OT…the Law, the Prophets, the Writings/Psalms. Paul recognized the authority of God’s OT tripartite written word.
Let’s pause, and consider this question. Was there any new practices seen exclusively in Paul’s epistles that we don’t see glimpses of in the OT or in the New Testament (NT) writings of others?
What about the bread & wine holy meal of which Paul wrote in 1Cor.11? Previously we saw that in Ge.14:18, Jn.6:48-58, and in the Last Supper accounts of the three synoptic gospels. What about Paul addressing speaking in tongues in 1Cor.14? Previously we saw that phenomenon in Ac.2:1-13, 10:44-47, 19:6, and Is.28:11 (according to Paul in 1Co.14:21). What about the church order and (leader) functioning of which Paul wrote in 1Ti.3? Previously we saw that in Mt.18:15-20, Ac.6:1-7, 14:23.
Paul’s purpose for writing was often to explain the ‘how to’ of church practices (seen in the Bible), and to address problems in specific church areas. We could still know salvation if the NT consisted of the four gospels, Acts, James, Peter’s letters, John’s letters, Jude, Revelation…no Pauline epistles.
Paul is 1 Bible ‘witness’. Yet 2 or 3 witnesses were required to establish a matter. Neither Paul nor anyone else as only 1 sole witness was authorized by God to teach a new doctrine which contradicted or disagreed with moral principles which the HS inspired the previous saints to write as scripture.
Many Bible readers see two different Pauls! (cf. the positions in Wikipedia: New Perspective on Paul.) But did Paul (or any NT writer) try to alter principles the HS had instructed the OT writers?
Paul the chameleon?! In his letters, it does seem that Paul changes colors, so to speak, depending on who or what issue he was addressing. (Chameleons change more for socializing than for camouflage.)
I’ll call the Paul who upheld the veracity of God’s written word and moral laws/principles (for gentiles too) a blue chameleon. I’ll call the Paul who appears to contradict or not uphold God’s moral precepts a yellow chameleon. And I’ll call Paul a red chameleon when he confronted Jews who tried to push (Esséne) ritualism, oral Law, and proto-Ebionism onto gentile Christians (and Jewish).
Jacob Neusner of Harvard University said that in the 1st century, the term “the Law” (or “Law of Moses”) meant God’s written OT laws/toráh…plus the Jews’ accumulated oral traditions. Paul referred to that two-part torah in Ga.5:3. “Every man who receives circumcision is under obligation to keep the whole Law.” That “whole Law” included both written and oral law/torah. And Paul addressed the bondage of physical circumcision in Galatians: 2:3, 2:12, 5:2-3, 5:6, 5:11, 6:12-15.
Lawrence Schiffman, in At the Crossroads, said there were 4 initial requirements for male proselytes of Judaism: physical circumcision, míkveh (immersion), bring an animal sacrifice to the temple, consent to both God’s written law and the Jews’ oral law. (3 of these 4 are unnecessary for Christians.)
From the Jewish Alfred Edersheim’s 1,000-page book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1:8. “According to the Jewish view, God had given Moses on Mt. Sinai alike the oral and the written Law. That is, the Law with all its interpretations and applications.” The whole Law, in the eyes of Judaism. This Jewish oral law/oral torah was later written down in the Talmud and Míshnah. It was man-made religious interpretations. Most peoples have some good cultural traditions, including the Jewish people. But such customs aren’t equal to the words of God.
Those Jews even valued their oral torah above the written torah of Almighty God! They falsely claim that the Lord gave Moses the oral torah too. But contrary to the proponents of a supposed God-given oral law, is Ex.24:1-4. “Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.” v.7 “Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.” All…not just some…of the words God spoke to Moses were written down. Then Moses read the written Old Covenant to the Israelites. There was no oral law from God given to Moses, etc. there!
De.4:2 “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God.” Don’t put man-ordained oral traditions, etc., into Moses’ mouth. Christ the Word of God & Rock of Israel (De.32:18 with 1Co.10:4) and the HS, not mere man, conveyed the Lord’s laws to Moses. They’re Jesus’ laws too! And Moses wrote them down.
Proof that a Mosaic oral law is a later fabrication of men is found in 2Ch.34:14-21, when the lost “book of the law” was found. When the book was read to the Jewish king Josiáh, he tore his clothes. v.19-21 “For great is the wrath of the Lord which is poured out on us because our fathers have not observed the word of the Lord, to do all that is written in this book.” Since the written book had been lost and forgotten over the centuries since Moses, any so-called oral laws for maintaining that written law would be forgotten too. It is inconceivable that an oral law was remembered, when the written law (it supposedly described) was forgotten! A Late Bronze Age God-given oral law is a more recent hoax of Judaism…a creation of men after the time of Josiah (600 BC). It’s the religious traditions of men.
Paul knew written Torah. Php.3:5-6 he’d been a Jewish Pharisee, and his ancestry was the tribe of Benjamin. Paul said in Ac.22:3, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsús of Cilicía, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliél, strictly according to the law of our fathers”. Paul was taught both the written law of God and the Jews’ Pharisáical law at Gamaliel’s famous school in Jerusalem. Gamaliel was ruling the Jewish Sanhédrin in the 30’s AD. Paul wrote in Ga.1:13-14, “You have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, being extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions”. Yes, Paul also knew their oral law traditions, as they’d accumulated into the 1st century AD. He was a savvy student (and then a Sanhedrin member?).
Two popular Jewish schools of that time were the school of Hillél (Gamaliel’s grandfather) and the school of Shammai. Hillel’s was more liberal, Shammai’s more strict.
In Mk.7:6-9, Jesus rebuked Jewish oral law legalists who placed their religious traditions above God’s written law. Mk.7:13 “You thus invalidate the [written] word of God by your tradition which you have handed down.” Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 13:1:6 “Pharisees have made many ordinances, whereof there is nothing written in the law of Moses, according to traditions of their fathers.” Oral law was developed and promoted by Pharisees.
Peter and other Jews traditionally avoided most all gentiles. Peter stated to gentiles at Caesárea in Ac.10:28, “You know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him”. It violated the oral law (and may also jeopardize health). Then Ac.11:1-3 “When Peter came to Jerusalem, circumcised Jews took issue with him, saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But this restriction was just the Jews’ traditional law. It wasn’t the Lord’s OT law in regards to most peoples. Robertson’s Commentary “There is no Old Testament regulation forbidding social contact with gentiles.” (In general, that is; the corrupt peoples of De.7:1-5 were excluded.)
Paul later exhorted Titus in Ti.1:13-14 to “Not pay attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth”. Oral law is the commandments of men…not God. Jacob Neusner wrote of the “explicit myth of the dual torah, written and oral. A heretic is someone who rejects the duality.” The Talmudic Qiddushin 3:16, “A heretic is someone who rejects the duality of torah”. Acceptance of both the written and oral torah was a requirement for 1st century adherents of Judaism.
Because of Paul’s teachings, disbelieving Jews viewed him as a traitor, and hated him. 2Co.11:24 “Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes.” Ac.23:23-27 Jews wanted to kill Paul, a Roman citizen. Yet Paul testified in Ac.25:8, “I’ve committed no offense [?] against the Law of the Jews or the temple or against Caesar”. Paul said he was blameless in regards to Jewish law and legal authorities. He observed harmless cultural traditions (1Co.9:20) which don’t contradict God’s written laws. We may too.
Paul the blue chameleon loved and obeyed God’s written law…this Paul of Ro.3:31, 7:12-14, 7:22-25, 8:7, Ep.6:2 was quoted in “Paul the Apostle (1) – Law and Works”. In 2Ti.3:15-16, Paul said all scripture (known by young Timothy) was inspired by God. The scripture Timothy had at that time was the OT. Paul instructed Timothy in 1Ti.4:13, “Give attention to the public reading of scripture”. Timothy was even to read aloud the written OT, with its commandments/laws, to the NT church! Paul himself quoted the OT over 50 times in the book of Romans!
I like to think of this lawful Paul, the Paul who’d affirm the OT by declaring, “It is written”…as the blue chameleon. (However, “it” always applying to Jews and gentiles both…that’s debatable.)
There’s no need for the church at large to read the oral law, do animal sacrifice, or become religiously circumcised. For salvation, there’s no need for gentile converts to Jesus as Savior to become Jewish proselytes. Ac.15:1 “Some men from Judea began teaching the brethren, unless you are circumcised [physically], you cannot be saved.” But in Acts 15, the Jewish Christian leaders at the Jerusalem council determined that was false teaching. Paul the red chameleon attended, and opposed that false teaching! Paul was angry in Ga.5:11-13. “If I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Would that those who trouble you even mutilate themselves!” (see “Circumcision in the Bible”.) Jesus too opposed proselyting Judaism in Mt.23:15. “Woe to you scribes & Pharisees, because you travel land and sea to make one proselyte, and then you make him twice as much a son of gehenna as yourselves!”
The Lord had said physical circumcision was for Israelites, and also for strangers & gentiles not of the line of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob who came to live in the Land among Israel (Ex.12:48-49). But He said nothing about Jews as strangers in foreign lands circumcising gentiles there! That racist practice was oral law. Physical circumcision was scripturally meaningful only for descendants of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, primarily in the Land.
Paul the red chameleon opposed Jews who tried to push Judaistic rituals/sacrifices and oral law onto gentiles elsewhere. He addressed Essene 4QMMT “works of the law” (and physical circumcision) in Galatians and Romans. Here’s some verses to that effect from Ferrar Fenton’s 1903 translation:
Galatians: 2:16 “We know that a man isn’t made righteous by ritualism…not from legal rituals [NASB “works of the law”].” 2:21 “If righteousness were through a ritual, then Christ died to no purpose.” 3:2 “Did you receive the Spirit from a law of rituals?” 3:5 “Did He who brought the Spirit to you do so by a law of rituals?” 3:10 “For whoever are dependent on a law of rituals are under a curse.” 3:12 “But the ritual did not come from faith.” 3:17 “The rituals, beginning 430 years after.” 4:3 “We were trained under the former rules of a Hebrew ritual.” 4:5 “God sent His own Son, born under a ritual, so that He might buy out those under a ritual.” 5:4 “Whoever of you are made righteous by a ritual, you are detached from Christ.” 5:18 “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under a ritual.”
Romans: 3:20 “By the practice of a ritual, none can be made righteous in His presence.” 3:27 “By what law? By the rituals? No! But by a law of faith.” 3:28 “A man may be righteous by a faith distinct from a law of rituals [“works of the law”].” (Though purifications can avert incidences of disease.)
The selective “works of the law” (“érgon nómou”) in Galatians & Romans was addressed in “Paul the Apostle (1)”. It was sectarian ritualism. ref Dead Sea Scrolls 4QMMT (“Miqsat Ma’ase ha-Torah”).
Concluding: Christians are justified by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins…not by animal sacrifice, physical circumcision, sectarian rituals, or oral law. Paul the red chameleon boldly stood against his countrymen whose teaching was contrary. Paul the blue chameleon upheld the truth of God’s written word & commandments as a holy way of life for believers via the HS. Though Paul too made mistakes, Peter loved our brother Paul (2Pe.3:15-17). Although some of Paul’s writings are corrective and hard to understand, he’d learned the validity of God’s moral principles.
However, many Bible readers and critics see two different Pauls, otherwise. He’s controversial. Some of you may think I’ve been looking at Paul through rose-colored glasses. In the epistles attributed to him, they see mistakes and contradictions which I haven’t addressed. Paul the ‘yellow chameleon’.
This series is continued in “Paul the Apostle (3) – Missteps”.
Bible Topic Exposition 