[From it’s first posting in 2012, part of the series on Paul, revived during Christianity’s lenten season. Continuing “What did Paul Achieve,” Chapter 5 of Charles Freeman’s A New History of Early Christianity; condensed and slightly edited. Please get a copy of the book for your library—Admin1].
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The problem [of Paul’s journeys] lay in the task he set himself.
Paul would always face opposition from a variety of groups.
- First there were traditional Jews – the Jews of the diaspora who were to be found in virtually every city of the east. They were deeply suspicious of the semi-divine status that Christians appeared to give to Jesus. For them he was not the Messiah and, in so far as Jesus himself may never have claimed to be, their stance was understandable. With his message to Gentiles, Paul also threatened to undermine the relationship between Jews and God-fearers which was so crucial to the political and social survival of the Jewish communities.
- Then there were the Jewish Christians. Some had been scattered after the stoning of Stephen, others appeared to be undertaking missionary journeys of their own. Whatever agreement Paul thought he had made in Jerusalem it was hardly likely to be recognised elsewhere. He would often be in competition with the Jewish Christians for converts but their direct links to the original disciples would have given them an immense advantage.
Paul did not help himself. He boasts in an emotional outburst to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) that he tries to be all things to all men, a recipe for confusion that can hardly have earned him any respect. He appears to have had a penchant for being provocative, stirring up unrest and this would often attract the attention of the city magistrates. It is no wonder that Paul describes how his travels were filled with imprisonments and beatings at the hands of the Jews. As a result his stays in cities were often curtailed. In the Galatian cities he may have stayed no more than a few days.
This was hardly a strategy that could succeed. Paul claimed to be a Jew but he was extending Judaism into a new context in which the dominant force was now Christ and his imminent coming. What this meant for those who gave his movement their allegiance was not clear, perhaps even to Paul himself. When Paul said that Christ had transcended the Law, he left it unclear how ‘his’ Christians should behave without its restraining force. Paul craved acceptance as leader of an admiring community but, in practice, there were too many obstacles, the fluidity of his own beliefs and his own inability to establish effective leadership among them. In one of the most revealing passages in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 10:10) he records the criticism that has been made of him that he has no presence and is beneath contempt as a speaker.
Possbily around AD 48, Paul is recorded as leaving Antioch in the company of Barnabas. Their initial stop as they travelled west from the Syrian coast was Cyprus, the home of Barnabas. He, rather than Paul, was taking the lead in this enterprise. Here they were summoned to the local Roman governor, the proconsul Sergius Paullus. Acts tells us that Sergius became a believer (after Paul struck a member of his retinue, a ‘sorcerer’, blind – a reminder that not all reported Christian miracles are benign) and it is just at this point that Luke replaces the name Saul by Paul in his narrative. The success of this meeting was crucial as it won Sergius’ patronage for Paul’s activities, a patronage that Saul, as he then was, repaid by adopting Sergius’ cognomen (family name) as his own. It also explains why Paul and Barnabas ventured into Galatia when they landed from Cyprus. It would have made more sense to launch their mission in the cities of Pamphylia along the cost of Asia Minor. Instead, they headed to Pisidian Antioch, the hometown of Sergius’ family, doubtless because they carried introductions from Sergius.
Next: Revisit: Paul 4 – You foolish Galatians!
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