Paul's Beliefs and Suffering
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Possible Journey Dates
Paul’s First Journey circa 48 CE Paul’s Second Journey Circa late 49 - early 53 CE Paul’s Third Journey Circa late 53 – early 57 CE Paul’s Journey to Rome c 59 CE |
Seven letters considered genuinely written by Paul by most scholars (with consensus dates)
First Thessalonians (c. 52-53 CE) Galatians (c. 53) First Corinthians (c. 53–54) Philippians (c. 55) Philemon (c. 55) Second Corinthians (c. 55–56) Romans (c. 57) |
| Key Texts Exercise.pdf |
A comprehensive explanation and insightful comparison of the member’s adherence to relevant religious beliefs and engagement with related expressions prior to, during, and after the significant life experience.
Setting the Scene
Sometime between the experience on the road to Damascus (c 35 CE) (described variously in Acts 9:1-19; 22:5-16; 26:12-18) and his earliest existing written epistle, the first letter to the Thessalonians (c 52CE), a period of about 17 years, an amazing change had come upon the once persecutor of Christians. His zealous Pharisaic Judaism (Philippians 3:5-6; Galatians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 11:22) had given way to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Acts records that Saul’s acceptance by the community at Damascus was followed by baptism. Perhaps the reality of the profound experience outside Damascus actually required more reflection than is recorded in Luke's narrative. Although his conversion provided the critical motif for Saul’s future life, it is his experiences as a Christian that are equally significant for the evolution of his faith and for his place within the Christian tradition as its first great theologian.
Because of Damascus and Jesus, Saul had to begin to question everything. The hundreds of laws and regulations that had shaped his childhood, adolescence and early manhood had seemingly lost their foundation. He had had a personal encounter with Christ and needed to work out what that meant. His deepest convictions were skewed in the initial experience and there was almost nothing to assist him in his reflection. The gospels that would later describe mission and teaching of the Galilean were still unwritten – only the early disciples, who like Saul, had Jewish origins were able to shed light on Jesus’ significance. They were the only guides to Jesus death and resurrection, to prayer and to living in Christ; this new faith was in fact discovering itself. Saul, and the first generation of Jewish Christians, had to find out for themselves what it meant to believe in Christ and to put that belief into practice in their lives. So the infant Christian community, the ekklesia, was forming the faith of its new adherent and quite soon would be challenged in its self-understanding by this same person.
Saul’s religious beliefs were in transition. The Jewish idea of God as creator of the universe was not under threat. The monotheistic deity of the Torah was not jettisoned in the new movement. But it was being reinterpreted. The one who is master of light in Genesis was being understood in a new way. That the mighty God (YHWH) might have sent a son into the world and that that this son might be the same Jesus who had suffered and died in Jerusalem in c30 CE, was a large shift from the first century notion of messiah (Christ). For most Jews, the idea remains consistent – the messiah’s coming is and was about a spiritually and socially invigorated Israel; the messiah was to usher in a righteous kingdom centred on the city of Jerusalem that itself would be a beacon of unity for the human race. For Saul, Jesus is that beacon, that light, and his followers are children of the light (I Thessalonians 5:5).
For many Jews, this was the Jesus movement going too far. His return to Damascus, perhaps after an extended time in Arabia, occasioned revolt by the Jews of that city and he escaped by being lowered in a basket out of the city beneath its walls. (Acts 9:22-25; II Corinthians 11:33). Perhaps already Saul had challenged not only Jewish beliefs but Jewish practices? Did one need to practice the holiness codes of Leviticus to be in the Christian community? His visit to Jerusalem was short. There were many who remained fearful of his persecution. Already as a controversial figure in the new movement, he returned to his home town, Tarsus, for perhaps seven years before being brought back to public live by Barnabas of the Antiochene community. It appears that Saul’s belief about the inclusive nature of Jesus community was formed quite early.
How should one live a Christian? The expression of Christian faith challenged his Pharisaic mindset. By the time of his writing of I Thessalonians, by now using the Greek name Paul, he had already successfully broadened the vision of the early Jerusalem community led by James and Peter. The idea that one needed to be a Jew to be a follower of Jesus was the critical issue of the Council of Jerusalem (c 49CE). Paul, fresh from his first missionary journey with Barnabas, argued successfully in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:6-9; Acts 15) that the spirit and Jesus himself had the ends of the earth as the sowing field for the good news. His was a mission to those outside Judaism and the laws of Moses ought not to be applied to the gentile converts. He became convinced that fellowship with the risen Jesus (Gal 1:11-12), not the observance of the Law (Gal 3:1-5), was the necessary and sufficient condition for receiving and participating in God's promise for salvation. In the community of the crucified and risen Christ there should be none of the usual social divisions of race, class and gender (Gal 3:28). This was to become Paul’s mantra. Paul’s mission was to the gentiles. His mission would become as divisive as it was inclusive for the movement’s Jewish roots.
While it is true that Paul carried a simple message of unity of faith in Christ initially, it was no easy matter to apply it in all cases in a similar way. I Thessalonians Chapter 2 indicates that the first journey involved suffering and maltreatment at Philippi (c48) and significant hardship in Thessalonica (c48). Add to this the dilemmas that he faced at the council of Jerusalem (c49) and his own much earlier rejections in Damascus (c38) and in Jerusalem (c38), there were signs of what was to come. His suffering at the service of his call to apostolic mission would be profound and that suffering would continue and confirm his faith transformation.
There were immense distances between communities with all communication by word of mouth or by letter carried by hand, on land or by sea. Communities were insular. The diversity and the distance would cause him to suffer greatly for the mission and in so doing create a way of understanding Christian faith that was foundational. His reflections on suffering are essential in his developing profession of salvation in Christ. Suffering is to be a central motif in future writings of the apostle and his reflections on the implication of life in Christ.
Paul felt compelled. It was costly but Paul was prepared to pay the price. His authenticity in following the call of his religious conversion (worked out in his life in the early Christian communities) enabled him to endure, when others could not.
Setting the Scene
Sometime between the experience on the road to Damascus (c 35 CE) (described variously in Acts 9:1-19; 22:5-16; 26:12-18) and his earliest existing written epistle, the first letter to the Thessalonians (c 52CE), a period of about 17 years, an amazing change had come upon the once persecutor of Christians. His zealous Pharisaic Judaism (Philippians 3:5-6; Galatians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 11:22) had given way to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Acts records that Saul’s acceptance by the community at Damascus was followed by baptism. Perhaps the reality of the profound experience outside Damascus actually required more reflection than is recorded in Luke's narrative. Although his conversion provided the critical motif for Saul’s future life, it is his experiences as a Christian that are equally significant for the evolution of his faith and for his place within the Christian tradition as its first great theologian.
Because of Damascus and Jesus, Saul had to begin to question everything. The hundreds of laws and regulations that had shaped his childhood, adolescence and early manhood had seemingly lost their foundation. He had had a personal encounter with Christ and needed to work out what that meant. His deepest convictions were skewed in the initial experience and there was almost nothing to assist him in his reflection. The gospels that would later describe mission and teaching of the Galilean were still unwritten – only the early disciples, who like Saul, had Jewish origins were able to shed light on Jesus’ significance. They were the only guides to Jesus death and resurrection, to prayer and to living in Christ; this new faith was in fact discovering itself. Saul, and the first generation of Jewish Christians, had to find out for themselves what it meant to believe in Christ and to put that belief into practice in their lives. So the infant Christian community, the ekklesia, was forming the faith of its new adherent and quite soon would be challenged in its self-understanding by this same person.
Saul’s religious beliefs were in transition. The Jewish idea of God as creator of the universe was not under threat. The monotheistic deity of the Torah was not jettisoned in the new movement. But it was being reinterpreted. The one who is master of light in Genesis was being understood in a new way. That the mighty God (YHWH) might have sent a son into the world and that that this son might be the same Jesus who had suffered and died in Jerusalem in c30 CE, was a large shift from the first century notion of messiah (Christ). For most Jews, the idea remains consistent – the messiah’s coming is and was about a spiritually and socially invigorated Israel; the messiah was to usher in a righteous kingdom centred on the city of Jerusalem that itself would be a beacon of unity for the human race. For Saul, Jesus is that beacon, that light, and his followers are children of the light (I Thessalonians 5:5).
For many Jews, this was the Jesus movement going too far. His return to Damascus, perhaps after an extended time in Arabia, occasioned revolt by the Jews of that city and he escaped by being lowered in a basket out of the city beneath its walls. (Acts 9:22-25; II Corinthians 11:33). Perhaps already Saul had challenged not only Jewish beliefs but Jewish practices? Did one need to practice the holiness codes of Leviticus to be in the Christian community? His visit to Jerusalem was short. There were many who remained fearful of his persecution. Already as a controversial figure in the new movement, he returned to his home town, Tarsus, for perhaps seven years before being brought back to public live by Barnabas of the Antiochene community. It appears that Saul’s belief about the inclusive nature of Jesus community was formed quite early.
How should one live a Christian? The expression of Christian faith challenged his Pharisaic mindset. By the time of his writing of I Thessalonians, by now using the Greek name Paul, he had already successfully broadened the vision of the early Jerusalem community led by James and Peter. The idea that one needed to be a Jew to be a follower of Jesus was the critical issue of the Council of Jerusalem (c 49CE). Paul, fresh from his first missionary journey with Barnabas, argued successfully in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:6-9; Acts 15) that the spirit and Jesus himself had the ends of the earth as the sowing field for the good news. His was a mission to those outside Judaism and the laws of Moses ought not to be applied to the gentile converts. He became convinced that fellowship with the risen Jesus (Gal 1:11-12), not the observance of the Law (Gal 3:1-5), was the necessary and sufficient condition for receiving and participating in God's promise for salvation. In the community of the crucified and risen Christ there should be none of the usual social divisions of race, class and gender (Gal 3:28). This was to become Paul’s mantra. Paul’s mission was to the gentiles. His mission would become as divisive as it was inclusive for the movement’s Jewish roots.
While it is true that Paul carried a simple message of unity of faith in Christ initially, it was no easy matter to apply it in all cases in a similar way. I Thessalonians Chapter 2 indicates that the first journey involved suffering and maltreatment at Philippi (c48) and significant hardship in Thessalonica (c48). Add to this the dilemmas that he faced at the council of Jerusalem (c49) and his own much earlier rejections in Damascus (c38) and in Jerusalem (c38), there were signs of what was to come. His suffering at the service of his call to apostolic mission would be profound and that suffering would continue and confirm his faith transformation.
There were immense distances between communities with all communication by word of mouth or by letter carried by hand, on land or by sea. Communities were insular. The diversity and the distance would cause him to suffer greatly for the mission and in so doing create a way of understanding Christian faith that was foundational. His reflections on suffering are essential in his developing profession of salvation in Christ. Suffering is to be a central motif in future writings of the apostle and his reflections on the implication of life in Christ.
Paul felt compelled. It was costly but Paul was prepared to pay the price. His authenticity in following the call of his religious conversion (worked out in his life in the early Christian communities) enabled him to endure, when others could not.
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The Experience of Suffering
Suffering was not an academic subject with St. Paul. It was to be his life. Over the extent of his mission he was to know enormous suffering. Paul traveled over 10,000 miles proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. His journeys on land and sea took him primarily through present day Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. Paul walked the roads built by the Romans to facilitate their control over their Empire. There was constant danger. He puts it this way in his correspondence to with Christians at Corinth. "I am still more, with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, far worse beatings, and numerous brushes with death. Five times at the hands of the Jews I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep; on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure. And apart from these things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches." (2 Corinthians 11: 23–28) Paul acknowledged, “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities” (2 Corinthians 12:10). The suffering is profound and formative. His faith is tested repeatedly and through understanding suffering this faith evolves to become the earliest recorded approach to belief in Jesus as the Christ. |
The Early Christian Communities Influence Paul’s Interpretation of his Mission as the Apostle to the Gentiles?
The difficulty and the exciting aspect of studying Paul is that his are the earliest utterances of the faith and the practices of the first followers of the risen Jesus. Written in the sixth decade of the first century in the midst of his own efforts to spread the good news, his letters are not generally systematic theologies. They contain faith statements, advice, and some record of the practices and language of the earliest disciples. In the main they address local concerns in the Christian communities addressed in the correspondence. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul gives an account of the received wisdom:
1 Corinthians 15 |
3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
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So the faith is in Christ and in a community of witnesses. Paul uses the common Greek language (koine) in his writing. The Greek word used for the gathering of Christians is ekklesia (Church). These are the witnesses on whose testimony Christian faith stands. The witnesses to the resurrection were profoundly affected by their experience and formed groups in Jerusalem and later Damascus and Antioch. Those first witnesses wore the title, apostle. Their unique place is based not only on having witnessed the resurrection, but also on having been commissioned and empowered by the resurrected Lord to proclaim the gospel to all nations. Paul claims this resurrection witness and commissioning for himself and because of this he also adopts the title, apostle.
The early Christians including Paul had a great deal to consider. How did their new experience of the resurrection fit with the Judaism they were accustomed? They felt compelled to spread the good news. The message, “he is risen”, was understood as a revelation from God and as salvation, but for whom? And what were the implications for living with this revelation?
Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit
As Paul would later explain to the Christians at Corinth:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:22-24)
The gospel that an apostle preaches is more than a spoken reality. Paul explains this to the Thessalonians: “…our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit pays a role in the joy of the Gospel. “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6.
For Paul, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Theology, Christology and Pneumatology) have become a unity to which he is witness.
Christian Life (Ekklesia)
The details of that early community in Jerusalem are not all clear in the Pauline material but in Luke’s second volume, Acts of the Apostles, it can be noted that the Jerusalem group shared a communal life that was essentially Jewish in orientation. They gave to the poor, preached, conducted baptisms and maintained the breaking of bread blessed in memory of Jesus (The Eucharist), but they also prayed the psalms, read the Hebrew Scriptures, went to the Temple. Peter, James and John were the pillar apostles in Jerusalem, so there was a developing leadership structure based on apostleship. But it remained close to the Jewish pillars of scripture and temple.
For Paul, the laws of Moses ought not to be applied too rigorously to the gentile converts. Fellowship within the community of the risen Jesus (Gal 1:11-12), not the observance of the Law (Gal 3:1-5), was the necessary and sufficient condition for receiving and participating in God's promise for salvation. In the community of the crucified and risen Christ there should be none of the usual social divisions of race, class and gender (Gal 3:28). It was an egalitarian vision that was to become Paul’s inclusive and effective mantra.
The early Christians including Paul had a great deal to consider. How did their new experience of the resurrection fit with the Judaism they were accustomed? They felt compelled to spread the good news. The message, “he is risen”, was understood as a revelation from God and as salvation, but for whom? And what were the implications for living with this revelation?
Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit
As Paul would later explain to the Christians at Corinth:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:22-24)
The gospel that an apostle preaches is more than a spoken reality. Paul explains this to the Thessalonians: “…our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit pays a role in the joy of the Gospel. “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4-6.
For Paul, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Theology, Christology and Pneumatology) have become a unity to which he is witness.
Christian Life (Ekklesia)
The details of that early community in Jerusalem are not all clear in the Pauline material but in Luke’s second volume, Acts of the Apostles, it can be noted that the Jerusalem group shared a communal life that was essentially Jewish in orientation. They gave to the poor, preached, conducted baptisms and maintained the breaking of bread blessed in memory of Jesus (The Eucharist), but they also prayed the psalms, read the Hebrew Scriptures, went to the Temple. Peter, James and John were the pillar apostles in Jerusalem, so there was a developing leadership structure based on apostleship. But it remained close to the Jewish pillars of scripture and temple.
For Paul, the laws of Moses ought not to be applied too rigorously to the gentile converts. Fellowship within the community of the risen Jesus (Gal 1:11-12), not the observance of the Law (Gal 3:1-5), was the necessary and sufficient condition for receiving and participating in God's promise for salvation. In the community of the crucified and risen Christ there should be none of the usual social divisions of race, class and gender (Gal 3:28). It was an egalitarian vision that was to become Paul’s inclusive and effective mantra.
With a new set of companions (Silas, later Timothy and Sosthenes), he embarked upon his own independent mission in the ten years (c. 50-60 CE) of far-reaching evangelisation that we know from the ‘journeys’ described in Acts. It is also from this time that the Letters composed by him that have come down to us were written.There were immense distances between communities with all communication by word of mouth or by letter carried by hand, on land or by sea. Communities were insular. The diversity and the distance would cause him to suffer greatly for the mission and in so doing reflect a way of understanding Christian faith that was foundational.
His reflections on suffering are essential in his developing profession of salvation in Christ. Suffering is to be a central motif in future writings of the apostle and his reflections on the implication of life in Christ. St Paul's letters that follow his first existing letter, I Thessalonians (c 52-53 CE), hold significant reflections on his struggles as a Christian missionary in the journeys that follow his first journey with Barnabas. His theology of suffering emerges out of his missionary experience of the sixth decade.
His reflections on suffering are essential in his developing profession of salvation in Christ. Suffering is to be a central motif in future writings of the apostle and his reflections on the implication of life in Christ. St Paul's letters that follow his first existing letter, I Thessalonians (c 52-53 CE), hold significant reflections on his struggles as a Christian missionary in the journeys that follow his first journey with Barnabas. His theology of suffering emerges out of his missionary experience of the sixth decade.
Paul's Theology of Suffering
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Paul is reliant on the essential Christian revelation, that Jesus is the crucified and risen son of God. He uses this central belief of the followers of Christ as the main motif in his understanding of his call and his suffering. In the case of Paul, we likely have some of the first utterances of this theology of suffering.
Pauline theology is a theology of the suffering and its foundation lies in the suffering of the crucified and risen Christ. Paul understands that the road a Christian must walk is not an easy path. The Gospel makes demands. At times the demands may be extraordinary but Paul believes that when human suffering is united with Christ’s suffering it is brings salvation. The mission of Christians is to become like Christ by uniting our suffering to Christ: “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:5-7). |
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Christ who lives in me
He uses himself as an example in Galatians. The Apostle explains that when sufferings are united to the cross of Christ humans are transformed into Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
For Paul suffering for Christ’s sake purifies the believer of selfishness and unites them to Jesus’ redemptive work. Paul believes that Suffering in Christ contains the promises of eternal life. “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ. … and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8, 10-11).
Through his suffering, Paul believes himself to be participating in the Passion of Christ. Because we are being saved through the death and resurrection of Christ we must participate in his Passion to obtain salvation.
Paul could “rejoice” in his suffering because in his surrender he was conformed to his crucified Lord and cooperated with Jesus in the salvation of the world. Here we find meaning in our trials.
He uses himself as an example in Galatians. The Apostle explains that when sufferings are united to the cross of Christ humans are transformed into Christ: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
For Paul suffering for Christ’s sake purifies the believer of selfishness and unites them to Jesus’ redemptive work. Paul believes that Suffering in Christ contains the promises of eternal life. “I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ. … and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8, 10-11).
Through his suffering, Paul believes himself to be participating in the Passion of Christ. Because we are being saved through the death and resurrection of Christ we must participate in his Passion to obtain salvation.
Paul could “rejoice” in his suffering because in his surrender he was conformed to his crucified Lord and cooperated with Jesus in the salvation of the world. Here we find meaning in our trials.
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Suffering for the Body of Christ
Paul believes that the Church (ekklesia GK) is the Body of Christ. For Paul, faith in Jesus was not just personal but involved a community of believers. Indeed Paul noted that Christ and the Church for whom he suffered were one mystical body. "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church (Colossians 1:24 - contested Pauline Letter). The Church is the body of Christ for Paul. He would make this a frequent theme of his letters. "He [Christ] is the head of the body, the Church" (Colossians 1:18). And to the Corinthians: "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Cor 12:27). As the writer of Ephesians (a text of contested authorship in the Pauline school) explains, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (4:4-5). Paul loved the Church too because he himself had brought many of the Christian communities to the faith. He felt like a father to them and they were, as it were, his children. “For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4: 15). He suffered for the Christ that he found in Christian community that he felt called to serve. |
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Paul’s Eucharistic beliefs surrounding the connection with the death of Christ are spelt out at 1 Corinthians 10: 16. The gathering of Christians at the Eucharist is a participation in the passion of Christ. "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?" Christ's suffering is central to understanding the key christian ritual of thanksgiving.
Through suffering Paul came to believe that the Spirit had been given to all. God did not leave humankind without assistance. The Spirit had been given to all. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? (1 Corinthians 6:19-20.) Paul believes the Spirit of Christ is present in the gifts of the community of faith and in certainty of the power of prayer. “For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance” Philippians 1:19 St Paul summed up his love for Christ in his letter to the Philippians: "For to me, to live is Christ" (Phil 1:21). Christ was everything for him, and he would suffer the loss of everything else rather than lose Jesus Christ. |
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