Beginnings Part 3

Beginnings, Part 3 : Bishop +Roger continues his latest series of essays exploring the origin of early Christianity from the time of the Apostles, throught the Post Apostolic period and beyond. If you have any comments on this essay, pro or anti I would love to hear from you . Ring me on 01225702436 or email tyfurog@aol.com

We left the Early Church, a Jewish community, pursuing its quiet ‘Way’ in Jerusalem. However stories about Jesus had travelled into the Hellenist community. This was a Jewish group whose first language was Greek, because they lived in the Jewish diaspora - the community of Jews who were spread across the known (mainly circum-Mediterranean) world.

Some of these Hellenistic Jews lived in Jerusalem , and some of them wanted to follow ‘the Way’, but their practice was much more relaxed with regard to ‘the Law’ and so there were arguments and eventually these became so evident that the authorities were called in. Stephen, the first ‘Christian’ martyr (note the Greek name) was a victim of these episodes. Eventually, the Hellenists were expelled from Jerusalem.

The authorities, though, still kept a close and aggressive eye on the followers of the Way. One of their activists was a young man called Saul, whom later legend suggested was present at the stoning of Stephen. He was a committed Pharisee who, it was said, had trained under the famous teacher Gameliel.

Although Luke in the Acts of the Apostles mentions this it may not be true. There is considerable conflict between the Acts and the writings of Saul (under his chosen name of Paul), and where Paul does not mention, or blatantly disagrees with Acts, it is his own story which is most probably correct.

Saul was apparently born in Tarsus (in present day Turkey), to a Jewish Roman citizen’s family. We have no knowledge of how Saul’s father gained the honour of Roman citizenship, but it was not uncommonly granted for services to the state, and for other reasons. Saul was trained as a ‘tentmaker’(skenopoios) which may mean a leatherworker or a weaver of goat’s hair.

It was usual for Jewish boys to be trained in a profession in this way, but later he became a fanatical Pharisee, and went to Jerusalem where he trained in the Law (possibly with Gameliel) and was recruited into the religious ‘secret police’.

He was given authority by the Temple priesthood to go and seek out Jews who did not keep the Law in Damascus, to bring

them back for investigation. In fact the Temple hierarchy had no right to do this as their jurisdiction only ran within Jerusalem (and, perhaps, Israel).

While on the way to Damascus Saul was suddenly blinded by a brilliant light and heard the words ‘Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ which he understood to be Jesus speaking. His companions heard a sound, but saw no light, nor heard speech. (Acts 9;3 et seq). Paul hardly refers to any of this tale in his writings)

A modern interpretation of this episode suggests that it was temporal epilepsy which produces apparent light and speech and Paul mentions that he has a recurrent illness, though does not specify its nature.

House of Ananias, Damascus, Syria

Saul, however, was now blind, and was taken into the care of a Damascene Christian, Ananias, who instructed him in the teachings of the Way.

Shortly Saul regained his sight, changed his name to Paul, was received into the nascent Damascene Church by baptism, and then went to Arabia where he spent three years. This was not a retirement to the desert, but rather into the Nabatean kingdom around Petra, but there is no indication of what he did there.

Petra was a major point on the Silk Road and Paul would have been exposed to many religious ideas from the East but there is no evidence that he followed any specific practice. However he says that he had other visionary instructions from Jesus, and he always considered himself to be ‘the last of the Apostles’ because of these direct contacts and instructions from the Lord.

The other original apostles were not so sure, especially as Paul was evidently willing to accept people into the Way without their becoming Jewish, without circumcision, and without having to follow all the minutiae of the Jewish Law. So Paul came to Jerusalem and was introduced to the ‘Church’ leaders, James (Jesus’ brother) Peter, James (the less) and John, but they did not get on well and so Paul went home to Tarsus, from where he began his mission which stretched across the whole of the eastern Mediterranean.

Paul’s interpretation of what he believed Jesus had personally told him was so different from the teaching of the Jerusalem Church that it enabled the spread of the Christian message in a form acceptable to the Gentile non Jewish world, and began the development of the world-wide Christianity that we know today. We will consider this in the next installment.

The Ecumenical Christian Church U.K.

Part of the United Ecumenical Catholic Church - "One Church United in Christ"