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THE ORIGIN OF

PAUL'S RELIGION

THB ICACUILLAN COICPANT

• BOBXON • CHITAflO • OlUJLAS

ICACUILLAN ft CO^ Loam

LOMDOM • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA

1HB ICACICILLAN Ca OP CANADA. Ltd.

THE ORIGIN OF
PAUL'S RELIGION

THE JAMES SPRUNT LECTURES
DELIVERED AT UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

IN VIRGINIA

BY

J, GRESHAM AfACHEN, D.D.

AisUtant Profei9or of N^w T09taim4nt IMwaimn and
Exeg0$i$ in Princeton TheoJogieal Seminary

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

192L

AU riifhts retirved

nUMTKD at THE UmTKD STATES Or AHERIOA

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

48753A

A9TOR. LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R I'-^a L

OOPTUQHT, 1921,
Bt the ICAOMILLAN OOMPANT.

Set np and printed. Published October, 1921.

4

• • •

• • •

% » • •

of

J. J. Little ft Ivee Company
New York, U. S. A.

TO
WILLIAM PARK ARMSTRONG

MY GUIDE

IN THE STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

AND IN ALL GOOD THINGS

^
\

V.

N

THE JAMES SPRUNT LECTURES

In 1911 Mr. James Sprunt of Wilmington, North Carolina,
gave to The Trustees of Union Theological Seminary in Vir-
ginia the sum of thirty thousand dollars, since increased by his
generosity to fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of estab-
lishing a perpetual lectureship, which would enable the institu-
tion to secure from time to time the services of distinguished
ministers and authoritative scholars, outside the regular
Faculty, as special lecturers on subjects connected with various
departments of Christian thought and Christian work. The
lecturers are chosen by the Faculty of the Seminary and a com-
mittee of the Board of Trustees, and the lectures are published
after their delivery in accordance with a contract between the
lecturer and these representatives of the institution. The ninth
series of lectures on this foundation is presented in this volume.

W. W. MooBE, President.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAOl

I. Introduction ••••• 8

II. The Early Years 48

III. The Triumph of Gentile Freedom 71

IV. Paul and Jesus . . . • 117

V. The Jewish Environment 17S

VI. The Religion of the Hellenistic Age . • • 211

VII. Redemption in Pagan Religion and in Paul • • 255

VIII. The Lordship of Jesus 298

Index 819

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

THK
ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

CHAPTER I

INTEODUCTION

The following discussion is intended to deal, from one par-
ticular point of view, with the problem of the origin of Chris-
tianity. That problem is an important historical problem,
and also an important practical problem. It is an important
historical problem not only because of the large place which
Christianity has occupied in the medieval and modem world,
but also because of certain unique features which even the most
unsympathetic and superficial examination must detect in the
beginnings of the Christian movement. The problem of the
origin of Christianity is also an important practical problem.
Rightly or wrongly. Christian experience has ordinarily been
connected with one particular view of the origin of the Chris-
tian movement ; where that view has been abandoned, the experi-
ence has ceased.

This dependence of Christianity upon a particular con-
ception of its origin and of its Founder is now indeed being
made the object of vigorous attack. There are many who
maintain that Christianity is the same no matter what its
origin was, and that therefore the problem of origin should
be kept entirely separate from the present religious interests
of the Church. Obviously, however, this indifference to the
question as to what the origin of Christianity was depends
upon a particular conception of what Christianity now is ; it
depends upon the conception which makes of Christianity
simply a manner of life. That conception is indeed wide-
spread, but it is by no means universal ; there are still hosts of
earnest Christians who regard Christianity, not simply as a
manner of life, but as a manner of life founded upon a message
— upon a message with regard to the Founder of the Christian

3

i

4 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

i
movement. For such persons the question of the origin of [
Christianity is rather to be called the question of the truth
of Christianity, and that question is to them the most im-
portant practical question of their lives. Even if these persons
are wrong, the refutation of their supposed error naturally
proceeds, and has in recent years almost always proceeded,
primarily by means of that very discussion of the origin of the
Christian movement which is finally to be shorn of its practical
interest. The most important practical question for the modern
Church is still the question how Christianity came into being.

In recent years it has become customary to base discussions
of the origin of Christianity upon the apostle Paul. Jesus
Himself, the author of the Christian movement, wrote nothing
— at least no writings of His have been preserved. The record
of His words and deeds is the work of others, and the date
and authorship and historical value of the documents in which
that record is contained are the subject of persistent debate.
With regard to the genuineness of the principal epistles of
Paul, on the other hand, and with regard to the value of at
least part of the outline of his life which is contained in the
Book of Acts, all serious historians are agreed. The testi-
mony of Paul, therefore, forms a fixed starting-point in all
controversy.

Obviously that testimony has an important bearing upon
the question of the origin of Christianity. Paul was a con-
temporary of Jesus. He attached himself to Jesus' disciples
only a very few years after Jesus' death; according to his
own words, in one of the universally accepted epistles, he came
into early contact with the leader among Jesus' associates;
throughout his life he was deeply interested (for one reason or
another) in the affairs of the primitive Jerusalem Church;
both before his conversion and after it he must have had abun-
dant opportunity for acquainting himself with the facts about
Jesus' life and death. His testimony is not, however, limited
to what he says in detail about the words and deeds of the
Founder of the Christian movement. More important still is
the testimony of his experience as a whole. The religion of
Paul is a fact which stands in the full light of history. How
is it to be explained? What were its presuppositions? Upon
what sort of Jesus was it founded? These questions lead into
the very heart of the historical problem. Explain the origin

INTRODUCTION 6

he 'religion of Paul, and you have solved the problem of the

:m of Christianity.

That problem may thus be approached through the gate-

of the testimony of Paul. But that is not the only way to
roach it. Another way is offered by the Gospel picture of
person of Jesus. Quite independent of questions of date

authorship and literary relationships of the documents,
total picture which the Gospels present bears unmistakable
ks of being the picture of a real historical person. In-
lal evidence here reaches the point of certainty. If the
18 who in the Gospels is represented as rebuking the Phar-
i and as speaking the parables is not a real historical
ton living at a definite point in the world's history, then
*e is no way of distinguishing history from fiction. Even
evidence for the genuineness of the Pauline Epistles is no
»nger than this. But if the Jesus of the Gospels is a real
ion, certain puzzling questions arise. The Jesus of the
peb is a supernatural person; He is represented as pos-
ing sovereign power over the forces of nature. What shall
lone with this supernatural element in the picture? It is
ainly very difficult to separate it from the rest. More-
r the Jesus of the Gospels is represented as advancing some
y claims. He regarded Himself as being destined to come
I the clouds of heaven and be the instrument in judging
world. What shall be done with this element in His con-
usness? How does it agree with the indelible impression of
oness and sanity which has always been made by His char-
»r? These questions again lead into the heart of the prob-
Yet they cannot be ignored. They are presented in-
ably by what every serious historian admits.
The fundamental evidence with regard to the origin of
istianity is therefore twofold. Two facts need to be ex-
iled — the Jesus of the Gospels and the religion of Paul.
J problem of early Christianity may be approached in either
these two ways. It should finally be approached in both
'8. And if it is approached in both ways the investigator

discover, to his amazement, that the two ways lead to the
le result. But the present discussion is more limited in
pe. It seeks to deal merely with one of the two ways of ap-
ach to the problem of Christianity. What was the origin
;he religion of Paul?

6 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

In discussing the apostle Paul the historian is dealii
with a subject important for its own sake, even aside from t
importance of what it presupposes about Jesus. Unquestio
ably Paul was a notable man, whose influence has been f<
throughout all subsequent history. The fact itself cannot
called in question. But since there is wide difference of opinio
about details, it may be well, in a brief preliminary word,
define a little more closely the nature and extent of the i
fiucnce of Paul.

That influence has been exerted in two ways. It w
exerted, in the first place, during the lifetime of Paul; ai
it has been exerted, in the second place, upon subsequent ge
erations through the medium of the Pauline Epistles.

With regard to the second kind of influence, general co
siderations would make a high estimate natural. The Pauli
Epistles form a large proportion of the New Testament, whi
has been regarded as fundamental and authoritative in all ag
of the Church. The use of the Pauline Epistles as normati
for Christian thought and practice can be traced back
very early times, and has been continuous ever since. Y
certain considerations have been urged on the other side
indicating that the influence of Paul has not been so great
might have been expected. For example, the Christianity
the Old Catholic Church at the close of the second centu:
displays a strange lack of understanding for the deeper d
ments in the Pauline doctrine of salvation, and something <
the same state of affairs may be detected in the scanty i
mains of the so-called "Apostolic Fathers** of the beginnii
of the century. The divergence from Paul was not consciou
the writers of the close of the second century all quote t
Pauline Epistles with the utmost reverence. But the fact
the divergence cannot altogether be denied.

Various explanations of this divergence have been pr
posed. Baur explained the un-Pauline character of the O
Catholic Church as due to a compromise with a legalistic Je^
ish Christianity; Ritschl explained it as due to a natur
process of degeneration on purely Gentile Christian groun<
Von Harnack explains it as due to the intrusion, after t
time of Paul, of Greek habits of thought. The devout believe
on the other hand, might simply say that the Pauline doctri:

INTRODUCTION 7

of grace was too wonderful and too divine to be understood
fuUy by the human mind and heart.^

Whatever the explanation, however, the fact, even after
exaggerations have been avoided, remains significant. It re-
mains true that the Church of the second century failed to
understand fully the Pauline doctrine of the way of salvation.
The same lack of understanding has been observable only too
frequently throughout subsequent generations. It was there-
fore with some plausibility that Von Hamack advanced his
dictum to the effect that Paulinism has established itself as a
ferment, but never as a foundation, in the history of doctrine.^

In the first place, however, it may be doubted whether the
dictum of Von Hamack is true; for in that line of develop-
ment of theology which runs from Augustine through the Refor-
mation to the Reformed Churches, Paulinism may fairly be
regarded as a true foundation. But in the second place, even
if Von Hamack's dictum were true, the importance of Paul's
influence would not be destroyed. A ferment is sometimes as
important as a foundation. As Von Hamack himself says,
"the Pauline reactions mark the critical epochs of theology
and of the Church. . . • The history of doctrine could be
written as a history of the Pauline reactions in the Church.** •
As a matter of fact the influence of Paul upon the entire life
of the Church is simply measureless. Who can measure the
influence of the eighth chapter of Romans?

The influence of Paul was also exerted, however, in his
own lifetime, by his spoken words as well as by his letters.
To estimate the full extent of that influence one would have
to write the entire history of early Christianity. It may be
well, however, to consider briefly at least one outstanding
aspect of that influence — an aspect which must appeal even
to the most unsympathetic observer. The Christian move-
ment began in the midst of a very peculiar people; in 36 A.D.
it would have appeared to a superficial observer to be a Jewish
Beet. Thirty years later it was plainly a world religion.

* Compare "Jesus and Paul,** in BihUcal and Theological Studies hj
Members of the Faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary, 1912, pp.

* Hamack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 4te Aufl., i, 1909, p. 155.
(English Translation, History of Dogma, i, 1895, p. 136.)

'Hamack, loe, cit.

8 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

True, the number of its adherents was still small. But the
really important steps had been taken. The conquest of the
world was now a mere matter of time. This establishment of
Christianity as a world religion, to almost as great an extent
as any great historical movement can be ascribed to one man,
was the work of Paul.

This assertion needs to be defended against various ob-
jections, and at the same time freed from misinterpretations
and exaggerations.

In the first place, it might be said, the Gentile mission
of Paul was really only a part of a mighty historical process —
the march of the oriental religions throughout the western
world. Christianity was not the only religion which was
filling the void left by the decay of the native religions of
Greece and Rome. The Phrygian religion of Cybele had been
established officially at Rome since 204 B.C., and after leading a
somewhat secluded and confined existence for several centuries,
was at the time of Paul beginning to make its influence felt in
the life of the capital. The Greco-Egyptian religion of Isis
was preparing for the triumphal march which it began in
earnest in the second century. The Persian religion of Mithras
was destined to share with Isis the possession of a large part
of the Greco-Roman world. Was not the Christianity of
Paul merely one division of a mighty army which would have
conquered even without his help?

With regard to this objection a number of things may be
said. In the first place, the apostle Paul, as over against the
priests of Isis and of Cybele, has perhaps at least the merit
of priority; the really serious attempt at world-conquest was
made by those religions (and still more clearly by the religion
of Mithras) only after the time of Paul. In the second
place, the question may well be asked whether it is at all justi-
fiable to class the Christianity of Paul along with those other
cults under the head of Hellenized oriental religion. This
question will form the subject of a considerable part of the
discussion which follows, and it will be answered with an em-
phatic negative. The Christianity of Paul will be found to be
totally different from the oriental religions. The threat of
conquest made by those religions, therefore, only places in
sharper relief the achievement of Paul, by showing the calami-
ties from which the world was saved by his energetic mission.

INTRODUCTION 9

If except for the Pauline mission the world would have become
devoted to Isis or Mithras, then Paul was certainly one of the
supreme benefactors of the human race.

Even apart from any detailed investigation, however, one
difference between the religion of Paul and the oriental religions
is perfectly obvious. The oriental religions were tolerant of /
other faiths ; .the religion of Paul, like the ancient religion of '
Israel, demanded an absolutely exclusive devotion. A man
could become initiated into the mysteries of Isis or Mithras
without at all giving up his former beliefs; but if he were to
be received into the Church, according to the preaching of
Paul, he must forsake all other Saviours for the Lord Jesus
Christ. The difference places the achievement of Paul upon
an entirely different plane from the successes of the oriental
mystery religions. It was one thing to offer a new faith and
a new cult as simply one additional way of obtaining contact
with the Divine, and it was another thing, and a far more
difficult thing (and in the ancient world outside of Israel an
unheard-of thing), to require a man to renounce all existing
religious beliefs and practices in order to place his whole re-
liance upon a single Saviour. Amid the prevailing syncretism
of the Greco-Roman world, the religion of Paul, with the
religion of Israel, stands absolutely alone. The successes of
the oriental religions, therefore, only place in clearer light
the uniqueness of the achievement of Paul. They do indeed
indicate the need and longing of the ancient world for re-
demption; but that is only part of the preparation for the
coming of the gospel which has always been celebrated by
devout Christians as part of the divine economy, as one indica-
tion that 'Hhe fullness of the time" was come. But the wide
prevalence of the need does not at all detract from the achieve-
ment of satisfying the need. Paul's way of satisfying the need,
as it is hoped the later chapters will show, was unique ; but what
should now be noticed is that the way of Paul, because of its
ezdusiveness, was at least far more difficult than that of any
of his rivals or successors. His achievement was therefore im-
measurably greater than theirs.

But if the successes of the oriental religions do not detract
from the achievement of Paul, what shall be said of the suc-
cesses of pre-Christian Judaism? It must always be remembered
that Judaism, in the first century, was an active missionary

10 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

religion. Even Palestinian Judaism was imbued with the mis-
sionary spirit ; Jesus said to the Pharisees that they compassed
sea and land to make one proselyte. The Judaism of the Dis-
persion was no doubt even more zealous for winning adherents.
The numberless synagogues scattered throughout the cities of
the Greco-Roman world were not attended, as Jewish syna-
gogues are attended to-day, only by Jews, but were also filled
with hosts of Gentiles, some of whom had accepted circumcision
and become full Jews, but others of whom, forming the class
called in the Book of Acts "God-fearers** or "God-worship-
ers,** had accepted the monotheism of the Jews and the lofty
morality of the Old Testament without definitely uniting them-
selves with the people of Israel. In addition to this propa-
ganda in the synagogues, an elaborate literary propaganda,
of which important remnants have been preserved, helped to
carry on the misionary work. The question therefore arises
whether the preaching of Paul was anything more than a con-
tinuation, though in any case a noteworthy continuation, of
this pre-dhristian Jewish mission.

Here again, as in the case of the longing for redemption
which is attested by the successes of the oriental religions, an
important element in the preparation for the gospel must cer-
tainly be detected. It is hard to exaggerate the service which
was rendered to the Pauline mission by the Jewish synagogue.
One of the most important problems for every missionary is
the problem of gaining a hearing. The problem may be solved
in various ways. Sometimes the missionary may hire a place
of meeting and advertise; sometimes he may talk on the street
comers to passers-by. But for Paul the problem was solved.
All that he needed to do was to enter the synagogue and
exercise the privilege of speaking, which was accorded with
remarkable liberality to visiting teachers. In the synagogue,
moreover, Paul found an audience not only of Jews but also
of Gentiles; everywhere the "God-fearers** were to be found.
These Gentile attendants upon the synagogues formed not
only an audience but a picked audience; they were just the
class of persons who were most likely to be won by the gospel
preaching. In their case much of the preliminary work had
been accomplished; they were already acquainted with the
doctrine of the one true God; they had already, through the
lofty ethical teaching of the Old Testament, come to connect
religion with morality in a way which is to us matter-of-course

INTRODUCTION 11

but was very exceptional in the ancient world. Where, as in
the market-place at Athens, Paul had to begin at the very
beginning, without presupposing this previous instruction on
the part of his hearers, his task was rendered far more difficult.
Undoubtedly, in the case of many of his converts he did
have to begin in that way; the First Epistle to the Thessa-
loniahs, for example, presupposes, perhaps, converts who turned
directly from idols to serve the living and true God. But
even in such cases the God-fearers formed a nucleus; their
manifold social relationships provided points of contact with
the rest of the Gentile population. The debt which the Chris-
tian Church owes to the Jewish synagogue is simply measure-
less.

This acknowledgment, however, does not mean that the
Pauline mission was only a continuation of the pre-Christian
missionary activity of the Jews. On the contrary, the very
earnestness of the eflfort made by the Jews to convert their
Gientile neighbors serves to demonstrate all the more clearly
the hopelessness of their task. One thing that was funda-
mental in the religion of the Jews was its exclusiveness. The
people of Israel, according to the Old Testament, was the
chosen people of God; the notion of a covenant between God
and His chosen people was absolutely central in all ages of the
Jewish Church. The Old Testament did indeed clearly provide
a method by which strangers could be received into the cove-
nant ; they could be received whenever, by becoming circumcised
and undertaking the observance of the Mosaic Law, they should
relinquish their own nationality and become part of the na-
tion of Israel. But this method seemed hopelessly burdensome.
Even before the time of Paul it had become evident that the
Gentile world as a whole would never submit to such terms.
The terms were therefore sometimes relaxed. Covenant privi-
leges were offered by individual Jewish teachers to individual
Gentiles without requiring what was most offensive, like circum-
cision ; merit was sought by some of the Gentiles by observance
of only certain parts of the Law, such as the requirements
about the Sabbath or the provisions about food. Apparently
widespread also was the attitude of those persons who seem to
have accepted what may be called the spiritual, as dis-
tinguished from the ceremonial, aspects of Judaism. But all
such compromises were affected by a deadly weakness. The
strict requirements of the Law were set forth plainly in the

12 THE ORIGIN OP PAULAS RELIGION

Old Testament. To cast them aside, in the interests of mis-
sionary activity, meant a sacrifice of principle to practice;
it meant a sacrifice of the zeal and the good conscience of the
missionaries and of the true satisfaction of the converts. One
of the chief attractions of Judaism to the world of that day
was the possession of an ancient and authoritative Book; the
world was eagerly searching for authority in religion. Yet
if the privileges of the Old Testament were to be secured, the
authority of the Book had to be set aside. The character
of a national religion was therefore too indelibly stamped upon
the religion of Israel; the Gentile converts could at best only
be admitted into an outer circle around the true household
of God. What pre-Christian Judaism had to oflfer was there-
fore obviously insufficient. Perhaps the tide of the Jewish
mission had already begun to ebb before the time of Paul;
perhaps the process of the withdrawal of Judaism into its
age-long seclusion had already begun. Undoubtedly that
process was hastened by the rivalry of Christianity, which of-
fered far more than Judaism had offered and offered it on far
more acceptable terms. But the process sooner or later would
inevitably have made itself felt. Whether or not Renan was
correct in supposing that had it not been for Christianity
the world would have been Mithraic, one thing is certain — the
world apart from Christianity would never have become Jewish.
But was not the preaching of Paul itself one manifesta-
tion of that liberalizing tendency among the Jews to which
allusion has just been made and of which the powerlessness
has just been asserted? Was not the attitude of Paul in
remitting the requirement of circumcision, while he retained
the moral and spiritual part of the Old Testament Law —
especially if, as the Book of Acts asserts, he assented upon oc-
casion to the imposition of certain of the less burdensome
parts even of the ceremonial Law — very similar to the ac-
tion of a teacher like that Ananias who was willing to re-
ceive king Izates of Adiabene without requiring him to be
circumcised? These questions in recent years have occasion-
ally been answered in the affirmative, especially by Kirsopp
Lake.^ But despite the plausibility of Lake's representation

» The Earlier Epietlee of 8t. Paul, 1911, pp. 16-38, especially p. 24,. Com-
pare Lake and Jackson, The Beginninge of ChristianUy, Part I, voL i, 1920,
p. 166.

INTRODUCTION 18

he has thereby introduced a root error into his reconstruction
of the apostolic age. For whatever the teaching of Paul was,
1 it certainly was not **liberali8m." The background of Paul
is not to be sought in liberal Judaism, but in the strictest
sect of the Pharisees. And Paul's remission of the recjuirement
of circumcision was similar only in form, at the most, to
the action of the Ananias who has just been mentioned. In
motive and in principle it was diametrically opposite. Gren-
tile freedom according to Paul was not something permitted;
it was something absolutely required. And it was required
just by the strictest interpretation of the Old Testament Law.
If Paul had been a liberal Jew, he would never have been the
apostle to the Grentiles; for he would never have developed
his doctrine of the Cross. Gentile freedom, in other words,
was not, according to Paul, a relaxing of strict requirements
in the interests of practical missionary work ; it was a matter
of principle. For the first time the religion of Israel could
go forth (or rather was compelled to go forth) with a really
good conscience to the spiritual conquest of the world.

Thus the Pauline mission was not merely one manifestation
of the progress of oriental religion, and it was not merely a
continuation of the pre-Christian missi9n of the Jews; it was
something new. But if it was new in comparison with what was
outside of Christianity, was it not anticipated within Chris-
tianity itself? Was it not anticipated by the Founder of
Christianity, by Jesus Himself?

At this point careful definition is necessary. If all that
is meant is that the Gentile mission of Paul was founded alto-
gether upon Jesus, then there ought to be no dispute. A differ-
&kt view, which makes Paul rather than Jesus the true founder
of Christianity, will be combated in the following pag<es.
Paul himself, at any rate, bases his doctrine of Gentile free-
dom altogether upon Jesus. But he bases it upon what Jesus
had done, not upon what Jesus, at least during His earthly
life, had said. The true state of the case may therefore be that
Jesus by His redeeming work really made possible the Gentile
mission, but that the discovery of the true significance of that
work was left to Paul. The achievement of Paul, whether it
be regarded as a discovery made by him or a divine revelation
made to him, would thus remain intact. What did Jesus
say or imply, during His earthly ministry, about the universal-

14 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

ism of the gospel? Did He make superfluous the teaching of
Paul?

The latter question must be answered in the negative; at-
tempts at finding, clearly expressed, in the words of Jesus
the full doctrine of Gentile freedom have failed. It is often
said that Jesus, though He addressed His teaching to Jews,
addressed it to them not as Jews but as men. But the dis-
covery of that fact (whenever it was made) was no mean
achievement. Certainly it was not made by the modem writers
who lightly repeat the assertion, for they have the benefit of
the teaching of Paul and of nineteen centuries of Christian
experience based upon that teaching. Even if Jesus did ad-
dress not the Jew as a Jew, but the man in the Jew, the achieve-
ment of Paul in the establishment of the Gentile Church was
not thereby made a matter of course. The plain man would
be more likely to stick at the fact that however Jesus addressed
the Jew He did address the Jew and not the Gentile, and He
commanded His disciples to do the same. Instances in which
He extended His ministry to Gentiles are expressly designated
in the Gospels as exceptional.

But did He not definitely command His disciples to engage
in the Gentile work after His departure? Certainly He did
not do so according to the modern critical view of the Gospels.
But even if the great commission of Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 be
accepted as an utterance of Jesus, it is by no means clear that
the question of Gentile liberty was settled. In the great com-
mission, the apostles are commanded to make disciples of all
the nations. But on what terms were the new disciples to be
received? There was nothing startling, from the Jewish point
of view, in winning Gentile converts; the non-Christian Jews,
as has just been observed, were busily engaged in doing that.
The only difficulty arose when the terms of reception of the new
converts were changed. Were the new converts to be received
as disciples of Jesus without being circumcised and thus with-
out becoming members of the covenant people of God? The
great commission does not answer that question. It does in-
deed mention only baptism and not circumcision. But might
that not be because circumcision, for those who were to enter
into God's people, was a matter of course?

In a number of His utterances, it is true, Jesus did
adopt an attitude toward the ceremonial Law, at least toward

INTRODUCTION 16

the interpretation of it by the scribes, very different from
what was customary in the Judaism of His day. "There is
nothing from without the man," He said, "that entering into
him can defile him : but the things which come out of him, those
are they that defile the man" (Mark vii. 16). No doubt these
words were revolutionary in their ultimate implications. But
there is no evidence that they resulted in revolutionary prac-
tice on the part of Jesus. On the contrary, there is definite
reason to suppose that He observed the ceremonial Law as it
was contained in the Old Testament, and definite utterances
of His in support of the authority of the Law have been pre-
served in the Gospels.

The disciples, therefore, were not obviously unfaithful
to the teachings of Jesus if after He had been taken from them
they continued to minister only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. If He had told them to make disciples of all the
nations. He had not told them upon what terms the disciples
were to be received or at what moment of time the specifically
Gentile work should begin. Perhaps the divine economy re-
quired that Israel should first be brought to an acknowledgment
of her Lord, or at least her obduracy established beyond per-
adventure, in accordance with the mysterious prophecy of
Jesus in the parable of the Wicked Husbandmen,^ before the
Grentiles should be gathered in. At any rate, there is evidence
that whatever was revolutionary in the life and teaching of
Jesus was less evident among His disciples, in the early days
of the Jerusalem Church. Even the Pharisees, and at any rate
the people as a whole, could find nothing to object to in the
attitude of the apostles and their followers. The disciples
continued to observe the Jewish fasts and feasts. Outwardly
they were simply loyal Jews. Evidently Gentile freedom, and
the abolition of special Jewish privileges, had not been clearly
established by the words of the Master. There was therefore
stiU need for the epoch-making work of Paul.

But if the achievement of Paul was not clearly antici-
pated in the teaching of Jesus Himself, was it not anticipated
or at any rate shared by others in the Church? According to

'Matt. xxL 41, and parallels. This verse can perhaps hardly be held to
refer exclusively to the rejection of Jesus by the rulers; it seems also to
apply to a rejection by the people as a whole. But the full implications
of so mysterious an utterance may well have been lost sight of in the
early Jerusalem Church.

16 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

the Book of Acts, a Gentile, Cornelius, and his household were
baptized, without requirement of circumcision, by Peter him-
self, the leader of the original apostles ; and a free attitude to-
ward the Temple and the Law was adopted by Stephen. The
latter instance, at least, has ordinarily been accepted as his-
torical by modem criticism. Even in founding the churches
which are usually designated as Pauline, moreovei:, Barnabas
and Silas and others had an important part ; and in the found-
ing of many churches Paul himself was not concerned. It is an
interesting fact that of the churches in the three most im-
portant cities of the Roman Empire not one was founded by
Paul. The Church at Alexandria does not appear upon the
pages of the New Testament; the Church at Rome appears
fully formed when Paul was only preparing for his coming
by the Epistle to the Romans ; the Church at Antioch, at least
in its Gentile form, was founded by certain unnamed Jews of
Cyprus and Cyrene. Evidently, therefore, Paul was not the
only missionary who carried the gospel to the Gentile worid.
If the Gentile work consisted merely in the geographical ex-
tension of the frontiers of the Church, then Paul did not by
any means stand alone.

Even in the geographical sphere, however, his achievements
must not be underestimated ; even in that sphere he labored far
more abundantly than any other one man. His desire to plant
the gospel in places where it had never been heard led him
into an adventurous life which may well excite the astonishment
of the modem man. The catalogue of hardships which Paul
himself gives incidentally in the Second Epistle to the Cor-
inthians shows that the Book of Acts has been very conserva-
tive in its account of the hardships and perils which the apostle
endured; evidently the half has not been told. The results,
moreover, were commensurate with the hardships that they
cost. Despite the labors of others, it was Paul who planted
the gospel in a real chain of the great cities; it was he who
conceived most clearly the thought of a mighty Church uni-
versal which should embrace both Jew and Gentile, barbarian,
Scythian, bond and free in a common faith and a conmion
life. When he addressed himself to the Church at Rome, in a
tone of authority, as the apostle to the Grentiles who was
ready to preach the gospel to those who were at Rome also, his
lofty claim was supported, despite the fact that the Church at

INTRODUCTION 17

Rome had itself been founded by others, by the mere extent of
his labors.

The really distinctive achievement of Paul, however, does
not consist in the mere geographical extension of the frontiers
of the Church, important as that work was ; it lies in a totally
different sphere — ^in the hidden realm of thought.^ What was
really standing in the way of the Gentile mission was not the
physical barriers presented by sea and mountain, it was rather
the great barrier of religious principle. Particularism was
written plain upon the pages of the Old Testament ; in emphatic
language the Scriptures imposed upon the true Israelite the
duty of separateness from the Gentile world. Gentiles might
indeed be brought in, but only when they acknowledged the
prerogatives of Israel and united themselves with the Jewish
nation. If premonitions of a different doctrine were to be
found, they were couched in the mysterious language of
prophecy; what seemed to be fundamental for the present
was the doctrine of the special covenant between Jehovah and
His chosen people.

This particularism of the Old Testament might have been
overcome by practical considerations, especially by the con-
sideration that since as a matter of fact the Gentiles would
never accept circumcision and submit to the Law the only way
to carry on the broader work was quietly to keep the more
burdensome requirements of the Law in abeyance. This method
would have been the method of ^^liberalism." And it would have
been utterly futile. It would have meant an irreparable injury
to the religious conscience; it would have sacrificed the good
conscience of the missionary and the authoritativeness of his
proclamation. Liberalism would never have conquered the
world.

Fortunately liberalism was not the method of Paul. Paul
was not a practical Christian who regarded life as superior
to doctrine, and practice as superior to principle. On the
contrary, he overcame the principle of Jewish particularism
in the only way in which it could be overcome; he overcame
principle by principle. It was not Paul the practical mis-
sionary, but Paul the theologian, who was the real apostle to
the Gr^tiles.

* For what follows, compare the article cited in Biblical and Theological
StmdUi, pp. 565-557.

18 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

In his theology he avoided certain errors which lay near
at hand. He avoided the error of Marcion, who in the middle
of the second century combated Jewish particularism by repre-
senting the whole of the Old Testament economy as evil and
as the work of a being hostile to the good God. That error
would have deprived the Church of the prestige which it derived
from the possession of an ancient and authoritative Book;
as a merely new religion Christianity never could have ap-
pealed to the Gentile world. Paul avoided also the error of
the so-called "Epistle of Barnabas," which, while it accepted
the Old Testament, rejected the entire Jewish interpretation
of it; the Old Testament Law, according to the Epistle of
Barnabas, was never intended to require literal sacrifices and
circumcision, in the way in which it was interpreted by the
Jews. That error, also, would have been disastrous ; it would
have introduced such boundless absurdity into the Christian
use of the Scriptures that all truth and soberness would have
fled.

Avoiding all such errors, Paul was able with a perfectly
good conscience to accept the priceless support of the Old
Testament Scriptures in his missionary work while at the same
time he rejected for his Gentile converts the ceremonial re-
quirements which the Old Testament imposed. The solution of
the problem is set forth clearly in the Epistle to the Gala-
tians. The Old Testament Law, according to Paul, was truly
/authoritative and truly divine. But it was temporary ; it was
.'authoritative only until the fulfillment of the promise should
come. It was a schoolmaster to bring the Jews to Christ;
and (such is the implication, according to the Epistle to the
Romans) it could also be a schoolmaster to bring every one
to Christ, since it was intended to produce the necessary con-
sciousness of sin.

This treatment of the Old Testament was the only prac-
tical solution of the difficulty. But Paul did not adopt it
because it was practical; he adopted it because it was true.
It never occurred to him to hold principle in abeyance even
for the welfare of the souls of men. The deadening blight of
pragmatism had never fallen upon his soid.

The Pauline grounding of the Gentile mission is not to
be limited, however, to his specific answer to the question,

INTRODUCTION 19

•*What then is the law?'* It extends rather to his entire un-
folding of the significance of the Gross of Christ. He ex-
hibited the temporary character of the Old Testament dis-
pensation by showing that a new era had begun, by exhibiting
positively the epoch-making significance of the Cross.

At this point undoubtedly he had precursors. The sig-
nificance of the Cross of Christ was by no means entirely
unknown to those who had been disciples before him; he him-
self places the assertion that Christ "died for our sins accord-
ing to the Scriptures'* as one of the things that he had "re-
ceived." But unless all indications fail Paul did bring an
unparalleled enrichment of the understanding of the Cross.
For the first time the death of Christ was viewed in its full
historical and logical relationships. And thereby Gentile free-
dom, and the freedom of the entire Christian Church for all
time, was assured.

Inwardly, indeed, the early Jerusalem disciples were al-
ready free from the Law; they were really trusting for their
salvation not to their observance of the Law but to what
Christ had done for them. But apparently they did not fully
know that they were free ; or rather they did not know exactly
why they were free. The case of Cornelius, according to the
Book of Acts, was exceptional; Cornelius had been received
into the Church without being circumcised, but only by direct
command of the Spirit. Similar direct and unexplained guid-
ance was apparently to be waited for if the case was to be
repeated. Even Stephen had not really advocated the imme-
diate abolition of the Temple or the abandonment of Jewish
prerogatives in the presence of Gentiles.

The freedom of the early Jerusalem Church, in other
words, was not fully grounded in a comprehensive view
of the meaning of Jesus' work. Such freedom could not
be permanent. It was open to argumentative attacks, and
as a matter of fact such attacks were not long absent. The
very life of the Gentile mission at Antioch was threatened
by the Judaizers who came down from Jerusalem and said,
"Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye
cannot be saved." Practical considerations, considerations
of church polity, were quite powerless before such attacks;
freedom was held by but a precarious tenure until its under-

«0 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

lying principles were established. Christianity, in other
words, could not live without theology. And the first great
Christian theologian was Paul.

It was Paul, then, who established the principles of the
Gentile mission. Others labored in detail, but it was he who
was at the heart of the movement. It was he, far more than
any other one man, who carried the gospel out from Judaisn^
into the Gentile world.

The importance of the achievement must be apparent to
every historian, no matter how unsympathetic his attitude
towi^rd the content of Christianity may be. The modem Euro-
pean world, what may be called "western civilization," is
descended from the civilization of Greece and Rome. Our
languages are either derived directly from the Latin, or at any
rate connected with the same great family. Our literature
and art are inspired by the great classical models. Our law
and government have never been independent of the principles
enunciated by the statesmen of Greece, and put into practice
by the statesmen of Rome. Our philosophies are obliged to
return ever anew to the questions which were put, if not an-
swered, by Plato and Aristotle.

Yet there has entered into this current of Indo-European
civilization an element from a very diverse and very unexpected
source. How comes it that a thoroughly Semitic book like the
Bible has been accorded a place in medieval and modem life
to which the glories of Greek literature can never by any
possibility aspire? How comes it that the words of that book
have not only made political history — moved armies and built
empires — but also have entered into the very fabric of men's
soiils? The intrinsic value of the Book would not alone have
been sufficient to break down the barriers which opposed its
acceptance by the Indo-European race. The race from which
the Bible came was despised in ancient times and it is despised
to-day. How comes it then that a product of that race has
been granted such boundless influence? How comes it that the
barriers which have always separated Jew from Gentile, Semite
from Aryan, have at one point been broken through, so that
the current of Semitic life has been allowed to flow unchecked
over the rich fields of our modem civilization?

The answer to these questions, to the large extent which
the preceding outline has attempted to define, mu^t fee fought

INTRODUCTION 81

in the inner life of a Jew of Tarsus. In dealing with the apostlie
Paul we are dealing with one of the moving factors of the
world's history.

That conclusion might at first sight seem to affect un-
favorably the special use to which it is proposed, in the pres-
ent discussion, to put the examination of Paul. The more im-
portant Paul was as a man, it might be said, the less important
he becomes as a witness to the origin of Christianity. If his
mind had been a blank tablet prepared to receive impressions,
then the historian could be sure that what is found in Paul's
Epistles about Jesus is a true reflection of what Jesus really
was. But as a matter of fact Paul was a genius. It is of the
nature of genius to be creative. May not what Paul says about
Jesus and the origin of Christianity, therefore, be no mere re-
flection of the facts, but the creation of his own mind?

The difficulty is not so serious as it seems. Genius is not
incompatible with honesty — certainly not the genius of Paul.
Wh^i, therefore, Paul sets himself to give information about
certain plain matters of fact that came under his observa-
tion, as in the flrst two chapters of Galatians, there are not
many historians who are inclined to refuse him credence. But
the witness of Paul depends not so much upon details as upon
the total fact of his religious life. It is that fact which is to be
explained. To say merely that Paul was a genius and there-
fore unaccountable is no explanation. Certainly it is not an
explanation satisfactory to modem historians. During the
progress of modem criticism, students of the origin of Chris-
tianity have accepted the challenge presented by the fact of
Paul's religious life; they have felt obliged to account for the
emergence of that fact at just the point when it actually ap-
peared. But the explanations which they have offered, as the
following discussion may show, are insufficient; and it is just
the greatness of Paul for which the explanations do not ac-
count. The religion of Paul is too large a building to have
been erected upon a pin-point.

Moreover, the greater a man is, the wider is the area of
his contact with his environment, and the deeper is his pene-
tration into the spiritual realm. The "man in the street" is
not so good an observer as is sometimes supposed; he ob-
serves only what lies on the surface. Paul, on the other hand,
was able to sound the depths. It is, on the whole, certainly

ftft THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

no disadvantage to the student' of early Christianity that that
particular member of the early Church whose inner life stands
clearest in the light of history was no mere nonentity, but one
of the commanding figures in the history of the world.

But what, in essence, is the fact of which the historical im-
plications are here to be studied? What was the religion of
Paul? No attempt will now be made to answer the question
in detail; no attempt will be made to add to the long list of
expositions of the Pauline theology. But what is really es-
sential is abundantly plain, and may be put in a word — ^the re^
ligion of Paul was a religion of redemption. It was founded
not upon what had always been true, but upon what had recent-
ly happened; not upon right ideas about God and His rela-
tions to the world, but upon one thing that God had done;
not upon an eternal truth of the fatherhood of God, but upon
the fact that God had chosen to become the Father of those who
should accept the redemption offered by Christ. The religion
of Paul was rooted altogether in the redeeming work of Jesus
Christ. Jesus for Paid was primarily not a Revealer, but a
Saviour.

The character of Paulinism as a redemptive religion in-
volved a certain conception of the Redeemer, which is per-
fectly plain on the pages of the Pauline Epistles. Jesus Christ,
Paul believed, was a heavenly being; Paul placed Him clearly
on the side of God and not on the side of men. ^^Not by man
but by Jesus Christ," he says at the beginning of Galatians,
and the same contrast is implied everywhere in the Epistles.
This heavenly Redeemer existed before His earthly life; came
then to earth, where He lived a true human life of humiliation ;
suffered on the cross for the sins of those upon whom the curse
of the Law justly rested; then rose again from the dead by a
mighty act of God's power; and is present always with His
Church through His Spirit.

That representation has become familiar to the devout
Christian, but to the modem historian it seems very strange.
For to the modem historian, on the basis of the modem view
of Jesus, the procedure of Paul seems to be nothing else than
the deification by Paul of a man who had lived but a few years
before and had died a shameful death.^ It is not necessary to

* H. J. Holtzmann (in Protettantische Monatshefte, iv, 1900, pp. 465 f., and
in Chriitliche Welt, xxiv, 1910, column 153) admitted that for the rapid
apotheosis of Jesus as it is attested by the epistles of Paul he could
cite no paraUel in the religious history of the race.

INTRODUCTION 88

argue the question whether in Rom. ix. 6 Paul actually applies
the term "God" to Jesus — certainly he does so according to
the only natural interpretation of his words as they stand —
what is really important is that everjrwhere the rdationship
in which Paul stands toward Jesus is not the mere relationship
of disciple to master, but is a truly religious relationship.
Jesus is to Paul everywhere the object of religious faith.

That fact woidd not be quite so surprising if Paul had
been of polytheistic training, if he had grown up in a spiritual
environment where the distinction between divine and human
was being broken down. Even in such an environment, indeed,
the religion of Paul would have been quite without parallel^
The deification of the eastern rulers or of the emperors differs
in toto from the Pauline attitude toward Jesus. It differs in
seriousness and fervor; above all it differs in its complete lack
of exclusiveness. The lordship of the ruler admitted freely,
and was indeed always accompanied by, the lordship of other
gods; the lordship of Jesus, in the religion of Paul, was ab-
solutely exclusive. For Paul, there was one Lord and one Lord
only. When any parallel for such a religious relationship
of a notable man to one of his contemporaries with whose most
intimate friends he had come into close contact can be cited
in the religious annals of the race, then it will be time for the
historian to lose his wonder at the phenomenon of Paul.

But the wonder of the historian reaches its climax when
he remembers that Paul was not a polytheist or a pantheist,
but a Jew, to whom monotheism was the very breath of life.^
The Judaism of Paul's day was certainly nothing if not mono-
theistic. But in the intensity of his monotheism Paul was
not different from his countrymen. No one can possibly show
a deeper scorn for the many gods of the heathen than can
PaoL "For though there be that are called gods,*' he says,
Whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and
lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." (I Cor. viii.
69 6.) Yet it was this monothcist sprung of a race of mono-
theists, who stood in a full religious relation to a man who had
died but a few years before ; it was this monotheist who desig-
nated that man, as a matter of course, by the supreme religious
term "Lord," and did not hesitate to apply to Him the passages
* Compare R. Seeberg^ Der Unprung de» Christtuglaubens, 1914, pp. If.

/
/

84 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

in the Greek Old Testament where that term was used to trans-
late the most awful name of the Gt>d of Israel ! The religion of
Paul is a phenomenon well worthy of the attention of the his-
torian.

In recent years that phenomenon has been explained in
four different ways. The four ways have not always been
clearly defined; they have sometimes entered into combination
with one another. But they are logically distinct, and to a
certain extent they may be treated separately.

There is first of all the supernaturalistic explanation, which
simply accepts at its face value what Paul presupposes about
Jesus. According to this explanation, Jesus was really a
heavenly being, who in order to redeem sinful man came vol-
untarily to earth, suffered for the sins of others on the cross,
rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of God, from
whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. If
this representation be correct, then there is really nothing
to explain; the religious attitude of Paul toward Jesus was
not an apotheosis of a man, but recognition as divine of one
who really was divine.

The other three explanations are alike in that they all
reject supematuralism, they all deny the entrance into human
history of any creative act of God, unless indeed all the
course of nature be regarded as creative. They all agree,
therefore, in explaining the religion of Paul as a phenomenon
which emerged in the course of history under the operation of
natural causes.

The most widespread of these naturalistic explanations
of the religion of Paul is what may be called the "liberal**
view. The name is highly unsatisfactory; it has been used
and misused until it has often come to mean almost nothing.
But no other term is ready to hand. "Ritschlian" might pos-
sibly describe the phenomenon that is meant, but that term is
perhaps too narrow, and would imply a degree of logical con-
nection with the Ritschlian theology which would not fit all
forms of the phenomenon. The best that can be done, there-
fore, is to define the term "liberal" in a narrower way than is
sometimes customary and than use it in distinction not only
from traditional and supernaturalistic views, but also from
various "radical" views, which will demand separate considera-
tion.

INTRODUCTION 25

The numerous forms of the liberal view differ from other
naturalistic hjrpotheses in that they attribute supreme impor-
tance in the formation of the religion of Paul to the influence
of the real historic person, Jesus of Nazareth, and to the
experience which Paid had near Damascus when he thought
he saw that person risen from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth,
according to the liberal view, was the greatest of the children
of men. His greatness centered in His consciousness of stand-
ing toward God in the relation of son to Father. That con-
sciousness of sonship, at least in its purity, Jesus discovered,
was not shared by others. Some category was therefore needed
to designate the uniqueness of His sonship. The category
which He adopted, though with reluctance, and probably to-
ward the end of His ministry, was the category of Messiahship.
His Messianic consciousness was thus not fundamental in His
conception of His mission; certainly it did not mean that He
put His own person into His gospel. He urged men, not to
take Him as the object of their faith, but only to take Him
as an example for their faith; not to have faith in Him, but
to have faith in God like His faith. Such was the impression
of His personality, however, that after His death the love and
reverence of His disciples for Him not only induced the
haUucinations in which they thought they saw Him risen from
the dead but also led them to attribute to His person a kind
of religious importance which He had never claimed. They
bqpm to make Him not only an example for faith but also the
object of faith. The Messianic element in His life began now
to assume an importance which He had never attributed to it ;
the disciples began to ascribe to Him divine attributes. This
process was somewhat hindered in the case of His intimate
friends by the fact that they had seen Him under all the
limitations of ordinary human life. But in the case of the
apostle Paul, who had never seen Him, the process of deifica-
tion could go on unchecked. What was fundamental, however,
even for Paul, was an impression of the real person of Jesus
of Nazareth ; that impression was conveyed to Paul in various
ways — especially by the brave and pure lives of Jesus' disciples,
which had impressed him, against his will, even when he was
still a persecutor. But Paul was a child of his time. He was
obliged, therefore, to express that which he had received from
Jesus in the categories Uiat were ready to hand. Those cate-

«6 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

gories as applied to Jesus constitute the Pauline theology.
Thus Paul was really the truest disciple of Jesus in the depths
of his inner life, but his theology was the outer and perishable
shell for the precious kernel. His theology was the product
of his time, and may now be abandoned; his religion was de-
rived from Jesus of Nazareth and is a permanent possession
of t))e human race.

Such in bare outline is the liberal view of the origin of
Paidinism and of Christianity. It has been set forth in so
many brilliant treatises that no one may be singled out as
clearly representative. Perhaps Von Hamack's **What is
Christianity?" ^, among the popular expositions, may still serve
as well as any other. The liberal view of the origin of Chris-
tianity seemed at one time likely to dominate the religious life
of the modem world ; it found expression in countless sermons
and books of devotion as well as in scientific treatises. Now,
however, there are some indications that it is beginning to fall ;
it is being attacked by radicalism of various kinds. With
some of these attacks it will not now be worth while to deal ; it
will not be worth while to deal with those forms of radicalism
which reject what have been designated as the two starting-
points for an investigation of the origin of Christianity — ^the
historicity of Jesus and the genuineness of the major epistles,
of Paul. These hypotheses are some of them interesting on
the negative side, they are interesting for their criticism of
the dominant liberal view; but when it comes to their own
attempts at reconstruction they have never advanced beyond
the purest dilettantism. Attention will now be confined to
the work of historians who have really attempted seriously to
grapple with the historical problems, and specifically to those
who have given attention to the problem of Paul.

Two lines of explanation have been followed in recent
years by those who reject, in the interest of more radical views,
the liberal account of the origin of Paulinism. But these two
lines run to a certain point together ; they both reject the liberal
emphasis upon the historic person of Jesus as accounting for
the origin of Paul's religion. The criticism of the customary
view was put sharply by W. Wrede in 1904^, when he declared

^Harnack, D<u Wesen des ChrUtentums, 1900. (English Translation.
Whai U ChrUtiamty?, 1901.)
■Wrede^ PouIm, 1904. (English Translation, Paul, 1907.)

INTRODUCTION 27

that Paul was no disciple of Jesus, but a second founder of
Christianity. The religious life of Paul, Wrede insisted, was
not really derived from Jesus of Nazareth. What was funda-
mental for Paid was not the example of Jesus, but His redeem-
ing work as embraced in the death and resurrection, which were
regarded as events of a cosmic significance. The theology of
Paul — ^his interpretation of the death and resurrection of Jesus
— cannot, therefore, be separated from his religion ; on the con-
trary, it is in connection with the theology, and not in connec-
tion with any impression of the character of Jesus, that the
fervor of Paul's religious life runs full and free. Theology
and religion in Paul, therefore, must stand or fall together;
if one was derived from extra-Christian sources, probably the
other must be so derived also. And such, as a matter of fact,
Wrede concludes is the case. The religion of Paul is not based
at all upon Jesus of Nazareth.

Such, in true import, though not in word or in detail, was
the startling criticism which Wrede directed against the liberal
account of the origin of Paulinism. He had really only made
explicit a type of criticism which had gradually been becoming
inevitable for some time before. Hence the importance of his
little book. The current reconstruction of the origin of
Christianity had produced a Jesus and a Paul who really had
little in common with each other. Wrede, in his incomparably
succinct and incisive way, had the courage to say so.

But if Paidinism was not derived from Jesus of Nazareth,)
whence was it derived? Here the two lines of radical opinion
begin to diverge. According to Wrede, who was supported by
M. Bnickner,^ working contemporaneously, the Pauline con-
ception of Christ, which was fundamental in Paul's religious
thought and life, was derived from the pre-Christian conception
of the Messiah which Paul already had before his conversion.
The Messiah, in the thought of the Jews, was not always con-
ceived of merely as a king of David's line; sometimes he was
regarded rather as a mysterious, preexistent, heavenly being
who was to come suddenly with the clouds of heaven and be
the judge of all the earth. This transcendent conception which

*Di0 EnUUhung d€r fauUmschen Christologie, 1903; '*Zum Thema Jesus
and PaulnSy" in ZeUscnrift fUr dU neutettamerUliche Wiasetuchaft, yii,
1906, pp. 11^119; ''Der Apostel Paulus als Zeuge wider das Christusbild der
ETangelien,*' in Prote$tanti$che MonatshefU, x, 1906, pp. 359-364.

X8 THE ORIGIN OP PAUL'S RELIGION

is attested by the Jewish apocalypses like the Ethiopia Book
of Enoch, was, Wrede maintained, the conception of the Jew,
Saul of Tarsus. When, therefore, Paul in his Epistles repre-
sents Christ as preexistent, and as standing close to the Su-
preme Being in rulership and judgment, the phenomenon,
though it may seem strange to us, is not really unique; it is
exactly what is found in the apocalypses. What was new in
Paul, as over against pre-Christian Judaism, was the belief
that the heavenly Messiah had already come to earth and car-
ried out a work of redemption. This belief was not derived,
Wrede maintained, from any impression of the exalted moral
character of Jesus; on the contrary, if Paul had really corae
into any close contact with the historical Jesus, he might
have had difficulty in identifying Him so completely with the
heavenly Messiah ; the impression of the truly human character
of Jesus and of His subjection to all the ordinary limits of
earthly life would have hindered the ascription to Him of the
transcendent attributes. Jesus, for Paul, merely provided
the one fact that the Messiah had already come to earth and
died and risen again. Operating with that fact, interpreting
the coming of the Messiah as an act of redemption undertaken
out of love for men, Paul was able to develop all the fervor of
his Christ-religion.

In very recent years, another account of the origin of
Paulinism is becoming increasingly prevalent. This account
agrees with Wrede in rejecting the liberal derivation of the
religion of Paul from an impression of the historical person
of Jesus. But it differs from Wrede in its view of the source
from which the religion of Paul is actually to be derived.
According to this latest hypothesis, Paulinism was based not
upon the pre-Christian Jewish conception of the Messiah, but
upon contemporary pagan religion.

This hypothesis represents the application to the prob- .
lem of Paulinism of the method of modem comparative religion.
About twenty years ago that method began to be extended
resolutely into the New Testament field, and it has been be-
coming increasingly prevalent ever since. Despite the preval-
ence of the method, however, and the variety of its application,
one great comprehensive work may now fairly lay claim to be
taken as summing up the results. That work is the book of
W. Bousset, entitled "Kyrios Christos,'* which appeared in

INTRODUCTION «9

1918.^ It is perhaps too early as yet to estimate the full im-
portance of Bousset's work. But unless all indications fail, the
work is really destined to mark an epoch in the history of New
Testament criticism. Since the days of F. C. Baur, in the
former half of the nineteenth century, there has been no such
original, comprehensive, and grandly conceived rewriting of
early Christian history as has now appeared in Bousset's
"Kyrios Christos." The only question is whether originality,
in this historical sphere, is always compatible with truth.

According to Bousset, the historicity of Jesus is to be
maintained; Jesus was really a religious teacher of incom-
parable power. But Bousset rejects much more of the Grospd
account of Jesus' life than is rejected in the ordinary "liberal"
view; Bousset seems even to be doubtful as to whether
Jesus ever presented Himself to His disciples as the Messiah,
the Messianic element in the Gospels being regarded for the
most part as a mere reflection of the later convictions of the
disciples. After the crucifixion, the disciples in Jerusalem,
Bousset continues, were convinced that Jesus had risen from
the dead, and that He was truly the Messiah. They conceived
of His Messiahship chiefly under the category of the "Son of
Man"; Jesus, they believed, was the heavenly being who in
their interpretation of the Book of Daniel and in the apoca-
lypses appears in the presence of the supreme God as the one
who is to judge the world. This heavenly Son of Man was
taken from them for a time, but they looked with passionate
eagerness for His speedy return. The piety of the early Jerusa-
lem Church was therefore distinctly eschatological ; it was
founded not upon any conviction of a present vital relation to
Jesus, but on the hope of His future coming. In the Greek-
speaking Christian communities of such cities as Antioch and
Tarsus, Bousset continues, an important additional step was
taken ; Jesus there began to be not only hoped for as the future
judge but also adored as the present Lord. He came to be
rq^arded as present in the meetings of the Church. The term
**Lord," with the conception that it represents, was never, ac-
cording to Bousset, applied to Jesus in the primitive Pales-
tinian Church; it was first applied to Him in Hellenistic
Christian communities like the one at Antioch. And it was
there derived distinctly from the prevalent pagan religion. In
'Compare also Bousset, Je$u8 der Herr, 1916.

80 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

the type of religion familiar to the disciples at Antioch, the term
"Lord" was used to denote the cult-god, especially in the so-
called "mystery religions'* ; and the Antioch disciples naturally
used the same term to designate the object of their own adora-
tion. But with the term went the idea ; Jesus was now consid-
ered to be present in the meetings of the Church, just as the
cult-gods of the pagan religions were considered to be present
in the worship practiced by those religions. An important
step had been taken beyond the purely eschatological piety of
the Jerusalem disciples.

But how about Paul? Here is to be found one of the bold-
est elements in all the bold reconstruction of Bousset. Paul,
Bousset believes, was not connected in any intimate way with
the primitive Christianity in Palestine; what he "received'^ he
received rather from the Hellenistic Christianity, just described,
of cities like Antioch. He received, therefore, the Hellenistic
conception of Jesus as Lord. But he added to that con-
ception by connecting the "Lord" with the "Spirit." The
"Lord" thus became present not only in the meetings of the
Church for worship but also in the individual lives of the
believers. Paulinism as it appears in the Epistles was thus
complete. But this distinctly Pauline contribution, like the
conception of the Lordship of Jesus to which it was added,
was of pagan origin; it was derived from the mystical piety
of the time, with its sharp dualism between a material and a
spiritual realm and its notion of the transformation of man
by immediate contact with the divine. Paulinism, therefore,
according to Bousset, was a religion of redemption. But as
such it was derived not at all from the historical Jesus (whose
optimistic teaching contained no thought of redemption) but
from the pessimistic dualism of the pagan world. The "liberal"
distinction between Pauline religion and Paulinq theology,
the attempt at saving Paul's religion by the sacrifice of his
theology, is here abandoned, and all that is most clearly dis-
tinctive of Paulinism (though of course some account is taken
of the contribution of his Jewish inheritance and of his own
genius) is derived from pagan sources.

The hjrpothesis of Bousset, together with the rival recon-
structions which have just been outlined, will be examined in the
following discussion. But before they can be examined it will
be necessary to say a word about the sources of information

INTRODUCTION 81

with regard to the life of Paul. No discussion of the literary
questions can indeed here be undertaken. Almost all that can
be done is to set forth very briefly the measure of agreement
which has been attained in this field, and the bearing of the
points that are still disputed upon the subject of the present
investigation.

The sources of information about Paul are contained almost
exclusively in the New Testament. They are, first, the Pauline
Epistles, and, second, the Book of Acts.

Four of the Pauline Epistles — Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinth-
ians, and Romans — ^were accepted as certainly genuine by
F. C. Baur, the founder of the "Tubingen School'* of criticism
in the former half of the nineteenth century. This favorable
estimate of the "major epistles" has never been abandoned by
any number of really serious historians, and three of the other
epistles — 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, and Philemon — ^have
now been added to the "homologoumena.'* Seven epistles, there-
fore, are accepted as genuine to-day by all historians except a
few extremists. Of the remaining epistles, Colossians is ac-
cepted by the majority of investigators of all shades of opin-
ion, and even in the case of 2 Thessalonians and Ephesians, the
acceptance of the hypothesis of genuineness is no longer re-
garded as a clear mark of "conservatism," these two epistles
being regarded as genuine letters of Paul by some even of those
who are not in general favorable to the traditional view of the
New Testament.

With regard to the Pastoral Epistles — 1 and 2 Timothy
and Titus — the issue is more clearly drawn. These epistles, at
least in their entirety, are seldom regarded as genuine except
by those who adopt in general the traditional view of the New
Testament and the supernaturalistic conception of the origin of
Christianity. That does not mean that the case of the Pastoral
Epistles is desperate — certainly the present writer is firmly
convinced that the epistles are genuine and that a denial of
their genuineness really impoverishes in important respects our
conception of the work of Paul — ^but it does mean that with re-
gard to these epistles the two great contending views con-
cerning the New Testament come into sharp conflict ; common
ground, in other words, cannot here be found, as in the case of
the ma jo)" epistles, between those who hold widely divergent
views as to the origin of Christianity.

88 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

It would be out of place in the present connection to dis-
cuss the question of the genuineness of the Pastorals. That
question is indeed enormously important. It is important for
the view which is to be held concerning the New Testament
canon ; it is important for any estimate of Christian tradition ;
it is important even for a complete estimate of the work of
Paul. But it is not directly important for the question as to
the origin of Paulinism ; for all the essential features of Paul-
inism, certainly all those features which make Paulinism, upon
naturalistic principles, most difficult of explanation, appear
plainly in the accepted epistles.

The question of the Book of Acts, on the other hand, is
of vital importance even for the present investigation. Even
that question, however, must here be dismissed with a word,
though it is hoped that light may be shed upon it by the whole
of the following discussion.

Literary evidence of peculiar strength may be adduced in
favor of the view that the Book of Acts was really written, as
tradition affirms, by a companion of Paul. This evidence
is based primarily upon the presence in the book of certain
sections where the narrative is carried on in the first person
instead of the third. It is generally or even universally ad-
mitted that these **we-section8" are the work of an eyewitness,
an actual traveling companion of Paul. But according to
the common-sense view — according to the first impression made
upon every ordinary reader — the author of the we-sections was
also the author of the whole book, who when he came in his
narrative to those parts of the missionary journeys of Paul
where he had actually been present with the apostolic company
naturally dropped into the use of the first person instead of the
third. If this common-sense view be incorrect, then a later
author who produced the completed book has in the we-sections
simply made use of an eyewitness source. But this hypothesis
is fraught with the most serious difficulty. If the author of the
completed book, writing at a time long after the time of Paul,
was in the we-sections using the work of a companion of Paul,
why did he not either say that he was quoting or else change
the *See'* of the source to "they." The first person plural,
used without explanation by a writer of, say, 100 A.D. in a
narrative of the journeys of Paul, would be preposterous.

INTRODUCTION 88

What could be the explanation of so extraordinary a pro-
cedure?

Only two explanations are possible. In the first place, the
author may have retained the *Sire" with deceitful intent, with
the intent of producing the false impression that he himself
was a companion of Paul. This hypothesis is fraught with in-
superable difficulty and is generally rejected. In the second
place, the author may have retained the *Sire" because he was
a mere compiler, copying out his sources with mechanical ac-
curacy, and so unable to make the simple editorial change of
**we" to "they." This hypothesis is excluded by the striking
similarity of language and style between the we-sections and
the rest of Luke-Acts, which shows that if the author of the
completed double work is in the we-sections making use of a
source written by some one else, he has revised the source so as
to make it conform to his own style. But if he revised the
source, he was no mere compiler, and therefore could not have
retained the first person plural which in the completed book pro-
duced nonsense. The whole hypothesis therefore breaks down.
Such considerations have led a number of recent scholars —
even of those who are unable to accept the supematuralistic
account which the Book of Acts gives of the origin of Chris-
tianity — to return to the traditional view that the book was
actually written by Luke the physician, a companion of Paul.
The argument for Lucan authorship has been developed with
great acumen especially by Von Hamack^ And on the basis
of purely literary criticism the argument is certainly irrefut-
aUe. It can be refuted, if at all, only through a consideration
of the historical contents of the book.

Such attempts at refutation have not been lacking; the
Lucan authorship of Acts is still rejected by the great ma-
jority of those who maintain the naturalistic view of the origin
of Christianity. The objections may be subsumed under two
main heads. The Book of Acts, it is said, is not the kind of
book that could have been written by a companion of Paul,
in the first place because it contains an account of miracles,

*Lmka9 d&r Arzi, 1906 (English TranslaUon, Luks the PhyiicicM,
1907); DU Apo9i€lg0sehichU, 1906 (English Translation, The Acts of the
Avotths, 1909); Neus Untsrmchungen zur Apo9telg€$chicht0 und zur
AbfastunptzeU der MyncptUehen Evangslien, 1911 (English Translation,
TAtf Date of the Aeti and of the Synoptic GoipeU, 1911).

d4 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

and in the second place, because it contradicts the Pauline
Epistles, particularly in the account which it gives of the
relations between Paul and the Jerusalem Church.

The former objection is entirely valid on the basis of any
naturalistic account of the origin of Christianity. Efforts
have indeed been made by Von Hamack, C. C. Torrey, and
others, to overcome the objection. Belief in miracles, it is
said, was very general in the ancient world ; a miraculous inter-
pretation could therefore be placed upon happenings for which
the modem man would have no difficulty in discovering a nat-
ural cause. Luke was a child of his time; even in the- Re-
sections, Von Harnack insists, where the work of an eyewitness
is universally recognized, a supernaturalistic interpretation is
\ placed upon natural events — as, for example, when Paul ex-
cites the wonder of his companions by shaking off into the iSre
a viper that was no doubt perfectly harmless. Why, then,
should the presence of the supernatural in the rest of the book
be used to refute the hypothesis of the Lucan authorship, if
it is not so used in the we-sections? ^

This method of refuting the objection drawn from the
presence of the supernatural in Luke- Acts has sometimes led
to a curious return to the rationalizing method of interpreta-
tion which was prevalent one hundred years ago. By that
method of interpretation even the details of the New Testament
miracles were accepted as historical, but it was thought that
the writers were wrong in regarding those details as miraculous.
Great ingenuity was displayed by such rationalists as Paulus
and many others in exhibiting the true natural causes of de-
tails which to the first observers seemed to be supernatural.
Such rationalizing has usually been thought to have received
its death-blow at the hands of Strauss, who showed that the
New Testament narratives were either to be accepted as a
whole — miracles and all-— or else regarded as myths, that is,
as the clothing of religious ideas in historical forms. But
now, under the impulsion of literary criticism, which has led
away from the position of Baur and Strauss and back to the
traditional view of the authorship and date of the New Testa-
ment books, the expedients of the rationalizers have in some
cases been revived.

^Harnack, Dis Apoitelgeichichte, 1908, pp. Ill-ISO (English Transla-
tion» The Act$ of the Apostle*, 1909, pp. 133-161).

INTRODUCTION 86

The entire effort of Von Hamack is, however, quite hope-
less. The objection to the Lucan authorship of Acts which
is drawn from the supernatural element in the narrative is
irrefutable on the basis of any naturalistic view of the origin
of Christianity. The trouble is that the supernatural element
in Acts does not concern merely details ; it lies, rather, at the
root of the whole representation. The origin of the Church,
according to the modern naturalistic reconstruction, was due
to the belief of the early disciples in the resurrection of Jesus ;
that belief in turn was founded upon certain hallucinations in
which they thought they saw Jesus alive after His passion.
In such experiences, the optic nerve is affected not by an ex-
ternal object but by the condition of the subject himself.
But there are limitations to what is possible in experiences of
that sort, especially where numbers of persons are affected and
at different times. It cannot be supposed, therefore, that the
disciples of Jesus thought they had any extended intercourse
with lEm after His passion ; momentary appearances, with pos-
sibly a few spoken words, were all that they could have ex-
perienced. This view of the origin of the Church is thought
to be in accord with the all-important testimony of Paul,
especially in 1 Cor. xv. 3-8 where he is reproducing a primitive
tradition. Thus desperate efforts are made to show that the
reference by Paul to the burial of Jesus does not by any
means confirm the accounts given in the Gospels of events con-
nected with the empty tomb. Sometimes, indeed, in recent
criticism, the fact of the empty tomb is accepted, and then
explained in some naturalistic way. But at any rate, the cardi-
nal feature of the modem reconstruction is that the early
Church, including Paul, had a spiritual rather than a physical
conception of the risen body of Jesus ; there was no extended
intercourse, it is supposed; Jesus appeared to His disciples
momentarily, in heavenly glory.

But this entire representation is diametrically opposed to
the representation in the Gospel of Luke and in the Book
of Acts. If there is any one writer who emphasizes the plain,
physical character of the contact between the disciples and
their risen Lord, it is the author of Luke-Acts. In proof, it
is only necessary to point to Acts x. 41, where it is said that the
risen Je8U3 held table-companionship with His disciples after

S6 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

He was risen from the dead ! But that is only one detail. The
author of Acts is firmly convinced that the contact of the risen
Jesus with His disciples, though not devoid of mysterious fea-
tures, involved the absence of the body of Jesus from the tomb
and an intercourse (intermittent, it is true, but including
^physical proofs of the most definite kind) extending over a
period of forty days. Nothing could possibly be more direct-
ly contrary to what the current critical view regards as the
real account given in the primitive Jerusalem Church and by the
apostle Paul.

Yet on the basis of that modem critical view. Von Har-
nack and others have maintained that the book in which so
false an account is given of the origin of the Church was actual-
ly the work of a man of the apostoUc age. It is no wonder
that Von Hamack's conclusions have evoked an emphatic
protest from other naturalistic historians. Luke was a close
associate of Paul. Could he possibly have given an account
of things absolutely fundamental in Paul's gospel (1 Cor. xv.
1-8) which was so diametrically opposed to what Paul taught?
He was in Jerusalem in 58 A.D. or earlier, and during yean
of his life was in close touch with Palestinian disciples. Coidd
he possibly have given an account of the origin of the Jerusalem
Church so totally at variance with the account which that
church itself maintained? These questions constitute a com-
plete refutation of Von Harnack's view, when that view is taken
as a whole. But they do not at all constitute a refutation of
the conclusions of Von Hamack in the sphere of literary criti-
cism. On the contrary, by showing how inconsistent those
conclusions are with other elements in the thinking of the in-
vestigator, they make only the more impressive the strength of
the argument which has overcome such obstacles. The objec-
tion points out the antinomy which exists between the literary
criticism of Von Hamack and his naturalistic account of the
origin of Christianity. What that antinomy means is merely
that the testimony of Acts to the supernatural origin of
Christianity, far from being removed by literary criticism, is
strongly supported by it. A companion of Paul could not
have been egregiously mistaken about the origin of the Church ;
but literary criticism establishes Luke-Acts as the work of a
companion of Paul. Hence there is some reason for suppos-

INTRODUCTION 87

ing that the account given in this book is essentially correct,
and that the naturalistic reconstruction of the origin of
Christianity must be abandoned.

The second objection to the Lucan authorship of Acts
is based upon the contradiction which is thought to exist be-
tween the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul.^ The way
to test the value of a historical work, it is said, is to compare
it with some recognized authority. With regard to most of
the narrative in Acts, no such comparison is possible, since
there is no account parallel to Acts by which it may be tested.
But in certain places the Book of Acts provides an account
of events which are also narrated in the isolated biographical
parts of the Pauline Epistles — notably in the first two chapters
of Galatians. Here at last is found the long-sought opportu-
nity for comparison. And the comparison, it is said, results
unfavorably to the Book of Acts, wluch is found to contradict
the Epistle to the Galatians, not merely in details, but in the
whole account which it gives of the relation between Paul and
the Jerusalem Church. But if the Book of Acts fails to ap-
prove itself in the one place where it can be tested by com-
parison with a recognized authority, the presumption is that
it may be wrong elsewhere as well; in particular, it is quite
impossible that a book which so completely misrepresents what
happened at a most important crisis of Paul's life could have
been written by a close friend of the apostle.

This argument was developed particularly by Baur and
Zeller and their associates in the ^^Tiibingen School." Accord-
ing to Baur, the major epistles of Paul constitute the primary
source of information about the apostolic age; they should
therefore be interpreted without reference to any other source.
When they are so interpreted, they show that the fundamental
fact of apostolic history was a conflict between Paul on one
side and the original apostles on the other. The conflict, Baur
maintained further, is particularly plain in the Epistles to
the Galatians and Corinthians, which emphasize the complete
independence of Paul with reference to the pillars of the Jerusa-

* For what follows, compare ''Jesus and Paul," in Biblical and Thsologieal
StudUi by the Members ot the Faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary,
191S, pp. 553f.; **Recent Criticism of the Book of Acts,'^ in Prineeton
Tk€olo(fieal Review, xvii, 1919, pp. 593-597.

88 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

lem Church, and his continued opposition to the efforts of Jew-
ish Christians to bring the Gentiles into subjection to the Jew-
ish Law — efforts which must have been supported to some ex-
tent by the attitude of the original apostles. This conflict,
Baur supposed further, continued up to the middle of the second
century; there was a Gentile Christian party appealing to
Paul and a Jewish Christian party appealing to Peter. Finally
however, Baur continued, a compromise was effected; the
Pauline party gave up what was really most distinctive in the
Pauline doctrine of justification, while the Petrine party re-
linquished the demand of circumcision. The New Testament
documents, according to Baur, are to be dated in accordance
with the position that they assume in the conflict; those docu-
ments which take sides — which are strongly anti-Pauline or
strongly anti-Petrine — are to be placed early, while those
which display a tendency toward compromise are to be placed
late, at the time when the conflict was being settled. Such
was the "tendency-criticism'* of Baur. By that criticism the
Book of Acts was dated well on in the second century, because
it was thought to display a tendency toward compromise —
an "irenic tendency.'' This tendency, Baur supposed, mani-
fested itself in the Book of Acts in a deliberate falsification
of history ; in order to bring about peace between the Petrine
and the Pauline parties in the Church, the author of Acts
attempted to show by a new accoimt of the apostolic age that
Peter and Paul really were in perfect agreement. To that end,
in the Book of Acts, Paul is Petrinized, and Peter is Paulinized ;
the sturdy independence of Paul, which actually kept him long
away from Jerusalem after his conversion, gives place, in Acts,
to a desire of contact with the Jerusalem Church, which
brought him early to Jerusalem and finally led him even to
accept for his Gentile converts, at the "Apostolic Council,**
a portion of the ceremonial law. Peter, on the other hand, is
represented in Acts as giving expression at the Apostolic
Council to Pauline sentiments about the Law ; and all through
the book there is an elaborate and unhistorical parallelism
between Peter and Paul.

The theory of Baur did not long maintain itself in its en-
tirety. It received a searching criticism particularly from A.
Ritschl. The conflict of the apostolic age, Ritschl pointed

INTRODUCTION 89

out, was not a conflict between Paul and the original apostles,
but between all the apostles (including both Paul and Peter) on
the one side, and an extreme Judaizing party on the other;
that conflict did not continue throughout the second century;
on the contrary, specifically Jewish Christianity soon ceased
to be influential, and the legalistic character of the Old Cath-
olic Church of the end of the second century, in which Chris-
tianity was conceived of as a new law, was due not to any
compromise with the legalism of the Judaizers but to a natural
process of degeneration from Paulinism on purely Gentile
Christian ground.

The Tubingen dating of the New Testament documents,
moreover, has been abandoned under a more thorough investi-
gation of early Christian literature. A study of patristics
soon rendered it impossible to string out the New Testament /
books anywhere throughout the second century in the interest '
of a plausible theory of development. External evidence has
led to a much earlier dating of most of the books than Baur's
theory required. The Tubingen estimate of the Book of Acts,
in particular, has for the most part been modified; the book
is dated much earlier, and it is no longer thought to be a party
document written in the interests of a deliberate falsification
of history.

Nevertheless, the criticism of Baur and Zeller, though no
longer accepted as a whole, is still influential; the comparison
of Acts and Galatians, particularly in that which concerns
the Apostolic Council of Acts xv, is still often thought to
residt unfavorably to the Book of Acts. Even at this point,
however, a more favorable estimate of Acts has been gaining
ground. The cardinal principle of Baur, to the effect that
the major epistles of Paul should be interpreted entirely with-
out reference to the Book of Acts, is being called in question.
Such a method of interpretation, it may well be urged, is likely
to result in one-sidedness. If the Book of Acts commends
itself at all as containing trustworthy information, it should
be allowed to cast light upon the Epistles. The account which
Paul gives in Galatians is not so complete as to render su-
perfluous any assistance which may be derived from an inde-
pendent narrative. And as a matter of fact, no matter what
principles of interpretation are held, the Book of Acts simply

1

40 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

must be used in interpreting the Epistles; without the outline
given in Acts the Epistles would be unintelligible.^ Perhaps it
may turn out, therefore, that Baur produced his imposing
reconstruction of the apostoUc age by neglecting all sources
except Galatians and the Corinthian Epistles — and then by
misinterpreting these.

The comparison of Acts and the Pauline Epistles will be
reserved for the chapters that deal with the outline of Paul's
life. It will there be necessary to deal with the vexed question
of the Apostolic Council. The question is vital for the present
discussion; for if it can really be shown that Paul was in
fundamental disagreement with the intimate friends of Jesus
of Nazareth, then the way is opened for supposing that he was
in disagreement with Jesus Himself. The question raised by
Baur with regard to the Book of Acts has a most important
bearing upon the question of the origin of Paulinism.

All that can now be done, however, is to point out that the
tendency at the present time is toward a higher and higher
estimate of the Book of Acts. A more careful study of the
Pauline Epistles themselves is exhibiting elements in Paul's
thinking which justify more and more clearly the account
which the Book of Acts gives of the relations of Paul to Juda-
ism and to Jewish Christianity.

*J. Weiss, UrchrUtentum, 1914, p. 107: "It is simply impossible for us
to erase it [the Book of Acts] so completely from our memory as to
read tlie Epistle to the Galatians as though we had never Imown Acts;
without the Boole of Acts we should simply not be able to understand
Galatians at all.*'

N

CHAPTER II
THE EARLY YEARS

CHAPTER n

THE EABLT YEAB8

Befobe examining the various hypotheses which have been
advanced to account for the origin of Paulinism, the investi-
gator must consider iSrst the outline of Paul's life, at least so
far as the formative years are concerned. Paulinism has been
explained by the influence upon Paul of various features of
his environment. It is important, therefore, to determine at
what points Paul came into contact with his environment.
What, in view of the outline of his life, were his probable op-
portunities for acquainting himself with the historical Jesus
and with the primitive Jerusalem Church? Whence did he
derive his Judaism? Where, if at all, could he naturally have
been influenced by contemporary paganism? Such questions,
it is hoped, may be answered by the two following chapters.

In these chapters, the outline of Paul's life will be con-
sidered not for its own sake, but merely for the light that it
may shed upon the origin of his thought and experience. Many
questions, therefore, may be ignored. For example, it would
here be entirely aside from the point to discuss such intricate
matters as the history of Paul's journeys to Corinth attested
by the Corinthian Epistles. The present discussion is con-
cerned only with those events in the life of Paul which deter-
mined the nature of his contact with the surrounding world,
both Jewish and pagan, and particularly the nature of his
contact with Jesus and the earliest disciples of Jesus.

Paul was bom at Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia. This
fact is attested only by the Book of Acts, and formerly it did
not escape unchallenged. It was called in question, for ex-
ample, in 1890 by Krenkel, in an elaborate argument.^ But
Krenkel's argument is now completely antiquated, not merely
because of the rising credit of the Book of Acts, but also be-

^Krenkel, Beitr&ge zur Aufhellung der Oe$ch%cht9 und der Briefs d$9
Apotteh Pauku, 1890, pp. 1-17.

43

44 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

cause the birth of Paul in a Greek city like Tarsus is in har^
mony with modem reconstructions. Krenkel argued, for ex-
ample, that the apostle shows little acquaintance with Greek
culture, and therefore could not have spent his youth in a
Greek university city. Such assertions appear very strange
to-day. Recent philological investigation of the Pauline
Epistles has proved that the author uses the Greek language
in such masterly fashion that he must have become familiar
with it very early in life; the language of the Epistles is cer-
tainly no Jewish-Greek jargon. With regard to the origin of
the ideas, also, the tendency of recent criticism is directly
contrary to Krenkel; Paulinism is now often explained as
being based either upon paganism or else upon a Hellenized
Judaism. To such reconstructions it is a highly welcome piece
of information when the Book of Acts makes Paul a native
not of Jerusalem but of Tarsus. The author of Acts, it is
said, is here preserving a bit of genuine tradition, which is
the more trustworthy because it runs counter to the tendency,
thought to be otherwise in evidence in Acts, which brings Paul
into the closest possible relation to Palestine. Thus, whether
for good or for bad reasons, the birth of Paul in Tarsus is
now universally accepted, and does not require defense.

A very interesting tradition preserved by Jerome does in-
deed make Paul a native of Gischala in Galilee; but no one
to-day would be inclined to follow Krenkel in giving credence
to Jerome rather than to Acts. The Gischala tradition does
not look like a pure fiction, but it is evident that Jerome has
at any rate exercised his peculiar talent for bringing things
into confusion. Zahn ^ has suggested, with considerable
plausibility, that the shorter reference to Gischala in the
treatise "De viris illustribus" ^ is a confused abridgment of
the longer reference in the "Commentary on Philemon." * The
latter passage asserts not that Paul himself but only that the
parents of Paul came from Gischala. That assertion may
possibly be correct. It would explain the Aramaic and Pales-
tinian tradition which undoubtedly was preserved in the boy-
hood home of Paul.

^Einleitung in das Neue Testament, Ste Aufl., i, 1906, pp. 48-50 (English
Translation, Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd ed., 1909, i, pp. 68-70).
•Do vir, iU. 5 (ed. Vail, if, 836).
•Comwk in PhiUm, 23 (ed. Vail, vii, 762).

THE EARLY YEARS 46

Tarsus was an important city. Its commercial importance,
though of course inferior to that of places like Antioch or
Corinth, was considerable; and it was also well known as a
center of intellectual life. Although the dramatic possibilities
of representing the future Christian missionary growing up
unknown under the shadow of a Greek university may some-
times have led to an exaggeration of the academic fame of
Tarsus, still it remains true that Tarsus was a real university
city, and could boast of great names like that of Athenodorus,
the Stoic philosopher, and others. The life of Tarsus has
recently been made the subject of two elaborate monographs,
by Ramsay ^ and by Bohlig,^ who have collected a mass of
information about the birthplace of Paul. The nature of the
pagan religious atmosphere which surrounded the future
apostle is of peculiar interest ; but the amount of direct infor-
mation which has come down to us should not be exaggerated.

The social position of Paul's family in Tarsus must not be
regarded as very humble; for according to the Book of Acts
not only Paul himself, but his father before him, possessed
the Roman citizenship, which in the provinces was still in the
first century a highly prized privilege from which the great
masses of the people were excluded. The Roman citizenship
of Paul is not attested by the Pauline Epistles, but the repre-
sentation of Acts is at this point universally, or almost uni-
versally, accepted. Only one objection might be urged against
it. If Paul was a Roman citizen, how could he have been sub-
jected three times to the Roman punishment of beating with
rods (2 Cor. xi. 25), from which citizens were exempted by
law? The difficulty is not insuperable. Paul may on
some occasions have been unwilling to appeal to a privi-
lege which separated him from his Jewish countrymen;
or he may have wanted to avoid the delay which an appeal to
his privilege, with the subsequent investigation and trial, might
have caused. At any rate, the difficulty, whether easily re-
movable or not, is quite inadequate to overthrow the abundant
evidence for the fact of Paul's Roman citizenship. That fact
is absolutely necessary to account for the entire representation
which the Book of Acts gives of the journey of Paul as a
prisoner to Rome, which representation, it will be remembered,

> Th0 CUUs of 8t, Paul, 1908, pp.. 85-944.
' DU OeUteskultur von Tarsos, 1913.

46 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

is contained in the we-sections. The whole account of the
relation between Paul and Roman authorities, which is con-
tained in the Pauline Epistles, the Book of Acts, and trust-
worthy Christian tradition, is explicable only if Paul pos-
sessed the rights of citizenship.^

Birth in a Greek university city and Roman citizenship
constitute the two facts which bring Paul into early connec-
tion with the larger Gentile world of his day. Other facts,
equally well-attested, separate him just as clearly from the
Gentile world and represent him as being from childhood a
strict Jew. These facts might have been called in question, in
view of the present tendency of criticism, if they had been
attested only by the Book of Acts. But fortunately it is just
these facts which are attested also by the epistles of Paul.

In 2 Cor. xi. 22, Paul is declared to be a "Hebrew,*^ and
in Phil. iii. 5 he appears as a "Hebrew of Hebrews.'* The word
"Hebrew" in these passages cannot indicate merely Israelitish
descent or general adherence to the Jews' religion. If it did
so it would be a meaningless repetition of the other terms used
in the same passages. Obviously it is used in some narrower
sense. The key to its meaning is found in Acts vi. 1, where,
within Judaism, the "Hellenists" are distinguished from the
"Hebrews," the Hellenists being the Jews of the Dispersion
who spoke Greek, and the Hebrews the Jews of Palestine who
spoke Aramaic. In Phil. iii. 6, therefore, Paul declares that he
was an Aramaic-speaking Jew and descended from Aramaic-
speaking Jews ; Aramaic was used in his boyhood home, and the
Palestinian tradition was preserved. This testimony is not
contrary to what was said above about Paul's use of the Greek
language — not improbably Paul used both Aramaic and Greek
in childhood — ^but it does contradict all those modem repre-
sentations which make Paul fundamentally a Jew of the Dis-
persion. Though he was bom in Tarsus, he was, in the essen-
tial character of his family tradition, a Jew of Palestine.

Even more important is the assertion, found in the same
verse in Philippians, that Paul was "as touching the law a
Pharisee." Conceivably, indeed, it might be argued that his
Pharisaism was not derived from his boyhood home, but was
acquired later. But surely it requires no excessively favorable
estimate of Acts to give credence to the assertion in Acts

^Compare Mommsen, "Die Rechtsverhaltnisse des Apostels Paulus,** in
Zeitschrift fUr die neuteBtamentliche Wisaenschaft, ii, 1901, pp. 88-96.

THE EARLY YEARS 47

xxiii. 6 that Paul was not only a Pharisee but the "son of
Pharisees"; and it is exceedingly unlikely that this phrase
refers, as Lightfoot ^ suggested, to teachers rather than to
ancestors. For when Paul says in Gal. i. 14 that he advanced
in the Jews' religion beyond many of his contemporaries, be-
ing more exceedingly zealous for his paternal traditions, it is
surely natural, whatever interpretation may be given to the
word **patemal," to find a reference to the Pharisaic traditions
cultivated in his boyhood home.

There is not the slightest evidence, therefore, for supposing
that Paul spent his early years in an atmosphere of "liberal
Judaism" — a Judaism really though unconsciously hospitable
to pagan notions and predisposed to relax the strict require-
ments of the Law and break down the barrier that separated
Israel from the Gentile world. Whether such a liberal Judaism
even existed in Tarsus we do not know. At any rate, if it did
exist, the household of Paul's father was not in sympathy with
it. Surely the definite testimony of Paul himself is here worth
more than all modem conjectures. And Paul himself declares
that he was in language and in spirit a Jew of Palestine rather
than of the Dispersion, and as touching the Law a Pharisee.

According to the Book of Acts, Paul went at an early age
to Jerusalem, received instruction there from Gamaliel, the
famous rabbi, and finally, just before his conversion, perse-
cuted the Jerusalem Church (Acts xxii. 3 ; vii. 58-viii. 1 ; ix. 1,
etc.). In recent years, this entire representation has been
questioned. It has been maintained by Mommsen,^ Sous-
set*, Heitmiiller,* and Loisy ^ that Paul never was in Jeru-
salem before his conversion. That he persecuted the Church
is, of course, attested unequivocally by his own Epistles, but
the persecution, it is said, really took place only in such cities
as Damascus, and not at all in Palestine.

This elimination of the early residence of Paul in Jerusalem

»On PhiL iii. 5.

*Op' eU,, pp. 85 f.

*Kyr%o$ C\r%8tOB, 1913, p. 99. Bousset's doubt with regard to the early
Jerusalem residence of Faul extended, explicitly at least, only to the
persecution in Jerusalem, and it was a doubt merely, not a positive denial.
In his supplementary work he has admitted that his doubt was unjustified
(/0#ii# d€r Herr, 1916, p. 31).

^"^um Problem Paulus und Jesus," in ZeUsehrift fur die neutestament^
liehe Wiisenschaft, xiii, 1911?, pp. 390-337.

^L'ipUre CMM9 QaXaUi, 1916, pp. 68-73; Le$ mysUree paHem €t U mytt^re
chHtiMh 1919, pp. 317-390.

48 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

is no mere by-product of a generally skeptical attitude toward
the Book of Acts, but is important for the entire reconstruction
of early Christian history which Bousset and Heitmiiller and
Loisy propose; it is made to assist in explaining the origin
of the Pauline Christology. Paul regarded Jesus Christ as a
supernatural person, come to earth for the redemption of
men; and toward this divine Christ he assumed a distinctly
religious attitude. How could he have formed such a concep-
tion of a human being who had died but a few years before?
If he had been separated from Jesus by several generations,
so that the nimbus of distance and mystery woidd have had
time to form about the figure of the Galilean prophet, then his
lofty conception of Jesus might be explained. But as a matter
of fact he was actually a contemporary of the Jesus whose
simple human traits he obscured. How could the ^^smell of
earth" have been so completely removed from the figure of
the Galilean teacher that He could actually be regarded by one
of His contemporaries as a divine Redeemer? The question
could perhaps be more easily answered if Paul, before his lofty
conception of Christ was fully formed, never came into any
connection with those who had seen Jesus subject to the petty
limitations of human life. Thus the elimination of the early
Jerusalem residence of Paul, by putting a geographical if
not a temporal gulf between Jesus and Paul, is thought to
make the formation of the Pauline Christology more compre-
hensible. Peter and the original disciples, it is thought, never
could have separated Jesus so completely from the limitations
of ordinary humanity; the simple memory of Galilean days
would in their case have been an effective barrier against
Christological speculation. But Paul was subject to no such
limitation; having lived far away from Palestine, in the com-
pany, for the most part, of those who like himself had never
seen Jesus, he was free to transpose to the Galilean teacher
attributes which to those who had known the real Jesus would
have seemed excessive or absurd.

Before examining the grounds upon which this elimination
of PauPs early Jerusalem residence is based, it may first be
observed that even such heroic measures do not really bring
about the desired result; even this radical rewriting of the
story of PauPs boyhood and youth will not serve to explain
on naturalistic principles the origin of the Pauline Christology.

THE EARLY YEARS 49

Even if before his conyersion Paul got no nearer to Jerusalem
than Damascus, it still remains true that after his conversion
he conferred with Peter and lived in more or less extended in-
tercourse with Palestinian disciples. The total lack of any
evidence of a conflict between the Christology of Paul and the
views of those who had walked and talked with Jesus of Naza-
reth remains, for any naturalistic reconstruction, a puzzling
fact. Even without the early Jerusalem residence, Paul re-
mains too near to Jesus both temporally and geographically
to have formed a conception of Him entirely without reference
to the historical person. Even with their radical treatment
of the Book of Acts, therefore, Bousset and Heitmiiller have
not succeeded at all in explaining how the Pauline Christology
ever came to be attached to the Galilean prophet. '*

But is the elimination of the early Jerusalem residence of
Paul historically justifiable? Mere congruity with a plausible
theory of development will not serve to justify it. For the
Jerusalem residence is strongly attested by the Book of Acts.
The testimony of Acts can no longer be ruled out except for
very weighty reasons; the history of recent criticism has on
the whole exhibited the rise of a more and more favorable
estimate of the book. And in the case of the early Jerusalem
residence of Paul the testimony is so insistent and so closely
connected with lifelike details that the discrediting of it in-
volves an exceedingly radical skepticism. The presence of
Paul at the stoning of Stephen is narrated in the Book of Acts
in a concrete way which bears every mark of trustworthiness ;
the connection of Paul with Gamaliel is what might have been
expected in view of the self -testimony of the apostle; the ac-
coimt of Paul's vision in the Temple (Ac^s xxii. 17-21) is
based, in a manner which is psychologically very natural, upon
the fact of Paul's persecuting activity in Jerusalem ; the pres-
ence of Paul's sister's son in Jerusalem, attested in a part of
the narrative of which the essential historicity must be uni-
versally admitted (Acts xxiii. 16-22), suggests that family
connections may have facilitated Paul's residence in the city.
Finally, the geographical details of the three narratives of
the conversion, which place the event on a journey of Paul
from Jerusalem to Damascus, certainly look as though they
were founded upon genuine tradition. One of the details —
the place of the conversion itself — is confirmed in a purely

60 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

incidental way by the Epistle to the Galatians, and the reader
has the impression that if Paul had happened to introduce
other details in the Epistles the rest of the narrative in Acts
would have been similarly confirmed. Except for Paul's inci-
dental reference to Damascus in Gal. i. 17, the conversion
might have been put by Heitmiiller and others in a place even
more conveniently remote than Damascus from the scene of
Jesus' earthly labors. But the incidental confirmation of Acts
at this point raises a distinct presumption in favor of the
account as a whole. The main trend of modem criticism has
been favorable on the whole to the tradition embodied in the
accounts of the conversion ; it is a very extreme form of skep-
ticism which rejects the whole framework of the tradition by
eliminating the journey from Jerusalem to Damascus.

Enough has been said to show that the early Jerusalem
residence of Paul stood absolutely firm in the tradition used
by the author of Acts ; the author has taken it as a matter of
course and woven it in with his narrative at many points.
Such a tradition certainly cannot be lightly rejected; the
burden of proof clearly rests upon those who would deny its
truthworthiness.

The only definite proof which is forthcoming is found in
Gal. i. 22, where Paul says that after his departure for Syria
and Cilicia, three years after his conversion, he was "unknown
by face to the churches of Judaea which are in Christ." If
he had engaged in active persecution of those churches, it is
argued, how could he have been personally unknown to them?

By this argument a tremendous weight is hung upon one
verse. And, rightly interpreted, the verse will not bear the
weight at all. In Gal. i. 22, Paul is not speaking so much
of what took place before the departure for Syria and Cilicia,
as of the condition which prevailed at the time of that depar-
ture and during the immediately ensuing period; he is simply
drawing attention to the significance for his argument of the
departure from Jerusalem. Certainly he would not have been
able to speak as he does if before he left Jerusalem he had
had extended intercourse with the Judaean churches, but when
he says that the knowledge of the Judaean churches about him
in the period just succeeding his departure from Jerusalem
was a hearsay knowledge merely, it would have been pedantic
for him to think about the question whether some of the mem-

THE EARLY YEARS 61

bers of those churches had or had not seen him years before
as a persecutor.

Furthermore, it is by no means clear that the word "Judaea''
in Gal. i. 22 includes Jerusalem at all. In Mark iii. 7, 8, for
example, "Jerusalem'* is clearly not included in "Judaea,"
but is distinguished from it; "Judaea" means the country
outside of the capital. It may well be so also in Gal. i. 22;
and if so, then the verse does not exclude a personal acquain-
tance of Paul with the Jerusalem Church. But even if
"Judaea" is not used so as to exclude the capital, still Paul's
words would be natural enough. That the Jerusalem Church
formed an exception to the general assertion was suggested
by the account of the visit in Jerusalem immediately preced-
ing, and was probably well known to his Galatian readers.
All that Paul means is that he went away to Syria and Cilicia
without becoming acquainted generally with the churches of
Judaea. It is indeed often said that since the whole point
of Paul's argument in Galatians was to show his lack of con-
tact with the pillars of the Jerusalem Church, his acquaintance
or lack of acquaintance with the churches of Judaea outside
of Jerusalem was unworthy of mention, so that he must at
least be including Jerusalem when he speaks of Judaea. But
this argument is not decisive. If, as is altogether probable,
the apostles except Peter were out of the city at the time of
Paul's visit, and were engaging in missionary work in Judaean
churches, then acquaintance with the Judaean churches would
have meant intercourse with the apostles, so that it was very
much to the point for Paul to deny that he had had such
acquaintance. Of course, this whole argument against the
early Jerusalem residence of Paul, based on Gal. i. 22, involves
a rejection of the account which the Book of Acts gives of
the visit of Paul to Jerusalem three years after his conversion.
If Gal. i. 22 means that Paul was unknown by sight to the
Jerusalem Church, then he could not have gone in and out
among the disciples at Jerusalem as Acts ix. 28 represents,
but must have been in strict hiding when he was in the city.
Such is the account of the matter which is widely prevalent in
recent years. Not even so much correction of Acts is at all
required by a correct imderstanding of Gal. i. 22. But it is
a still more im justifiable use of that verse when it is made to
exclude even the persecuting activity of Paul in Jerusalem.

6S THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

If, however, the words of Galatians are really to be taken
in the strictest and most literal sense, what is to be done with
Gal. i. 23, where (immediately after the words which have just
been discussed) Paul says that the churches of Judasa were
receiving the report, "He that persecuted us formerly is now
preaching as a gospel the faith which formerly he laid waste''?
What is meant by the pronoun "us" in this verse? Conceivably
it might be taken in a broad sense, as referring to all disciples
wherever found ; conceivably, therefore, the persecution referred
to by the Judasan disciples might be persecution of their
brethren in the faith in Tarsus or Damascus. But that is not
the kind of interpretation which has just been applied to the
preceding verse, and upon which such a vast structure has
been reared. It may well be urged against Heitmiiller and
those like him that if Paul's words are to be taken so strictly
in one verse they should be taken in the same way in the other;
if the "Judaea" and "unknown by face" of verse 22 are to
be taken so strictly, then the "us" of verse 23 should also be
taken strictly, and in that case Paul is made to contradict
himself, which of course is absurd. Verse 23 certainly does
not fully confirm the representation of Acts about the perse-
cuting activity of Paul in Judaea, but at any rate it tends to
confirm that representation at least as strongly as verse 22
tends to discredit it.^

Thus the early Jerusalem residence of Paul is strongly
attested by the Book of Acts, and is thoroughly in harmony
with everything that Paul says about his Pharisaic past. It
is not surprising that Bousset has now receded from his orig-
inal position and admits that Paul was in Jerusalem before
his conversion and engaged in persecution of the Jerusalem
Church.

That admission does not necessarily carry with it an ac-
ceptance of all that the Book of Acts says about the Jerusalem
period in Paul's life, particularly all that it says about his
having been a disciple of Gamaliel. But the decisive point
has been gained. If the entire account of the early Jerusalem
residence of Paul is not ruled out by the testimony of his own
Epistles, then. there is at least no decisive objection against
the testimony of Acts with regard to the details. Certainly

* Compare Wellhausen, Kritigche Analyse der Apottelffesehiehte, 1914,
p. 16.

THE EARLY YEARS 6S

the common opinion to the effect that Paul went to Jerusalem
to receive rabbinical training is admirably in accord with
everything that he says in his Epistles about his zeal for the
Law. It is also in accord with his habits of thought and ex-
pression, which were transformed and glorified, rather than
destroyed, by his Christian experience. The decision about
every detail of course depends ultimately upon the particular
conclusion which the investigator may have reached with re-
gard to the Book of Acts. If that book was written by a
companion of Paul — an opinion which is gaining ground even
in circles which were formerly hostile — then there is every
reason to suppose that Paul was brought up in Jerusalem at
the feet of Gamaliel (Acts xxii. 3). Some important questions
indeed still remain imanswercd, even with full acceptance of
the Lucan testimony. It can never be determined, for ex-
ample, at exactly what age Paul went to Jerusalem. The
words, ^^brought up in this city," in Acts xxii. 3 might seem
to suggest that Paul went to Jerusalem in early childhood, in
which case his birthplace would be of comparatively little
importance in his preparation for his lifework, and all the
elaborate investigations of Tarsus, so far as they are intended
to shed light upon the environment of the apostle in his for-
mative years, would become valueless. But the Greek word
**brought up" or "nourished" might be used figuratively in
a somewhat flexible way; it remains, therefore, perfectly pos-
sible that Paul's Jerusalem training began, not in childhood,
but in early youth. At any rate, an early residence in Jeru-
salem is not excluded by the masterly way in which the apostle
uses the Greek language. It must always be remembered that
Palestine in the first century was a bilingual country ; ^ the
presence of hosts of Greek-speaking Jews even in Jerusalem
is amply attested, for example, by the early chapters of Acts.
Moreover, even after Paul's Jerusalem studies had begun, his
connection with Tarsus need not have been broken off. The
distance between the two cities was considerable (some four
or five hundred miles), but travel in those days was safe and
easy. A period of training in Jerusalem may have been fol-
lowed by a long residence at Tarsus.

»See Zahn, EinUitung in das Neue Tegtament, Stc Aufl., i, 1906, pp.
S4-39, SO-47 (English Translation, Introdudtion to the New Teetament,
2Qd Ed., 1917, 1, pp. 34-46, 57-66).

64 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

At this point, an interesting question arises, which, how-
ever, can never be answered with any certainty. Did Paul
ever see Jesus before the crucifixion? In the light of what has
just been established about the outline of Paul's life, an affirma-
tive answer might seem to be natural. Paul was in Jerusalem
both before and after the public ministry of Jesus — before it
when he was being ^^brought up" in Jerusalem, and after it
when he was engaged in persecution of the Jerusalem Church.
Where was he during the interval? Where was he on those
occasions when Jesus visited Jerusalem — especially at the time
of that last Passover? If he was in Jerusalem, it seems prob-
able that he would have seen the great prophet, whose coming
caused such a stir among the people. And that he was in the
city at Passover time would seem natural in view of his devo-
tion to the Law. But the matter is by no means certain. He
may have returned to Tarsus, in the n^anner which has just
been suggested.

The question could only be decided on the basis of actual
testimony either in Acts or in the Epistles. One verse has
often been thought to provide such testimony. In 2 Cor. v. 16,
Paul says, "Even if we have known Christ after the flesh, yet
now we know him so no longer.'' Knowledge of Christ after
the flesh can only mean, it is said, knowledge of Him by the
ordinary use of the senses, in the manner in which one man in
ordinary human intercourse knows another. That kind of
knowledge, Paul says, has ceased to have significance for the
Christian in his relation to other men; it has also ceased to
have significance for him in his relation to Christ. But it is
that kind of knowledge which Paul seems to predicate of him-
self, as having existed in a previous period of his life. He
does not use the unreal form of condition; he does not say,
"Even if we had known Christ after the flesh (though as a
matter of fact we never knew Him so at all), yet now we should
know Him so no longer.'' Apparently, then, when he says
"ir' he means "although"; he means to say, "Although we
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so
no longer." The knowledge of Christ after the flesh is thus
put as an actual fact in Paul's experience, and that can only
mean that he knew Him in the way in which His contempo-
raries knew Him in Galilee and in Jerusalem, a way which in
itself, Paul says, was altogether without spiritual significance.

THE EARLY YEARS 66

One objection to this interpretation of the passage is that
it proves too much. If it means anything, it means that Paul
had extended personal acquaintance with Jesus before the
crucifixion; for if Paul merely saw Him for a few moments —
for example, when the crowds were surging about Him at the
time of the last Passover — ^he could hardly be said to have
**known" Him. But, for obvious reasons, any extended inter-
course between Paul and Jesus in Palestine is exceedingly im-
probable. It is natural, therefore, to look for some other
interpretation.

Other interpretations undoubtedly are possible. Some of
the interpretations that have been proposed must indeed be
eliminated. For example, Paul cannot possibly be contrasting
a former immature stage of his Christian experience with the
present mature stage; he cannot possibly mean, ^^Even if in
the first period after my conversion I had a low view of Christ,
which made of Him merely the son of David and the Jewish
Messiah, yet now I have come to a higher conception of His
divine nature.'* For the whole point of the passage is found
in the sharp break which comes in a man's experience when
he appropriates the death and resurrection of Christ. Any
consciousness of a subsequent revolution in the thinking of
the Christian is not only unsupported anywhere in the Pauline
Epistles, but is absolutely excluded by the present passage.
Another interpretation also must be eliminate. Paul cannot
possibly be contrasting his pre-Christian notions about the
Messiah with the higher knowledge which came to him with
his conversion; he cannot possibly mean, ^^Even if before I
knew the fulfillment of the Messianic promise I cherished carnal
notions of what the Messiah was to be, even if I thought of
Him merely as an earthly ruler who was to conquer the enemies
of Israel, yet now I have come to have a loftier, more spiritual
conception of Him." For the word "Christ," especially with-
out the article, can hardly here be anything other than a
proper name, and must refer not to the conception of Messiah-
ship but to the concrete person of Jesus. But another inter-
pretation ranains. The key to it is foimd in the flexible use
of the first person plural in the Pauline Epistles. Undoubt-
edly, the *Sre" of the whole passage in which 2 Cor. v. 16 is
contained refers primarily to Paul himself. But, especially
in 2 Cor. v. 16, it may include also all true ambassadors for

66 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

Christ whose principles are the same as Paul's. Among such
true ambassadors there were no doubt to be found some who
had known Christ by way of ordinary intercourse in Palestine.
"But," says Paul, "even if some of us have known Christ in
that way, we know him so no longer." This interpretation is
linguistically more satisfactory, perhaps, than that which ex-
plains the sentence as simply a more vivid way of presenting
a condition contrary to fact. "Granted," Paul would say
according to this interpretation, "even that we have known
Christ according to the flesh (which as a matter of fact we
have not), yet now we know him so no longer." But our inter-
pretation really amounts to almost the same thing so far as
Paul is concerned. At any rate, the passage is not so clear
as to justify any certain conclusions about Paul's life in
Palestine; it does not clearly imply any acquaintance of Paul
with Jesus before the passion.

If such acquaintance is to be established, therefore, it must
be established on the basis of otlier evidence. J. Weiss ^ seeks
to establish it by the very fact of Paul's conversion. Paul,
Weiss believes, saw a vision of the risen Christ. How did he
know that the figure which appeared to him in the vision was
Jesus? Why did he not think, for example, merely that it
was the Messiah, who according to one strain of Jewish Mes-
sianic expectation was already existent in heaven? Apparently
he recognized the person who appeared to him as Jesus of
Nazareth. But how could he have recognized Him as Jesus
imless he had seen Jesus before?

This argument depends, of course, altogether upon the
naturalistic conception of the conversion of Paul, which re-
gards the experience as an hallucination. In the account of
the conversion given in the Book of Acts, on the contrary, it
is distinctly said that far from recognizing the person who
appeared to him, Paul was obliged to ask the question, "Who
art thou. Lord?" and then received the answer, "I am Jesus."
Such a conversation between Paul and the One who appeared
to him is perfectly possible if there was a real appearance of
the risen Christ, but it exceeds the ordinary limits of halluci-
nations. Weiss has therefore merely pointed out an additional
psychological diflBculty in explaining the experience of Paul

» Paului und Jesus, 1909, pp. 22, 23, Compare Ramsay, The Teaching of
Paul in Terms of the Present Day, 1914, pp. 21-30.

THE EARLY YEARS 67

as an hallucination, a difficulty which, on naturalistic prin-
ciples, may have to be removed by the assumption that Paul
had seen Jesus before the passion. But if Jesus really ap-
peared to Paul in such a way as to be able to answer his
questions, then it is not necessary to suppose that Paul recog-
nized Him. The failure of Paul to recognize Jesus (according
to the narrative in Acts) does not indeed positively exclude
such previous acquaintance; the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus, for example, also failed to recognize the Lord, though
they had been acquainted with Him before. But, at any rate,
if the supernaturalistic view of Paul's conversion be accepted,
the experience sheds no light whatever upon any previous per-
sonal acquaintance with Jesus.

Thus there is no clear evidence for supposing that Paul
saw Jesus before the passion. At the same time there is no
evidence to the contrary, except the evidence that is to be
found in the silence of the Epistles.

The argument from silence, precarious as it is, must here
be allowed a certain amount of weight. If Paul had seen
Jesus before the crucifixion, would not so important a fact
have been mentioned somewhere in the Epistles? The matter
is by no means absolutely clear; a brief glimpse of Jesus in
the days of His flesh would perhaps not have seemed so im-
portant to Paul, in view of the richer knowledge which came
afterwards, as it would seem to us. The silence of the Epistles
does, however, render improbable any extended contact between
Paul and Jesus, particularly any active opposition of the
youthful Paul toward Jesus. Paul was deeply penitent for
having persecuted the Church; if he had committed the more
terrible sin of having helped bring the Lord Himself to the
shameful cross, the fact would naturally have appeared in
his expressions of penitence. Even if Paul did see Jesus in
Palestine, then, it is highly improbable that he was one of
those who cried out to Pilate, "Crucify him, crucify him !'*

One thing, however, is certain. If Paul never saw Jesus
in Palestine, he certainly heard about Him. The ministry of
Jesus caused considerable stir both in Galilee and in Jerusalem.
These things were not done in a comer. The appearance of
Jesus at the last Passover aroused the passions of the multi-
tude, and evidently caused the deepest concern to the au-
thorities. Even one who was indiifferent to the whole matter

68 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

could hardly have helped learning something of the content
of Jesus' teaching, and the main outline of the story of His
death. But Paul, at least at a time only a very few years
after the crucifixion, was not indiiGTerent ; for he was an active
persecutor. If he was in Palestine at all during the previous
period, his interest probably began then. The outlines of
Jesus' life and death were known to friend and foe alike, and
certainly were not unknown to Paul before his conversion, at
the time when he was persecuting the Church. It is only a
woeful lack of historical imagination which can attribute to
Paul, even before his conversion, a total ignorance of the
earthly life of Jesus.

The opposite error, however, is even more serious. If Paul
before his conversion was not totally ignorant of Jesus, on
the other hand his knowledge only increased his opposition to
Jesus and Jesus' followers. It is not true that before the
conversion Paul was gradually coming nearer to Christianity.
Against any such supposition stands the explicit testimony
of the Epistles.

Despite that testimony, various attempts have been made
tt> trace a psychological development in Paul which could
have led to the conversion. Paul was converted through a
vision of the risen Christ. According to the supematuralistic
view that vision was a "vision," not in any specialized mean-
ing of the word, but in its original etymological meaning ; Paul
actually "saw" the risen Lord. According to the modem nat-
uralistic view, which rejects any direct creative interposition
of God in the course of nature, dijGTerent in kind from His
works of providence, the vision was produced by the internal
condition of the subject, accompanied perhaps by favorable
conditions without — the heat of the sim or a thunder storm or
the like. But was the condition of the subject, in the case of
Paul, really favorable to a vision of the risen Christ? If the
vision of Christ was an hallucination, as it is held to be by
modem naturalistic historians, how may the genesis of this
pathological experience be explained?

In the first place, a certain basis for the experience is sought
in the physical organism of the subject. According to the
Epistles, it is said, the apostle was subject to a recurrent
malady; this malady is spoken of in 2 Cor. xii. 1-8 in connec-
tion with visions and revelations. In Gal. iv. 14, where it is

THE EARLY YEARS 69

said that the Galatiaps did not ''spit out'' when the apostle
was with them, an allusion is sometimes discovered to the
ancient custom of spitting to avoid contagion. A combina-
tion of this passage with the one in 2 Corinthians is thought
to establish a diagnosis of epilepsy, the effort being made to
show that "spitting out'* was particularly prevalent in the
case of that disease. The visions then become an additional
symptom of the epileptic seizures.^

But the diagnosis rests upon totally insufficient data. The
visions are not regarded in 2 Corinthians as part of the buf-
f etings of the angel of Satan ; on the contrary, the two things
are sharply separated in Paul's mind; he rejoices in the
visions, but prays the Lord that the buffetings may cease.
It is not even said that the visions and the buffetings came
close together; there is no real basis for the view that the
buffetings consisted in nervous exhaustion following the visions.
In Gal. iv. 14, the "spitting out'* is probably to be taken
figuratively, and the object is "your temptation in my flesh.**
The meaning then is simply, "You did not reject me or spue me
out**; and there is no allusion to the custom of "spitting out**
for the purpose of avoiding contagion. It is unnecessary,
therefore, to examine the elaborate argument of Krenkel by
which he sought to show that epilepsy was particularly the
disease against which spitting was practised as a prophylactic
measure.

There is therefore absolutely no evidence to show that Paul i
was an epileptic, unless the very fact of his having visions be
thought to furnish such evidence. But such a use of the
visions prejudges the great question at issue, which concerns
the objective validity of Paul's religious convictions. Further-
more, the fact should always be borne in mind that Paul dis-
tinguished the visions very sharply from the experience which
he had near Damascus, when he saw the Lord. The visions
are spoken of in 2 Corinthians apparently with reluctance,
as something which concerned the apostle alone ; the Damascus
experience was part of the evidence for the resurrection of
Christ, and had a fundamental place in the apostle's mis-
sionary preaching. All efforts to break down this distinction
have failed. The apostle regarded the Damascus experience

^See Krenkel, Beitrdge zur AufheUung der Oeschichte und d^r BrUft
dss ApoMtels Pauhu, 1890, pp. 47-195.

60 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

as unique — not a mystery like the experiences which are men-
tioned in S Corinthians, but a plain, palpable fact capable
of being understood by all.

But if the Damascus experience is to be regarded as an
hallucination, it is not suf&cient to exhibit a basis for it in the
physical weakness of the apostle. Even if Paul was constitu-
tionally predisposed to hallucinations, the experience of this
particular hallucination must be shown to be possible. The
challenge has often been accepted by modem historians. It is
maintained that the elements of Paul's new conviction must have
been forming gradually in his mind ; the Damascus experience,
it is said, merely brought to light what was really already pres-
ent. In this way, the enormous disparity between eflfect and
cause is thought to be removed; the untold benefits of Paulin-
ism are no longer to be regarded as due to the fortunate chance
of an hallucination, induced by the weakness of the apostle
and the heat of the desert sun, but rather to a spiritual de-
velopment which the hallucination merely revealed. Thus the
modern view of Paul's conversion, it is thought, may face
bravely the scorn of Beyschlag, who exclaimed, when speaking
of the naturalistic explanation of Paul's vision, "Oh blessed
drop of blood . . . which by pressing at the right moment
upon the brain of Paul, produced such a moral wonder." ^
The drop of blood, it is said, or whatever may have been the
physical basis of the Damascus experience, did not produce
the wonders of the Pauline gospel; it merely brought into the
sphere of consciousness a psychological process which had
really been going on before.

The existence of such a psychological process, by which
the apostle was coming nearer to Christ, is sometimes thought
to receive documentary support in one verse of the New Testa-
ment. In Acts xxvi. 14, the risen Christ is represented as
saying to Paul, "It is hard for thee to kick against the goads."
According to this verse, it is said, Paul had been resisting a
better conviction, gradually forming in his mind, that the
disciples might be right about Jesus and he might be wrong;
that, it is said, was the goad which was really driving him.
He had indeed been resisting vigorously; he had been stifling
his doubts by more and more feverish activity in persecution.

* Beyschlag, "Die Bekehrung des Apostels Paulus," in Theolopische
Studien und Kritiken, xxxvii, 1864, p. 941.

THE EARLy YEARS 61

But the resistance had not really brought him peace; the goad
was really there. And at last, near Damascus, the resistance
was overcome; the subconscious conviction which had brought
tumult into his soul was at last allowed to come to the surface
and rule his conscious life.

At this point, the historian is in grave danger of becoming
untrue to his own critical principles. Attention to the Book
of Acts, it has been maintained, is not to be allowed to color
the interpretation of the Pauline Epistles, which are the pri-
mary sources of information. But here the procedure is re-
versed. In the interests of a verse in Acts, standing, more-
over, in a context which on naturalistic principles cannot be
regarded as historical, the clear testimony of the Epistles is
neglected. For Paul was certainly not conscious of any goad
which before his conversion was forcing him into the new faith ;
he knows nothing of doubts which assailed him during the
period of his activity in persecution. On the contrary, the /
very point of the passage in Galatians, where he alludes to his
persecuting activity, is the suddenness of his conversion. Far
from gradually coming nearer to Christ he was in the very
midst of his zeal for the Law when Christ called him. The
purpose of the passage is to show that his gospel came to him
without human intermediation. Before the conversion, he
says, there was of course no human intermediation, since he
was an active persecutor. He could not have spoken in this
way if before the conversion he had already become half con-
vinced that those whom he was persecuting were right. More-
over, throughout the Epistles there appears in the apostle
not the slightest consciousness of his having acted against
better convictions when he persecuted the Church. In 1 Tim.
i. 1-3 he distinctly says that he carried on the persecution in
ignorance; and even if Timothy be regarded as post-Pauline,
the silence of the other epistles at least points in the same
direction. Paul was deeply penitent for having persecuted
the Church of God, but apparently he did not lay to his charge
the black sin of having carried on the persecution in the face
of better convictions. When he laid the Church waste he
thought he was doing God service. In the very midst of his
mad persecuting activity, he says, apart from any teaching
from men — apart, we may certainly infer, from any favorable
impressions formed in his mind— the Lord appeared to him

62 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

and gave him his gospel. Paul stakes everything upon the
evidential value of the appearance, which was able suddenly
to overcome an altogether hostile attitude. Such is the self-
testimony of the apostle. It rests as a serious weight upon
all attempts at making the conversion the result of a psycho-
logical process.

Certainly the passage in Acts will not help to bear the
weight. When the risen Christ says to Paul, "It is hard for
thee to kick against the goads," He need not mean at all that
the presence of the goad had been known to Paul before that
hour. The meaning may be simply that the will of Christ is
resistless; all opposition is in vain, the appointed hour of
Christ has arrived. Conscious opposition on the part of Paul
to a better conviction is certainly not at all implied. No
doubt Paul was really miserable when he was a persecutor;
all activity contrary to the plan of Christ brings misery. But
that he had the slightest inkling of the source of his misery
or even of the fact of it need not be supposed. It is even pos-
sible that the "hardness" of resistance to the goad is to be
found only in the very moment of the conversion. "All re-
sistance," says the risen Christ, ^^all hesitation, is as hopeless
as for the ox to kick against the goad ; instant obedience alone
is in place."

The weight of the apostle's own testimony is therefore in^
no sense removed by Acts xxvi. 14. That testimony is un-
equivocally opposed to all attempts at exhibiting a psycho-
logical process culminating in the conversion. These attempts,
however, because of the importance which has been attributed
to them, must now be examined. In general, they are becoming
less and less elaborate; contemporary scholars are usually
content to dismiss the psychological problem of the conversion
with a few general observations about the secret of personality,
or, at the most, a brief word about the possible condition of
the apostle's mind. Since the direct interposition of the risen
Christ is rejected, it is held that there must have been some
psychological preparation for the Damascus experience, but
what that preparation was remains hidden, it is said, in the
secret places of the soul, which no psychological anadysis can
ever fully reveal.

If, however, the problem is not thus to be dismissed as
insoluble, no unanimity has been achieved among those who

THE EARLY YEARS 63

attempt a solution. Two principal lines of solution of the
problem may perhaps be distinguished — that which begins with
the objective evidence as it presented itself to the persecutor,
and that which starts with the seventh chapter of Romans and
the persecutor's own sense of need. The former line was fol-
lowed by Holsten, whose monographs still constitute the most
elaborate exposition of the psychological process supposed
to lie back of the conversion.^ According to Holsten, the
process centered in the consideration of the Cross of Christ.
That consideration of course resulted at first in an attitude
of hostility on the part of Paul. The Cross was a shameful
thing; the proclamation of a crucified Messiah appeared,
therefore, to the devout Pharisee as an outrageous blasphemy.
But the disciples represented the Cross as in accordance with
the will of God, and supported their contention by the evidence
for the resurrection; the resurrection was made to overcome
the offense of the Cross. But against the evidence for the
resurrection, Holsten believes, Paul was helpless, the possibility
of resurrection being fully recognized in his Pharisaic training.
What then if the resurrection really vindicated the claims of
Jesus to be the Messiah? Paul was by no means convinced,
Holsten believes, that such was the case. But the possibility
was necessarily in his mind, if only for the purposes of refuta-
tion. At this point Paul began to advance, according to
Holsten, beyond the earlier disciples. On the assumption that
the resurrection really did vindicate the claims of Jesus, the
Cross would have to be explained. But an explanation lay
ready to hand, and Paul applied this explanation with a thor-
oughness which the earlier disciples had not attained. The
earlier disciples removed the offense of the Cross by repre-
senting the Cross as part of the plan of God for the Messiah ;
Paul exhibited the meaning of that plan much more clearly
than they. He exhibited the meaning of the Cross by apply-
ing to it the category of vicarious suffering, which could be
found, for example, in Isaiah liii. At this point the pre-
Christian development of Paul was over. The Pauline "gnosis

* Holsten, Zum Evangelium des Paulus und des Petrus, 1868. Against
Holsten, sec Beyschlag, "Die Bekehrung des Apostels Paulus, mit beson-
derer Riicksicht auf die Erklarungsversuche von Baur und Holsten,** in
Tk0oloffuch0 Studien und Kritiken, xxxvii, 1864, pp. 197-964; "Die Visions-
hypothese in Hirer neuesten Begrttndung. Bine Duplik gegen D. Holsten,"
UAiL, sdiii, 1870, pp. 7-60, 189-863.

64 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

of the Cross'' was already formed. Of course, before the con-
version it was to Paul entirely a matter of supposition. On
the supposition, still regarded as false, that the resurrection
had really taken place, the Cross, far from being an offense,
would become a glorious fact. All the essential elements of
Paul's gospel of the Cross were thus present in Paul's mind
before the conversion ; the validity of them had been posited by
him for the purposes of argmnent. The only thing that was
lacking to make Paul a disciple of Jesus was conviction of the
fact of the resurrection. That conviction was supplied by
the Damascus experience. The unstable equilibrium then was
over ; the elements of the Pauline gospel, which were all present
before, fell at once into their proper places.

The other way of explaining the conversion starts from
the seventh chapter of Romans and the dissatisfaction which
Paul is thought to have experienced under the Law. Paul, it
is said, was a Pharisee; he made every effort to keep the Law
of God. But he was too earnest to be satisfied with a merely
external obedience; and real obedience he had not attained.
He was therefore tormented by a sense of sin. That sense
of sin no doubt led him into a more and more feverish effort
to keep the letter of the Law and particularly to show his
zeal by persecuting the disciples of Jesus. But all his efforts
were vain; his obedience remained insufficient; the curse of
the Law still rested upon him. What if the vain effort could
be abandoned? What if the disciples of Jesus were right?
Of course, he believed, they were not right, but what if they
were? What if the Messiah had really died for the sins of
believers, in accordance with Isaiah liii? What if salvation were
attainable not by merit but by divine grace? These questions,
it is supposed, were in the mind of Paul. He answered them
still in the negative, but his misery kept them ever before his
mind. The Law was thus a schoolmaster to bring him to
Christ. He was ready for the vision.

In both of these lines of explanation importance is often
attributed to the impression produced upon Paul's mind by
the character of the disciples. Whence did they derive their
bravery and their joy in the midst of persecution? Whence
came the fervor of their love, whence the firmness of their
faith? The persecutor, it is said, was impressed against his
will.

THE EARLY YEARS 66

The fundamental objection to all these theories of psycho-
logical development is that they describe only what might
have been or what ought to have been, and not what actually
was. No doubt Paul ought to have been coming nearer to
Christianity; but as a matter of fact he was rather getting
further away, and he records the fact in no uncertain terms
in his Epistles. There are objections, moreover, to the various
theories of development in detail; and the advocates of one
theory are often the severest critics of another.

With regard to Holsten's exposition of the "gnosis of
the Cross," for example, there is not the slightest evidence
that the pre-Christian Jews interpreted Isaiah liii of the vi-
carious sufferings of the Messiah, or had any notion of the
Messiah's vicarious death.^ It is not true, moreover, as
Beyschlag pointed out against Holsten, that Paul was help-
less in the face of the evidence tor the resurrection.^ Accord-
ing to PauPs Pharisaic training, the resurrection would come
only at the end of the age ; a resurrection like the resurrection
of Jesus, therefore, was by no means a matter of course, and
could be established only by positive evidence of the most direct
and unequivocal kind.

With regard to the sense of sin as the goad which forced
Paul to accept the Saviour, there is no evidence that before
his conversion Paul was under real conviction of sin. It is
very doubtful whether Rom. vii. 7-26, with its account of the
struggle between the flesh and the higher nature of man, refers
to the unregenerate rather than to the regenerate life; and
even if the former view is correct, it is doubtful whether the
description is taken from the apostle's own experience. At
any rate, the struggle, even if it be a struggle in the unre-
generate man, is described from the point of view of the re-
generate; it is not implied, therefore, that before the entrance
of the Spirit of God a man is fully conscious of his own help-
lessness and of the desperateness of the struggle. The passage
therefore, does not afford any certain information about the
pre-Christian life of Paul. Undoubtedly before the conversion
the conscience of Paul was aroused; he was conscientious in

*Scc Schttrer, Oeschichte de$ jUdischen Volkes, 4te Aufl., ii, 1907, pp.
648-651 (English Translation, A History of the Jewish People, Division
II, vol. U, 1885, pp. 184-187).

'Beyschlag, "Die Visionshypothese in ihrer neuesten Begiiindung," in
TheoloffUche Studien und Kritiken, xliii, 1870, pp. 19-121.

66 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

his devotion to the Law. Probably he was conscious of his
failings. But that such consciousness of failure amounted to
anything like that genuine conviction of sin which leads a
man to accept the Saviour remains very doubtful. Recognized
failure to keep the Law perfectly led in the case of Paul merely
to greater zeal for the Law, a zeal which was manifested espe-
cially in the persecution of a blasphemous sect whose teaching
was subversive of the authority of Moses.

Finally, it is highly improbable that Paul was favorably
impressed by the bravery of those whom he was persecuting.
It may seem strange at first sight that the same man who
wrote the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians should have
haled helpless men and women to prison without a qualm, or
listened without pity to the dying words of Stephen, **Lord,
lay not this sin to their charge." But it is very dangerous
to argue back from the Christian life of Paul to the life of
Paul the Pharisee. Paul himself was conscious of a complete
moral transformation as having taken place in him when he
saw the Lord near Damascus. What was impossible for him
after that transformation may well have been possible before.
Moreover, if, despite such considerations, we could argue back
from Paul the disciple of Jesus to Paul the Pharisee, there is
one characteristic of the apostle which would never have per-
mitted him to persecute those by whom he was favorably im-
pressed — namely, his complete sincerity. The picture of Saul
the doubter, torn by conflicting emotions, impressed by the
calmness and bravery and magnanimity of those whom he was
persecuting, yet stifling such impressions by persecuting zeal,
is very romantic, but very un-Pauline.

But in attributing the conversion of Paul altogether to
the experience on the road to Damascus, are we not heaping
up into one moment what must of very necessity in conscious
life be the work of years? Is it conceivable that ideas should
have been implanted in the mind of a person not by processes
of acquisition but mechanically as though by a hypodermic
syringe? Would not such an experience, even if it were pos-
sible, be altogether destructive of personality?

The objection serves to correct possible misunderstandings.
The view of the conversion which has just been set forth does
not mean that when Paul drew near to Damascus on that
memorable day he was ignorant of the facts about Jesus. If

THE EARLY YEARS 67

he had never heard of Jesus, or if having heard of Him he
knew absolutely nothing about Him, then perhaps the con-
version would have been not only supernatural but inconceiv-
able. But it is not the traditional view of the conversion
which is guilty of such exaggerations. They are the product
rather of that separation of Paul from the historical Jesus
which appears for example in Wrede and in Bousset. Accord-
ing to any reasonable view of Paul's pre-Christian experience,
Paul was well acquainted, before the conversion, with many
of the facts about Jesus' life and death; what he received on
the road to Damascus was a new interpretation of the facts
and a new attitude toward them. He had known the facts be-
fore, but they had filled him with hatred; now his hatred was
changed into love.

Even after exaggerations have been removed, however, the
change wrought by the Damascus experience remains revolu-
tionary enough. Is that change conceivable? Could hatred
have been changed into love merely by an experience which
cotivinced Paul of the fact of the resurrection? The answer
to this question depends altogether upon the nature of the
Damascus experience. If that experience was merely an hal-
lucination, the question must be answered in the negative;
an hallucination could never have produced the profound
changes in the personal life of Paul which have just been
contemplated ; and the historian would be obliged to fall back,
despite the unequivocal testimony of the Epistles, upon some
theory of psychological development of which the hallucination
would only be the climax. But even those who maintain the
supematuralistic view of the conversion have too often failed
to do justice to the content of the experience. One fundamental
feature of the experience has too often been forgotten — the
appearance on the road to Damascus was the appearance of
a person. Sometimes the event has been regarded merely as
a supernatural interposition of God intended to produce be-
lief in the fact of the resurrection, as merely a sign. Un-
doubtedly it was a sign. But it was far more ; it was contact
between persons. But contact between persons, even under
ordinary conditions, is exceedingly mysterious; merely a look
or the tone of the voice sometimes produces astonishing results.
Who has not experienced the transition from mere hearsay
knowledge of a person to actual contact? One meeting is

68 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

often sufficient to revolutionize the entire impression; indif-
ference or hostility gives place at once to enthusiastic devotion.
Those who speak of the transformation wrought in Paul by
the appearance of Jesus as magical or mechanical or incon-
ceivable have never reflected upon the mysteries of personal
intercourse.

Only, it must have been a real person whom Paul met on
the road to Damascus — ^not a vision, not a mere sign. If it
was merely a vision or a sign, all the objections remain in
force. But if it was really Jesus, the sight of His face and
the words of love which He uttered may have been amply suf-
ficient, provided the heart of Paul was renewed by the power
of God's Spirit, to transform hatred into love. To call such
an experience magic is to blaspheme all that is highest in
human life. God was using no unworthy instrument when, by
the personal presence of the Saviour, He transformed the life
of Paul.

There is, therefore, no moral or psychological objection
in the way of a simple acceptance of Paul's testimony about
the conversion. And that testimony is unequivocal. Paul was
not converted by any teaching which he received from men;
he was not converted as Christians are usually converted, by
the preaching of the truth or by that revelation of Christ
which is contained in the lives of His followers. Jesus Him-
self in the case of Paul did in visible presence what He ordi-
narily does by the means which He has appointed. Upon this
immediateness of the conversion, Paul is willing to stake the
whole of his life; upon it he bases his apostolic authority.

CHAPTER III
THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM

CHAPTER in

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM

After the conversion, according to the Book of Acts,
Paul received the ministrations of Ananias, and was baptized.^
These details are not excluded by the Epistle to the Gala-
tians. In the Epistle, Paul says that after God had revealed
His son in him he did not confer with flesh and blood ; ^ but
the conference with flesh and blood which he was concerned
to deny was a conference with the original apostles at Jerusa-
lem about the principles of the gospel, not a conference with
humble disciples at Damascus. An over-interpretation of
Galatians would here lead almost to absurdity. Is it to be
supposed that after the conversion Paul refused to have any-
thing whatever to do with those who were now his brethren?
In particular, is it to be supposed that he who afterwards
placed baptism as a matter of course at the beginning of the
new life for every Christian should himself not have been bap-
tized? The Epistle to the Galatians does not mention his
baptism, but that omission merely illustrates the incomplete-
ness of the account. And if the baptism of Paul, which cer-
tainly must have taken place, is omitted from Galatians, other
omissions must not be regarded as any more significant.
The first two chapters of Galatians are not intended to fur-
nish complete biography. Only those details are mentioned
which were important for Paul's argument or had been mis-
represented by his Judaizing opponents.

After Grod had revealed His son in him, Paul says, he
went away into Arabia. Apparently this journey to Arabia is
to be put very soon after the revelation, though the construc-
tion of the word ^^immediately'* in Gal. i. 16 is not perfectly
clear. If that word goes merely with the negative part of
the sentence, then nothing is said about the time of the journey

'Acts ix. 10-19; xxU. 12-16.
* Gal. i. 16.

71

72 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

to Arabia; Paul would say merely that in the period just
after the revelation of God's Son he did not go up to Jerusa-
lem. There would then be no difficulty in the assertion of Acts
which seems to put a stay in Damascus with preaching ac-
tivity in the synagogues immediately after the baptism. This
interpretation is adopted by a number of modem commenta-
tors, not only by B. Weiss and Zahn, who might be suspected
of a bias in favor of the Book of Acts, but also by Sieffert
and Lipsius and Bousset. Perhaps more naturally, however,
the word "immediately'* in Galatians is to be taken gram-
matically with the positive part of the sentence or with the
whole sentence; the sentence would then mean, "Immediately,
instead of conferring with flesh and blood or going up to
Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, I went away
into Arabia and again I returned to Damascus." Even so,
however, there is no real contradiction with Acts. When Paul
tells what happened "immediately" after the revelation he
is thinking in terms not of days but of journeys. The very
first journey after the conversion — and it took place soon —
was not to Jerusalem but to Arabia. When taken in the con-
text the sentence does not exclude a brief preaching activity
in Damascus before the journey to Arabia. Grammatically
the word "immediately" may go with the positive part of the
sentence, but in essential import it goes rather with the negative
part. What Paul is really concerned about is to deny that he
went up to Jerusalem soon after his conversion.

The Book of Acts does not mention the journey to Arabia
and does not make clear where it may be inserted. Sometimes
it is placed in the middle of Acts ix. 19, before the words,
"And he was with the disciples in Damascus some days." In
that case the discussion about the word "inunediately" in Gal.
i. 16 would be unnecessary; that word could be taken strictly
with the positive part of the sentence without contradicting
the Book of Acts; the journey to Arabia would have preceded
the preaching activity in Damascus. Or the journey may be
placed before Acts ix. 22; it would then be the cause of the
greater vigor of Paul's preaching. Finally, it may be placed
simply within the "many days" of Acts ix. 23. The phrase,
"many days," in Acts apparently is used to indicate fairly
long periods of time. It must be remembered that the author
of Acts is not concerned here about chronology; perhaps he

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 7S

did not trouble himsdf to investigate the exact period of
time that elapsed before the journey to Jerusalem. He was
content merely to record the fact that before Paul went to
Jerusalem he engaged for a considerable time in preaching in
the Damascus synagogues. Certainly he must here be acquitted
of any attempt at subserving the interests of harmony in the
Church by a falsification of history. It is generally recog-
nized now, against the Tubingen contentions, that if the
author of Acts contradicts Galatians, his contradiction is naive
rather than deliberate; the contradiction or apparent contra-
diction at least shows the complete independence of his ac-
count. He is not deliberately shortening up the time before
Paul's first conference with Peter in the interests of a com-
promise between a Pauline and a Petrine party in the Church ;
if he had had the "three years" of Paul before him as he wrote
he would have had no objection to using the detail in his his-
tory. But investigation of the chronology did not here seem
to be important. The detail of the three years was vastly
Important for Paul's argument in Galatians, where he is
showing that for a considerable period after the conversion
he did not even meet those from whom he was said to have
received his gospel, but it was not at all important in a gen-
eral history of the progress of the Church.

The extent of the journey to Arabia, both geographically
and temporally, is entirely unknown. "Arabia" included not
only very remote regions but also a territory almost at the
gates of Damascus ; and all that may be determined about the
length of the Arabian residence is that it was less than three
years. Possibly Paul remained only a few weeks in Arabia.
In that case the omission of the journey from the genera]
narrative in Acts is very natural. The importance of Arabia
in Paul's argument is due simply to the fact that Arabia was
not Jerusalem; Paul mentions the journey to Arabia simply
in contrast with a journey to Jerusalem which he is exclud-
ing in the interests of his argument. The only thing that
might seem to require a considerable stay in Arabia is the
narrative of Paul's first Jerusalem visit in Acts ix. 26-30 ; the
distrust of Paul displayed by the Jerusalem Christians is
more easily explicable if after his conversion he had been
living for the most part in a region more remote than Damascus
from Jerusalem. A similar consideration might possibly sug-

74 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

gest that in Arabia Paul was engaged in meditation rather
than in missionary activity; he had not yet become so well
known as a preacher that the Christians of Jerusalem could
begin to glorify God in him, as they did a little later. Pos-
sibly also there is an implied contrast in Gal. i. 16, 17 be-
tween conference with the original apostles and direct com-
munion with Christ; possibly Paul means to say, "Instead of
conferring with flesh and blood in Jerusalem, I communed with
the Lord in Arabia." Despite such considerations, the matter
is by no means perfectly clear; it is perfectly possible that
Paul engaged in missionary work in Arabia. But at any rate,
even if that view be correct, he also engaged in meditation.
Paul was never a mere "practical Christian'* in the modem
sense; labor in his case was always based upon thought, and
life upon doctrine.

The escape of Paul from Damascus just before his first
visit to Jerusalem is narrated in Acts ix. 23-25 and in 2 Cor.
xi. 32, 33. The mention of the ethnarch of Aretas the Nabatean
king as having authority at or near Damascus causes some
difficulty, and might not have passed unchallenged if it had
been attested by Acts. But as a matter of fact, it is just this
detail which appears, not in Acts, but in an epistle of Paul.
The first visit of Paul to Jerusalem after the conversion
is described in Acts ix. 26-30; xxii. 17-21 ; Gal. i. 18, 19. In
itself, the account in Acts bears every mark of trustworthiness.
The only detail which might seem surprising is that the Jerusa-
lem Christians would not at first believe that Paul was a
disciple; must not a notable event like the conversion of so
prominent a persecutor have become known at Jerusalem in the
course of three years? But if Paul had spent a large part
of the three years in Arabia, whence news of him could not
be easily obtained, the report of his conversion might have
come to seem like a remote rumor; the very fact of his with-
drawal might, as has been suggested, have cast suspicion upon
the reality of his conversion. Emotion, moreover, often lags
behind cold reasoning; the heart is more difficult to convince
than the mind. The Jerusalem Christians had known Paul
only as a cruel and relentless persecutor ; it was not so easy for
them to receive him at once as a brother. This one detail is
therefore not at aU sufficient to reverse the favorable im-

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 76

pression which is made by the Lucan account of the visit as
a whole.

The chief objection to the account is usually found in a
comparison with what Paul himself says in Galatians. In
itself, the account is natural; but does it agree with Paul's
own testimony? One apparent divergence may indeed soon be
dismissed. In Acts ix. 27 it is said that Paul was introduced
to ^the apostles," whereas in Gal. i. 19 it is said that Paul saw
only James, the brother of the Lord (who was not among the
Twelve), and Peter. But possibly the author of Acts is using
the term ^^apostle" in a sense broad enough to include James,
so that Paul actually saw two "apostles'* — Peter and James —
or else the plural is used merely in a generic sense to indi-
cate that Paul was introduced to whatever representative or
representatives of the apostolic body may have happened to be
present.

Much more weight is commonly attributed to an objection
drawn from the general representation of the visit. Accord-
ing to Acts, Paul was associated publicly with the Jerusalem
disciples and engaged in an active mission among the Greek-
speaking Jews; according to Galatians, it is argued, he was
in strict hiding, since he did not become acquainted personally
with the churches of Judasa (Gal. i. 22). But the objection,
as has already been observed, depends upon an over-interpre-
tation of Gal. i. 22. Whether or no "Judaea" means the coun-
try in sharp distinction from the capital, in either case all
that is necessarily meant is that Paul did not become acquainted
generally with the Judaean churches. The capital may well
have formed an exception. If Paul had meant in the preceding
verses that he had been in hiding in Jerusalem he would have
expressed himself very differently. Certainly the modem rep-
resentation of the visit is in itself improbable. The picture
of Paul entering Jerusalem imder cover of darkness or under
a disguise and being kept as a mysterious stranger somewhere
in a secret chamber of Peter's house is certainly much less
natural than the account which the Book of Acts gives of the
earnest attempt of Paul to repair the damage which he had
done to the Jerusalem Church. It is very doubtful whether
concealment of Paul in Jerusalem would have been possible
even if Paul had consented to it; he was too well-known in

76 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

the city. Of course this last argument would be answered if,
as Heitraiiller and Loisy suppose, Paul had never been in Jeru-
salem at all, even as a persecutor. But that hypothesis is
faced by absolutely decisive objections, as has already been
observed.

The whole modem representation of the first visit, there-
fore, is based solely upon a very doubtful interpretation of
one verse, and is in itself highly unnatural. Surely it is much
more probable that the real reason why Paul saw only Peter
and James among the leaders was that the others were out
of the city, engaged in missionary work in Judaea. Their
presence in the churches of Judaea would explain the mention
of those churches in Gal. i. 22. Paul is indicating the meager-
ness of his direct contact with the original apostles. The
churches of Judaea would become important in his argument
if they were the scene of the apostles' labors. Against a very
doubtful interpretation of the account in Galatians, which
brings it into contradiction with Acts, may therefore be placed
an entirely consistent interpretation which, when the account
is combined with Acts, produces a thoroughly natural repre-
sentation of the course of events.

Paul says nothing about what happened during his fifteen-
day intercourse with Peter. But it is highly improbable, as
even Holsten pointed out, that he spent the time gazing silently
at Peter as though Peter were one of the sights of the city.^
Undoubtedly there was conversation between the two men, and
in the conversation the subject of the life and death of Jesus
could hardly be avoided. In the Epistle to the Galatians Paul
denies, indeed, that he received his gospel from men. But the
bare facts about Jesus did not constitute a gospel. The facts
were known to some extent to friend and foe alike; Paul knew
something about them even before his conversion and then in-
creased his knowledge through intercourse with the disciples
at Damascus. The fifteen days spent in company with Peter
could hardly have failed to bring a further enrichment of his
knowledge.

In 1 Cor. XV. 3-7, Paul gives a simmiary of what he had

I * Holsten, op. cit., p. 118, Anm.: "Aber natUrlich kann in dcm to-rop^a
pKTfff>d nicht liegen, Paulus sei nach Jerusalem gegangen, um den Petrus
fUnfzehn tage lang stumm anzuschauen. Die beiden m&nner werden mit-
einander Uber das evangelium Christi geredet haben.*'

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 77

"received** — the death, burial, resurrection, and appearances
of Jesus. The vast majority of modem investigators, of all
shades of opinion, find in these verses a simimary of the Jerusa-
lem tradition which Paul received from Peter during the fifteen
days. Undoubtedly Paul knew some if not all of these facts be-
fore he went to Jerusalem; the facts were probably common
property of the disciples in Damascus as well as in Jerusalem.
But it is inconceivable that he should not have tested and supple-
mented the tradition by what Peter, whose name stands first
(1 Cor. XV. 5) in the list of the appearances, said in Jerusalem.
Recently, indeed, an attempt has been made by Heitmiiller to
represent the tradition as being derived merely from the Chris-
tian communities in Damascus or Antioch, and at best only
indirectly from Jerusalem; these communities are thus inter-
posed as an additional link between Paul and the Jerusalem
Church.^ But the very purpose of the passage in 1 Cor-
inthians is to emphasize the unity of teaching, not between Paul
and certain obscure Christians in Hellenistic communities, but
between Paul and the "apostles." "Whether therefore,'* Paul
says, "it be I or they, so we preach and so ye believed" (1
Cor. XV. 11). The attempt at separating the factual basis of
the Pauline gospel from the primitive tradition shatters upon
the rock of 1 Corinthians and Galatians. In Galatians, Paul
says he was in direct intercourse with Peter, and in 1 Cor-
inthians he emphasizes the unity of his teaching with that of
Peter and the other apostles. /

After leaving Jerusalem Paul went into the regions of
Syria and of Cilicia ; the Book of Acts, more specifically, men-
tions Tarsus (Cilicia) and Antioch (Syria). The period
which Paul spent in Tarsus or in its vicinity is for us alto-
gether obscure. In all probability he engaged in missionary
work and included Gentiles in his mission. Certainly at the
conclusion of the Cilician period Barnabas thought him suit-
able for the specifically Gentile work at Antioch, and it is
probable that he had already demonstrated his suitability.
His apostolic consciousness, also, as attested both by the Book
of Acts and by Galatians, suggests that the beginning of his
life-work as apostle to the Gentiles was not too long deferred.

* HdtmttUer, <*Zum Problem Paulus und Jesus," in Zeit$chrift fUr die
nentSMlam&iUliche WUsentchaft, xiii, 1919, pp. 390-337, especially p. 331.

78 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

At Antioch, the disciples were first called "Christians**
(Acts xi. 26). The objections, especially linguistic, formerly
urged against this assertion of Acts have now for the most
part been silenced. The assertion is important as showing
that the Church was becoming so clearly separate from the
synagogue that a separate name had to be coined by the Gentile
population. Tremendous importance is attributed to the
Christian community at Antioch by Bousset and Heitmiiller,
who believe that the religion of that community had diverged in
fundamental respects from the religion of the primitive Jerusa-
lem Church, and that this extra-Palestinian Christianity, and
not the Christianity of Jerusalem, is the basis of the religion
of Paul. According to this hypothesis, the independence of
Paul which is attested in Galatians is apparently to be re-
garded as independence merely over against the intimate friends
of Jesus; apparently Paul had no objection against taking
over the teaching of the Greek-speaking Christians of Antioch.
This representation is out of accord with what has just been
established about the relations between Paul and the Jerusalem
Church. It must be examined more in detail, however, in a
subsequent chapter.

After at least a year — probably more — Barnabas and
Saul, according to Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 25, were sent up to Jerusa-
lem to bear the gifts of the Antioch Church, which had been
collected in view of the famine prophesied by Agabus. This
"famine visit" is the second visit of Paul to Jerusalem which
is mentioned in Acts. The second visit which is mentioned
in Galatians is the one described in Gal. ii. 1-10, at which Paul
came into conference with the pillars of the Jerusalem
Church. May the two be identified? Is Gal. ii. 1-10 an ac-
count of the visit which is mentioned in Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 25 ? ^

Chronology opposes no absolutely insuperable objection
to the identification. The apparent objection is as follows.
The famine visit of Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 25 took place at about the
same time as the events narrated in Acts xii, since the narrative
of those events is interposed between the mention of the com-
ing of Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem (Acts xi. 30) and that
of their return to Antioch (Acts xii. 25). But the events of

* For what follows, compare "Recent Criticism of the Book of Acts,"
in Princeton Theological Review, xvii, 1919, pp. 597-608.

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTH^E FREEDOM 79

Acts xii include the death of Herod Agrippa I, which certainly
occurred in 44 A.D. The famine visit, therefore, apparently
occurred at about 44 A.D. But the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10 took
place fourteen years (Gal. ii. 1) after the first visit, which in
turn took place three years (Gal. i. 18) after the conversion.
Therefore the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10 took place seventeen (3-f-14)
years after the conversion. But if that visit be identified with
the famine visit and the famine visit took place in 44 A.D., the
conversion must have taken place seventeen years before 44
A.D. or in 27 A.D., which of course is impossible since the
crucifixion of Jesus did not occur till several years after that
time. At first sight, therefore, it looks as though the identi-
fication of Gal. ii. 1-10 with the famine visit were impossible.
Closer examination, however, shows that the chronological
data all allow a certain amount of leeway. In the first place,
it is by no means clear that the famine visit took place at
exactly the time of the death of Herod Agrippa I in 44 A.D.
The author of Acts has been carrying on two threads of narra-
tive, one dealing with Antioch and the other dealing with
Jerusalem. In Acts xi. 19-30 he has carried the Antioch nar-
rative on to a point beyond that reached in the Jerusalem
narrative. Now, when the two narratives are brought together
by the visit of Barnabas and Paul to Jerusalem, the author
pauses in order to bring the Jerusalem narrative up to date;
he tells what has been happening at Jerusalem during the pe-
riod in which the reader's attention has been diverted to An-
tioch. The events of Acts xii may therefore have taken place
some time before the famine visit of Acts xi. 30; xii. 25; the
famine visit may have taken place some time after 44 A.D.
Information in Josephus with regard to the famine,^ combined
with the order of the narrative in Acts, permits the placing of
the famine visit as late as 46 A.D. In the second place, it
is by no means certain that the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10 took
place seventeen years after the conversion. The ancients
sometimes used an inclusive method of reckoning time, in ac-
cordance with which "three years'* might mean only one full
year with parts of two other years; January, 1923, would thus

'Joeephus, Antiq, XX. v. 9. See Schiirer, Qeachichte des jiidischen
Volk09, Ste u. 4te Aufl., i, 1901, p. 567 (English Translation, A History of
tk§ Jewish People, Division I, vol. ii, 1890, pp. 169f.).

80 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

be "three years'* after December, 1921. According to this
method of reckoning, the "fourteen years" of Gal. ii. 1 would
become only thirteen; and the "three years'* of Gal. i. 18 would
become only two years ; the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10 would thus be
only fifteen (13 + 2) instead of seventeen (14 + 3) years
after the conversion. If, then, the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10 be
identified with the famine visit, and the famine visit took place
in 46 A.D., the conversion took place in 31 A.D. (46 — 15),
which is a possible date. Moreover, it is not certain that the
**fourteen years" of Gal. ii. 1 is to be reckoned from the first
visit; it may be reckoned from the conversion, so that the
"three years" of Gal. i. 18 is to be included in it and not added
to it. In that case, the conversion took place only fourteen
(or, by the inclusive method of reckoning, thirteen) years be-
fore the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10; or, if the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10
be identified with the famine visit, fourteen (or thirteen) years
before 46 A.D., that is, in 32 A.D. (or 33 A.D.), which is a
perfectly possible date.

But of course chronology does not decide in favor of the
identification of Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 26 ; at best
it only permits that identification. Chronologically it is even
slightly more convenient to identify Gal. ii. 1-10 with a visit
subsequent to the famine visit. The only subsequent visit
which comes seriously in question is the visit at the time of the
"Apostolic Council" of Acts xv. 1-29. The advantages of
identifying Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xi. 30; xii. 25, therefore,
must be compared with those of identifying it with Acts xv.
1-29.

If the former identification be adopted, then Paul in Gala-
tians has not mentioned the Apostolic Council of Acts xv. 1-29.
Since the Apostolic Council dealt with the same question as
that which was under discussion in Galatians, and since it
constituted an important step in Paul's relations with the
original apostles, it is a little difl!cult to see how Paul could
have omitted it from the Epistle. This objection has often
weighed against the identification of Gal. ii. 1-10 with the
famine visit. But in recent years the objection has been re-
moved by the hypothesis which places the writing of Galatians
actually before the Apostolic Council; obviously Paul could
not be expected to mention the Council if the Council had not

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 81

yet taken place. This early dating of Galatians has been
advocated by a Gennan Roman Catholic scholar, Weber/
and recently it has won the support of men of widely divergent
points of view, such as Emmet,^ Kirsopp Lake," Ramsay,^
and Plooij.* Of course this hypothesis depends absolutely
upon the correctness of the "South Galatian" theory of the
address of the Epistle, which finds "the Churches of Galatia"
of Gal. i. 2 in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe;
for the churches in "North Galatia," if there were any such,
were not founded till after the Apostolic Council (Acts xvi.

One objection to the early dating of Galatians is derived
from the close relation between that epistle and the Epistle
to the Romans. If Galatians was written before the Apostolic
Council it is the earliest of the extant epistles of Paul and is
separated by a period of some six or eight years from the
epistles of the third missionary journey with which it has
ordinarily been grouped. Thus the order of the Epistles would
be Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians,
Romans. This order seems to tear asunder the epistles which
naturally belong together. The objection was partially over-
come by a bold hypothesis of Lake, who suggested that the
Epistle to the Romans was first composed at an early time
as an encyclical letter, and that later, being modified by the
addition of a Roman address and other suitable details, it
was sent to the Church at Rome.'' On this hypothesis Gala-
tians and the substance of Romans would be kept together be-

^Die AbfoMsung des Oalaterbrisfs vor dem Apostelkonzil, 1900.

''Hjalatians the Earliest of the Pauline Epistles," in Expositor, 7th
Series, vol. ix, 1910, pp. 249-254 (reprinted in The Eschatological Question
m ik0 Oospels, 1911, pp. 191-909); 8t. PauPs EpUtle to the Galatians, 1919,
pp. xiv-xzii.

' The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1911, pp. 965-304. In a later book.
Lake has modified his views about the relation between Galatians and Acts.
The historicity of Acts xv. 1-99 is now abandoned. See Landmarks in the
History of Early Christianity, 1990, pp. 63-66.

* Ramsay, ''Suggestions on the History and Letters of St. Paul. I. The
Date of the GalaUan Letter," in Expositor, VIII, v, 1913, pp. 197-145.

*PlooiJ, De chronologie van het Uven van Paulus, 1918, pp. 111-140.

'Maurice Jones (*The Date of the Epistle to the Galatians,*' hi Em-
pasiior, VIII, vi, 1913, pp. 193-908) has adduced from the Book of Acts
various arguments against the early date of Galatians, which^ though worthy
of attention, are not quite decisive.

* Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, 1911, pp. 361-370.

88 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

cause both would be placed early. The hypothesis can appeal
to the interesting textual phenomenon in Rom. i. 7, where the
words "in Rome" are omitted by a few witnesses to the text.
But the evidence is insufficient. And even if Lake's hypothesis
were correct, it would not altogether overcome the difficulty;
for both Galatians and Romans would be removed from what
has usually been regarded as their natural position among the
epistles of the third missionary journey. In reply, it could
be said that reconstructions of an author's development, un-
less supported by plain documentary evidence, are seldom
absolutely certain; the simplicity of 1 and 2 Thessalonians,
as over against the great soteriological epistles, Galatians,
1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans, is no doubt due to the immaturity
of the Thessalonian Church rather than to any immaturity in
Paul's thinking. There is therefore no absolutely decisive
objection against putting the Epistle to the Galatians, with
its developed soteriology, before the Thessalonian Epistles.

On the whole, it may be said that the identification of
Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xi. 30; xii. 25 is perhaps most plausible
when it is connected with the early dating of Galatians, be-
fore the Apostolic Council. But that identification, whether
with or without the early dating of the Epistle, must now be
considered on its merits. Is Gal. ii. 1-10 to be identified with
the famine visit of Acts xi. 30; xii. 25, or with the Apostolic
Council of Acts x\?

The former identification possesses one obvious advan-
tage—by it the second visit in Galatians is the same as the
second visit in Acts; whereas if Gal. ii. 1-10 is identified with
Acts XV. 1-29 Paul has passed over the famine visit without
mention. The identification with the famine visit may there-
fore conveniently be considered first.

According to this identification, Paul had two confer-
ences with the Jerusalem leaders, one at the time of the famine
visit and one some years afterwards at the time of the
Apostolic Council. Could the second conference conceivably
have followed thus upon the former.? If the conference between
Paul and the Jerusalem leaders described in Gal. ii. 1-10 took
place at the time of the famine visit, then would not the
Apostolic Council seem to be a mere meaningless repetition
of the former conference? If the matter of Gentile freedom
had already been settled (Gal. ii. 1-10) at the famine visit.

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 88

how could it come up again de rwvo at the Apostolic Coun-
cU?

This objection is by no means insuperable. The meeting
described in Gal. ii. 1-10 may have been merely a private meet-
ing between Paul and the original apostles. Although the pres-
ence of Titus, the uncircumcised Gentile, was no doubt a mat-
ter of public knowledge, it need not necessarily have given rise,
to any public discussion, since it was not unprecedented,
Cornelius also having been received into the Church without
circumcision. But if the famine visit brought merely a
private conference between Paul and the original apostles,
Grentile freedom was still open to attack, especially if, after
the famine visit, there was (as is in any case probable) an
influx of strict legalists into the Christian community. There
was no public pronouncement of the original apostles to
which the advocates of freedom could appeal. There was
therefore still urgent need of a public council such as the
one described in Acts xv. 1-^, especially since that council
dealt not only with the general question of Gentile free-
dom but also with the problem of mixed communities where
Jews and Gentiles were living together. The Apostolic Coimcil,
therefore, may well have taken place in the way described in
Acts XV. 1-29 even if the conference of Gal. ii. 1-10 had been
held some years before.

No absolutely decisive objection, therefore, has yet been
found against the identification of Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xi. 30 ;
xii. 25. But the prima facie evidence has usually been regarded
as favoring the alternative identification, since Gal. ii. 1-10
bears much more resemblance to Acts xv. 1-29 than it does to
Acts xi, 30 ; xii. 25. Resemblance to Acts xi. 80 ; xii. 25 is not,
indeed, altogether lacking. In both Galatians ii. 1-10 and Acts
xi. 30 ; xii. 25, Barnabas is represented as going up with Paul
to Jerusalem; in both passages there is reference to gifts for
the Jerusalem Church; and the revelation referred to in Gal.
ii. 2 as the occasion of the journey may be discovered in the
revelation of the famine made to Agabus (Acts xi. 28). But
the relief of the Jerusalem Church, which is put as the sole
purpose of the journey in Acts xi. 30; xii. 25, is quite subordi-
nate in Gal. ii. 1-10; Barnabas is with Paul in Acts xv. 1-29
just as much as he is in Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 25 ; and it may be ques-
tioned whether in Gal. ii. 2 it is not more natural to think of a

84 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

revelation coming to Paul rather than one coming through the
mouth of Agabus. The strongest argument, however, for
identifying Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xv. 1-29 is that the main pur-
pose of Paul's visit seems to be the same according to both
passages ; according to both the matter of circumcision of
Gentiles was under discussion, and according to both the re-
sult was a triumph for the cause of freedom. This identifica-
tion must now be considered. Various objections have been
raised against it. These objections lead, according to the
point of view of the objector, either to an acceptance of the
alternative identification (with Acts xi. 30; xii. 26) or else to a
rejection of the historicity of the Book of Acts.

The first objection is derived from the fact that if Gal.
ii. 1-10 is to be identified with Acts xv. 1-29, Paul has passed
over the famine visit without mention. Could he have done so
honestly, if that visit had really occurred? In the first two
chapters of Galatians Paul is establishing the independ^ice
of his apostolic authority ; he had not, he says, as the Judaizers
maintained, received his authority through mediation of the
original apostles. At first, he says, he came into no effec-
tive contact with the apostles; it was three years after his
conversion before he saw any of them; then he saw only Peter
(and James) and that only for fifteen days. Then he went
away into the regions of Syria and of Cilicia without ever
becoming known by face to the Churches of Judaea ; then after
fourteen years again he went up to Jerusalem (Gal. ii. 1).
Is it not the very point of the passage that after his departure
to Syria and Cilicia it was fourteen long years before he again
went up to Jerusalem? Would not his entire argument be
invalidated if there were an unmentioned visit to Jerusalem
between the first visit (Gal. i. 18, 19) and the visit of Gal.
ii. 1-10? If such a visit had taken place, would he not have
had to mention it in order to place it in the proper light as he
had done in the case of the first visit? By omitting to men-
tion the visit in a context where he is carefully tracing the
history of his relations with the Jerusalem leaders, would he
not be exposing himself to the charge of dishonest suppression
of facts? Such considerations have led a great number of
investigators to reject the historicity of the famine visit; there
never could have been, they insist, a visit between the first
visit and the visit of Gal. ii. 1-10; for if there had been, Paul
would have been obliged to mention it, not only by hiB own

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 86

honesty, but also because of the impossibility of deception.
This is one of the points where the narrative in Acts has been
most insistently criticized. Here and there, indeed, there have
been discordant notes in the chorus of criticism ; the insufficiency
of the objection has been admitted now and then even by those
who are far removed from any concern for the defense of the
Book of Acts. Baur himself, despite all his Tubingen severity
of criticism, was clear-sighted enough not to lay stress upon
this particular objection ; ^ and in recent years J. Weiss has
been equally discerning.^ In Galatians Paul is not giving a
complete enumeration of his visits to Jerusalem, but merely
singling out those details which had formed the basis of the
Judaizers' attack, or afforded peculiar support to his own con-
tentions. Apparently the Judaizers had misrepresented the
first visit ; that is the time, they had said, when Paul came un-
der the authority of the original apostles. In answer to this
attack Paul is obliged to deal carefully with that first visit;
it came three years after the conversion, he says, and it lasted
only fifteen days — surely not long enough to make Paul a
disciple of Peter. Then Paul went away into the regions of
Syria and Cilicia. Probably, for the first readers, who were
familiar with the outlines of Paul's life, this departure for
Syria and Cilicia clearly meant the entrance by Paul into
his distinctive Gentile work. He was well launched upon his
Grentile work, fully engaged in the proclamation of his gospel,
before he had ever had such contact with the original apostles
as could possibly have given him that gospel. At this point,
as J. Weiss * well observes, there is a transition in the argu-
ment. The argument based on lack of contact with the original
apostles has been finished, and now gives place to an entirely
different argument. In the first chapter of Galatians Paul
has been showing that at first he had no such contact with
the original apostles as could have made him a disciple of
theirs; now, in the second chapter he proceeds to show that
when he did come into conference with them, they themselves
recognized that he was no disciple of theirs but an independent

» Baur, Paulu», 9t€ Aufl., 1866, pp. 130-139 (English Translation, Paul
U 1873, pp. 118-lSO). Baur does maintoin that Gal. U. 1 renders Improbable
a second visit of Paul to Jerusalem before the conference with the apostles
which is narrated in Gal. ii. 1, but points out that in itself the yerse is
capable of a different interpretation.

^ J. Weiss, Urchrisientum, 1914^ p. 147, Anm. 9.

*Loe. eit.

86 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

apostle. Apparently this conference, like the first visit, had
been misrepresented by the Judaizers, and hence needed to be
singled out for special treatment. It must be admitted that
Paul is interested in the late date at which it occurred —
fourteen years after the first visit or fourteen years after the
conversion. Probably, therefore, it was the first real con-
ference which Paul held with the original apostles on the sub-
ject of his Gentile work. If the famine visit had involved such
a conference, probably Paul would have mentioned that visit.
But if (as is not improbable on independent grounds) the
apostles were away from Jerusalem at the time of the famine
visit, and if that visit occurred long after Paul had been well
laimched upon his distinctive work, and if it had given the
Judaizers so little basis for their contentions that they had
not thought it worth while to draw it into the discussion, then
Paul was not obliged to mention it. Paul is not constructing
an argument which would hold against all possible attacks,
but rather is meeting the attacks which had actually been
launched. In the second chapter, having finished proving that
in the decisive early period before he was well engaged in his
distinctive work there was not even any extended contact with
the original apostles at all, he proceeds to the telling argu-
ment that the very men who were appealed to by the Judaizers
themselves had admitted that he was entirely independent of
them and that they had nothing to add to him. If the famine
visit had occurred in the early period, or if, whenever it oc-
curred, it had involved the important event of a conference
with the apostles about the Pauline gospel, in either case Paul
would probably have been obliged to mention it. But, as it is,
the visit, according to Acts xi. 30 ; xii. 25, did not occur until
Paul had already been engaged in the Gentile work, and there
is no reason to suppose that it involved any contact with the
original apostles. The omission of the famine visit from Gala-
tians, therefore, as a visit distinct from Gal. ii. 1-10, does not
absolutely require either the identification of Gal. ii, 1-10 with
that famine visit or the denial of the historicity of Acts.

Certain other difficulties emerge, however, when Gal. ii. 1-10
is compared with Acts xv. 1-29 in detail.

In the first place, the leaders of the Jerusalem Church,
it is said, are represented in Acts xv. 1-29 as maintaining Paul-
ine principles, whereas in Gal. ii. 1-10 it appears that there

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 87

was really a fundamental difference between them and Paul.
This difficulty constitutes an objection not against the identifi-
cation of Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xv. 1-29 but against the his-
toricity of Acts, for if at any time there was a really fimda-
mental difference of principle between Paul and the original
apostles then the whole representation in Acts is radically in-
correct. But the objection disappears altogether when Gala-
tians is correctly interpreted. The Epistle to the Galatians
does not represent the conference between Paul and the pillars
of the Jerusalem Church as resulting in a cold agreement to
disagree; on the contrary it represents those leaders as giving
to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. And
Gal. ii. 11-21, rightly interpreted, attests positively a real
unity of principle as existing between Paul and Peter.

The one objection that remains against the identification of
Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xv. 1-29 concerns the "Apostolic De-
cree'* of Acts XV. 28, 29 (compare Acts xv. 19, 20; xxi. 25).
According to the Epistle to the Galatians the apostles at the
time of the conference "added nothing" to Paul (Gal. ii. 6) ;
according to the Book of Acts, it is argued, they added some-
thing very important indeed — namely, the requirements of the
Apostolic Decree that the Gentile Christians should "refrain
from things offered to idols and from blood and from things
strangled and from fornication." Since these requirements are
partly at least ceremonial, they seem to constitute an excep-
tion to the general principle of Gentile freedom, and there-
fore an addition to Paul's gospel. If when Paul presented to
the original apostles the gospel which he was preaching among
the Gentiles, involving the free offer of salvation apart from
the Law, the apostles emended that gospel by requiring at
least certain parts of the ceremonial Law, were they not "add-
ing" something to Paul?

But are the provisions of the decree really ceremonial?
Apparently they are in part ceremonial if the so-called "Neutral
text" attested by the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vati-
canus be correct. According to this text, which here lies at
the basis of all forms of our English Bible, "blood" can
hardly refer to anything except meat that has the blood
left in it or else blood that might be prepared separately for
food; for "things strangled" certainly refers to a closely
related provision of the ceremonial Law about food. But at

88 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

this point an interesting textual question arises. The so-
called "Western text'* of the Book of Acts, attested by the
Codex Bezae and the usual companion witnesses, omits the
word translated "things strangled" or *Vhat is strangled" in
Acts xv. 20, 29; xxi. 25, and in the first two of these three
passages adds the negative form of the Golden Rule. Thus the
Western text reads in Acts xv. 28, 29 as follows : **For it has
seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no further
burden upon you except these necessary things — that you re-
frain from things offered to idols and from blood and from
fornication, and that you do not to another whatsoever things
you do not wish to be done to you." It is generally agreed
that the Golden Rule has here been added by a copyist ; but the
omission of "things strangled" is thought by many modem
scholars to preserve the reading of the autograph. If this
short text without "things strangled" be correct, then the pro-
visions of the Decree need not be regarded as ceremonial at
all, but may be taken as simply moral. "Things offered
to idols" may refer to idolatry in general; **blood" may refer
to murder ; and "fornication" may be meant in the most general
sense. But if the provisions of the Decree were simply moral,
then plainly they did not constitute any **addition" to the
message of freedom which Paul proclaimed among the Grentiles.
Paul himself had of course enjoined upon his converts the
necessity of leading a true moral life. If when the original
apostles were urged by the Judaizers to impose upon the Gen-
tile converts the requirements of the ceremonial Law, they
responded, "No; the only requirements to be imposed upon the
Gentiles are that they refrain from deadly sins like idolatry,
murder and fornication," that decision constituted merely a
most emphatic confirmation of Paul's gospel of freedom.

The textual question cannot here be discussed in detail.
In favor of the Western text, with its omission of "things
strangled," may be urged not only the general principle of
textual criticism that the shorter reading is to be preferred
to the longer, but also the special consideration that in this
particular passage the shorter reading seems to account for
the origin of the two additions; (1) the word translated
"things strangled," and (2) the Golden Rule. The short text,
supposing it to be the original, was ambiguous; it might be
taken either as ceremonial ("blood" meaning the eating of

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 89

blood) or as moral ("blood** meaning the shedding of blood op
murder). Those copyists who took it as ceremonial, it is main-
tained, fixed the meaning by adding "things strangled" (be-
cause animals that were strangled had the blood still in them,
so that the eating of them constituted a violation of the cere-
monial Law) ; whereas those who took the Decree as moral fixed
the meaning by adding the Golden Rule as the summation of
the moral law.^

On the other side may be urged the connection which seems
to exist between the omission of "things strangled" and the
manifest gloss constituted by the Golden Rule. Documentary
attestation of a short text, without the Golden Rule and with-
out "things strangled," is exceedingly scanty if not non-exist-
ent — ^Kirsopp Lake can point only to the witness of Irenasus.
The omission of "things strangled," therefore, may be only a
part of a moralizing of the Decree (carried out also in the ad-
dition of the Golden Rule), which would be quite in accord
with that habit of scribes by which they tended to ignore in
the interests of moral commonplaces what was special and diffi-
cult in the text which they were copying.. In reply. Lake in-
sists that just at the time and at the place where the short
text (without "things strangled") was prevalent, there was a
food law for which the long text (with "things strangled")
would have afforded welcome support. Why should the text
have been modified just where in its original form it supported
the prevailing practice of the Church? The conclusion is.
Lake believes, that if the Western text prevailed, despite the
welcome support which would have been afforded by the other
text, it was because the Western text was correct.^

Decision as to the textual question will depend to a con-
siderable extent upon the conclusion which is reached with
regard to the Western text as a whole. The radical rejection
of that text which was advocated by Westcott and Hort has by
no means won universal approval ; a number of recent scholars
are inclined at least to pursue an eclectic course, adopting now
the Western reading and now the Neutral reading on the
basis of internal evidence in the individual cases. Others
believe that the Western text and the Neutral text are both
correct, since the Western text is derived from an earlier edition

*See Lake, op. cit,, pp. 51-53.
*0p. eit., pp. 57-59.

90 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

of the book, whereas the Neutral text represents a revised edi-
tion issued by the author himself.^ But this hypothesis affords
absolutely no assistance in the case of the Apostolic Decree ; for
the Western reading (if it be interpreted in the purely non-
ceremonial way) presents the Decree in a light very different
from that in which it appears according to the Neutral
reading. It is impossible that the author could have contra-
dicted himself so directly and in so important a matter.
Therefore, if one of the two readings is due to the author, the
other is due to some one else. Cases like this weigh heavily
against the hypothesis of two editions of the book; that hy-
pothesis can be saved only by supposing either that the West-
ern documents do not here reproduce correctly the original
Western form of the book, or else that the other documents do
not here reproduce the original revised edition. In other
words, despite the manuscript evidence, the two editions of
the book must here be supposed to have been in harmony.
At any rate, then, whether or no the hypothesis of two editions
be accepted, a choice must here be made between the Neutral
reading and the Western reading; they cannot both be due to
the author, since they are contradictory to each other.

On the whole, it must be said that the Western text of
the Book of Acts does not commend itself, either as the one
genuine form of the book, or as an earlier edition of which the
Neutral text is a revision. The Western readings are in-
teresting; at times they may contain genuine historical infor-
mation ; but it seems unlikely that they are due to the author.
Here and there indeed the Western documents may preserve a
genuine reading which has been lost in all other witnesses to
the text — even Westcott and Hort did not altogether exclude
such a possibility — but in general the high estimate which
Westcott and Hort placed upon the Neutral text is justified.
Thus there is a possibility that the short text of the Apostolic
Decree, without "things strangled," is genuine, but it is a
possibility only.

If then, the Neutral text of the Decree is corect, so that
the requirements of the Decree are partly ceremonial, must the

*An elaborate attempt has recently been made by Zahn, in addition
to former attempts by Blass and Hilgenfeld, to reproduce the original
form of the Western text, which Zahn believes to be the earlier edition of
the book. See Zahn, Die Urcnurgahe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas, 191Q
{Forschungen zur Oeschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons, ix,^ Teil],

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 91

Book of Acts here be held to contradict the Epistle to the
Galatians? If the Decree really was passed at the Apostolic
Council, as Acts xv. 29 represents, would Paul have been
obliged to mention it in Gal. ii. 1-10? Answering these questions
in the affirmative, a great many scholars since the days of
Baur have regarded the account which the Book of Acts gives
of the Apostolic Council as radically wrong; and since the
book has thus failed to approve itself at the point where
it runs parallel to a recognized authority, it must be dis-
trusted dsewhere as well. The Apostolic Council, especially
the Apostolic Decree, has thus become, to use a phrase of B.
W. Bacon, the "crux of apostolic history." ^

It is exceedingly unlikely, however, at any rate, that the
Decree has been made up "out of whole cloth"; for it does
not coincide exactly with the usage of the later Church, and
seems to be framed in view of primitive conditions. Even those
who reject the narrative of Acts as it stands, therefore, often
admit that the Decree was really passed by the early Jerusalem
Church; but they maintain that it was passed after Paul's de-
parture from Jerusalem and without his consent. This view
is thought to be supported by Acts xxi. 26, where James, it is
said, is represented, at the time of Paul's last visit to Jerusa-
lem, as calling attention to the Decree as though it were
something new. Acts xxi. 25 is thus thought to preserve a bit
of primitive tradition which is in contradiction to the rep-
resentation of the fifteenth chapter. Of course, however, the
verse as it stands in the completed book can only be taken by
the unsophisticated reader as referring to what Paul already
knew; and it is a grave question whether the author of Acts
was unskillful enough to allow contradictory representations
to stand unassimilated in his book^ as the hypothesis demands.
Acts xxi. 26, therefore, is at any rate not opposed to the view
that the Decree was actually passed with the consent of Paul,
as the fifteenth chapter represents.

But is this representation really in contradiction to the
Epistle to the Galatians? Does Gal. ii. 1-10 really exclude
the Apostolic Decree? In order to answer these questions, it
wiU be necessary to examine the nature of the Decree.

*B. W. Bacon, "Acts versus Galatians: the Crux of Apostolic History,"
In American Journal of Theology, xi, 1907, pp. 454-474. See also "Pro-
fessor Harnack on the Lukan Narrative," ibid,, xiii, 1909, pp. 69-76.

92 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

The Apostolic Decree, according to Acts xv. 1-29, did not
constitute a definition of what was necessary for the salva-
tion of the Gentile Christians, but was an attempt to solve
the problem of a limited group of mixed communities where
Jews and Gentiles were living together. Such seems to be the
implication of the difficult verse. Acts xv. 21, where James,
after he has proposed the substance of the Decree, says, "For
Moses has from ancient generations in the several cities those
who proclaim him, being read in the synagogues every Sab-
bath." These words seem to mean that since there are Jews in
the cities, and since they are devoted to the Law of Moses, the
Gentile Christians, in order to avoid offending them, ought to
refrain from certain of those features of the Gentile manner
of life which the Jews would regard as most repulsive. The
Law of Moses had been read in the cities from ancient genera-
tions; it was venerable; it deserved at least respect. Such
a respectful attitude toward the Jewish way of life would
contribute not only to the peace of the Church but also to
the winning of the non-Christian Jews.

Was this procedure contrary to the principles of Paul?
He himself tells us that it was not. "For though I was free
from all men," he says, "I brought myself under bondage to
all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a
Jew, that I might gain Jews ; to them that are under the law,
as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might
gain them that are under the law; to them that are without
law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under
law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. To
the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak ; I am be-
come all things to all men, that I may by all means save some." *
The Apostolic Decree was simply a particular case of becoming
to the Jews as a Jew that Jews might be gained. Indeed it was
a rather mild case of that kind; and the conjecture may be ven-
tured that Paul was often very much more accommodating
than the Decree would demand. Paul was not the man to in-
sist upon blatant disregard of Jewish feelings where Jews
were to be won to Christ.

It must be remembered that Paul, according to his Epis-
tles, did not demand that Jewish Christians should give up
keeping the Law, but only required them not to force the keep-

* 1 Cor. Ix. 19-22, American Revised Version.

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 98

ing of the Law upon the Grentiles. No doubt the observance
of the Law on the part of Jewish Christians was to be very
different in spirit from their pre-Christian legalism; they were
no longer to regard the Law as a means of salvation. But
after salvation had been obtained, they might well believe that
it was Grod's will for them to continue to live as Jews; and
Paul, according to. his Epistles, had no objection to that belief.
But how were the Jewish Christians to carry out their ob-
servance of the Law? Various requirements of the Law were
held to imply that Israelites should keep separate from Gen-*
tiles. How then could the Jewish Christians live in close broth-
erly intercourse with the Grentile members of the Christian
community without transgressing the Law of Moses? There
is no reason to believe that Paul from the beginning had a
hard and fast solution of this problem. Undoubtedly, the
tendency of his practice led toward the complete abandonment
of the ceremonial Law in the interests of Christian unity be-
tween Jews and Gentiles. He was very severe upon those Jew-
ish Christians who, though convinced in their hearts of the
necessity of giving precedence to the new principle of unity,
yet separated themselves from the Gentiles through fear of
men (Gal. ii. 11-21). But there is no reason to think that he
condemned on principle those who truly believed that Jewish
Christians should still keep the Law. With regard to these
matters he was apparently content to wait for the clearer
guidance of the Spirit of God, which would finally work out
the unity of the Church. Meanwhile the Apostolic Decree was
an attempt to solve the problem of mixed commimities ; and that
attempt was in harmony with the principles which Paul enun-
ciated in 1 Cor. ix. 19-22.

Moreover, the Apostolic Decree was in accord with Paul's
principle of regard for the weaker brother (1 Cor. viii; Rom.
xiv). In Corinth, certain brethren were offended by the eat-
ing of meat which had been offered to idols. Paul himself was
able to eat such food; for he recognized that the idols were
nothing. But for some of the members of the Christian com-
munity the partaking of such food would mean the deadly sin
of idolatry ; and out of regard for them Paul is ready to forego
his freedom. The case was very similar in the mixed com-
munities contemplated in the Apostolic Decree. The similarity,
of course^ appears on the surface in the first prohibition of

94 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S REUGION

the Decree, which concerns things offered to idols. But the
two other prohibitions about food are not really very different.
The use of blood was intimately associated with heathen
cults, and the eating of meat with the blood still in it (^Hhings
strangled") would also, because of deep-seated religious ideas,
seem to a devout Jew to involve idolatry. It is very doubt-
ful, therefore, whether those prohibitions of the Decree which
we are accustomed to designate as "ceremonial** were felt to be
ceremonial by those for whose benefit the Decree was adopted.
They were probably not felt to be ceremonial any more than
the prohibition of things offered to idols was felt to be cere-
monial by the weaker brethren at Corinth. Rather they were
felt to involve the deadly sin of idolatry. .

Finally, the Apostolic Decree was of limited range of
application; it was addressed, not to Gentile Christians gen-
erally, but only to those in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Acts
XV. 23). The Book of Acts, it is true, does declare, after the
mention of Derbe and Lystra in connection with the beginning
of the second missionary journey, that Paul and Silas "as
they went on their way through the cities . . . delivered them
the decrees to keep which had been ordained of the apostles
and elders that were at Jerusalem" (Acts xvi. 4). According
to this passage the observance of the Decree does seem to
have been extended into Lycaonia, and thus beyond the limits
set forth in the Decree itself. But if Paul chose to make use of
the document beyond the range originally contemplated, that
does not alter the fact that originally the Jerusalem Church
undertook to deal only with Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.
In Acts xxi. 25, indeed, the reference of James to the Decree
does not mention the geographical limitation. But James was
thinking no doubt particularly of those regions wbrTe there
were the largest bodies of Jews, and he does not say that the
Jerusalem Church, even if the Decree represented its own de-
sires for all Gentiles, had actually sent the Decree to all. The
general reference in Acts xxi. 25 may therefore fairly be in-
terpreted in the light of the more particular information given
in Acts XV. 23. It is thus unnecessary to follow Wendt, who,
after a careful examination of all the objections which have
been urged against the historicity of the Decree, concludes
that the Decree was actually passed by the Jerusalem Church
in the presence of Paul as the Book of Acts represents, but

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 96

supposes that the author of Acts has erred in giving the deci-
sion a wider range of application than was really contem-
plated.^ A correct interpretation of the passages in ques-
tion will remove even this last vestige of objection to the Lucan
account.

But if the Decree was addressed only to Antioch and Syria
and Cilicia, it was not imposed upon specifically Pauline
churches. The Gentile work at Antioch had not been started
by Paul, and it is a question how far he regarded the churches
of Syria and Cilicia in general as belonging to his peculiar
province. Undoubtedly he had labored long in those regions,
but others had shared his labors and in some places had even
preceded him. These other missionaries had come from Jeru-
salem. Paul may well therefore have recognized the authority
of the Jerusalem leaders over the churches of Syria and Cilicia
in a way which would not have been in place at Ephesus or
Corinth, especially since the Jewish Christian element in the
Syrian and Cilician churches was probably very strong.

The adoption of the Apostolic Decree by the Jerusalem
Church was thus not derogatory in general to the apostolic
dignity of Paul, or contrary to his principles. But is the
Decree excluded, in particular, by the words of Paul in Gala-
tians? Paul says that the pillars of the Jerusalem Church
"added nothing*'^ to him (Gal. ii. 6). The meaning of these
words must be examined with some care.

Undoubtedly the word here translated "added" — it may
perhaps be better translated "imparted nothing to me in addi-
tion'* — ^is to be understood in conjunction with Gal. ii. 2,
where the same Greek word is used, but .without the preposition
which means "in addition." The sense of the two verses — :
they are separated by the important digression about Titus —
is thus as follows : "When I laid my gospel before the leaders,
they laid nothing before me in addition." That is, they de-
clared, after listening to Paul's gospel, that they had nothing
to add to it ; Christ had given it to Paul directly ; it was suf-
ficient and complete. The question, therefore, in connection
with the Apostolic Decree is not whether the Decree was or
was not something important that the Jerusalem leaders im-

*Wcndt, Die Apostelgeschichte, 1913, in Meyer, Kritisch-exegetischer
KommetUar Hber das Neue Testament, 9te Aufl., p. 237.

96 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

parted to Pavd, but only whether it constituted an addition
to his gospel. If it constituted an addition to his gospel, then
it is excluded by Paul's words in Galatians, and is unhistorical.
But as it has been interpreted above, it certainly did not con-
stitute an addition to Paul's gospel. Paul's gospel consisted
in the offer of salvation to the Gentiles through faith alone
apart from the works of the law. The Jerusalem leaders recog-
nized that gospel; they had absolutely nothing to add to it;
Paul had revealed the way of salvation to the Gentiles exactly
as it had been revealed to him by God. But the recognition
of the Pauline gospel of salvation by faith alone did not solve
all the practical problems of the Christian life; in particular
it did not solve the problem of the mixed churches. It would
have been unnatural if the conference had not proceeded to a
consideration of such problems, and Paul's words do not at all
exclude such consideration.

Certainly some sort of public pronouncement on the part
of the Jerusalem leaders was imperatively demanded. The
Judaizers had made trouble in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia —
that much of the account in Acts is generally admitted to be
historical and is certainly necessary to account for the very
fact that Paul went to Jerusalem, the revelation which came
to him being given by God in relation to a very definite situa-
tion. Against his inclination Paul went to Jerusalem in order
to stop the propaganda of the Judaizers by obtaining a pro-
nouncement from the very authorities to which they appealed.
Is it to be supposed that he returned to Antioch without the
pronouncement which he had sought? If he had done so his
journey would have been in vain; the Judaizers would have
continued to make trouble exactly as before. Some kind of
public pronouncement was therefore evidently sought by Paul
himself from the Jerusalem leaders. No doubt the very seeking
of such a pronouncement was open to misunderstanding; it
might seem to involve subordination of Paul to the authorities
to whom apparently he was appealing as to a higher instance.
Paul was keenly aware of such dangers, and waited for definite
guidance of God before he decided to make the journey. But
if he had come back from Jerusalem without any such pro-
nouncement of the authorities as would demonstrate the falsity
of the Judaizers' appeal to them, then the disadvantages of
the conference would have been incurred in vain. In all proba-

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 97

biKty, therefore, the conference of Gal. ii. 1-10, if it took
place at the time reached by the narrative at the beginning
of the fifteenth chapter of Acts, resulted in a pronouncement
from the Jerusalem Church. And the Apostolic Decree was
just such a pronouncement as might have been expected. It
was public; it was an emphatic vindication of Gentile freedom
and an express rebuke of the Judaizers ; and it dealt with some
at least of the practical difficulties which would result from
the presence of Jews and Gentiles in the churches of Syria and
Cilicia.

The identification of Gal. ii. 1-10 with Acts xv. 1-29, there-
fore, does not raise insuperable difficulties against the accept-
ance as historical of the narrative in Acts. But it must be
remembered that the alternative identification — ^with Acts xi.
30; xii. 26 — is also possible. The comparison between Acts
and Galatians, therefore, has certainly not resulted disastrously
for the Book of Acts; there are three ways in which Acts
can be shown to be in harmony with Paul. These three possi-
bilities may now conveniently be summed up in the light of the
examination of them in the preceding pages.

(1) Galatians ii. 1-10 may be regarded as an account
of the famine visit of Acts xi. 30; xii. 25; and on the basis
of this identification the Epistle may be dated before the
Apostolic Council of Acts xv. 1-29. The course of events
would then be somewhat as follows: First there was a private
conference between Paul and the original apostles (Gal. ii. 1-
10) at the time of the famine visit (Acts xi. 30; xii. 25).
Then followed the first missionary journey of Paul and Bar-
nabas to Southern Galatia (Acts xiii, xiv). That journey
brought a great influx of Gentiles into the Church and aroused
the active opposition of the Judaizers. The trouble seems to
have been accentuated by the coming to Antioch of certain
men from James (Gal. ii. 11-13). It is not clear whether they
themselves were to blame, or whether, if they were, they had
any commission from James. At any rate, Peter was induced
to give up the table companionship with Gentile Christians
which formerly he had practiced at Antioch, and Barnabas also
was carried away. Paul rebuked Peter publicly. But the
Judaizers continued to disturb the peace of the Church, and
even demanded, as a thing absolutely necessary to salvation,
that the Gentile Christians should be circumcised and should

dd THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

keep the Law of Moses. The Judaizing activity extended also
into Galatia, and Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians in
the midst of the conflict. At Antioch it was finally determined
to bring the matter to the attention of the Jerusalem leaders
in order to show that the Judaizers had no right to appeal to
those leaders, and in order to silence the Judaizers by a public
pronouncement of the Jerusalem Church. A revelation induced
Paul to agree to this plan. The result was the Apostolic
Council of Acts xv. 1-29.

Undoubtedly this account of the matter overcomes certain
diflSculties. It has won considerable support, and can no longer
be regarded as a mere apologetic expedient.

(2) The Western text of the Apostolic Decree may be
regarded as correct. The Decree may then be taken as for-
bidding only the three deadly sins of idolatry, murder, and
fornication, so that it cannot by any possibility be taken as
a limitation of Gentile freedom or an addition to Paul's gospel
of justification by faith alone. This solution has been adopted
by Von Hamack and others ; and by Kirsopp Lake,^ certainly
without any "apologetic" motive, it has actually been combined
with (1).

(3) Finally, Gal. ii. 1-10 being identified with Acts xv.
1-29, and the Neutral text of the Apostolic Decree being
adopted, harmony between Acts and Galatians may be estab-
lished by that interpretation of both passages which has been
proposed above. According to this interpretation, the Decree
was not regarded as necessary to salvation or intended as an
addition to Paul's gospel, but was an attempt to solve the spe-
cial and temporary problem of the mixed communities in Syria
and Cilicia.

This last solution being adopted provisionally (though
(1) certainly has much in its favor), the outcome of the Apos-
tolic Council must be considered in connection with the events
that followed. Apparently Paul in Galatians is telling only
what happened in a private conference between himself and
the Jerusalem leaders, the account of the public action of the
Church being found in Acts. James and Peter and John
recognized the independence of Paul's apostleship; Paul had
been intrusted with the apostleship to the Gentiles as Peter

*In The Earlier Epistks of St, Paul, 1911. It will be remembered that
Lake has now radically modified his views. See above, p. 81, footnote 3.

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTttE FREEDOM 99

with that to the circumcision^ After listening to Paul*s ac-
count of the wonderful works of Grod by which his ministry
had been blessed, and after coming into direct contact ^dth
the grace which had been given ♦©'him, the pillars of the Jeru-
salem Church gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of
fellowship that they should go to the Gentiles while the Jeru-
salem leaders should go ttf the circumcision. This division
of labor has often been egregiously misinterpreted, especially
by the Tubingen school and all those in subsequent years who
have not been able to throw off the shackles of Tiibingenism.
The question has often been asked whether the division was
meant geographicaUy or ethnographically. Was Paul to
preach everywhere outside of Palestine both to Jews and Gen-
tiles, while the original apostles were to labor in Palestine only ;
or was Paul to preach to Gentiles wherever found, while the
original apostles were to labor for Jews wherever found? In
other words, to whose province were assigned the Jews of the
Dispersion — to the province of Paul and Barnabas, or to the
province of the original apostles? It has sometimes been
maintained that Paul understood the division geographically,
but that the Jerusalem leaders understood it ethnographically ;
so that Peter transgressed Paul's geographical interpretation
when he went to labor in Antioch. But the very raising of the
whole question is in itself a fundamental error. The division
was not meant in an exclusive or negative sense at all; it was
not intended to prevent Peter from laboring among Gentiles
or Paul from laboring among Jews. The same gospel was
being preached by both Paul and Peter; they gave each other
the right hand of fellowship. What was meant was simply a
general recognition of the dispensation of God which had so
far prevailed. By that dispensation Paul and Barnabas had
been sent particularly to the Gentiles and the Jerusalem
apostles to the Jews. If either group was hindered in its
work, the interests of the Church would suffer. Both groups,
therefore, were absolutely necessary in order that both Jews
and Gentiles should be won.

In one particular, indeed, the Jerujsalem leaders requested
expressly that the division of labor should not be taken too
strictly ; they hoped that Paul would not be so much engrossed
in his Grentile work as to forget the poor of the Jerusalem
Church (Gal. ii. 10). It should be observed very carefully

c^^^^^

100 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

that this request about the poor forms an exception, not at
all to the full recognition of Paul's gospel, but only to the
division of labor as between Jews and Gentiles. It does not
go with the remote words of verse 6 ("for to me those who
were of repute added nothing"), but with the immediately ad-
jacent words in verse 9. Paid does not say, therefore, **To
me those of repute added (or imposed) nothing except that
I should remember the Jerusalem poor." If he had said that,
then perhaps it would be difficult to explain the omission of
the Apostolic Decree; for the Decree as much as the request
for aid of the Jerusalem poor was something that the Jeru-
salem leaders laid upon him. But the fact is that neither
the Decree nor the request about the poor has anything what-
ever to do with Paul's gospel or the attitude of the Jerusalem
leaders toward it. What is really meant by the request for
aid is simply this: "You are the apostle to the Grentiles; it is
a great work; we wish you Godspeed in it. But even in so
great a work as that, do not forget your needy Jewish brethren
in Jerusalem."

After the conference at Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas re-
turned to Antioch. According to the Book of Acts the letter
of the Jerusalem Church was joyfully received; it meant a
confirmation of Gentile freedom and relief from the attacks
of the Judaizers. But new disturbances began, and Peter
was concerned in them. He had gone to Antioch. There is
not the slightest reason to think that his arrival occasioned
anything but joy. The notion that Paul was jealously guard-
ing his rights in a Gentile church and resented the coming of
Peter as an intrusion has not the slightest basis either in Acts
or in the Pauline Epistles. But at Antioch Jews and Gentiles
were living together in the Church, and their juxtaposition
presented a serious problem. The Gentile Christians, it will
be remembered, had been released from the obligation of being
circumcised and of undertaking to keep the Mosaic Law. The
Jewish Christians, on the other hand, had not been required
to give up their ancestral mode of life. But how could the
Jewish Christians continue to live under the Law if they held
companionship with Gentiles in a way which would render the
strict observance of the Law impossible? Should the prece-
dence be given to the observance of the Law on the part of
the Jewish Christians or to the new principle of Christian

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 101

unity? This question had not been settled by the Apostolic
Council, for even if the Gentile Christians observed the pro-
visions of the Apostolic Decree, table companionship with
them would still have seemed to involve a transgression of the
Law. Peter, however, took a step beyond what had already
been settled; he relaxed the strictness of his Jewish manner
of life by eating with the Gentiles. He was convinced of the
revolutionary change wrought by the coming of Christ, and
gave practical expression to his conviction by holding full
companionship with all his brethren. After a time, however,
and perhaps during an absence of Paul from the city, certain
men came from James, and their coming occasioned diflSculty.
It is not said that these men were commissioned by James, and
some readers have thought that *^from James" means merely
"from Jerusalem," James being named merely as representa-
tive of the church over which he presided. But even if the
newcomers stood in some closer relationship to James, or even
had been sent by him, it is an unwarranted assumption that
James was responsible for the trouble that they caused, or
had sent them to Antioch with the purpose of limiting the
freedom of Peter's conduct. They may have abused whatever
commission they had received. Moreover, it must be remem-
bered that they are not expressly blamed by Paul. If they
clung conscientiously to the keeping of the Law, as they had
been accustomed to do at Jerusalem, Paul would perhaps not
necessarily condemn them; for he did not on principle or in
all circumstances require Jewish Christians to give up the
keeping of the Law. But Peter had really transcended that
point of view ; and when, therefore, he now, from fear of these
newcomers, withdrew from the Gentiles, he was concealing his
true convictions. It was the inconsistency of his conduct that
Paul felt caUed upon to rebuke. That inconsistency could not
fail to have a bad effect upon the Gentile Christians. Peter
had received them into true fellowship. But now apparently
he regarded such liberal conduct as a thing to be ashamed of
and to be concealed. The (Jentile Christians could not help
drawing the conclusion that they were at best only on the
outskirts of the Christian community ; the chief of the original
apostles of Jesus was apparently ashamed of his association
with them. Despite the liberty granted by the Apostolic Coun-
cil, therefore, the Gentile Christians were again tempted to

lOa THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

remove the disabilities which rested upon them, by accepting
circumcision and so becoming full members of the Church.
Evidently the keeping of the Law on the part of Jewish Chris-
tians was a half-way position. But when it was pursued con-
scientiously, as a duty still resting upon men of Jewish descent,
it might possibly be dealt with gently by Paul. When, how-
ever, it was undertaken for fear of men, in the face of better
understanding, it became "hypocrisy" and was rebuked
sharply. If the transcending of the Law, in the interests
of Christian unity, had once been grasped as a necessary con-
sequence of the redemption wrought by Christ, then to repudi-
ate it was to bring discredit upon Christ Himself, and make
His death of none avail.

The influence of Peter's withdrawal from the Gentile Chris-
tians soon began to make itself felt; other Jewish Christians
followed Peter's example, and even Barnabas was carried away.
A serious crisis had arisen. But God had not deserted His
Church. The Church was saved through the instrumentality
of Paul.

To Paul had been revealed the full implications of the
gospel; to him the freedom of the Gentiles was a matter of
principle, and when principle was at stake he never kept
silent. Regardless of all petty calculations about the influence
that might be lost or the friendships that might be sacrificed,
he spoke out boldly for Christ ; he rebuked Peter openly before
the assembled Church. It should always be observed, however,
that it was not the principles of Peter, but his conduct, which
Paul was rebuking. The incident is therefore misused when
it is made to establish a fundamental disagreement between
Paul and Peter. On the contrary, in the very act of con-
demning the practice of Peter, Paul approves his principles;
he is rebuking Peter just for the concealment of his correct
principles for fear of men. He and Peter, he says, were per-
fectly agreed about the inadequacy of the Law, and the all-
sufiiciency of faith in Christ; why then should Peter act in
contradiction to these great convictions? The passage. Gal.
ii. 11-21, therefore, far from establishing a fundamental dis-
agreement between Peter and Paul really furnishes the strong-
est possible evidence for their fundamental unity.

But how did Peter take the rebuke which was administered
to him? There should be no real doubt about the answer to

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTttE FREEDOM 108

this question. Details, indeed, are uncertain; it may perhaps
be doubtful when Peter acquiesced or how he expressed his
acquiescence. But that he acquiesced at some time and in some
manner is indicated by the whole subsequent history of the
Church. A contrary conclusion has, indeed, sometimes been
drawn from the silence of Paul. If Peter was convinced by
Paul at Antioch, would not Paul have been sure to mention
so gratifying a result? Would he not havie appealed, against
the contentions of the Judaizers in Galatia, to so signal a
recognition of his apostolic authority? This argument ignores
the true character of the passage. During the writing of Gal.
ii. 11-21 Paul has altogether ceased to think of Peter. What
he had said to Peter at Antioch happened to be exactly the same
thing that he desired to say, at the time of the writing of the
letter, to the Galatians. In reporting, not with pedantic verbal
accuracy but in substance, what he had said to Peter at An-
tioch, he has entered upon the very heart of his gospel, which
had been despised by the Judaizers in Galatia. Long before the
end of the glorious passage, Gal. ii. 11-21, he has forgotten
all about Peter and Barnabas and Antioch, and is thinking
only about the grace of Christ and the way in which it was
being made of none effect by those who would desert it for a
religion of works. To expect him to descend from the heights
in order to narrate the outcome of the incident at Antioch
is to do woeful injustice to the character of the apostle's
mind and the manner of his literary activity. Gal. ii. 11-21
forms a transition between the first main division of the Epistle,
in which Paul is answering the personal attack of the Juda-
izers, and the second main division, in which he is defending
the contents of his gospel. Before the end -of the passage
Paul has plunged into the principal thing that he wanted to
say to the Galatians, who were making void the cross of
Christ. The presentation in Gal. ii. 11-21 of what Bengel ^
called the "marrow of Christianity'* leads inevitably, there-
fore, not to a pedantic narration of what Peter did, but to the
exclamation of Gal. iii. 1, "O foolish Galatians, who did be-
witch you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly set forth
crucified?'*

Thus the silence of Paul about the outcome of the incident
at Antioch does not at all establish the outcome as unfavor-
'On GaL ii. 19.

104 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

able. But there are positive indications on the other side.
Of course, if Gal. ii. 1-10 were identified with the famine visit,
the whole question would be settled. In that case, the incident
of Gal. ii. 11-21 would have been followed by the Apostolic
Council, at which the harmony of Peter and Paul found full
expression. But even if the identification of Gal. ii. 1-10 with
the Apostolic Council be adopted, there are still plain indica-
tions that the outcome of the Antioch incident was favorable.

In the first place, Paul mentions Peter in 1 Cor. ix. 6 with
respect, as an apostle to whose example appeal may be made;
in 1 Cor. iii. 22 he classes Peter with himself and with ApoUos
as a possession of all Christians ; ^ and in 1 Cor. xv. 1-11 he
includes as part of his fundamental missionary preaching the
appearance of the risen Christ to Peter, and appeals to the
unity which existed between his own preaching and that of
the other apostles (verses '6, 11).^

In the second place, Paul concerned himself earnestly,
according to 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans, with the col-
lection for the Jerusalem poor. If the incident at Antioch
had meant a repudiation of the *^right hand of fellowship"
which Peter in common with James and John had given to Paul
at Jerusalem (Gal. ii. 9), it is difficult to see how Paul could
have continued to engage in a form of brotherly service which
was the most touching expression of that fellowship. If there
was a permanent breach between Peter and Paul, the contri-
bution for the poor saints at Jerusalem could hardly have been
collected.

In the third place, the agitation of the Judaizers seems
to have died down during the third missionary journey. It
appears, indeed, at Corinth, according to the Corinthian
Epistles, but seems there to have lacked that insistence upon
the keeping of the Law which had made it so dangerous in
Galatia. In the epistles of the captivity — Colossians and Phile-
mon, Ephesians, Philippians — it appears, if at all, only in the
obscure reference in Phil. iii. 2ff., which may relate to non-
Christian Judaism rather than to Jewish Christianity. This
subsidence of the Judaizing activity is difficult to understand
if the benefits of the Jerusalem conference had been annulled
by a serious breach at Antioch.

Finally, the whole subsequent history of the Church is

^ Knowling, The Witness of the Epistles, 1893, p. 14, note 1.
'Knowling, loc, cit.

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTH^E FREEDOM 106

explicable only if there was fundamental unity between Peter
and Paul. Ever since the formation of the Old Catholic
Church at the close of the second century the Church was
founded upon the twin pillars of Peter and Paul. How was
this unity produced if in the apostolic age there was funda-
mental disunion? The existence of this problem was fully
recognized by F. C. Baur, and the recognition of it constitutes
one element of greatness in Baur's work. But the elaborate
solution which Baur proposed has had to be abandoned. Baur
supposed that the harmony between Pauline and Petrine Chris-
tianity was produced by a gradual compromise effected during
the second century. Subsequent investigation has pushed the
harmony very much further back. The imity between Peter*
and Paul appears, for example, plainly expressed in the letter
of Clement of Rome (about 96 A. D.), who appeals to the
two great apostles as though both were of recognized au-
thority; it appears also in the first Epistle of Peter, which
even if not genuine is important as attributing to Peter, as
though the attribution were a matter of course, a conception
of the gospel thoroughly in harmony with that of Paul; it
appears in the early traditional account of John Mark, by
which Mark is made to be a follower of Peter (compare 1 Peter
V. 13) and to have received from Peter the substance of his
Gospel, so that when his cordial relations with Paul are re-
membered (Col. iv. 10; Philem. 24) he constitutes an impor-
tant link between Peter and Paul. What is more important,
however, than all details, is the undoubted fact that before
the end of the first century epistles of Paul and genuine tradi-
tion about Jesus, which latter must at first have been con-
nected with the Jerusalem Church, appear side by side as
possessing high authority in the Church. Finally, the testi-
mony of the Book of Acts is now admitted to be at any rate
very much earlier than Baur supposed; and that testimony,
so far as the harmony between Paul and Peter is concerned,
is unequivocal. Thus the explanation which Baur proposed
for the final healing of the supposed breach between Peter
and Paul is unsatisfactory. But no other explanation has
been discovered to take its place. The very existence of the
Church would have been impossible if there had been a per-
manent breach between the leader in the Gentile mission and
the leader among the original disciples of Jesus.

The Book of Acts does not mention the difficulty which

106 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

arose at Antioch with regard to table companionship between
Jews and Gentiles. But it does mention another disagreement
between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas desired to take John
Mark along on the second missionary journey, while Paul was
unwilling to take with him again the one who had turned back
on the former journey and had not gone to those South
Galatian churches which it was now proposed to revisit. It
was maintained by the Tubingen school of criticism that the
lesser quarrel has here been inserted by the author of Acts
with the express purpose of covering up the more serious dis-
agreement which was the real reason for the separation of
Barnabas and Paul. But the insertion of a quarrel is rather
an unnatural way to cover up the fact that there was another
quarrel; it would have been better to keep altogether silent
about the disagreement. Moreover, the good faith of the
author is now generally accepted. There is another possible
way of explaining the omission of the incident of Gal. ii. 11-21
from the Book of Acts. It may be surmised that the incident
was so unimportant in its consequences, Peter and Barnabas
were so quickly convinced by Paul, that a historian who was
concerned, not with personal details about the relations between
Paul and the other leaders, but with the external progress
of the gospel, did not find it necessary to mention the incident
at all.

After the separation of Barnabas from Paul at the begin-
ning of the second missionary journey, it is not recorded that
the two men were ever associated again in missionary work.
But in 1 Cor. ix. 6 Barnabas is spoken of with respect — "Or
I only and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working."
Evidently Paul was interested in the work of Barnabas, and
was not ashamed to appeal to his example. In Col. iv. 10,
moreover, "Mark, the cousin of Barnabas" is mentioned, and
is commended to the attention of the Colossian Christians.
Mark here forms a link between Paul and Barnabas as he
does between Paul and Peter. Evidently the estrangement at
Antioch was not permanent even in the case of Mark, against
whom there was the special objection that he had withdrawn
from the work at Perga. According to 2 Tim. iv. 11, Mark
became exactly what he had not been at Perga, "useful" to
Paul "for ministering." And if the testimony of 2 Timothy
be rejected, the same cordial relationship between Paul and

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM 107

Mark appears also in Col. iv. 10, 11 ; Philem. 24. The scanty
indications all point very decidedly away from any permanent
estrangement as resulting from the incidents at Antioch.

During the second and third missionary journeys, the agi-
tation of the Judaizers, as has already been observed, seems
to have subsided. In Corinth, indeed, according to 1 and 2
Corinthians', Paul appears in deadly conflict with certain men
who sought to undermine his apostolic authority. Baur made
much of this conflict; indeed, he based his reconstruction of
apostolic history upon the Corinthian Epistles almost as much
as upon Galatians. The starting-point of his investigation
was found in the party watchwords mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 12,
^^I am of Paul ; and I of ApoUos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of
Christ.'* The "Christ-party" of the verse, identified with
the opponents attacked in 2 Cor. x-xiii, Baur believed to have
been an extreme Judaizing party. This extreme Judaizing
party, Baur maintained, appealed with some show of reason
to the original apostles in Jerusalem. Thus the Corinthian
Epistles like the Epistle to the Galatians were made to estab-
lish what was to Baur the fundamental fact of apostolic his-
tory, a serious conflict of principle between Paul and the
original apostles.^

Subsequent investigation, however, has cast at least serious
doubt upon the Tubingen exegesis, even where it has not dis-
credited it altogether. The whole matter of the Christ-party
of 1 Cor. i. 12 is felt to be exceedingly obscure, so obscure that
J. Weiss, for example, in his recent commentary on 1 Corin-
thians, has felt constrained to cut the Gordian knot by regard-
ing the words, "And I of Christ', as an interpolation.^ Where
this heroic measure has not been resorted to, various interpre-
tations have been proposed. Sometimes, for example, the
Christ-party has been thought to have consisted of those who
rejected the other watchwords, but in such a proud and quarrel-
some way that the watchword, "I am of Christ," which should
have belonged to all, became only the shibboleth of another
party. Sometimes, again, the Christ-party has been regarded
as a gnosticizing party which boasted of direct communica-

* Bf^ir, "Die Christuspartei in der korinthischen Gemeinde," in Tilbinger
ZeUichnft fur Theologie, 1831, 4 Heft, pp. 61-206.

•J. Weiss, Der er$te Korintherbrief, 1910, in Meyer, op, cit., 9te Aufl., p.
zzzyiii.

/

108 THE ORIGIN OP PAULAS RELIGION

tions with the risen Christ. At any rate, it is very difficult
to find in the words "I am of Christ*' any clear designation of
Judaizers who appealed against Paul to James or to their
own connections with Jesus in Palestine. On the contrary,
the reader of the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians may
well be doubtful whether there were any distinct parties at all.
It looks rather as though what Paul was rebuking were merely
a spirit of division, which manifested itself now in one watch-
word and now in another. The Corinthian Christians seem
to have been "sermon-tasters'* ; they were proud of their *Seis-
dom," and laid undue stress upon the varying form of the
gospel message to the neglect of the content. It is noteworthy
that in 1 Cor. i-iv Paul does not enter upon any anti-Judaistic
polemic, but addressed himself to those who in a spirit of
pride and quarrelsomeness sought after wisdom. "If you would
be truly wise and truly ^spiritual,' " he says, "then cease your
contentions." Paul was perhaps combating not any definite
parties, but only the party spirit.

It must be admitted that there were in the Corinthian
Church persons who emphasized against Paul the advantages
of Palestinian origin and of direct connection with Jesus.
But there is no reason to bring these opponents of Paul into
any close relation to the original apostles and to James. The
letters of recommendation (2 Cor. iii. 1) may have come else-
where than from the apostles; indeed the mention of letters
from the Corinthians as well as to them would seem to make
the passage refer to a general habit of credential-bearing
rather than to any special credentials from Jerusalem. The
opponents desired to push themselves into other men's spheres
of labor ; and in order to do so they were in the habit of arm-
ing themselves with commendatory epistles. The reference is
quite general and to us quite obscure ; it is only by exceedingly
bold specialization that it can be made to attest the existence
of letters of commendation from the Jerusalem leaders. More-
over, even if the opponents did have some sort of endorsement
from Jerusalem, they may have abused the confidence which
had been reposed in them. The Tubingen exegesis of 2 Cor.
xi. 6; xii. 11, by which "the chief est apostles" were identified
with the pillars of the Jerusalem Church should be rejected ; and
the phrase (which is rather to be translated "those who are
apostles overmuch") should be taken as designating simply the

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTH^E FREEDOM 109

Corinthian agitators themselves. Thus, the **apostles over-
much" of 2 Cor. xi. 5 become the same as the "false apostles"
of verse 18, the latter verse being used in order to interpret
the former. In 1 Cor. i. 12, Peter is mentioned as being ap-
pealed to by one of the "parties" in the Corinthian Church.
It has sometimes been maintained, on the basis of this verse,
that Peter had actually been present in Corinth as had Apollos
and Paul, who appear in two of the other party watchwords.
But the matter is at least very doubtful. As chief of the
original disciples of Jesus Peter might well have evoked the
special admiration of certain members of the Corinthian Church
without having ever been personally present. There does not
seem to be the slightest evidence for supposing that the admirers
of Peter mentioned in 1 Cor. i. 12 were extreme Judaizers;
and there is no decisive reason for identifying them with the
opponents who appear in 2 Cor. x-xiii. Certainly there is no
reason for making Peter responsible for the factiousness of
those who used his name. It must be remembered that Paul
rebukes the "Paul party" — if it be a party — as much as any
of the others, and distinctly commends Apollos, who was ap-
pealed to by the "Apollos party." Evidently the faults of
the "parties" were not due at all to those whose names the
parties used. In 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, Paul says, "All things
are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas." Here Peter
is put as part of the common possession of all Christians.
There could not possibly be a clearer recognition of the com-
plete fellowship which Paul regards as existing between him-
self and Peter. Finally, in 1 Cor. xv. 11, Paul calls attention
expressly to the fundamental unity between himself and the
other apostles: "Whether then it be I or they, so we preach,
and so ye believed." ^ The Corinthian Epistles certainly
lend no support to the Tubingen contention; they certainly
provide no evidence of a breach between Paul and the original
disciples of Jesus.

At the time of his last visit to Jerusalem, Paul came again
into contact with James, the brother of the Lord, and with
the Jerusalem Church. The arrival at Jerusalem is narrated
in one of the we-sections of the Book of Acts, and it is there
said, "The brethren received us gladly" (Acts xxi. 17). The
use of the first person plural disappears after the following

^See Knowling, as cited above, p. 104, footnotes 1 and 9.

110 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

verse, where the meeting of Paul with James is described, but
it is very difficult to separate Acts xxi. 20, for example, from
the we-section. Of course there could be no use of the **we'*
when the narrator did not participate in what was being de-
scribed. In Acts xxi. 20, it is said that James and the pres-
byters "glorified God" on account of what had been done
among the Gentiles through the ministry of Paul. Whatever
view may be taken of the composition of Acts, therefore, the
warm reception of Paul on the part of the Jerusalem leaders
seems to be attested by an eyewitness. Such a reception
would be very difficult to explain if the relations between Paul
and Jerusalem had been what they are represented as being
by the Tubingen scholars.

According to Acts xxi. 20-26, James brought to Paul's
attention the scruples of the Jewish Christians, who were
"zealous for the law.*' These Jewish Christians had been told
that Paul was teaching the Jews of the Dispersion not to
circumcise their children or to walk "in the customs.'* With
regard to the Gentile Christians, James has nothing to say
except to call attention to the Apostolic Decree which the
Jerusalem Church itself had adopted. But in order to allay
the suspicions of the Jewish Christians, James suggests that
Paul should participate in a Jewish vow. According to Acts
xxi. 26, Paul complied with the request.

Such compliance was regarded by the Tubingen scholars
as absolutely incompatible with Paul's character, and there-
fore as unhistorical. But recent criticism has been becoming,
to say the least, less certain about the matter. The incident
is narrated in a concrete way which creates a most favorable
impression; indeed, the passage seems even to belong to the
supposed wc-section source. Moreover, a sober study of the
Pauline Epistles has shown that the attitude of Paul toward
Judaism and toward the Law was by no means what Baur
and Zcller, through a one-sided interpretation of the polemic
of Galatians, had supposed. In particular, the sharing of
Paul in a Jewish vow is only an exemplification of the prin-
ciple which Paul lays down in 1 Cor. ix. 19-22 of becoming
all things to all men. Where could the principle possibly
have applied if it did not apply to the situation in Jerusalem
at the time of Paul's last visit? Where, if not there, could

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTH^E FREEDOM 111

Paul have felt bound to become to the Jews as a Jew in order
that he might gain Jews (1 Cor. ix. 20)? There seems to
have been no attempt at that time to force the Law upon
Gentiles, and no tendency to regard it even for Jews as
necessary to salvation. Compliance with Jewish custom would
therefore not be open to the misunderstanding which might
have made it inadvisable during the midst of the Judaistic
controversy. The devotion of the Jewish Christians to the
Law seems never to have been condemned by Paul on principle.
Should he then run counter to Jewish feeling by pursuing a
crassly Gentile manner of life in the very midst of Judaism,
when the national life, in the troublous years before the Jew-
ish war, was running high? The answer to this question ifi
at any rate not so simple as was formerly supposed. Par-
ticipation by Paul in a Jewish vow in Jerusalem is not beyond
the limits of that devotion to the Jewish people which the
Epistles undoubtedly attest. And it is not really derogatory
to the character of Paul. Where the truth of the gospel
was concerned, Paul was absolutely unswerving and abso-
lutely without regard for personal considerations; but when
the **weaker brethren*' of his own nation coydd be won without
sacrifice of principle, he was fully capable of becoming to the
Jews as a Jew.

While Paul was in prison in Jerusalem and in Caesarea,
what was the attitude of James and of the Jerusalem Church?
The Book of Acts does not say, and far-reaching conclusions
have sometimes been drawn from its silence. The Jerusalem
leaders, it is said, were at least lukewarm in their defense of
Paul; they themselves were zealous for the Law, and they
had only been half-convinced of the loyalty of Paul; it is no
wonder, then, that they were not anxious to bring Jewish
disfavor upon themselves by championing the cause of Paul,

This representation can find no support whatever in the
sources. Certainly it is not supported by the silence of Acts.
The disciples of Jesus were certainly not in positions of political
influence at Jerusalem; indeed only a few years later even
James, despite his strict Jewish manner of life, fell victim to
the fury of his enemies. If at such a time and under such
circumstances the Jerusalem disciples accomplished nothing
for Paul, the fact does not attest any coldness in their sym-

118 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

pathy, or any repentance for the joy with which, on the un-
equivocal testimony of a we-section, they had greeted him on
his arrival.

The Book of Acts does not mention the collection which
according to 1 and 2 Corinthians and Romans Paul carried
up to Jerusalem for the poor of the Jerusalem Church, except
perhaps in the bare allusion in Acts xxiv. 17. But no great
significance is to be attached to the omission. It must be
remembered that the Book of Acts is not concerned primarily
with the inner development of the churches, but rather with
the external progress of the gospel out from Jerusalem to the
Gentile world. How meager, for example, as compared with
the Corinthian Epistles, is the account which Acts gives of
affairs at Corinth ! To infer, therefore, from the silence of
Acts about the collection that the collection was not graciously
received is to make use of the argument from silence in a most
adventurous and unwarranted manner. The inference is defi-
nitely opposed, moreover, by the testimony of a we-section in
Acts xxi. 17, where Paul is said to have been warmly received
on his arrival in Jerusalem. That verse refers perhaps to
the reception of Paul merely in a little group at the house of
Mnason. But the warmth of his reception there was at least
of good presage for the reception which took place the next
day in the assembly of the elders. Rom. xv. 31 is sometimes
thought to indicate anxious solicitude on the part of Paul
lest the collection should not be acceptable to the Jerusalem
Church. But the words will not bear the weight which is
hung upon them. When Paul asks his readers to pray that
he may be rescued from them that are disobedient in Judsa
(that is, the non-Christian Jews), and that the offering
which he is carrying to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the
saints, he certainly does not indicate any fear lest the offering
may not be acceptable. The offering had been much on his
heart; it was being carried to Jerusalem at the imminent risk
of life; these perils were being encountered out of love
for the Jerusalem brethren. Surely it is natural for the bearer
of such an offering to wish that it may be acceptable. That
wish is natural in the case of any gift, no matter how certain
the giver may be that the recipient will be grateful. It was
still more natural in the case of the Pauline collection. More-
over, even if Paul was solicitous about the reception of the

THE TRIUMPH OF GENTILE FREEDOM llS

gift, his solicitude may well have concerned merely those mem-
bers of the Jerusalem Church mentioned in Acts xxi. 20-22,
who were suspicious of Gentile Christianity. There is no rea-
son, therefore, for connecting the solicitude of Paul with the
original apostles or with James.

It wiU not be necessary for the present purpose to attempt
any review of the missionary journeys of Paul. The outline
of Paul's life is here being considered merely for its bearing
upon the relations which Paul sustained (1) to the original
disciples of Jesus, (2) to Judaism, and (3) to paganism. The
first of these relationships has been chiefly in view. Enough
has, however, perhaps been said to establish the following ^x
propositions :

(1) The relation between Paul and the original disciples
of Jesus was cordial ; there is no reason to interpret the ^^right
hand of fellowship" which the leaders of the Jerusalem Church
gave to Paul in any other than its full meaning, and no reason
to suppose that the good relationship was broken off at any
later time.

(2) The early training of Paul was thoroughly Jewish,
and was fundamentally Palestinian, not Hellenistic; and Paul
never relinquished his attachment to his own people.

(3) Paul's attitude toward paganism, after the conversion
as well as before it, was an attitude of abhorrence. If common
ground was ever sought with his pagan hearers, it was only as
a starting-point for the denunciation of idolatry and the
proclamation of a revealed gospel.

•^i

CHAPTER IV
PAUL AND JESUS

CHAPTER IV

PAUL AND JESUS ^

The review of Paul's life has prepared the way for the
principal subject of investigation. What was the origin of
the religion of Paul?

The most obvious answer to that question is that the re-
ligion of Paul was based upon Jesus. That is the answer
which has always been given in the Church. The Church has
always accepted the apostle Paul, not at all as a religious
philosopher, but simply and solely as a witness to Jesus. If
he was not a true disciple of Jesus, then the authority which
he has always possessed and the influence which he has wielded
have been based upon a misconception.

But exactly the same answer was given by Paul himself.
Paul regarded himself as a servant of Christ, and based his
whole life upon what Christ had done and what Christ was
continuing to do. "It is no longer I that live,'* he says, %ut
Christ liveth in me." Unquestionably this Christ, upon whom
Paul based his life, was identified by Paul with Jesus of Naz-
areth, a person who had lived in Palestine a few years before.
A mighty change in the mode of existence of Jesus had indeed,
Paul believed, been wrought by the resurrection ; a life of hu-
miliation had given place to a life of glory. But it was the
same person who lived throughout. There is in the Pauline
Epistles not a trace of any distinction between "Jesus'' and
"Christ," as though the former were the name of the historic
personage who lived in Galilee and the latter the name of the
risen Lord. On the contrary, the name Jesus is applied freely
to the risen Lord, and the name Lord — the loftiest of all
titles — is applied to the Jesus who suffered and died. It was
"the Lord of glory," according to Paul, who was crucified

^In the present chapter there are some coincidences of thoiu^t and
expression with the paper by the same author entitled "Jesus and Paul"
in BibUcal and Theological 8iud%§9 by the Membera of the Faculty of
Princeton Theological Seminary, 1919, pp. 647^78.

117

118 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

(1 Cor. ii. 8). The same phenomenon appears everywhere in
the Epistles : the Lord of glory lived the life of a servant on
earth ; and Jesus, the man who had recently lived in Palestine,
was to be worshiped by all in heaven and on earth (Phil. ii.
10,11).

There is, therefore, in the Pauline Epistles not the slightest
trace of any gnosticizing separation between Jesus the historic
person, and Christ the divine Lord. There is, moreover, as
W. Morgan rightly observes,^ not the slightest trace of any
^^adoptionist Christology,'' by which a man Jesus could be
conceived of either as growing up gradually into divinity or as
received into divinity by a catastrophic event like the resurrec-
tion. On the contrary, Paul says expressly that the Jesus who
lived in Palestine existed, before His appearance upon earth,
in the form of God ; and the entrance of that person upon hu-
man life is represented as a voluntary act of love. His higher
nature, therefore, existed from the beginning; indeed He was,
according to Paul, the instrument in the creation of the
world.

Finally, there is no trace in Paul of any doctrine of ^Tce-
nosis,*' by which the higher nature of Christ might have been
regarded as so relinquished while He was on earth that the
words and deeds of the historic person would become matter of
indifference. Such a representation is refuted not only by
what h^s just been said about the application of the term
"Lord'* to the historic Jesus, but also by the references of
Paul to actual words and deeds of Jesus. These references
are few; their scantiness may require explanation. But they
are sufficient to show that Paul regarded the words of the
historic Jesus as possessing absolute authority and His ex-
ample as normative for the Christian life.

Thus the testimony of Paul is plain. He regarded Christ
as Lord and Master, and he identified that Christ fully with
the Jesus who had lived but a few years before. This testi-
mony must be faced and invalidated by those who would find
the origin of Paul's religion elsewhere than in Jesus of Naz-
areth.

Such is the testimony of Paul. But what was the testi-
mony of his contemporaries? In the environment of Paul
were to be found some men who had been intimate friends of
*W. Morgan, The Religion and Theology of Paul, 1917.

PAUL AND JESUS 119

Jesus ; presumably they were acquainted with Jesus' character
and teaching. What was their attitude toward Paul? Did
they regard him as an innovator with respect to Jesus, or did
they admit him to the company of Jesus' true disciples? Since
they knew both Jesus and Paul, their testimony as to the
relationship between the two is obviously worth having. At this
point appears the importance of Baur's work. It is the merit of
Baur that however faulty his solution he placed at least in the
forefront of interest the problem of the relationship between
Paul and the intimate friends of Jesus. That relationship,
Baur believed, was fundamentally a relationship of conflict;
Paul and Peter, according to Baur, established at best only
a modus Vivendi^ an agreement to disagree; really they were
separated by a deep-seated difference of principle. But at
this point a further problem arises. If Paul and Peter were
really in disharmony, how did they ever come to be regarded
as in harmony? If there was a deep-seated diflference of prin-
ciple between Paul and Peter, how did it come about that the
Catholic Church was founded not upon Paul taken alone, or
upon Peter taken alone, but upon Paul and Peter taken to-
gether?

Here, again, Baur displayed his true intellectual greatness
by detecting and facing the problem. He saw clearly what
has seldom been seen with equal clearness since his day, that
the historian must explain the transition not only from the
historical Jesus to apostolic Christianity, but from apostolic
Christianity to the Old Catholic Church. And for this latter
problem he proposed a solution which was not wanting in
grandeur. But his solution, despite its grandeur, has suc-
cumbed. Baur's reconstruction of the second century, with
the supposed gradual compromise between Pauline and Petrine
Christianity, resulting finally in the Christianity of the Old
Catholic Church, was one of the first elements in his system
which had to be abandoned; it was destroyed, in the first
place, by the criticism of A. Ritschl, and, in the second place,
by the painstaking labors of Lightfoot, Zahn, Von Hamack
and others, by which, through a study of second-century
documents and their literary relationships, it was shown that
the New Testament books cannot be scattered at will any-
where throughout the second century in the interests of a
theory of development. Ritschl showed that the importance

120 THE ORIGIN OF PAtJL^ RELIGION

of specifically Jewish Christianity had been enormously ex-
aggerated by Baur ; and the study of patristics tended to place
the New Testament books much earlier than the late dating
which the theory of Baur required.

Thus Baur did not succeed in overcoming the fundamental
objection raised against him by the very existence of a Church
that appealed both to Peter and to Paul. If Peter and Paul
were really in fundamental disharmony, how did the Church
come to bring them together so confidently and at such an
early time? This question has never been answered. The
very existence of the Church is a refutation of Baur; the
Chui^ch never could have existed unless the apostles had been
in fundamental agreement.

But Baur may also be refuted directly, in a purely exe-
getical way, by an examination of the sources to which he
himself appealed. Baur established his hypothesis of a con-
flict between Paul and Peter on the basis of the Pauline
Epistles. Subsidiary evidence, thought to be found in other
books of the New Testament, was soon shown to be illusory.
Thus Baur and the early Tubingen scholars detected an anti-
Pauline polemic in the Book of Revelation, which they attrib-
uted to John the son of Zebedee. This use of the Apocalpse
was soon abandoned even by Baur's own disciples. The theory
of Baur, therefore, stands or falls with his interpretation of
the Pauline Epistles, especially 1 and 2 Corinthians and Gala-
tians.

The Corinthian Epistles, as has been observed in the last
chapter, afford no real support to the hypothesis of an inter-
apostolic conflict. There is not the slightest reason to con-
nect the troublemakers at Corinth with the original apostles
or with James; and the whole subject of the "Christ-party"
in 1 Cor. i. 12 is now felt to be very obscure. The evidence
of an apostolic conflict narrows down, therefore, to the second
chapter of Galatians.

Undoubtedly there are expressions in that chapter which
if taken alone might indicate ill-will between Paul and the
Jerusalem leaders. In Gal. ii. 2, 6, for example, James and
Peter and John are called "those who seemed," ^ and in the
latter verse the phrase is explained by the fuller designation,
"those who seemed to be something." In Gal. ii. 9, the same

^ ol doKMurei.

PAUL AND JESUS 121

persons are designated as "those who seemed to be pillars."
In themselves these words are capable of an interpretation
which would be derogatory to the persons so designated. The
meaning might conceivably be that the Jerusalem leaders only
"seemed'* or "were thought** to be something, or only thought
themselves to be something (compare Gal. vi. 3), whereas they
really were nothing. But this interpretation is, of course,
quite impossible, since Paul certainly recognized Peter and
tJohn as genuine apostles and James the brother of the Lord
as a man of real authority in the Church. The most that may
be maintained, therefore, is that the choice of the peculiar
phrases indicates a certain irritation of Paul against the
Jerusalem leaders; instead of calling them pillars (which cer-
tainly he recognized them as being) he shows his irritation,
it is said, by calling them "those who were thought to be
pillars.**

The presence of indignant feeling in the passage must
clearly be admitted; but the question is whether the indigna-
tion is directed against the Jerusalem leaders themselves or
only against the Judaizers who falsely appealed to them. The
latter view is correct. It must be remembered that what Paul
in 6^1. ii. 1-10 desires most of all to prevent is the impression
that he is appealing to the Jerusalem apostles as to a higher
instance. He is not basing the authority of his preaching
upon any authorization that the apostles gave him; he is not
saying that he has a right to be heard because those who were
the pillars of the Church endorsed his message. -Such a repre-
sentation of the conference would have cast despite upon all
the work which he had dpne before, and would have made it
necessary for him in the future to prove constantly against
all Judaizers and other opponents his agreement with the
Jerusalem authorities. The profound consciousness which he
had of his apostolic authority did not permit any such course
of action; and such restrictions would have hindered his work
wherever he went. It was absolutely essential in the economy
of God that the leader of the Gentile work should have inde-
pendent authority and should not be obliged to appeal again
and again to authorities who were far away, at Jerusalem.
Hei\ce what Paul desires to make clear above all in Gal. ii.
1-10 is that though he appealed to the Jerusalem authorities
it was not necessisry for his own sake for him to appeal to

122 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

them. They were great, but their greatness had absolutely
nothing to do with his authority; for they added nothing to
him. It was therefore not the real greatness of the original
apostles which caused him to appeal to them (for he needed
no authorization from any man no matter how great), but
only the greatness which was attributed to them by the Juda-
izers. They really were great, but it was only the false use
which had been made of their greatness by the Judaizers which
caused him to lay his gospel before them. The Judaizers were
to be refuted from the lips of the very authorities to whom
they appealed.

It should "be observed that the terms which are now under
discussion are incapable of real translation into English. The
equivalent English words might seem to imply that the reputed
greatness of the Jerusalem leaders was not also a real great-
ness. There is no such implication in the Greek. The shortest
of the phrases, which may be paraphrased "those of repute,*'
was used in Greek sometimes in a way thoroughly honorable
to the persons designated. Possibly the repetition of the
phrases, which seems somewhat strange, was due to the em-
ployment of the same phrases by the Judaizing opponents.
The peculiarities of the passage may perhaps be due partly
to the fact that Paul is here using catchwords of his adver-
saries.

At any rate, if the reader refuses to interpret these ex-
pressions in a way derogatory to the original apostles, such
refusal is not due merely to a pious desire to preserve harmony
in the apostolic college; it is due rather to the way in which
Paul himself everywhere speaks of the apostles, and to the
"right hand of fellowship" which according to this very pas-
sage they extended to him. It is good exegetical method to
interpret things that are obscure by things that are plain;
but what is plainest of all in this passage is that the very
authorities to whom the Judaizers appealed against Paul rec-
ognized the hand of God in his work and bade him Godspeed.

If Gal. ii. 1-10 affords no support to the theory of Baur,
the latter part of the same chapter (Gal. ii. 11-21) is not really
any more favorable. This passage does indeed attest a rebuke
which Paul administered to Peter at Antioch. Peter is even
accused of "hypocrisy." The Greek word ^ is indeed not

%

PAUL AND JESUS 128

quite so harsh as the English word derived from it; it means
the "playing of a part*' and so here the concealment of true
convictions. Nevertheless, the incident remains regrettable
enough; evidently real moral blame was attached by Paul to
Peter's conduct. But what is really significant is that in the
very act of condemning Peter's practice Paul commends his
principles; he appeals to a great fund of Christian conviction
which he and Peter had in common (Gal. ii. 14-21). It will
not do to say that in this passage Paul is giving no report of
what he said to Peter, but is expounding his own views to the
Galatians. For in Gal. ii. 14 he begins to tell ^ what he said
to Peter "before them all'*; and there is not the slightest indi-
cation of a break before the end of the chapter. Certainly the
break cannot come after verse 14; for the thought of that
verse is quite incomplete in itself and becomes intelligible only
when explained by what follows. The passage is best ex-
plained, therefore, if it be taken as embodying the substance
of what Paul said to Peter at Antioch, though doubtless there
is no attempt at verbal reproduction of the language. At
any rate, however much of Gal. ii. 14-21 be a report of what
was said at Antioch, and however much be what Paul now
wishes to say to the Galatians, one thing is clear — when Paul
begins in verse 14 to report what he said to Peter, he means
to call attention to something in which he and Peter were
agreed; he means to say: "You and I, though we had all the
advantages of the Law, relinquished such advantages, in order
to be justified by faith in Christ. How then can we force the
Gentiles to seek salvation by a way which even in our own
case was futile?" Whatever else Paul said to Peter, this much
he certainly said. The context makes the matter perfectly
clear. It must always be remembered that Paul blames Peter
not for false opinions, but for "hypocrisy" — that is, for con-
cealment of true opinions. In verse 14, moreover, he says
expressly that Peter was living after a Gentile manner. The
verb is in the present tense — "if thou being a Jew livest as do
the Gentiles and not as do the Jews." Paul means to say that
a principle essentially similar to that of the Gentile Christians,
according to which in their case the keeping of the Mosaic Law
was relinquished, was the fixed basis of Peter's life. Peter's
present withdrawal from the Gentiles was a mere temporary
aberration. Before the coming of the men from James, he haJd

124 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

seen clearly that the great new principle of faith in Christ took
precedence of the Law, even for Jewish Christians; and after
the departure of the men he would presumably revert to his old
freedom. Indeed even now, even while he was withdrawing
himself from his Gentile brethren, the real principle of his
life had not been changed ; he was still ^Hiving as do the Gen-
tiles." But he was concealing his real life for fear of men.
The very nature of the charge which Paul brought against
Peter, therefore, attests a fundamental unity of principle
between the two apostles. Paul condemned Peter for **hypoc-
risy"; not for false principles, but for concealment of true
principles. In principle, therefore, Paul and Peter were agreed.
Accordingly, even the very passage which at first sight
lends most color to the hypothesis of Baur, really, when it is
correctly interpreted, provides the most striking refutation of
that hypothesis. The very chapter which attests the appeal
of Paul's bitter opponents to the original apostles, and records
a sharp rebuke which Paul administered to Peter, really fur-
nishes the best evidence of apostolic unity. It is the second
chapter of Galatians which mentions the right hand of fellow-
ship extended to Paul by James and Peter and John, and it
is the second chapter of Galatians which represents the di-
vergence between Paul and Peter as divergence of practice,
not of principle. Even if the Epistle to the Galatians stood
alone, it would establish the fundamental unity of the apostles.
But as a matter of fact, the Epistle to the Galatians does not
stand alone; it must be interpreted in the light of other
sources. The one-sided interpretation of Galatians, with neg-
lect of other epistles of Paul and of the Book of Acts, has
been one of the most fruitful causes of error in the study of
the apostolic age. For example, Gal. ii should never be read
except in the light of 1 Cor. xv. 1-11. The two passages em-
phasize two different aspects of Paul's relation to those who
had been apostles before him; and only when both the two
aspects are considered is the full truth attained. Gal. ii em-
phasizes the independence of Paul's gospel; Paul had not re-
ceived it through the instrumentality of men. 1 Cor. xv. 1-11
emphasizes the harmony of Paul's gospel with that of the
original apostles, whom Christ had commissioned as directly
and as truly as He had commissioned Paul. Both passages
are contained in sources admitted by all to be sources of pri-

PAUL AND JESUS 126

mary importance; yet either passage might be misunderstood
if it were taken alone.

Thus the danger of interpreting Gal. ii entirely without
reference to anything else is signally manifested by a com-
parison with 1 Cor. XV. 1-11. The First Epistle to the Co-
rinthians must be allowed to cast light upon Galatians. But
if soy may not the same privilege be granted to the Book of
Acts.^ As a matter of fact, the privilege is being granted to
the Book of Acts by a larger and larger number of modem
scholars. Baur demanded that the Pauline Epistles should
be interpreted by themselves, entirely without reference to
Acts. But as J. Weiss ^ pertinently remarks, such interpre-
tation is quite impossible; the Epistles taken by themselves
are unintelligible; they can be interpreted only when placed
in the biographical outline provided by the historian. Of
course, that outline might be discredited by a comparison
with the Epistles; the divergences might really be contradic-
tions. Comparison of Acts with the Epistles is therefore a
matter of fundamental importance. But that comparison, as it
has been undertaken at some length in the two preceding
chapters of the present discussion, has resulted favorably to
the Book of Acts. The divergences between Acts and Pauline
Epistles are no more to be regarded as contradictions than
are the divergences between various passages in the Epistles
themselves; and at many points the historical work casts a
flood of light upon the words of Paul.

Thus the imposing construction of Baur was erected by
neglecting all sources except Galatians and Corinthians, and
then by misinterpreting these. When all the available sources
are used, and estimated at their true value, the hypothesis of
a fundamental conflict between Paul and the original apostles
disappears. There was indeed a bitter conflict in the apos-
tolic age, but, as Ritschl observed against Baur, it was a con-
flict not between Paul and the original apostles, but between
all the apostles, including both Paul and Peter, on the one
side, and an extreme Judaizing party on the other. The ex-
treme Judaizing party, not having the support of the original
disciples of Jesus, soon ceased to be influential. The various
sects of schismatic Jewish Christians which appear in the
second century — "Ebionites" and the like — if they had any
^ See p. 40, footnote 1.

126 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

roots at all the apostolic age (which is more than doubtful),
could trace their spiritual descent not from the original apos-
tles, but from the Judaizers. It is no wonder then that they
were left behind in the march of the Church. They were left
behind not because Peter was left behind — for Peter appears
as at least one of the foundations upon which the Old Cath-
olic Church was built — but because Peter had left them be-
hind, or rather because Peter had never given them his sup-
port at all. They were left behind because from the beginning,
their spiritual ancestors in the apostolic age had not really
belonged with apostolic Christianity, but had been ^^false
brethren privily brought in.'*

One fact, indeed, still requires explanation. If Paul and
the original apostles were in such perfect agreement, how is
it that the Judaizers in the apostolic age could appeal to the
original apostles against Paul? The existence of that appeal
cannot altogether be denied. The exact nature of the appeal
is not indeed altogether clear. It is by no means clear that
the Judaizers appealed to the original apostles in support
of the content of the Judaizing message; it is by no means
clear that they made Peter or James teach the necessity of the
Mosaic Law for salvation. What is clear is only that they
appealed to the original apostles in their personal attack
against Paul ; they contrasted Paul, who had become a disciple
only after the crucifixion, with those who had been intimate
with Jesus. They used Peter to discredit the apostolic author-
ity of Paul, but it is not so clear that they used Peter to
discredit the content of Paul's message.

If, however, they did appeal to Peter in this latter way,
if they did appeal to Peter in support of their legalistic con-
tentions, such an appeal does not overthrow the conclusions
which have just been reached about the harmony of Peter
and Paul ; it does not really make Peter an advocate of legal-
ism. For even if Peter was not an advocate of legalism the
appeal of the Judaizers to him can be explained. It can be
explained not by the principles of Peter, but by his practice.
The early disciples in Jerusalem continued to observe the Jew-
ish fasts and feasts; they continued in diligent attendance
upon the Temple services. Outwardly, they were simply devout
Jews ; and the manner of their life might therefore have given
some color to the Judaizing contentions.

PAUL AND JESUS 127

Inwardly, it is true, the early disciples were not simply
devout Jews; they were really trusting for their salvation no
longer to their observance of the Law but to Jesus their Sav-
iour. The whole spirit of their lives, moreover, was quite
different from that which prevailed in legalistic Judaism;
anxious thought for the morrow, gloomy contemplation of the
triumphs of the oppressor, had given place to exultant joy.
The early disciples, indeed, like the Jews, were still waiting
for the establishment of the kingdom of God. But their wait-
ing was no longer full of sorrow. The Messiah was taken from
them for a time ; but He had already appeared and had brought
salvation.

Thus the early Jerusalem Church was really quite distinct
from contemporary Judaism; the real principle of its life
was fresh and new. But to a superficial observer, on account
of the continuance of old customs, the new principle might not
appear; to a superficial observer, the observance of Jewish
customs on the part of the early disciples might seem to be
legalism. And certainly the Judaizers were superficial. Ap-
parently they had come into the Church in the period of quiet
that followed the persecution of Stephen; they had come in
from the sect of the Pharisees, and they continued to be
Pharisees at heart. As Pharisees they welcomed the coming
of the Messiah, but they did not understand the teaching of
this Messiah. They looked for a continuance of the prerog-
atives of Israel. Jesus was the Messiah, but was He not the
Jewish Messiah, would He not bring about the triumph of the
chosen people? Would not all the peoples of the earth come
to do obeisance to Israel by submitting to Israel's Law? To
such observers, the Jewish practice of the original apostles
would furnish welcome support; these observers would not
care to look beneath the surface; they would say simply to
the Gentile Christians of Galatia: "The original disciples of
Jesus obey the Mosaic Law; must not you do likewise?"

At a later time such an appeal could not have been made;
at a later time even the practice of the original apostles
ceased to conform to Jewish custom. The tradition according
to which the apostle Peter finally went to Rome is emerging
triumphant ^ from the fires of criticism ; and if Peter went to
Rome, it is inconceivable that he separated himself from Gen-
^See, for example, Lietxmanii, Petrtu and Paulus in Rom, 1915.

128 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

tile Christians. Even in the early days, in Antioch, he had
begun to abandon his Jewish manner of life; surely he must
have abandoned it more fully when he went to the capital
of the Gentile world. The tradition as to the Ephesian resi-
dence of the apostle John also points to the abandonment of
the Law on the part of the original apostles, and to their
definite entrance upon the Gentile mission. That tradition
has been rejected only by attending to late and dubious evi-
dence to the neglect of what is plain. But itlis not necessary
to appeal to details. All that has been said/abo¥e about the
position of Peter in the mind of the Church 'sjrows that even
the practice of the original apostles finally kdapted itself to
the needs of the expanding Gentile work.

But in the early period, in Jerusalem, before it had be-
come evident that the Jewish people as such was to reject the
gospel message, the apostles continued to. observe the Law.
And by doing so, they gave the Judaizers some color of sup-
port. Thus if the Judaizers did appeal to the original apostles
in support of their legalistic claims, the appeal does not estab-
lish any real unity of principle between them and the original
apostles, or any divergence of principle between the original
apostles and Paul. But as a matter of fact it is by no means
perfectly clear that the appeal was made; it is by no means
clear that the Judaizers appealed to the original apostles
for the content of their legalistic message rather than merely
for their attack upon the independent apostleship of Paul.
It is possible that they said no more than this: "Paul was
not one of the original disciples of Jesus; his authority is
merely a derived authority; he is, therefore, no more worthy
to be heard than we; and we can tell you something new — the
followers of the Messiah must unite themselves with the chosen
people and obey the Law of God."

At any rate, even if the Judaizers did appeal to the
original apostles for the content of their message, the appeal
was a false appeal; the original apostles repudiated the Juda-
izers, and recognized Paul as a true apostle, with author-
ization as direct as their own.

Thus Baur was wrong. But suppose Baur were right
about the point which has just been discussed; suppose even
the most impossible admissions be made; suppose it be granted
that the original apostles differed fundamentally from Paul.

PAUL AND JEStrS 12d

Even then the testimony of the original apostles to the true
connection between Paul and Jesus is not invalidated. For
even if the original apostles differed fundamentally from
Paul, the difference concerned only the place of the Mosaic
Law in the Christian economy, and did not concern the
Pauline conception of the person of Christ. So much at
least must be insisted upon against Baur. The really astound-
ing fact, which emerges from all discussion of the apostolic
age, is that the Pauline conception of the person of Christ,
whatever may be said of the Pauline doctrine of Gentile
freedom, was never criticized by the original apostles. In-
deed, so far as can be seen, it was never criticized even by the
Judaizers themselves. Apparently it never occurred to Paul
that his conception of the heavenly Christ required defense.
About other things there was controversy; the doctrine of
Christian freedom, for example, had to be defended against
all sorts of objections and by the use of all sorts of evidence.
But about the person of Christ there was not one word of
debate. "Not by man but by Jesus Christ," Paul says at
the beginning of Galatians. Evidently the Judaizers said,
"Not by Jesus Christ but by man." But apparently it
never occurred to Paul that any one might say, "By Jesus
Christ and therefore by man." The Judaizers, apparently, as
well as Paul, recognized the alternative between Jesus Christ
and man; like Paul they separated Jesus Christ from ordi-
nary humanity and placed Him on the side of God. The same
phenomenon appears everywhere in the Pauline Epistles — the
tremendous doctrine of the person of Christ is never defended,
but always assumed. Indeed, in the earlier epistles the doc-
trine is never even set forth in any systematic way; it is
simply presupposed. In Colossians, indeed, it is more definitely
set forth, and apparently in opposition to errorists who failed
to recognize its full implications. Even in Colossae, however,
the doctrine does not seem to have been denied; the errorists
apparently did not deny the supreme place of Jesus in the
scale of being, but merely erred in attaching undue importance
to other beings. What is really significant in Colossians
is the character of the errorists. Evidently they were not con-
servative disciples, who appealed against the heavenly Christ
of Paul to the facts about the historic Jesus. On the con-
trary, they were gnostics, engaged in unhistorical specula-

180 THE ORIGIN OP PAULAS RELIGION

tions, and as far removed as possible from anything that
primitive Palestinian Christianity might conceivably have
been. So when Paul first has to defend his doctrine of the
exclusive and supreme importance of Christ, he defends it
not against conservative disciples, who could appeal either
with or without reason to the original apostles, but against
gnostic speculation. With regard to the person of Christ Paul
appears everywhere in perfect harmony with all Palestinian
Christians.

The fact is of such importance that it must be examined
in the light of all possible objections. Is there any trace in
the Pauline Epistles of a primitive view of Jesus different
from the lofty Christology of Paul?

One such trace has occasionally been found in 2 Cor. v.
16. In that verse, after Paul has spoken of the complete
break that comes in a man's life when he accepts the bene-
fits of Christ's death, he says: "Wherefore we henceforth
know no man after the flesh : even though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.'* Some in-
terpreters have discovered in the words, "even though we have
known Christ after the flesh," a reference to a fleshly con-
ception of Christ which laid stress upon His Davidic descent.
His connection with the Jewish people, and in general His
ordinary human relationships, to the neglect of His higher,
divine nature. That fleshly conception of Christ might then
be regarded as the primitive conception, which Paul himself
shared until a mature stage of his Christian life. But this
latter suggestion is excluded not only by the whole tenor of
the Epistles (in which Paul never displays the slightest con-
sciousness of any such revolution in his idea of Christ), but
also especially by the present passage. The passage deals
with the complete and immediate break which comes in a man's
way of thinking when the death of Christ becomes representa-
tive of him — that is, at the beginning of his Christian life. It is
therefore entirely out of accord with the context to suppose
that Paul is itrasting an immature stage of his own Chris-
tian life with t t present mature stage. But he is also not
alluding to any lower, fleshly conception of Christ as being
held by others. The interpretation which finds in the pas-
sage a human Messiah in contrast to the divine Christ of Paul,
errs fundamentally in making the words "according to the

PAUL AND JESUS 181

flesh" modify "Christ,'' whereas as a matter of fact they clearly
modify the verb "know." Paul says not, "Even if we have
known a Christ according to the flesh, we know such a Christ
no longer," but, "Even if we have known Christ with a fleshly
kind of knowledge, we know Him in such a way no longer." He
is not speaking of two different conceptions of Christ, but
of two diff^erent ways of knowing Christ. There is in the
passage, therefore, not the slightest reference to any primi-
tive conception of the person of Christ different from Paul's
conception.

In 2 Cor. xi. 4 Paul speaks of "another Jesus" whom his
opponents in Corinth were proclaiming or might proclaim. Was
this "other Jesus" the historical Jesus, in distinction from
the heavenly Christ of Paul.'^ Does this verse refer to a
primitive, Palestinian conception of Jesus different from the
conception held by Paul?

The verse is certainly very difficult; it constitutes a
famous crux inter pretum. But just for that reason, it should
not be made the foundation for far-reaching theories. There
is not the slightest hint elsewhere in 2 Corinthians that the
opponents presented a view of the person of Christ different
from that of Paul ; indeed what is characteristic of the polemic
in this Epistle is that doctrinal questions are absent. There
is not even any evidence that the opponents, though apparently
they laid stress upon Jewish descent, Palestinian connections,
and the like, and so may perhaps loosely be called "Judaizers,"
insisted upon the keeping of the Mosaic Law. Apparently Paul
does not feel required to defend the content of his gospel
at all. Certainly he does not feel required to defend his doc-
trine of the person of Christ. But if the opponents had really
proclaimed a human Jesus different from the divine Christ of
Paul, it is inconceivable that Paul should not have defended his
view. If there is one thing that is fundamental in the religion
of Paul, it is his conception of Christ as divine Redeemer.
Any denial of that conception would certainly have called
forth anathemas at least as severe as those which were hurled
against the legalists in Galatia. Yet in 2 Cor^ '^-xiii, though
these chapters contain perhaps the bitterest ^ polemic to be
found anywhere in the Pauline Epistles, there is no trace of
any defense of the Pauline conception of the person of Christ.
The natural suggestion is that such defense is absent because

ISJe THE ORIGIN OF PAtJL^S RELIGION

it was not called forth by anything that the opponents said.
It is adventurous exegetical procedure to hang a heavy weight
upon the very obscure verse, 2 Cor. xi. 4.

As a matter of fact, however, the obscurities of that verse
are not hopeless, and rightly interpreted the verse contains
no hint of a primitive conception of Jesus different from
that which was proclaimed by Paul. The translation of the
American Revised Version may first be presented as a basis
of discussion, though it is probably incorrect in important
particulars. In that version the three verses 2 Cor. xi. 4-6^
read as follows: "For if he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different
spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel, which
ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him. 6 For I
reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowl-
edge; nay, in every way have we made this manifest unto
you in all things." By a modification of this translation at the
end of verse 4, the whole passage might mean: "Bear with
me in my boasting. I am 'boasting* or defending myself
only in order that you may not be deceived by the opponoit
who comes to you. For if he comes arrogantly proclaiming
another Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel, ye bear
with him only too well. Bear with me then when I defend
myself. For I am not a bit behind these ^preeminent* apostles,^
since despite what they say I have really made the whole truth
known to you."

Even according to this interpretation there is no real
reference to a Jesus of the opponents different from Paul's
Jesus. The "other Jesus" of the opponents existed, rather,
merely in their own inordinate claims. They had no other
Jesus, no other Spirit, and no other gospel to offer. They
asserted, indeed, that the teaching of Paul was insufficient;
they asserted that they had fuller information about Jesus,

* 4. €t nkv yap b kpx^fifvoi &Wop ^l-qaovv Kripbaaei Sy oOk ticrfpO^dfi'iv, ^ irvcD/ia %rtpw
\an^6iV€T( 6 oi)K k\6ij^€Te, fj eiayykXiov Ir^pov b olfK kSk^aaSt, «caXd>s iLvkx^O*. 5. Xoyl"
^ofiai ydp firfSkv vaTeprjKfyai rcbv uirepXiav inroarhXnav . 6. el Bk Kai lifinys t<^ X6y^,
AXX ob Tjj yvu)aeif AXX iu iravTl 4>avtp<b(TavT€s kv ttohtiv «{j u^tdf .

■The translation preferred in the American Revision, **very chiefest
apostles," seems to be based upon the mistaken view that the hwtf^lap
iiirSaToXoi are the original apostles at Jerusalem. This view is rejected
in the above paraphrase, which diverges from the American Revision in
other ways also.

PAUI. AND JESUS 188

about the Spirit, and about the gospel. They said, ^7aul has
not made the full truth known to you." Yet they had really
nothing new to offer. Paul had really given to the Corinthians
the whole Jesus, the whole Spirit, and the whole gospel.

As a matter of fact, however, this interpretation is un-
satisfactory. It is obliged to supply a link to connect verse
4 with verse 6 — namely, the thought, "Bear with me." That
thought is here entirely imexpressed; verse 1, where it is ex-
pressed, is too far back to be in view. Thus if the pronoun
"him" is supplied with the verb at the end of verse 4, there is
no clear connection with verse 6; the **for" of verse 6 is
very obscure. If, however, the pronoun "me," not "him,"
is supplied with the verb at the end of verse 4, all is plain.
Since the pronoun does not appear at all in the Greek,
the translator is free to supply it as the context demands;
and the context apparently demands the pronoun "me." The
meaning of the passage is then as follows: "Bear with me in
my ^boasting.' My boasting is undertaken to prevent you from
being deceived. For if the one who comes to you seeks to
commend himself by claiming fuller knowledge of Jesus, the
Spirit, or the gospel, then you do well to bear with me in my
boasting, you do well to listen to my defense. For I am not
afraid of the comparison with the opponent. It is not true
that I have concealed from you anything about Jesus, about
the Spirit, or about the gospel; on the contrary I have made
everything known to you."

The exegetical question is somewhat complicated by a
question of the text in verse 4. Manuscript evidence is rather
evenly divided between the present tense of the verb at the
end of the verse and the imperfect tense.^ Unquestionably
the imperfect tense is the more difficult reading; it is favored
therefore by the well-known principle of textual criticism
that the more difficult reading is to be preferred to the easier.
If the imperfect be read, it may perhaps be explained as the
imperfect tense in the apodosis of a condition contrary to
fact; there would then be a transition from one form of con-
dition to another. Paul would then say: "If he who comes is
preaching another Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel
— if such were the case you would do well to bear with my
defense of my own preaching." If indeed the pronoun "him"
* Between Ay^eo^c and it^Lx^irBt (or 1ivtlx*ffBt).

184 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

be supplied at the end of verse 4, as is usually done, the im-
perfect might be taken simply as referring to past time, and
the meaning would be: "If he who comes is preaching another
Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel — ^when that took
place ye were bearing with the newcomer only too well." But
even so the imperfect is extremely harsh, and on the whole it
is more probable that it has crept in by a copyist's error —
perhaps in conformity to the same imperfect in verse 1, where
the imperfect is used to express a wish.

What has caused the vast majority of commentators to
supply "him'* rather than "me" at the end of verse 4 is appar-
ently the parallel with 2 Cor. xi. 19, 20, where Paul certainly
expresses the thought, "Bear with me, for you bear with my
arrogant opponents only too well." The parallel does indeed
constitute the strongest argument in favor of the ordinary
view of verse 4 which supplies the pronoun "him," and regards
the adverb "well" as sarcastic — "only too well." But the
argument is not decisive. The connection with verse 5 really
fixes the pronoun which is to be supplied at the end of the
preceding verse. Paul is defending himself against the charge,
implied in verse 6, that he had not made the full truth known.
The opponents had claimed to have further information about
Jesus, the Spirit, and the gospel. "But," says Paul, "if that
is their claim, ye do well to listen to my defense. For I have
made Jesus and the Spirit and the gospel just as fully known
to you as they have." The thought is perfectly clear if only
the pronoun "me" be supplied at the end of verse 4.

If, however, exegetical tradition be followed, and the pro-
noun "him" be supplied, the essential implications of the pas-
sage are not really different. In no case is anything said
about a conception of Jesus really differing from that of Paul.
One interpretation, indeed, definitely excludes such an impli-
cation. The passage may mean, "If the one who comes to you
preaches another Jesus — in that case you would do well to
bear with him. But as a matter of fact there is only one
Jesus. Therefore you will do well to be content with me.
For I have made Jesus fully known to you." According to this
interpretation, which has much to be said in its favor, Paul
refutes the opponents and their arrogant claims of bringing
something superior to Paul's message, by a reference to the
obvious fact that there is only one Jesus. "If they had

PAUL AND JESUS 186

another Jesus/' Paul says, *^then they might claim to bring
you something that I did not bring. But since, unfortunately
for them, there is of course only one Jesus, and since I made
that Jesus fully known to you, they cannot maintain any supe-
riority/' This interpretation is probably to be preferred among
all those which supply the pronoun "him" rather than "me"
at the end of verse 4.

At any rate, whichever interpretation be adopted, Paul
would surely have expressed himself very differently if the
opponents had presented an account of Jesus radically con-
tradictory to his own. In that case he could hardly have
appealed merely to the completeness of his presentation. In-
stead, he would have had to establish the truth of his presenta-
tion. As it is, the "other Jesus" of the Judaizers existed only
in their own inordinate claims. They really had no other
Jesus to offer; Paul had made the whole Jesus known. The
passage contains no hint, therefore, of a primitive conception of
Jesus differing from the lofty conception proclaimed by Paul.
Thus the Pauline Epistles contain not the slightest trace
of any conflict with regard to the person of Christ. About
other things there was debate, but about this point Paul
appears to have been in harmony with all Palestinian Chris-
tians. Even the Judaizers seem to have had no objection to
the heavenly Christ of Paul. But if the Judaizers, who were
Paul's bitter opponents, had no objection to Paul's view of
Christ, it could only have been because the original apostles
on this point gave them not even that slight color of support
which may have been foimd with regard to the way of salva-
tion in the apostles' observance of the Law. The fact is of
enormous importance. The heavenly Christ of Paul was also
the Christ of those who had walked and talked with Jesus of
Nazareth.

Let it not be said that this conclusion involves an undue
employment of the argument from silence; let it not be said
that although the original apostles did not share Paul's con-
ception of the heavenly Christ, Paul did not find it neces-
sary to enter into the debate in his Epistles. For on this
matter Paul could not possibly have kept silent. He was not
in the habit of keeping silent when the essential things of
his gospel were called in question — the anathemas which he
pronounced against the Judaizers in Galatia and the sharp

186 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

rebuke which he administered to the chief of the apostles at
Antioch are sufBcient proof of his fearlessness. But what
can possibly be regarded as essential to his gospel if it was
not his doctrine of Christ as divine Redeemer? That doc-
trine was the very warp and woof of his being; without it he
was less than nothing. Yet the historian is asked to believe
that Paul submitted tamely, without a word of protest, to the
presentation of a purely human Jesus. The thing is un-
thinkable. Paul would not have submitted to the preaching
of such a Jesus if the preachers had all been angels from
heaven.

What is really most significant in the Pauline Epistles
therefore, is the complete absence of any defense of the Pauline
doctrine of Christ, the complete absence, indeed, of any sys-
tematic presentation of that doctrine. The Pauline view
of Christ is everywhere presupposed, but nowhere defended.
The phenomenon is very strange if the modem naturalistic
account of Jesus be correct. According to that account, the
historical Jesus, a great and good man, came after His death
to be regarded as a divine Redeemer; one conception of Jesus
gave place to a very different conception. Yet the surprising
thing is that the mighty transition has left not the slightest
trace in the primary sources of information. The chief wit-
ness to the transcendent conception of Jesus as divine Re-
deemer is quite unconscious of introducing anything new; in-
deed he expressly calls attention to the harmony of his procla-
mation with that of the intimate friends of Jesus. There is
only one possible conclusion — the heavenly Christ of Paul
was also the Christ of those who had lived with Jesus of
Nazareth. They had seen Jesus subject to all the petty limita-
tions of human life; they had seen Him hungry and thirsty
and weary ; they had toiled with Him over the hills of Galilee ;
yet they gave the right hand of fellowship to one who regarded
Him as the divine Redeemer seated on the throne of all being,
and they were quite unconscious of any conflict between their
view and his.

Thus Paul was not regarded as an innovator with respect
to Jesus by Jesus' intimate friends. He was not regarded as
an innovator even with regard to those elements in his message
— such as freedom from the Law — about which no definite
guidance was to be found in the teaching or example of Jesus.

PAUL AND JESUS 187

Still less was he regarded as an innovator in his account of
Jesus' person. With regard to that matter even the Judaizers
did not venture to disagree.

But if Paul regarded himself, and was regarded by the
original apostles, as a true disciple of Jesus, how did he
obtain the necessary knowledge of Jesus' life? Was his knowl-
edge limited to intuition or remote hearsay ; or had he oppor-
tunities for authentic information?

That question has really been answered by the outline of
Paul's life in Chapters II and III. It has been shown that
even before his conversion, in Palestine, Paul must have become
acquainted with the facts about Jesus' life and death. The
facts were common property; even indifference could not have
made a man completely ignorant of them. But far from being
indifferent, Paul was deeply interested in Jesus, since he was
an active persecutor of Jesus' disciples. After the conversion,
Paul was undoubtedly baptized, and undoubtedly came into
some contact with Christians in Damascus. The presumption
is strongly in favor of the presence there of some who had
known Jesus in the days of His flesh; the independence of
which Paul is speaking in Galatians is independence over
against the Jerusalem apostles, not over against humble dis-
ciples in Damascus, and it does not relate to information
about details. Three years after the conversion Paul visited
Peter at Jerusalem, and also met James the brother of
Jesus. It is quite inconceivable that the three men avoided
the subject of Jesus' words and deeds. The fifteen days spent
with Peter at. Jerusalem brought Paul into contact with the
most intimate possible source of information about Jesus.

According to the Book of Acts, Paul came into contact
with Barnabas at the time of his first Jerusalem visit. What-
ever may be thought of this detail, the later association of
Barnabas with Paul, at Antioch and on the first missionary
journey, is generally or universally recognized as historical.
It is confirmed by the association of the two men at the time
of the conference with the Jerusalem pillars (Gal. ii. 1). Thus
Paul spent several years in the most intimate association with
Barnabas. Who then was Barnabas? According to Acts iv.
S6, 87, he was a man of Cyprus by descent, but he was also
a member of the primitive Jerusalem Church. The kind of in-
formation contained in this passage represents just that ele-

188 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

ment in the early chapters of Acts which is being generally
accepted by recent criticism. With regard to the community
of goods in the early Jerusalem Church, it is sometimes sup-
posed that the author of Acts has erred in generalizing and
exalting to the position of a principle what was really done
in many cases by generous individuals. But in order that
there might be unhistorical generalization, there must have
been something to generalize. Details, therefore, like the gen-
erous act of Barnabas in selling a field and devoting the pro-
ceeds to the needs of the brethren, are thought to constitute
the solid tradition with which the author of Acts is operating.
Objections in plenty may be raised against this treatment of
the narrative as a whole, but certainly the concreteness of
the little detached note about Barnabas makes a specially
favorable impression. It will probably be admitted to-day
by the majority of scholars that Barnabas really had a place
in the primitive Jerusalem Church. But if so, his close con-
nection with Paul is of the utmost importance. How could
Paul possibly have been for years intimately associated with
Barnabas in the proclamation of the gospel without becoming
acquainted with the facts about Jesus P Is it to be supposed
that Barnabas, who had lived at Jerusalem, proclaimed Jesus
as Saviour without telling in detail what sort of person Jesus
had been, and what He had said and done? Or is it to be
supposed that Paul closed his ears to what his brother mis-
sionary said.'^

At the beginning of the first missionary journey, Barnabas
and Paul were accompanied by John Mark, and Mark appears
again in the company of Paul, as one of Paul's trusted helpers,
in Cpl. iv. 10 and Philem. 24. This John Mark certainly came
from the Jenjsalera Church; for the house of his mother is
mentioned as a meeting-place for the Jerusalem disciples in the
incomparably vivid account in Acts xii. 1-17 of the escape
of Peter from prison. Whatever may be thought of the Book
of Acts as a whole, the twelfth chapter is recognized as em-
bodying primitive tradition. Even Wellhausen was somewhat
impressed with the lifelike detail of this narrative ; the chapter,
Wellhausen admitted, contains elements of high historical
value. ^ Certainly, then, the mother of John Mark and pre-
sumably Mark himself were members of the primitive Jerusa-
* Wellhausen, Kritische Analyse der Apostel^eschichte, 1914, pp. 22 f.

PAUI. AND JESUS 189

lem Church. Tradition, moreover, as preserved by Papias of
Hierapolis, connects Mark with Peter and represents the Sec-
ond Gospel (attributed to Mark) as based upon Peter's preach-
ing.* The connection of Mark with Peter is confirmed by 1
Peter v. 13. In general, recent criticism is favorably dis-
posed toward the Papian tradition about the Second Gospel;
that tradition is often admitted to have some basis in fact.
Of course the words of Papias about Mark's connection with
Peter naturally refer, at least in part, to a time later than
the formative period of Paul's life. But no doubt the later rela-
tionship was at least prepared for in the early days when Mark
and Peter were together in Jerusalem.^ John Mark, therefore,
constitutes an important link, not only between Paul and the
Jerusalem Church, but also between Paul and one of the most
intimate friends of Jesus. Paul would have been able to learn
the facts about Jesus' life from Mark if he had not learned
them elsewhere.

The conference between Paul and the Jerusalem leaders,
described in Gal. ii. 1-10, whether or no it was identical with
the Apostolic Council of Acts xv. 1-29, would naturally bring
an enrichment in Paul's knowledge of Jesus' earthly ministry.
It is hardly to be supposed that at the conference any more
than at the first visit of Paul to Jerusalem the subject of
the words and deeds of Jesus was carefully avoided. Such
avoidance would have been possible only if the Jerusalem
Church itself had been indifferent to its own reminiscences of
Jesus' earthly ministry. But that the Jerusalem Church was
not indifferent to its own reminiscences is proved by the preser-
vation (evidently at Jerusalem) of the tradition contained in
the Gospels. The existence of the Gospels shows that the
memory of Jesus' words and deeds was carefully treasured up
in the Jerusalem Church from the earliest times. Paul could
hardly have come into contact with such a church without ob-
taining information about Jesus. He could not have failed to
obtain information even if he had been anxious to avoid it.

'In Eusebius, Hist. Eccl iii, 39, 15.

•B. W. Bacon {Jesus and PomI, 1921, pp. 15f.) believes that the con-
nection between Peter and Marie is probably to be placed only in the
early years, principally before the first association of Mark with Paul.
This view, which is insufficiently grounded, involves a rejection of the
common view, attested, for example, by 1 Peter v. 13, according to which
Mark was also with Peter at a later time.

140 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL*S RELIGION

But as a matter of fact he was not anxious to avoid it; his
apostolic independence, as will be observed below, does not
really presuppose any such absurd attitude on his part.

On the third missionary journey Paul was accompanied by
Silas (the "Silvanus" of the Pauline Epistles). According to
the Book of Acts, Silas, like Barnabas and Mark, came origi-
nally from the Jerusalem Church, though his connection with
Jerusalem is not traced so far back. He is said to have been
one of the two men who accompanied the Apostolic Decree from
Jerusalem to Antioch (Acts xv. 27). This assertion of course
will not escape unchallenged. It shares no doubt to some
extent the criticism which has been directed against the De-
cree itself. But the tendency in recent years is to find a
larger and larger historical basis for the concrete assertions of
the author of Acts. So the mention of Judas and Silas as
coming from Jerusalem creates a favorable impression. It
cannot be ruled out merely because it stands only in Acts,
or merely because it is connected with the Decree. Even the
Decree, it will be remembered, is now often admitted to be a
Decree of the Jerusalem Church or to represent the substance
of such a decree, even by those scholars who suppose that Acts
is wrong in representing Paul as being present when the Decree
was passed. The tradition which lies back of Acts xv, there-
fore, cannot lightly be rejected. There is certainly some
evidence, therefore, for connecting Silas with the Jerusalem
Church. Of course, if the narrative in Acts be accepted as
it stands, as it is being accepted more and more generally
to-day, then the connection of Silas with the Jerusalem Church
is firmly established. That connection is not without its im-
portance. It shows that even when engaged in his specifically
Gentile work, Paul had not shut himself off from the sources
of information about Jesus.

The mention of Andronicus and Junias in Rom. xvi. 7 is
not without interest. According to the most natural inter-
pretation of the verse, Andronicus and Junias are declared to
have been in Christ before Paul was in Christ. They were,
therefore, primitive disciples. Certain other details are more
obscure. Does Paul mean that Andronicus and Junias were
themselves "apostles,** the word "apostle** being used here in
a broad sense. '^ In that case, the verse may be translated,
"Salute Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prison-

PAUL AND JESUS 141

ers, who are noteworthy among the apostles who were before me
in Christ." Or is it merely said that Andronicus and Junias
were regarded highly by the apostles, had a good reputation
among them? In that case, the relative pronoun is no doubt
to be taken with the words "Andronicus and Junias" rather
than with the word "apostles" ; and two details are mentioned :
(1) that Andronicus and Junias had a good reputation among
the apostles, and (2) that they were converted earlier than
Paul. Also the meaning of the word translated "kinsmen" is
doubtful. The word may mean merely "members of the same
race," that is, "Jews" ; or it may mean "members of the same
family," that is, "relatives." Still another interpretation is
favored by Bohlig, who thinks that the word designates An-
dronicus and Junias as members of the Jewish colony at
Tarsus, the boyhood home of Paul.^ But however the interest-
ing exegetical problems may be solved, it seems evident that
Andronicus and Junias had become Christians earlier than
Paul, and that they were therefore representatives of primitive
Christianity. The presence of such men in the Church at
Rome — or in the Church at Ephesus, if the common separation
of Rom. xvi. from the rest of Romans (on insufficient grounds)
be adopted — is interesting. It exemplifies the kind of personal
connection that was undoubtedly maintained between primitive
Christianity and the Gentile churches. Even far away in the
Gentile world Paul was not altogether removed from contact
with those who had been Christians before him. Wherever and
however Andronicus and Junias had become disciples, whether
in Jerusalem or elsewhere, whether by the instrumentality of
Jesus Himself or by the instrumentality of His apostles, in any
case they had become disciples in the very earliest days of the
Church's life. It is hardly to be supposed that they were
ignorant of the facts about Jesus, and in all probability there
were other such persons, even in Pauline churches.

But it is not necessary to lay stress upon Andronicus and
Junias, when Peter and James and Barnabas and Mark all
came into close contact with Paul. Paul had abundant oppor-
tunity for acquainting himself with the words and deeds of
Jesus.

Three important facts have thus far been established;
(1) Paul regarded himself as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth,
^ BOhlig, D%0 O0Ute$kultur van Tanot, 1913, pp. 140-149.

14.2 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

(2) he was so regarded by the intimate friends of Jesus, (8)
he had abundant sources of information about Jesus' life. The
natural conclusion is that Paul was a true disciple of the real
Jesus.

This conclusion is thought to be overthrown by two con-
siderations. In the first place, it is said, Paul himself at-
tests his own indifference to historical information about
Jesus; and in the second place, such indifference is confirmed
by the paucity of references in the Epistles to Jesus' words
and deeds. These two considerations lead into the heart of
the problem, and must be examined with some care.

The indifference of Paul toward historical information
about Jesus is thought to be attested chiefly by 2 Cor. v. 16
and by the Epistle to the Galatians. In 2 Cor. v. 16 Paul
says, "Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh,
yet now we know Him so no more." What can these words
mean, it is asked, except that ordinary information about
Jesus, dealing with the details of His earthly life, the kind of
information that one man can obtain of another by sight and
hearing, has become valueless for the Christian? The Chris-
tian, Paul says, is interested not at all in what eyewitnesses
may say or in what he himself may remember about the earthly
life of Jesus ; he is interested only in the direct contact which
he has at present with the risen Lord.

This interpretation ignores the fact that the assertion
in 2 Cor. v. 16 about the knowledge of Christ is only an appli-
cation of the general assertion at the beginning of the verse
about the knowledge of persons in general. "So that," says
Paul, "we from now on know no one after the flesh." Paul
says, therefore, not only that he does not know Christ after
the flesh, but also that he does not know any man after the
flesh, and the two assertions must obviously be interpreted in
the same way. Therefore the interpretation which has been
proposed for the knowledge of Christ, if it is to commend itself,
must also be applied to the knowledge of every man.

But when it is so applied it results in absurdity. It
would make Paul indifferent not only to ordinary information
about Jesus, but also to ordinary information about men in
general. But as a matter of fact Paul was not indifferent to
ordinary information about men in general. On the contrary,
he was exceedingly careful about getting information just as

PAUL AND JESUS 14j8

accurate as could possibly be secured. Was Paul a visionary,
with his head always in the clouds, indifferent to the concrete
problems of individual men, indifferent to what men had to
tell him about their various earthly relationships, indifferent
to their bodily needs? The First Epistle to the Corinthians
is a magnificent refutation of such a caricature. That Epistle
represents Paul as a pastor of souls, unsurpassed in his in-
sight into the practical problems of his converts, unsurpassed
in the tact with which he applied great principles to special
circumstances. But the same characteristics appear everywhere
in Paul. Everywhere Paul is the true friend, the true patriot,
and the true man; everywhere he exhibits that careful atten-
tion to detail, that careful recognition of special relationships,
which is lacking in genuinely mystical piety. Some pastors are
accustomed to say the same thing no matter what questions
are laid before them; they can only enunciate general prin-
ciples without applying them to special problems ; they are in-
capable of special friendships and incapable of analyzing actual
situations. It is not so in the case of Paul. In the Pauline
Epistles special problems are solved in the light of eternal
principles; but the special problems as well as the eternal
principles are subjected to the most careful examination. Paul
was not indifferent to ordinary knowledge of his fellow-men.

Thus when Paul says that he knows no man after the flesh
he does not mean that he ignored the ordinary knowledge which
comes through sight and hearing. But if that kind of knowl-
edge is not excluded from the relations between Paul and men
in general, it is also not excluded from the relations between
Paul and Christ; for the latter part of the verse is evidently
placed in parallel with the former part. It is evidently the
same kind of knowledge which is excluded in both cases. Paul
does not mean, therefore, that he was indifferent to ordinary
sources of information about Christ.

What he does mean is that he regarded those ordinary
sources of information not as an end in themselves, but as a
means to an end. Tha natural man according to Paul does not
understand the true significance of the words and deeds of
his fellow-men; he does not use them to attest spiritual facts.
The man who is in Christ, on the contrary, even when he uses
ordinary means of information, is acquiring knowledge of
spiritual relationships, relationships which exist in the new

144 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

world. So it is also with the knowledge of Christ. The nat-
ural man may acquire a certain knowledge of Christ; he may
learn what Christ said and did and what were the worldly
circumstances of His life. But such knowledge is a knowledge
according to the flesh; it does not attain to the true signifi-
cance even of those facts which are learned. The man who is
in Christ, on the other hand, may operate partly with the same
materials ; but even when he is operating with the same mate-
rials, even when he is obtaining by sight or by hearsay knowl-
edge of the words and deeds of Jesus, these facts now are in-
vested with a higher significance. The natural man detects only
the outward appearance of the words and deeds of Jesus ; the
man who is in Christ makes them attest facts that have sig-
nificance in the new world. No doubt the higher knowledge of
Christ of which Paul is speaking is not limited to this spiritual
use of ordinary sources of information; no doubt there is
also a direct intercourse between the believer and the risen
Lord. But the spiritual use of the ordinary sources of infor-
mation is certainly not excluded. Paul does not mean that he
was indifferent to what Jesus said and did.

Thus 2 Cor. v. 16, rightly interpreted, does not attest any
indifference on the part of Paul toward the information about
Jesus which came to him through contact with Jesus' disciples.
Such indifference, however, is also thought to be attested by
the Epistle to the Galatians. In Gal. i, ii, Paul emphasizes
his complete independence over against the original disciples.
He received his gospel, he says, not by the instrumentality of
men, but by direct revelation from the risen Christ. Even
after the revelation he felt no need of instruction from those
who had been apostles before him. It was three years before
he saw any of them, and then he was with Peter only fifteen
days. Even when he did finally have a conference with the
original apostles, he received nothing from them; they recog-
nized that God had already entrusted him with his gospel and
that they had nothing to add. What can this passage mean,
it is asked, except that Paul was indifferent to tradition, and
derived his knowledge of Christ entirely from revelation?

In answer, it is sufficient to point to 1 Cor. xv. 1-11.
Was Paul indifferent to tradition? In 1 Cor. xv. 3 he himself
attests the contrary; he places tradition — something that he
had received — at the very foundation of his missionary

PAUL AND JESUS 146

preaching. "For I delivered unto you among the first things,*'
he says, **that which I also received." The word "received"
here certainly designates information obtained by ordinary
word of mouth, not direct revelation from the risen Christ;
and the content of what was "received" fixes the source of
the information pretty definitely in the fifteen days which
Paul spent with Peter at Jerusalem. It is almost universally
admitted that 1 Cor. xv. 8ff. contains the tradition of the
Jerusalem Church with regard to the death and resurrection
of Jesus.

The comparison with 1 Cor. xv. 1-11 thus exhibits the danger
of interpreting the Epistle to the Galatians in one-sided fashion.
If Galatians stood by itself, the reader might suppose that
at least the resurrection of Christ, the central fact of Paul's
gospel, was founded, in Paul's preaching, upon Paul's own
testimony alone. In Galatians Paul says that his gospel was
not derived from men. But his gospel was grounded upon
the resurrection of Christ. Surely, it might be said, there-
fore, he based at least the resurrection not at all upon the
testimony of others but upon the revelation which came to
him from Christ. Is it possible to conceive of the author
of Galatians as appealing for the foundation of his gospel
to the testimony of Peter and the twelve and other brethren
in the primitive Church — to the testimony of exactly those
men whose mediatorship he is excluding in Galatians? Yet as
a matter of fact, that is exactly what Paul did. That he did
so is attested not by the Book of Acts or by any source upon
which doubt might be cast, but by one of the accepted epistles.
The Epistle to the Galatians must always be interpreted in
the light of 1 Cor. xv. 1-11.

What then does Paul mean in Galatians when he says that
he received his gospel directly from Christ? The answer is
perfectly plain. He does not mean that when he drew near to
Damascus on that memorable day he knew none of the facts
about Jesus ; he does not mean that after that day his knowledge
of the facts was not enriched by intercourse with Jesus' friends.
What Jesus really gave him near Damascus was not so much
the facts as a new interpretation of the facts. He had known
some of the facts before, but they had filled him with hatred.
The Galilean prophet had cast despite upon the Law ; He had
broken down the prerogatives of Israel; it was blasphemous,

146 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

moreover, to proclaim a crucified malefactor as the Lord's
Anointed. Paul had known the facts before ; he had known them
only too well. Now, however, he obtained a new interpretation
of the facts ; he obtained that new interpretation not by human
intermediation, not by reflection upon the testimony of the disci-
ples, not by the example of the holy martyrs, but by revelation
from Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself appeared to him. He
might have appeared in anger, to destroy him for his unspeak-
able sin. Instead, He appeared in love, to call him into fel-
lowship and into glorious service, to commission him as apostle
of the One whose Church he had laid waste. That is what
Paul means when he says that he received his gospel directly
from the risen Christ.

The truth is, it never occurred to Paul to regard the
bare facts about Jesus as constituting a "gospeP'; it never
even occurred to Paul to reflect upon all the sources of in-
formation about the facts. To us the sources of information
about Jesus are limited: therefore they are searched out and
numbered and weighed. But to Paul the sources of information
were so numerous that they could not be catalogued. It never
occurred to him to regard with supreme gratitude the particu-
lar source from which he derived any particular bit of informa-
tion about Jesus any more than we regard with s{>ecial grati-
tude the newspaper from which we derive our knowledge of cur-
rent events. If one newspaper had not printed the news, others
would have done so ; the sources of information are so numerous
that we do not reflect upon them. So it was in the case of
Paul's information about Jesus. Bare detailed information
about the words and deeds of Jesus did not in Paul's mind con-
stitute a "gospel"; they constituted only the materials upon
which the gospel was based. When he sa3^s, therefore, that
he did not receive his gospel from men he does not mean that
he received no information from Peter or Barnabas or Mark
or James or the five hundred brethren who had seen the risen
Lord. What he does mean is that he himself was convinced
of the decisive fact — the fact of the resurrection — not by the
testimony of these men, but by the divine interposition on the
road to Damascus, and that none of these men told him
how he himself was to be saved or what he was to say to the
Gentiles about the way of salvation. Materials for the proof
of his gospel might come to him from ordinary sources of in-

PAUL AND JESUS 147

formation, but his gospel itself was given to him directly by
Christ.

Thus Paul does not directly attest any indifference on his
part toward tradition about the life of Jesus. But is not
such indifference revealed by the extreme paucity of refer-
ences in the Pauline Epistles to what Jesus said and did?

In answer to this question it must be admitted that di-
rect citations in the Pauline Epistles of words of Jesus, and
direct references to the details of Jesus' life, are surprisingly
few. In 1 Cor. vii. 10, Paul appeals to a command of the
Lord about divorce, and carefully distinguishes such commands
from what he himself is saying to the Corinthians (verses 12,
25). In 1 Cor. ix. 14, he calls attention to an ordinance of the
Lord to the effect that they that proclaim the gospel should
live of the gospel. In these passages it cannot be doubted
that the commands of "the Lord" are commands that Jesus
^ve during His earthly ministry ; they are certainly not com-
mands given to Paul by the risen Christ. For the words which
Paul himself wrote to his churches, by virtue of his apostolic
authority, themselves constituted commands of the Lord in
the broad sense, in that the authority of the Lord was behind
them (1 Cor. xiv. 37); here, therefore, when such apostolic
commands are distinguished from commands of the Lord, the
commands of the Lord must be taken in a narrower sense. They
can only be commands given by Jesus during His earthly
nunistry.^

These passages show that Paul was in the habit of dis-
tinguishing what Jesus said on earth to His disciples from
what the risen Lord said to him directly by revelation. They
show, moreover, that Paul was in possession of a fund of in-
formation about the words of Jesus. It may be a question
why he did not draw upon the fund more frequently ; but at any
rate, the fund was there.

In 1 Thess. iv. 15, the assurance that those who are alive
at the Parousia shall not precede those that have died is
grounded in a word of the Lord ("For this we say to you in a
word of the Lord").^ Here again the "word of the Lord" is
probably to be regarded as a word which Jesus spoke while He
was on earth, rather than as a revelation made by the risen

* Compare Knowling, The WUneu of the EpUtles, 1892, pp. 319f.

148 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

Lord directly to Paul. If this interpretation be correct, then
this passage contains another incidental reference to a fund
of information about the words of Jesus.

Most important of all, however, is the report of the
institution of the Lord's Supper in 1 Cor. xi. 23ff. The
report is introduced by the words, "For I received from the
Lord that which also I delivered unto you." What does Paul
mean by the expression "received from the Lord**? Does he
mean that the information was given him directly by the risen
Christ, or that he received it by ordinary word of mouth from
the eyewitnesses? The former interpretation has been favored
in the first place by some who occupy a strictly supernatural-
istic point of view, to whom therefore it does not seem strange
that the risen Christ should give to His apostle even detailed
information about past events; it has also been favored by
some who start from naturalistic presuppositions, and, re-
garding Paul as a mystic and a visionary, seek to separate
him as far as possible from historical tradition about Jesus.
But from either of these two points of view the interpreta-
tion is unsatisfactory. Why should the risen Christ give to
His apostle detailed information which could be obtained per-
fectly well by ordinary inquiry from the eyewitnesses? Such
revelation would be unlike the other miracles of the Bible.
God does not rend the heaven to reveal what can be learned
just as well by ordinary word of mouth. But this interpreta-
tion is equally unsatisfactory from the naturalistic point of
view. Did Paul really suppose the risen Christ to have given
him all this detailed information about the night of the betrayal
and the rest? How could such a visionary experience be ex-
plained? The only possible answer, on naturalistic presupposi-
tions, would be that the vision merely made use of materials
which were already in Paul's mind ; Paul already had informa-
tion from the eyewitnesses about the Supper, but after he had
forgotten whence he had received the information it welled
up again from his subconscious life in the form of a vision.
This explanation involves a psychological absurdity. The
area of Paul's consciousness was not so limited as it is repre-
sented in modern reconstructions as being. If Paul received
information from the eyewitnesses about what Jesus said and
did on the night of the betrayal, we can be sure that he
remembered the information and remembered where he had got

PAUL AND JESUS 149

•

it. It was not necessary for him to receive it all over again
in a vision.

There are therefore serious a priori objections against
finding in the words ^^received from the Lord" in 1 Cor. xi. 23
a reference to direct revelation. But this interpretation is
not really favored by the words as they stand. The word
**from,'' in the clause "I received from the Lord," is not the
only word used for "from" after the word "received"; this
word seems to indicate not the immediate but the ultimate
source of what is received.^ Furthermore, the word "re-
ceived" ^ in 1 Cor. xv. 8 certainly refers to ordinary informa-
tion obtained from eyewitnesses; it is natural therefore to
find a similar usage of the word in 1 Cor. xi. 23. It is natural
to interpret one passage after the analogy of the other. In
1 Cor. XV. 8fi^. Paul is certainly appealing to ordinary tradi-
tion ; probably, therefore, he is also doing so in 1 Cor. xi. SSff.
The report of the institution of the Lord's Supper is thus to be
added to those passages which contain definite citations of the
words of Jesus.

This report also belongs with those passages in the Epis-
tles which attest knowledge of the details of Jesus' life. It
is sometimes said that Paul is interested only in two facts
about Jesus, the death and the resurrection. Yet in 1 Cor.
xi. 23 he refers even to such a detail as the betrayal, and
fixes the time of its occurrence — "the night in which He was
betrayed." Other details about the life of Jesus may be
gleaned from the Epistles. Jesus, according to Paul, was a
Jew, He was descended from David, He was subject to the
Mosaic Law, He had brothers, of whom one is named. He car-
ried on a ministry for the Jews (Rom. xv. 8). With regard
to the crucifixion and resurrection, moreover, Paul was inter-
ested not merely in the bare facts themselves ; he was also inter-
ested in the details connected with them. Thus in 1 Cor. xv. 4
he mentions the burial of Jesus as having formed a part of his
fundamental missionary preaching; and he also gives in the
same connection an extended list of appearances of the risen
Christ. It is possible that when Paul writes to the Galatians
that Jesus Christ crucified had been pictured or placarded be-
fore their eyes (Gal. iii. 1), he is referring, not merely to the

* iar6 Is here used, not Topd.
' s-oplXa^Sop'.

160 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

forcibleness with which the one fact of Christ's death was
proclaimed in Galatia, but also to the vividness with which the
story was told in detail. So vivid was the story of the cruci-
fixion as Paul told it in Galatia that it was as though the
Galatians had before their eyes a great picture of Jesus on
the cross.

Moreover, the references of Paul to Jesus' life concern
not merely details ; some of them also attest warm appreciation
of Jesus' character. The character of Jesus is indeed, accord-
ing to Paul, exhibited primarily by the great central act of
love by which He came to earth to die for the salvation of
men. In Phil. ii. 5ff., the unselfishness of Christ, which is
held up for imitation by the Philippian Christians, is found
no doubt primarily in the incarnation and in the Cross; in
Gal. ii. 20, the love of Christ, upon which the faith and the
gratitude of believers are based, is foimd in the one great
fact of Christ's death ("who loved me and gave himself for
me"). But there are also passages in the Epistles which show
that Paul was impressed with the character of Jesus not only
as it was manifested by the incarnation and by the atoning
death, but also as it appeared in the daily life of Jesus through-
out His earthly ministry. The plainest of such passages, per-
haps, are 2 Cor. x. 1 and Rom. xv. 2, 3. When Paul speaks of
the meekness and gentleness of Christ, he refers evidently to
the impression which Jesus made upon His contemporaries ; and
when he says that Christ "pleased not himself" but bore re-
proaches patiently, he is evidently thinking not only of the gra-
cious acts of incarnation and atonement but also of the conduct
of Jesus from day to day. In 2 Cor. viii. 9 ("though He was
rich yet for your sakes He became poor"), although the refer-
ence may be primarily to the poverty of any human life as com-
pared with the glories of the prcexistent Christ, yet the peculiar
choice of words is probably due to the details of Jesus' life of
hardship ; Paul would hardly have spoken in this way if Jesus
while He was on earth had lived in the magnificence of an
earthly kingdom. Even in Phil. ii. 7, though the "form of
a servant" refers primarily to human existence as distinguished
from the glories of heaven, yet there seems to be also an im-
pression of the special humility and poverty of Jesus' earthly
life ; and the Cross is put as the climax of an obedience wliich
appeared also in Jesus' life as a whole (verse 8). Back of

PAUL AND JESUS 161

these passages there lies warm appreciation of Jesus' char-
acter as it appeared in the days of His flesh. Imitation of
Christ (1 Thess. i. 6; 1 Cor. xi. 1) had its due place in the
life and teaching of Paul, and that imitation was founded
not only upon one act, but upon many acts, of the Lord.
When Paul speaks of his own life of constant self-sacrifice,
in which he seeks not his own comfort but the salvation of
others, as being led in imitation of Christ (1 Cor. x. 32-xi. 1),
he has before his mind the lineaments of just that Jesus who
is known to us in the Gospels — that Jesus who had not where
to lay His head, who went about doing good, and who preached
the gospel to the poor.

Thus the paucity of references in the Pauline Epistles
to the teaching and example of Jesus has sometimes been exag-
gerated. The Epistles attest considerable knowledge of the
details of Jesus' life, and warm appreciation of His character.
Undoubtedly, moreover, Paul knew far more about Jesus
than he has seen fit, in the Epistles, to tell. It must always be
remembered that the Epistles do not contain the missionary
preaching of Paul; they are addressed to Christians, in whose
case much of the primary instruction had already been given.
Some things are omitted from the Epistles, therefore, not
because they were unimportant, but on the contrary just be-
cause they were fundamental ; instruction about them had to be
given at the very beginning and except for special reasons did
not need to be repeated. Except for certain misunderjstand-
ings which had arisen at Corinth, for example, Paul would
never have set forth in his Epistles the testimony by which
the fact of the resurrection of Jesus was established ; yet that
testimony, he says, was fundamental in his missionary preach-
ing. If it were not for the errorists at Corinth we should never
have had the all-important passage about the appearances of
the risen Christ. It is appalling to reflect what far-reaching
conclusions would in that case have been drawn by modem
scholars from the silence of Paul. So it is also with the account
of the institution of the Lord's Supper in 1 Cor. xi. 2Sff. That
account is inserted in the Epistles only because of certain abuses
which had happened to arise at Corinth. Elsewhere Paul says
absolutely nothing about the institution of the Supper ; indeed,
in the Epistles other than 1 Corinthians he says nothing about
the Supper at all. Yet the Lord's Supper was undoubtedly

168 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

celebrated everywhere in the Pauline churches, and no doubt
was grounded everywhere in an account of its institution.
Thus the resurrection appearances and the institution of the
Lord's Supper, despite the fact that they were absolutely fun-
damental in Paul's teaching, appear each only once in the
Epistles. May there not then have been other things just as
prominent in Paul's teaching which are not mentioned at all?
These two things are mentioned only because of the mis-
understandings that had arisen with regard to them. Certain
other things just as important may be omitted from the Epis-
tles only because in their case no misunderstandings had hap-
pened to arise. It must always be remembered that the Epistles
of Paul are addressed to special needs of the churches. It
cannot be argued, therefore, that what is not mentioned in the
Epistles was not known to the apostle at all.

Thus the incidental character of Paul's references to the
life and teaching of Jesus shows clearly that Paul knew
far more than he has seen fit in the Epistles to tell. The
references make the impression of being detached bits taken
from a larger whole. When, for example, Paul says that the
institution of the Lord's Supper took place on the night in
which Jesus was betrayed, he presupposes on the part of his
readers an account of the betrayal, and hence an account of the
traitor and of his position among the apostles. So it is in
other cases where Paul refers to the life and teaching of
Jesus. The references can be explained only as presupposing a
larger fund of information about the words and deeds of Jesus.
Unquestionably Paul included in his fundamental teaching an
account of what Jesus said and did.

Indeed, if he had not done so, he would have involved
himself in absurdity. As J. Weiss has pointed out with admir-
able acuteness, a missionary preaching which demanded faith
in Jesus without telling what sort of person Jesus was would
have been preposterous.^ The hearers of Paul were asked to
stake their salvation upon the redeeming work of Jesus. But
who was this Jesus? The question could scarcely be avoided.
Other redeemers, in the pagan religion of the time, were pro-
tected from such questions; they were protected by the mists
of antiquity; investigations about them were obviously out of
* J. Weiss, D(U dlteste Evangelium, 1903, pp. 33-39.

PAUL AND JESUS 163

place. But Paul had given up the advantages of such vague-
ness. The redeemer whom he proclaimed was one of his own
contemporaries, a Jew who had lived but a few years before
and had died the death of a criminal. Investigation of this
Jesus was perfectly possible; His brothers, even, were still
alive. Who was He then? Did He suffer justly on the cross?
Or was He the Righteous One? Such questions could hardly
be avoided. And as a matter of fact they were not avoided.
The incidental references in the Epistles, scanty though they
are, are sufficient to show that an account of the words and
deeds of Jesus formed an important part of the teaching of
Paul.

The presumption is, therefore, that Paul was a true disciple
of Jesus. He regarded himself as a disciple; he was so re-
garded by his contemporaries; he made use of Jesus' teaching
and example. But is this presumption justified? Was it
the real Jesus whom Paul followed? The question can be
answered only by a comparison of what is known about Paul
with what is known about Jesus.

But at the very beginning of the comparison, a fundamental
difficulty arises. How may Jesus be known? Paul is known,
through his own letters. But how about Jesus? The sources
of information about Jesus are the four Gospels. But are the
Gospels trustworthy?

If they are trustworthy, then it will probably be admitted
that Paul was a true disciple of Jesus. For the Gospels,
taken as a whole, present a Jesus like in essentials to that
divine Lord who was sum and substance of the life of Paul.
The Jesus of the Gospels is no mere prophet, no mere inspired
teacher of righteousness, no mere revealer or interpreter of
God. He is, on the contrary, a supernatural person ; a heaven-
ly Redeemer come to earth for the salvation of men. So much
is usually being admitted to-day. Whatever may have been
the real facts about Jesus, the Gospels present a supernatural
Jesus. This representation is contained not merely in one of
the Gospels ; it is contained in all of them. The day is past
when the divine Christ of John could be confronted with a
human Christ of Mark. On the contrary, Mark and John, it
is now maintained, differ only in degree ; Mark as well as John,
even though it should be supposed that he does so less clearly

164 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

and less consistently, presents a Jesus similar in important
respects to the divine Redeemer of the Epistles of Paul.^

Thus if Paul be compared with the Jesus of the Grospeb,
there is full agreement between the two. The Jesus of all the
Gospels is a supernatural person; the Jesus of all the Gospels
is a Redeemer. "The Son of Man," according to the shortest
and if modem criticism be accepted the earliest of the Gos-
pels, "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give his life a ransom for many" (Mk. x. 46). But it is not
necessary to depend upon details. The very choice of mate-
rial in the Gospels points to the same conclusion ; the Gospels
like the Epistles of Paul are more interested in the death of
Jesus than in the details of His life. And for the same reason.
The Gospels, like the Epistles of Paul, are interested in the
death of Jesus because it was a ransom from sin.

But this similarity of the Jesus of the Gospels to the Christ
of the Pauline Epistles has led sometimes, not to the recogni-
tion of Paul as a disciple of Jesus, but to the hypothesis that
the Gospels are dependent upon Paul. If the Gx)spels are
introducing into their picture of Jesus elements derived not
from the real Jesus but from the mythical Christ of the Epis-
tles, then of course they will display similarity to the Epistles ;
but such similarity will scarcely be very significant. In com-
paring the Epistles with the Gospels, the historian will then be
comparing not Paul with Jesus, but Paul with Paul.

If, therefore, Paul is to be compared with Jesus, it is said,
those elements which are derived from Paul must first be sepa-
rated from the Gospels. Even after this separation has been
accomplished, however, there remains in the Gospel picture of
Jesus a certain amount of similarity to the Pauline Christ;
it is generally admitted that the process by which Jesus was
raised to the position of a heavenly being was begun before
the appearance of Paul and was continued in some quarters
in more or less independence of him. Thus if Paul is to be
compared with the real Jesus, as distinguished from the Christ
of Christian faith, the historian, it is said, must first separate
from the Gospel picture not merely those details which were
derived distinctly from Paul, but also the whole of the super-

*See, for example, J. Weiss, Dot Urchriftentum, 1914-1917, pp. 540,
547,548. ' , ff ^-^

PAUL AND JESUS 166

natural element.^ Mere literary criticism will not accom-
plish the task; for even the earliest sources which can be
distinguished in the Gospels seem to lift Jesus above the
lerd of ordinary humanity and present Him not merely as
an example for faith but also as the object of faith. ^ Even
in the earliest sources, therefore, the historian must distinguish
genuine tradition from dogmatic accretions; he must separate
the natural from the supernatural, the believable from the
unbelievable; he must seek to remove from the genuine figure
of the Galilean prophet the tawdry ornamentation which has
been hung about him by naive and unintelligent admirers.

Thus the Jesus who is to be compared with Paul, according
to the modern naturalistic theory, is not the Jesus of the Gos-
pels; he is a Jesus who can be rediscovered only through a
critical process within the Gospels. And that critical process
is very difficult. It is certainly no easy matter to separate
natural and supernatural in the Gospel picture of Jesus, for
the two are inextricably intertwined. In pulling up the tares,
the historian is in danger of pulling up the wheat as well ; in the
removal of the supernatural elements from the story of Jesus,
the whole of the story is in danger of being destroyed. Certain
radical spirits are not afraid of the consequence; since the
Jesus of the Gospels, they say, is a supernatural person. He is
not a real person ; no such person as this Jesus ever lived on
earth. Such radicalism, of course, is absurd. The Jesus of
the Gospels is certainly not the product of invention or of
myth; He is rooted too deep in historical conditions; He
towers too high above those who by any possibility could
have produced Him. But the radical denials of the historicity
of Jesus are not without interest. They have at least called
attention to the arbitrariness with which the separation of
historical from unhistorical has been carried on in the pro-
duction of the "liberal Jesus."

But suppose the separation has been completed ; suppose the
historical Jesus has been discovered beneath the gaudy colors
which had almost hopelessly defaced His portrait. Even then

^ For what followsr see, in addition to the paper mentioned at the be-
diming of the chapter, "History and Faith," in Princeton Theological
Review, xiii, 1915, pp. 337-351.

'See Denney, Jeeue and the Ooepel, 1909.

166 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

the troubles of the historian are not at an end. For this his-
torical Jesus, this human Jesus of modern liberalism^ is a
monstrosity ; there is a contradiction at the very center of His
being. The contradiction is produced by His Messianic con-
sciousness. The human Jesus of modern liberalism, the pure
and humble teacher of righteousness, the one who kept His
own person out of His message and merely asked men to have
faith in God like His faith — this Jesus of modem liberalism
thought that He was to come with the clouds of heaven and
be the instrument in judging the earth ! If Jesus was pure and
unselfish and of healthy mind, how could He have applied to
Himself the tremendous conception of the transcendent Mes-
siah? By some the problem is avoided. Some, like Wrede,
deny that Jesus ever presented Himself as the Messiah ; others,
like Bbusset, are at least moving in the same direction. But
such radicalism cannot be carried out. The Messianic element
in the consciousness of Jesus is rooted too deep in the sources
ever to be removed by any critical process. It is established
also by the subsequent development. If Jesus never thought
Himself to be the Messiah and never presented Himself as
such, how did His disciples come to regard Him as the Mes-
siah after His death? Why did they not simply say, "Despite
His death, the Kingdom of God is coming?" Why did they
say rather, "Despite His death, He is the Messiah?"^ They
could only have done so if Jesus had already presented Himself
to them as Messiah when He had been with them on earth.

In recent criticism, such radicalism as that which has just
been discussed is usually avoided. The presence of the Mes-
sianic element in the consciousness of Jesus cannot altogether
be denied. Sometimes, indeed, that element is even made the
determining factor in all of Jesus' teaching. So it is with the
hypothesis of "consistent eschatology" of A. Schweitzer and
others.^ According to that hypothesis Jesus expected the
Kingdom of God to come in a catastrophic way in the very
year in which he was carrying on His ministry in Galilee, and
all His teaching was intended to be a preparation for the
great catastrophe. Even the ethic of Jesus, therefore, is
thought to have been constructed in view of the approaching

*J. Weiss, "Das Problem der Entstehung des Christentums," in Archie
fUr Religionfwissenschaft, xvi, 1913, p. 456,
'A. Schweitier, Oeschichte der Leben-Jesu^Forschung, 1913, pp. 390-443.

PAUL AND JESUS 167

end of the world, and is thus regarded as unsuitable for a
permanent world order. This hjrpothesis not only accepts the
Messianic consciousness of Jesus, but in one direction at least
it even exaggerates the implications of that consciousness.

Usually, however, this extreme also is avoided, and the
historian pursues, rather, a policy of palliation. Jesus did
come to regard Himself as the Messiah, it is said, but He did
so only late in His ministry and almost against His will. When
He found that the people were devoted to sin, and that He
alone was fighting God's battle. He came to regard Himself
as God's chosen instrument in the establishment of the Eang-
dom. Thus He had a tremendous consciousness of a mission.
But the only category in which He could express that con-
sciousness of a mission was the category of Messiahship. In
one form, indeed, that category was unsuitable; Jesus would
have nothing to do with the political aspirations associated
with the expected king of David's line. But the expectation
of the Messiah existed also in another form; the Messiah was
sometimes regarded, not as a king of David's line, but as the
heavenly Son of Man alluded to in Daniel and more fully de-
scribed in the Similitudes of Enoch. This transcendent form
of Messiahship, therefore, was the form which Jesus used.
But the form, it is maintained, is a matter of indifference to
us, and it was not really essential to Jesus; what was really
essential was Jesus' consciousness of nearness to God.

Such palliative measures will not really solve the problem.
The problem is a moral and psychological problem. How
could a pure and holy prophet of righteousness, one whose
humility and sanity have made an indelible impression upon all
subsequent generations — how could such a one lapse so far
from the sobriety and sanity of His teaching as to regard
Himself as the heavenly Son of Man who was to be the instru-
ment in judging the wo rid .'^ The difficulty is felt by all thought-
ful students who proceed upon naturalistic principles. There
is to such students, as Heitmiiller says, something almost un-
canny about Jesus. ^ And the difficulty is not removed by
putting the genesis of the Messianic consciousness late in
Jesus' life. Whether late or early, Jesus did regard Himself
as the Messiah, did regard Himself as the one who was to come
with the clouds ef heaven. There lies the problem. How
^Hdtmmier, Jetut, 1913, p. 71.

168 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

could Jesus, with His humility and sobriety and strength, ever
have lapsed so far from the path of sanity as to assume the
central place in the Kingdom of God?

Here, again, radical minds have drawn the logical conclu-
sions. The Messianic consciousness, they say, is an example
of megalomania; Jesus, they say, was insane. Such is said
to be the diagnosis of certain alienists. And the diagnosis need
cause no alarm. Very likely it is correct. But the Jesus who
is being investigated by the alienists is not the Jesus of the
New Testament. The liberal Jesus, if he ever existed, may
have been insane. But that is not the Jesus whom the Christian
loves. The alienists are investigating a man who thought he
was divine and was not divine; about one who thought He was
divine and was divine they have obviously nothing to say.

Two difficulties, therefore, face the reconstruction of the
liberal Jesus. In the first place, it is difficult to separate the
natural from the supernatural in the Gospel picture of Jesus ;
and in the second place, after the separation has been accom-
plished, the human Jesus who is left is found to be a mon-
strosity, with a contradiction at the very center of His being.
Such a Jesus, it may fairly be maintained, could never have
existed on earth.

But suppose He did exist, suppose the psychological im-
possibilities of His character be ignored. Even then the diffi-
culties of the historian are not overcome. Another question
remains. How did this human Jesus ever come to give place to
the superhuman Jesus of the New Testament? The transition
evidently occurred at a very early time. It is complete in the
Epistles of Paul. And within Paul's experience it was cer-
tainly no late development; on the contrary it was evidently
complete at the very beginning of his Christian life; the Jesus
in whom he trusted at the time of his conversion was certainly
the heavenly Christ of the Epistles. But the conversion oc-
curred only a very few years, at the most, after the crucifixion
of Jesus. Moreover, there is in the Pauline Epistles not the
slightest trace of a conflict between the heavenly Christ of
Paul and any "other Jesus" of the primitive Jerusalem Church ;
apparently the Christ of Paul was also the Christ of those
who had walked and talked with Jesus of Nazareth. Such is
the evidence of the Epistles. It is confirmed by the Gospels.
Like Paul, the Gospels present no mere teacher of righteous-

PAUL AND JESUS 169

nessi but a heavenly Redeemer. Yet the Gospels make the
impression of being independent of Paul. Everywhere the
Jesus that they present is most strikingly similar to the Christ
of Paul; but nowhere — not even where Jesus is made to teach
the redemptive significance of His death (Mk. x. 46) — ^is
there the slightest evidence of literary dependence upon the
Epistles. Thus the liberal Jesus, if he ever existed, has dis-
appeared from the pages of history; all the sources agree
in presenting a heavenly Christ. How shall such agreement
be explained?

It might conceivably be explained by the appearances of
the risen Christ. If, at the very beginning of the Church's
life, Jesus appeared to His disciples, after His death, alive
and in heavenly glory, it is conceivable that that experience
might have originated the lofty New Testament conception of
Jesus' person. But what in turn caused that experience itself?
On naturalistic principles the appearances of the risen Christ
can be explained only by an impression which the disciples
already had of the majesty of Jesus' person. If they had
listened to lofty claims of Jesus like those which are recorded
in the Gospels, if they had witnessed miracles like the walking
on the water or the feeding of the five thousand, then, con-
ceivably, though not probably, they might have come to believe
that so great a person could not be holden of death, and this
belief might have been sufficient, without further miracle, to
induce the pathological experiences in which they thought
they saw Him alive after His passion. But if the miraculous
be removed from the life of Jesus, a double portion of the
miraculous must be heaped up upon the appearances. The
smaller be the Jesus whom the disciples had known in Galilee,
the more unaccountable becomes the experience which caused
them to believe in His resurrection. By one path or another,
therefore, the historian of Christian origins is pushed off from
the safe ground of the phenomenal world toward the abyss
of supernaturalism. To account for the faith of the early
Church, the supernatural must be found either in the life of
Jesus on earth, or else in the appearances of the risen Christ.
But if the supernatural is found in one place, there is no ob-
jection to finding it in both places. And in both places it is
found by the whole New Testament.

Three difficulties, therefore, beset the reconstruction of

160 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

the ^^beral Jesus." In the first place, it is difficult to disen-
gage His picture from the miraculous elements which have
defaced it in the Gospels; in the second place, when the sup-
posed historical Jesus has been reconstructed, there is a moral
contradiction at the center of His being, caused by His lofty
claims ; in the third place, it is hard to see how, in the thinking
of the early disciples, the purely human Jesus gave place with*
out the slightest struggle to the heavenly Christ of the Pauline
Epistles and of the whole New Testament-

But suppose all the difficulties have been removed. Sup-
pose a human Jesus has been reconstructed. What is the re-
sult of comparing that human Jesus with Paul? At first
sight there seems to be nothing but contradiction. But closer
examination discloses points of agreement. The agreement
between Jesus and Paid extends even to those elements in the
Gospel account of Jesus which are accepted by modern natural-
istic criticism.

In the first place, Jesus and Paul present the same view
of the Kingdom of God. Th^ term *Tdngdom of God'' is not
very frequent in the Epistles ; but it is used as though familiar
to the readers, and when it does occur, it has the same meaning
as in the teaching of Jesus. The similarity appears, in the
first place, in a negative feature — ^both in Jesus and in Paul,
the idea of the Kingdom is divorced from all political and ma-
terialistic associations. That fact may seem to us to be a
matter of course. But in the Judaism of the first century it
was far from being a matter of course. On the contrary, it
meant nothing less than a revolution in thought and in life.
How did Paul, the patriot and the Pharisee, come to separate
the thought of the Kingdom from political associations? How
did he come to do so even if he had come to think that the
Messiah had already appeared? How did he come to do so
unless he was influenced in some way by the teaching of Jesus?
But the similarity is not merely negative. In positive aspects
also, the Kingdom of God in Paul is similar to that which
appears in the teaching of Jesus. Both in Jesus and in Paul,
the implications of entrance are ethical. "Or know ye not,"
says Paul, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God" (1 Cor. vi. 9). Then follows, after these words, as
in Gal. v. 19-21, a long list of sins which exclude a man from
participation in the Kingdom. Paul is here continuing faith-

PAUL AND JESUS 161

fully the teaching of Him who said, "Repent ye; for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand." Finally both in Jesus and
in Paul the Kingdom appears partly as present and partly as
future. In the above passages from Galatians and 1 Corin-
thians, for example, and in 1 Cor. xv. 60, it is future; whereas
in such passages as Rom. xiv. 17 (^'for the kingdom of God
is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy
in the Holy Spirit"), the present aspect is rather in view. The
same two aspects of the Kingdom appear also in the teaching
of Jesus; all attempts at making Jesus' conception thor-
oughly eschatological have failed. Both in Jesus and in Paul,
therefore, the Kingdom of God is both transcendent and ethical.
Both in Jesus and in Paul, finally, the coming of the Kingdom
means joy as well as judgment. When Paul says that the
Kingdom of God is "righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost," he is like Jesus not merely in word but in the
whole spirit of the message; Jesus also proclaimed the coming
of the Kingdom as a "gospel."

In the second place, Paul is like Jesus in his doctrine of
the fatherhood of God. That doctrine, it will probably be
admitted, was characteristic of Jesus ; indeed the tendency in
certain quarters is to regard it as the very sum and substance
of all that Jesus said. Certainly no parallel to Jesus' pres-
entation of God as Father has been found in extra-ChriiStian
literature. The term "father" is indeed applied to God here
and there in the Old Testament. But in the Old Testament
it is usually in relation to the people of Israel that God is
thought of as Father rather than in relation to the individual.
Even in the Old Testament, it is true, the conception of the
fatherhood of God is not without importance. The conscious-
ness of belonging to God's chosen people and thus being under
God's fatherly care was immensely valuable for the life of the
individual Israelite ; it was no mere product of an unsatisfying
state religion like the religions of Greece or Rome. There
was preparation in Old Testament revelation, here as else-
where, for the coming of the Messiah. In Jewish literature
outside of the Old Testament, moreover, and in rabbinical
sources, the conception of God as Father is not altogether
absent.^ But it appears comparatively seldom, and it lacks
altogether the true content of Jesus' teaching. Despite all
^ Bousset, DU Religion de$ Judentwns, ^e AufL, 1906, pp. 439-434.

1«B THE ORIGIN OP PAULAS RELIGION

previous uses of the word "father" as applied to Grod, Jesus
was ushering in a new era when He taught His disciples to
say, "Our Father which art in heaven."

This conception of the fatherhood of God appears in Paul
in just the same way as in Jesus. In Paul as wdl as in Jesus
it is not something to be turned to occasionally; on the con-
trary it is one of the constituent elements of the religious life.
It is no wonder that the words, "God our Father," appear
regularly at the beginnings of the Epistles. The father^
hood of God in Paul is not something to be argued about or
defended; it is altogether a matter of course. But it has not
lost, through repetition, one whit of its freshness. The name
"Father" applied to God in Paul is more than a bare title;
it is the welling up of the depths of the soul. "Abba, Father**
on the lips of PauPs converts was exactly the same, not only
in form but also in deepest import, as the word which Jesus
first taught His disciples when they said to Him, "Lord, teach
us to pray."

But the fatherhood of God in Paul is like the teaching of
Jesus in even more definite ways than in the fervor of the re-
ligious life which it evokes. It is also like Jesus* teaching in
being the possession, not of the world, but of the household of
faith. If, indeed, the fatherhood of God in Jesus* teaching
were like the fatherhood of God in modern liberalism — a rela-
tionship which God sustains toward men as men — then it would
be as far removed as possible from the teaching of Paul. But
as a matter of fact, both Paul and Jesus reserved the term
Father for the relation in which God stands to the disciples
of Jesus. One passage, indeed (Matt. v. 45; Luke vi. 35),
has been quoted as making God the Father of all men. But
only by a strange misinterpretation. It is strange how in the
day of our boasted grammatico-historical exegesis, so egregious
an error can be allowed to live. The prejudices of the reader
have triumphed here over all exegetical principles; a vague
modernism has been attributed to the sternest, as well as most
merciful. Prophet who ever walked upon earth. When Jesus
says, "Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute
you ; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven :
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and the unjust,** He certainly does
not mean that God is the Father of all men both evil and good.

PAUL AND JESUS 163

Grod cares for all, but He is not said to be the Father of all.
On the contrary, it may almost be said that the very point
of the passage is that God cares for all although He is not
the Father of all. That it is which makes Him the example for
those who are to do good not merely to friends or brothers
but also to enemies.

This interpretation does not mean that God does not stand
toward all men in a relation analogous to that of a father to
his children ; it does not mean that He does not love all or care
for all. But it does mean that however close may be the rela-
tionship which God sustains to all men, the lofty term Father
is reserved for a relationship which is far more intimate still.
Jesus extends to all men those common blessings which the
modem preacher sums up in the term "fatherhood of God" ; but
He extends to His own disciples not only those blessings but
infinitely more. It is not the men of the world — not the **pub-
licans," not the "Gentiles" — ^who can say, according to the
teaching of Jesus, "Our Father which art in Heaven." Rather
it is the little group of Jesus' disciples — ^which little group,
however, all without exception are freely invited to join.

So it is exactly also in the teaching of Paul. God stands,
according to Paul, in a vital relation to all men. He is the
author of the being of all ; He cares for all ; He has planted His
law in the hearts of all. He stands thus in a relation toward
all which is analogous to that of father to child. The Book
of Acts is quite in accord with the Epistles when it makes
Paul say of all men, "For we are also His offspring." But
in Paul just as in Jesus the lofty term "Father" is re-
served for a more intimate relationship. Paul accepts all the
truth of natural religion; all the truth that reappears in the
vague liberalism of modem times. But he adds to it the truth
of the gospel. Those are truly sons of God, he says, who have
been received by adoption into God's household, and in whose
hearts God's Spirit cries, "Abba, Father."

There was nothing narrow about such a gospel; for the
door of the household of faith was opened wide to all. Jesus
had died in order to open that door, and the apK)stle went up
and down the world, enduring peril upon peril in order to
bring men in. There was need for such service, because of sin.
Neither in Jesus nor in Paul is sin covered up, nor the necessity
of a great transformation concealed. Jesus came not to reveal

164 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

to men that they were already children of God, but to make
them God's children by His redeeming work.

In the third place, Paul is like Jesus in presenting a doc-
trine of grace. Of course he is like the Jesus of the Gospels;
for the Jesus of the Gospels declared that the Son of Man
came to give His life a ransom for many. But He is even like
the Jesus of modern reconstruction. Even the liberal Jesus
taught a doctrine of grace. He taught, it for example, in the
parables of the laborers in the vineyard and of the servant
coming in from the field. In those two parables Jesus ex-
pressed His opposition to a religion of works, a religion which
can open an account with God and seek to obtain salvation
by merit. ^ Salvation, according to Jesus, is a matter of
God's free grace; it is something which God gives to whom
He will. The same great doctrine really nms all through the
teaching of Jesus; it is the*?oot'of His opposition to the
scribes and Pharisees ; it determines the confidence with which
He taught His disciples to draw near to God. But it is the
same doctrine, exactly, which appears in Paul. The Paul
who combated the legalists in Galatia, like the Jesus who com-
bated the scribes and Pharisees, was contending for a God
of grace.

Let it not be objected that Jesus maintained also the ex-
pectation of a judgment. For in this particular also He was
followed by Paul. Paul also, despite his doctrine of grace,
expected that the Christians would stand before the judgment-
seat. And it may be remembered in passing that both in Jesus
and in Paul the judgment-seat is a judgment-seat of Christ.

In the fourth place, the ethical teaching of Paul is strik-
ingly similar to that of Jesus. It is necessary only to point
to the conception of love as the fulfilling of the law, and to
the substitution for external rules of the great principles of
justice and of mercy. These things may seem to us to be
matters of course. But they were not matters of course in the
Jewish environment of Paul. Similarity in this field between
Jesus and Paul can hardly be a matter of chance. Many
resemblances have been pointed out in detail between the ethical

* Compare W. Morgan, The Religion and Theology of Paul, 1917, p.
155: "The essential import of PauFs doctrine [of justification by faith]
is all contained in the two parables of the Pharisee and the publican ana
the servant coming in from the field."

PAUL AND JESUS 166

teaching of Jesus and that of Paul. But the most important
is the one which is most obvious, and which just for that rea-
son has sometimes escaped notice. Paul and Jesus, in their
ethical teaching, are similar because of the details of what
they say ; but they are still more similar because of what they
do not say. And they are similar in what they do not say
despite the opposition of their countrymen. Many parallels for
words of Jesus may have been found in rabbinical sources. But
so much more, alas, is also found there. That oppressive plus
of triviality and formalism places an impassable gulf between
Jesus and the Jewish teachers. But Paul belongs with Jesus,
on the same side of the gulf. In his ethic there is no formal-
ism, no triviality, no casuistry — there is naught but **love,
joy, peace, longsufFering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
meekness, self-control." What has become of all the rest?
Was it removed by the genius of Paul? It is strange that
two such men of genius shoiild have arisen independently and
at the same time. Or was the terrible plus of Pharisaic for-
malism and triviality burned away from Paul when the light
shone around him on the wav to Damascus and he fell at the
feet of the great Teacher?

Points of contact between Jesus and Paul have just been
pointed out in detail, and the list of resemblances could be
greatly increased. The likeness of Paul to Jesus extends even
to those features which appear in the Jesus of modem liberal-
ism. What is more impressive, however, than all similarity in
detail is the similarity in the two persons taken each as a
whole. The Gospels are more than a collection of sayings
and anecdotes ; the Pauline Epistles are more than a collection
of reasoned discussions. In the Gospels, a person is revealed,
and another person in the Epistles. And the two persons
belong together. It is impossible to establish that fact fully
by detailed argimient any more than it is possible to explain
exactly why any two persons are friends to-day. But the
fact is plain to any sympathetic reader. The writer of the
Pauline Epistles would have been at home in the company
of Jesus of Nazareth.

What then was the true relation between Paul and Jesus?
It has been shown that Paul regarded himself as a disciple of
Jesus, that he was so regarded by those who had been Jesus'
friends, that he had abundant opportunity for acquainting

166 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

himself with Jesus' words and deeds, that he does refer to
them occasionally, that he could have done so oftener if he
had desired, that the imitation of Jesus found a place in his
life, and that his likeness to Jesus extends even to those ele-
ments in Jesus' life and teaching which are accepted by modem
naturalistic criticism as authentic. At this point the problem
is left by the great mass of recent investigators. Wrede is
thought to be refuted already; the investigator triumphantly
writes his Q. E. D., and passes on to something else.

But in reality the problem has not even been touched. It
has been shown that the influence of Jesus upon Paul was
somewhat greater than Wrede supposed. But that does not
make Paul a disciple of Jesus. The true relationships of a
man are determined not by things that lie on the periphery
of his life, but by what is central ^ — central both in his own
estimation and in his influence upon subsequent generations.
And what was central in Paul was certainly not the imitation
of Jesus. At that point, Wrede was entirely correct; he has
never really been silenced by the chorus of protest with which
his startling little book was received. It is futile, therefore, to
point to the influence of Jesus upon Paul in detail. Such a
method may be useful in correcting exaggerations, but it does
not touch the real question. The plain fact remains that if
imitation of Jesus had been central in the life of Paul, as it
is central, for example, in modern liberalism, then the Epistles
would be full of the words and deeds of Jesus. It is insuffi-
cient to point to the occasional character of the Epistles. No
doubt the Epistles are addressed to special needs; no doubt
Paul knew far more about Jesus than in the Epistles he has
found occasion to tell. But there are passages in the Epistles
where the current of Paul's religious life runs full and free,
where even after the lapse of centuries, even through the dull
medium of the printed page, it sweeps the heart of the sympa-
thetic reader on with it in a mighty flood. And those passages
are not concerned with the details of Jesus' eartlily life. They
are, rather, the great theological passages of the Epistles —
the second chapter of Galatians, the fifth chapter of 2 Corin-
thians, and the eighth chapter of Romans. In these chapters,
religion and theology are blended in a union which no critical
» Wrede, Paulas, 1904, p. 93 (English Translation, Paul, 1907, p. 161).

PAUL AND JESUS 167

analysis can ever possibly dissolve; these passages reveal the
very center of Paul's life.

The details of Jesus' earthly ministry no doubt had an im-
portant place in the thinking of Paul. But they were impor-
tant, not as an end in themselves, but as a means to an end.
They revealed the character of Jesus; they showed why He
was worthy to be trusted. But they did not show what He
had done for Paul. The story of Jesus revealed what Jesus
had done for others: He had healed the sick; He had given
sight to the blind ; He had raised the dead. But for Paul He
had done something far greater than all these things — for
Paul He had died.

The religion of Paul, in other words, is a religion of re-
demption. Jesus, according to Paul, came to earth not to
say something, but to do something; He was primarily not
a teacher, but a Redeemer. He came, not to teach men how
to live, but to give them a new life through His atoning death.
He was, indeed, also a teacher, and Paul attended to His
teaching. But His teaching was all in vain unless it led to
the final acceptance of His redemptive work. Not the details
of Jesus' life, therefore, but the redemptive acts of death and
resurrection are at the center of the religion of Paul. The
teaching and example of Jesus, according to Paul, are valuable
only as a means to an end, valuable in order that through
a revelation of Jesus' character saving faith may be induced,
and valuable thereafter in order that the saving work may
be brought to its fruition in holy living. But all that Jesus
said and did was for the purpose of the Cross. "He loved me,"
says Paul, "and gave Himself for me." There is the heart and
core of the religion of Paul.

Jesus, according to Paul, therefore, was not a teacher,
but a Redeemer. But was Paul right? Was Jesus really a
Redeemer, or was He only a teacher? If He was only a teacher,
then Paul was no true follower of His. For in that case, Paul
has missed the true import of Jesus' life. Compared with
that one central error, small importance is to be attributed
to the influence which Jesus may have exerted upon Paul here
and there. Wrede, therefore, was exactly right in his formu-
lation of the question. Paul regarded Jesus as a Redeemer.
If Jesus was not a Redeemer, then Paul was no true follower

168 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

of Jesus, but the founder of a new religion. The liberal theo-
logians have tried to avoid the issue. They have pointed out
exaggerations; they have traced the influence of Jesus upon
Paul in detail ; they have distinguished religion from theology,
and abandoning the theology of Paul they have sought to
derive his religion from Jesus of Nazareth. It is all very
learned and very eloquent. But it is also entirely futile.
Despite the numerous monographs on "Jesus and Paul," Wrede
was entirely correct. He was correct, that is, not in his con-
clusions, but in his statement of the question. He was correct
in his central contention — Paul was no true disciple of the
"liberal Jesus." If Jesus was what the liberal theologians
represent Him as being — a teacher of righteousness, a relig-
ious genius, a guide on the way to God — then not Jesus but
Paul was the true founder of historic Christianity. For his-
toric Christianity, like the religion of Paul, is a religion of
redemption.

Certainly the separation of religion from theology in Paul
must be abandoned. Was it a mere theory when Paul said of
Jesus Christ, "He loved me and gave Himself for me"? Was
it merely theological speculation when he said, "One died for
all, therefore all died; and he died for all, that they that live
should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for
their sakcs died and rose again"? Was it mere theology when
he said, "Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ"? Was this mere theological speculation?
Surely not. Surely it was religion — warm, living religion.
If this was not true religion, then where can religion ever be
found? But the passages just quoted are not passages which
deal with the details of Jesus* life; they are not passages
which deal with general principles of love and grace, and
fatherliness and brotherliness. On the contrary, they deal with
just the thing most distasteful to the modem liberal Church;
they deal with the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
by which He took our sins upon Him and bare them in His
own body on the tree. The matter is perfectly plain. Religion
in Paul does not exist apart from theology, and theology does
not exist apart from religion. Christianity, according to
Paul, is both a life and a doctrine — ^but logically the doctrine
comes first. The life is the expression of the doctrine and
not vice versa. Theology, as it appears in Paul, is not a

PAUL AND JESUS 169

product of Christian experience, but a setting forth of those
facts by which Christian experience has been produced. If,
then, the theology of Paul was derived from extra-Christian
sources, his religion must be abandoned also. The whole of
Paulinism is based upon the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
Thus Paul was a true follower of Jesus if Jesus was a di-
vine Redeemer, come from heaven to die for the sins of men;
he was not a true follower of Jesus if Jesus* was a mere re-
vealer of the fatherhood of God. Paulinism was not based
upon a Galilean prophet. It was based either upon the Son of
God who came to earth for men's salvation and still holds
communion with those who trust Him, or else it was based
upon a colossal error. But if the latter alternative be adopted,
the error was not only colossal, but also unaccountable. It
is made more unaccountable by all that has been said above,
all that the liberal theologians have helped to establish, about
the nearness of Paul to Jesus. If Paul really stood so near
to Jesus, if he really came under Jesus' influence, if he really
was intimate with Jesus' friends, how could he have misin-
terpreted so completely the significance of Jesus' person; how
could he have substituted for the teacher of righteousness
who had really lived in Palestine the heavenly Redeemer of
the Epistles? No satisfactory answer has yet been given.
In the relation between Jesus and Paul the historian discovers
a problem which forces him on toward a Copernican revolu-
tion in all his thinking, which leads him to ground his own
salvation and the hope of this world no longer in millions of
acts of sinful men or in the gradual progress of civilization,
but simply and solely in one redemptive act of the Lord of
Glory.

CHAPTER V
THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT

CHAPTER V

THE JEWISH ENVIEONMENT

Or the three ways in which, upon naturalistic principles,
the genesis of the religion of Paul has been explained, one has
been examined, and has been found wanting. Paulinism, it has
been shown, was not based upon the Jesus of modem liberal-
ism. If Jesus was simply a teacher of righteousness, a revealer
of God, then the religion of Paul was not derived from Him.
For the religion of Paul was a religion of redemption.

But if the religion of Paul was not derived from the Jesus
of modem liberalism, whence was it derived? It may, of course,
have been derived from the divine Redeemer; the Jesus whom
Paul presupposes may have been the Jesus who actually lived
in Palestine. But that explanation involves the intrusion of
the supernatural into the course of history; it is therefore
rejected by "the modem mind." Other explanations, therefore,
are being sought. These other explanations are alike in that
they derive the religion of Paul from sources independent of
Jesus of Nazareth. Two such explanations have been pro-
posed. According to one, the religion of Paul was derived
from contemporary Judaism; according to the other, it was
derived from the paganism of the Greco-Roman world. The
present chapter will deal with the former of these two explana-
tions — with the explanation which derives the religion of Paul
from contemporary Judaism.

This explanation is connected especially with the names
of Wrede ^ and Bruckner. ^ It has, however, seldom been
maintained in any exclusive way, but enters into combination
with other hypotheses. Indeed, in itself it is obviously insuf-
ficient ; it will hardly explain the idea of redemption in the re-
ligion of Paul. But it is thought to explain, if not the idea of

* See p. 26, footnote 2.
•See p. 27, footnote 1.

173

174 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

redemption, at least the conception of the Redeemer's person,
and from the conception of the Redeemer's person the idea
of redemption might in some way be derived. The hypothesis
of Wrede and Bruckner, in other words, seeks to explain not
so much the soteriology as the Christology of Paul; it derives
from the pre-Christian Jewish conception of the Messiah the
Pauline conception of the heavenly Christ. In particular, it
seeks to explain the matter-of-course way in which in the
Epistles the Pauline Christ is everywhere presupposed but no-
where defended. Apparently Paul was not aware that his
Christology might provoke dissent. This attitude is very dif-
ficult to explain on the basis of the ordinary liberal recon-
struction; it is difficult to explain if the Pauline Christology
was derived by a process of development from the historical
Jesus. For if it had been so derived, its newness and revolu-
tionary character would naturally have appeared. As a matter
rf^fact, however, Paul does not regard it as anything new; he
treats his doctrine of Christ as though it were firmly estab-
lished and required no defense. How shall this confident atti-
tud/§ of the apostle be explained? It is to be explained, Wrede
says, by the theology of contemporary Judaism. Paul was
%p confident that his conception of Christ could not be re-
;arded as an innovation because as a matter of fact it was not
an innovation; it was nothing but the pre-Christian Jewish
notion of the Messiah. The Pauline conception of Christ was
thus firmly fixed in the mind of Paul and in the minds of many
of his contemporaries long before the event on the road to
Damascus ; all that happened at that time was the identifica-
tion of the Christ whom Paul had believed in all along with
Jesus of Nazareth, and that identification, because of the
meagerness of Paul's knowledge of Jesus, did not really bring
any fundamental change in the Christology itself. After the
conversion as well as before it, the Christ of Paul was simply
the Christ of the Jewish apocalypses.

In order that this hypothesis may be examined, it will be
advisable to begin with a brief general survey of the Jewish
environment of Paul. The survey will necessarily be of the
most cursory character, and it will not be based upon original
research. But it may serve to clear the way for the real
question at issue. Fortunately the ground has been covered

THE JEWISH ENVmONMENT 176

rather thoroughly by recent investigators. In dependence upon
Schiirer and Charles and others, even a layman may hope to
arrive at the most obvious facts. And it is onlv the most'
obvious facts which need now be considered.

Three topics only will be discussed, and they only in the
most cursory way. These three topics are (1) the divisions
within Judaism, (2) the Law, (3) the Messiah.

The most obvious division within the Judaism of Paul's
day is the division between the Judaism of Palestine and that
of the Dispersion. The Jews of Palestine, for the most part,
spoke Aramaic; those of the Dispersion spoke Greek. With
the difference of language went no doubt in some cases a dif-
ference in habits of thought. But exaggerations should be
avoided. Certainly it is a serious error to represent the Juda-
ism of the Dispersion as being universally or even generally
a "liberal" Judaism, inclined to break down the strict require-
ments of the Law. The vivid descriptions of the Book of Acts
point in the opposite direction. Opposition to the Gentile mis-
sion of Paul prevailed among the Hellenists of the Dispersion
as well as among the Hebrews of Palestine. On the whole,
although no doubt here and there individuals were inclined to
modify the requirements imposed upon proselytes, or even
were influenced by the thought of the Gentile world, the Jews
of the first centul'y must be thought of as being a strangely
unified people, devoted to the Mosaic Law and jealous of their
God-given prerogatives.

At any rate, it is a grave error to explain the Gentile mis-
sion of Paul as springing by natural development from a liberal
Judaism of the Dispersion. For even if such a liberal Judaism
existed, Paul did not belong to it. He tells us in no uncertain
terms that he was a "Hebrew," not a Hellenist; inwardly,
therefore, despite his birth in Tarsus, he was a Jew of Pales-
tine. No doubt the impressions received from the Greek city
where he was born were of great importance in his prepara-
tion for his life-work ; it was no mere chance, but a dispensation
of God, that the apostle to the Gentiles spent his earliest
years in a seat of Gentile culture. But it was Jerusalem rather
than Tarsus which determined Paul's outlook upon life. At
any rate, however great or however little was the influence
of his boyhood home, Paul was not a "liberal" Jew; for he

176 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

tells us that he was a Pharisee, more exceedingly zealous than
his contemporaries for the traditions of his fathers.

Birth in Tarsus, therefore, did not mean for Paul any
adherence to a liberal Judaism, as distinguished from the strict
Judaism of Palestine. According to Montefiore, a popular
Jewish writer of the present day, it even meant the exact op-
posite; the Judaism of the Dispersion, Montefiore bdlieves,
was not more liberal, but less liberal, than the Judaism of
Palestine; it was from Tarsus, Montefiore thinks, that Paul
derived his gloomy view of sin, and his repellent conception
of the wrath of God. Palestinian Judaism of the first century,
according to Montefiore, was probably like the rabbinical
Judaism of 500 A. D., and the rabbinical Judaism of 600 A. D.,
contrary to popular opinion, was a broad-minded regime which
united devotion to the Law with confidence in the forgiveness
of God.^ This curious reversal of the usual opinion is of
course open to serious objection. How does Montefiore know
that the Judaism of the Dispersion was less liberal and held
a gloomier view of sin than the Judaism of Palestine? The
only positive evidence seems to be derived from 4 Ezra, which,
with the other apocalypses, in an entirely unwarranted man-
ner, is apparently made to be a witness to the Judaism of the
Dispersion. And were the rabbinical Judaism of 600 A. D.
and the Palestinian Judaism of 50 A. D. really characterized
by that sweet reasonableness which Montefiore attributes to
them? There is at least one testimony to the contrary — the
testimony found in the words of Jesus.

Distinct from the question of fact is the question of- value.
But with regard to that question also, Montefiore's opinion
may be criticized. It may well be doubted whether the easy-
going belief in the complacency of God, celebrated by Monte-
fiore as characteristic of Judaism, was, if it ever existed, su-
perior to the gloomy questionings of 4 Ezra. Certainly from
the Christian point of view it was not superior. In its shallow
view of sin, in its unwillingness to face the ultimate problems
of sin and death, the Jewish liberalism of Montefiore is exactly
Hke the so-called Christian liberalism of the modern Church.

* Montefiore, Judaism and St. Paul, 1914. Compare Emmet, "The Fourth
Book of Esdras and St. Paul," in Expository Times, xxvii, 1915-1916, pp.
551-556.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 177

And it is as far removed as possible from the Christianity of
Paul. At one point, therefore, Montefiore is entirely correct.
The gospel of Paul was based not upon a mild view of law,
but upon a strict view; not upon a belief in the complacency
of God, but upon the cross of Christ as a satisfaction of
divine justice. Neither before his conversion nor after it was
Paul a "Uberal."

Besides the obvious division between the Judaism of Pales-
tine and that of the Dispersion, other divisions may be de-
tected, especially within Palestinian Judaism. Three principal
Jewish sects are distinguished by Josephus ; the Pharisees, the
Sadducees, and the •Essenes.^ Of these, the first two appear
also in the New Testament. The Essenes were separated from
the ordinary life of the people by certain ascetic customs, by
the rejection of animal sacrifice, and by religious practices
which may perhaps be due to foreign influence. Apparently
the Essenic order did not come into any close contact with
the early Church. It is very doubtful, for example, whether
Lightfoot was correct in finding Essenic influence in the error-
ists combated in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians. At any
rate, there is not the slightest reason to suppose that Paul was
influenced from this source.

Tlie Sadducees were a worldly aristocracy, in possession
of the lucrative priestly oflices and reconciled to Roman rule.
Their rejection of the doctrine of resurrection is attested not
' only by the New Testament but also by Josephus. They were
as far removed as possible from exerting influence upon the
youthful Paul.

The Pharisees represented orthodox Judaism, with its de-
votion to the Law. Their popularity, and their general,
though not universal, control of education, made them the
real leaders of the people. Certainly the future history of
the nation was in their hands; for when the Temple was de-
stroyed the Law alone remained, and the Pharisees were the
chief interpreters of the Law. It was this party which claimed
the allegiance of Paul. So he testifies himself. His testimony
is often forgotten, or at least the implications of it ignored.
But it is imequivocal. Saul of Tarsus was not a liberal Jew,
but a Pharisee.

^Josephus, Antiq. XVIII. L d-5.

178 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

The mention of the Pharisees leads naturally to the second
division of our sketch of pre-Christian Judaism — namely, the
Law. According to Baldensperger, the two foci around which
Judaism moved were the Law and the Messianic hope. These
two foci will here be touched upon very briefly in order.

Unquestionably post-exilic Judaism was devoted to the
Law. The Law was found in the Old Testament, especially
in the books of Moses. But around the written Law had grown
up a great mass of oral interpretations which really amounted
to elaborate additions. By this "tradition of the elders" the
life of the devout Jew was regulated in its minutest particulars.
Morality thus became a matter of external rules, and religioii
became a credit-and-debit relationship into which a man entered
with God. Modem Jews are sometimes inclined to contradict
such assertions, but the evidence found both in rabbinical
sources and in the New Testament is too strong. Exaggera-
tions certainly should be avoided; there are certainly many
noble utterances to be found among the sayings of the Jewish
teachers; it is not to be supposed that formalism was unre-
lieved by any manifestations whatever of the goodness of the
heart. Nevertheless, the Jewish writings themselves, along with
flashes of true insight, contain a great mass of fruitless cas-
uistry; and the New Testament confirms the impression thus
produced. In some quarters, indeed, it is customary to dis-
credit the testimony of Jesus, reported in the Gospels, as being
the testimony of an opponent. But why was Jesus an op-
ponent? Surely it was because of something blameworthy
in the life of those whom He denounced. In the sphere of
moral values, the testimony of Jesus of Nazareth is worth
having; when He denounces the formalism and hypocrisy of
the scribes, it is very difficult for any student of the history
of morals not to be impressed. Certainly the denunciation
of Jesus was not indiscriminate. He "loved" the rich young
ruler, and said to the lawyer, "Thou art not far from the
kingdom of God." Thus the Gospels in their choice of the
words of Jesus which they record have not been prejudiced
by any hatred of the Jews; they have faithfuly set down va-
rious elements in Jesus' judgment of His contemporaries. But

^ Baldensperger, Die MesHanisch-apokalyptischen Hoffnungen de» Juden-
lums, 3te Aufl., 1903, pp. 88, 89.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 179

the picture which they give of Jewish legalism cannot be put
out of the world; it seems clear that the religion of the
Pharisees at the time of Paul was burdened with all the defects
of a religion of merit as distinguished from a religion of grace.

The legalism of the Pharisees might indeed seem to possess
one advantage as a preparation for the gospel of Paul; it
might seem likely to produce the consciousness of sin and
so the longing for a Saviour. If the Law was so very strict
as the Pharisees said it was, if its commands entered so deep
into every department of life, if the penalty which it imposed *
upon disobedience was nothing less than loss of the favor of
a righteous Grod, would not the man who was placed under
such a regime come to recognize the imperfection of his obe-
dience to the countless commands and so be oppressed by a
sense of guilt? Paul said that the Law was a schoolmaster
to bring the Jews to Christ, and by that he meant that the
Law produced the consciousness of sin. But if the Law was a
schoolmaster, was its stern lesson heeded? Was it a school-
master to bring the Jews to Christ only in its essential char-
acter, or was it actually being used in that beneficent way by
the Jews of the age of Paul?

The answer to these questions, so far as it can be obtained,
is on the whole disappointing. The Judaism of the Pauline
period does not seem to have been characterized by a pro-
found sense of sin. And the reason is not far to seek. The
legalism of the Pharisees, with its regulation of the minute
details of life, was not really making the Law too hard to
keep; it was really making it too easy. Jesus said to His
disciples, **Except your righteousness shall exceed the right-
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter
into the kingdom of heaven.'* The truth is, it is easier to
cleanse the outside of the cup than it is to cleanse the heart.
If the Pharisees had recognized that the Law demands not
only the observance of external rules but also and primarily
mercy and justice and love for God and men, they would not
have been so readily satisfied with the measure of their obedi-
ence, and the Law would then have fulfilled its great function
of being a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. A low view
of law leads to legalism in religion ; a high view of law makes
a man a seeker after grace.

180 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

Here and there, indeed, voices are to be heard in the Juda-
ism of the New Testament period which attest a real sense
of sin. The Fourth Book of Ezra/ in particular, struggles
seriously with the general reign of evil in the lives of men, and
can find no solution of the terrible problem. ^^Many have
been created, but few shall be saved!" (4 Ezra viii. 8). **0r
who is there that has not transgressed thy covenant?" (vii. 46).
Alas for the "evil heart" (vii. 48) ! In a very interesting
manner 4 Ezra connects the miserable condition of humanity
with the fall of Adam; the fall was not Adam's alone but his
descendants' (vii. 118). At this point, it is interesting to
compare 2 Baruch,^ which occupies a somewhat different po-
sition; "each of us," declares 2 Baruch, "has been the Adam
of his own soul." And in general, 2 Baruch takes a less pessi-
mistic view of human evil, and (according to Charles' estimate,
which may be correct) is more self-complacent about the Law.
But the profound sense of guilt in 4 Ezra might conceivably
be a step on the way to saving faith in Christ. "0 Lord above
us, if thou wouldst . . . give unto us the seed of a new heart !"
(4 Ezra viii. 6). This prayer was gloriously answered in the
gospel of Paul.'

It must be remembered, however, that 4 Ezra was com-
pleted long after the Pauline period ; its attitude to the prob-
lem of evil certainly cannot be attributed with any confidence
to Saul of Tarsus, the pupil of Gamaliel. It is significant
that when, after the conversion, Paul seeks testimonies to
the universal sinfulness of man, he looks not to contemporary
Judaism, but to the Old Testament. At this point, as else-
where, PauHnism is based not upon later developments but
upon the religion of the Prophets and the Psalms. On the
whole, therefore, especially in the light of what was said above,
it cannot be supposed that Saul the Pharisee held a spiritual
view of law, or was possessed of a true conviction of sin. Paul

*S«e Box, in Charles, Apocrypha and Pseudspigrapha of the Old Testa-
ment, 1913, ii, pp. 542-624; SchUrer, Oeschichte dee jUdiechen Volkee, Ste
und 4te Aufl., iii, 1909, pp. 315-335 (English TranslaUon, A Hietory of the
Jewish People, Division II, vol. iii, 1886, pp. 93-104). The work of
Charles has been used freely, without special acknowledgment, for the
citations from the Jewish apocalypses.

•See Charles, op. cit., ii, pp. 470-526; SdiUrer, op, cU„ iii, pp. 305-315
(English Translation, Division II, vol. Ui, pp. 83-93).

•Compare Box, in Charles, op. cU., p. 593, See also Emmet, he. eU,

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 181

was convicted of his sin only when the Lord Jesus said to him,
"I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.'*

The other focus about which pre-Christian Judaism, ac-
cording to Baldensperger, revolved was the Messianic hope.
This hope had its roots in the Old Testament. A complete
introduction to the subject would of course deal first with the
Old Testament background. Here, however, the background
will have to be dismissed with a word.

According to the ordinary "critical" view, the doctrine
of an individual Messiah, and especially that of a transcendent
Messiah, arose late in the history of Israel. At first, it is
maintained, there was the expectation of a blessed line of
Davidic kings; then the expectation of a line of kings gave
way in some quarters to the expectation of an individual king ;
then the expectation of an earthly king gave way in some
quarters to the expectation of a heavenly being like the "Son
of Man** who is described in 1 Enoch. This theory, however,
has been called in question in recent years, for example by
Gressmann.^ According to Gressmann, the doctrine of an in-
dividual transcendent Saviour is of hoar antiquity, and ante-
dates by far the expectation of a blessed line of Davidic kings
and that of an individual earthy king. Gressmann is not, of
course, returning to the traditional view of the Old Testament.
On the contrary, he believes that the ancient doctrine of a
heavenly. Saviour is of ei^tra-Israelitish origin and represents
a widespread myth. But in the details of exegesis, the radi-
calism of Gressmann, as is also the case with many forms
of radicalism in connection with the New Testament, involves
a curious return to the traditional view. Many passages of
the Old Testament, formerly removed from the list of Mes-
sianic passages by the dominant school of exegesis, or else
regarded as late interpolations, are restored by Gressmann to
their original significance. Thus the suffering servant of
Jehovah of Is. liii (a passage which the dominant school of
exegesis has interpreted in a collective sense, as referring to
the nation of Israel or to the righteous part of the nation) is
regarded by Gressmann as being an individual (mythical) figure
to whose death and resurrection is attributed saving signifi-
cance.

* Der Ur9j^rvng dsr israeHtiich^jUdu^isn Efchatologis, 1906.

/

188 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

The supematuralistic view of the Old Testament ^ agrees
with Gressmann in his individualistic interpretation of such
passages as Is. liii, but differs from him in that it attributes
objective validity to the representation thus obtained. Ac-
cording to the supematuralistic view, Israel was from the
beginning the people of the Promise. The Promise at first
was not fully defined in the minds of all the people. But even
at the beginning there were glorious revelations, and the reve-
lations became plainer and plainer as time went on. The va-
rious elements in the Promise were not indeed kept carefully
distinct, and their logical connections were not revealed. But
even long before the Exile there was not only a promise of
blessing to David's line, with occasional mention of an indi-
vidual king, but also a promise of a Redeemer and King who
should far exceed the limits of humanity. Thus Grod had sus-
tained His people through the centuries with a blessed hope,
which was finally fulfilled, in all its aspects, by the Lord
Jesus Christ.

Discussion of these various views would exceed the limits
of the present investigation. All that can here be done is to
present briefiy the Messianic expectations of the later period,
in which Paul lived.

But were those expectations widely prevalent? Was the
doctrine of a coming Messiah firmly established among the
Jews of the time of Paul? The answer to these questions
might seem to be perfectly plain. The common impression
is that the Judaism of the first century was devoted to nothing
if not to the hope of a king who was to deliver God's people
from the oppression of her enemies. This impression is de-
rived from the New Testament. Somewhat different is the
impression which might be derived from the Jewish sources
if they were taken alone. The expectation of a Messiah hardly
appears at all in the Apocrypha, and even in the Pseudepi-
grapha it appears by no means in all of the books. Even
when the thought of the future age is most prominent, that
age does not by any means appear in inevitable connection
with a personal Messiah. On the contrary, God Himself, not
His instrument the Messiah, is often represented as ushering
in the new era when Israel should be blessed.

Despite this difference between the New Testament and the
* See Beecher, The Prophets and the Promise, 1905.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 183

Jewish literature, it is generally recognized that the testimony
of the New Testament must be essentially correct. The pic-
ture which is given in the Gospels of the intensity of the Mes--
sianic hope among the Jews must be founded upon fact even
if Jesus Himself did not claim to be the Messiah. Indeed, it
is just in that latter case that the testimony in some respects
would become strongest of all. For if Jesus did not claim to
be the Messiah, the attribution of Messiahship to Him by His
disciples could be explained only by the intensity of their own
Messianic expectations. As a matter of fact, however, Jesus
did claim to be the Messiah; the elimination of His Messianic
consciousness has not won the assent of any large body of
historians. He did claim to be the Messiah, and He died be-
cause the Jews regarded Him as a false claimant. But His*
opponents, no less than His disciples, were expecting a **King
of the Jews.'' The New Testament throughout, no matter
what view may be held as to the historicity of the individual
narratives, is quite inexplicable unless the Jews both in Pales-
tine and in the Dispersion had a doctrine of *^the Christ."

This New Testament representation is confirmed here and
there by other writers. Even Philo,^ as Bruckner remarks,
pays his tribute, though in an isolated passage, to the common
Messianic doctrine.^ Josephus,^ also, despite his effort
to avoid offending his Roman readers, is obliged to mention
the Messianic hope as one cause of the great war, and can
only make the reference harmless by finding the Messiah in
the Emperor Vespasian ! * On the whole, the fact may be
regarded as certain that in the first century after Christ the
expectation of the Messiah was firmly established among the
Jews. The silence of great sections of the Apocrypha may
then be explained partly by the date of some of the books.
It may well be that there was a period, especially during the
Maccabean uprising, when because of the better present condi-
tion of the nation the Messianic hope was less in the forefront
of interest, and that afterwards, under the humiliation of
Roman rule, the thoughts of the people turned anew to the
expected Deliverer. But however that may be, it is altogether

*Ds proem et poen, 16 (ed. Cohn, 1902, iv, p. 357).

* Brttckner, Dis ErUstehung der paulmischen Chriitologis, 1903. pp. 109f.

• Bell, Jud. VI. V. 4. ^ f fi-

*Schttrer, op. cU., ii, 1907, p. 604 (English Translation, Diviskm II,
▼ol. ii, 1885, p. 149).

184 THE ORIGIN OP PAUL'S RELIGION

probable that the expectation of a Messiah was everywhere
cherished in the Judaism of the time of Paul.

If then the hope of a Messiah was prevalent in the Judaism
of the first century, what was the nature of that hope? Two
forms of Messianic expectation have ordinarily been distin-
guished. In the first place, it is said, there was an expecta-
tion of an earthly king of David's line, and in the second place,
there was the notion of a heavenly being already existing in
heaven. The former of these two lines of expectation is usually
thought to represent the popular view, held by the masses of
the people; and the latter is regarded as an esoteric doctrine
held by a limited circle from which the apocalypses have
sprung.

At this point, Bruckner is somewhat in opposition to the
ordinary opinion; he denies altogether the presence in first-
century Judaism of any distinctive doctrine of a purely human
Messiah.^ The Messiah, he says, appears in all the sources
distinctly as a supernatural figure. Even in the Psalms of
Solomon, he insists, where the Messiah is represented as a
king reigning upon earth, He is nevertheless no ordinary king,
for He destroys His enemies not by the weapons of war but
**by the breath of His mouth." In the Gospels, moreover,
although the people are represented as looking for a king who
should break the Roman rule, yet they demand of this king
works of superhuman power.

Undoubtedly there is a measure of truth in this contention
of Bruckner. It may perhaps be admitted that the Messiah
of Jewish expectation was always something more than an
ordinary king; it may perhaps be admitted that He was en-
dowed with supernatural attributes. Nevertheless, the view
of Bruckner is exaggerated. There is still to be maintained
the distinction between the heavenly being of 1 Enoch and the
Davidic king. The latter might perhaps be regarded as pos-
sessed of miraculous powers, but still He was in the essentials
of His person an eartlily monarch. He was to be born like
other men; He was to rule over an earthly kingdom; He was
to conquer earthly armies; presumably He was to die. It is
significant that John the Baptist, despite the fact that he
had as yet wrought no miracles, was apparently thought by
some to be the Messiah (Lk. iii. 16; John i. 19-27). Even
*BrUckner, op. cU., pp. 104-112.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 186

if this representation of the Gospels of Luke and of John
should be regarded as quite unhistorical, still it does show
that the writers of these two Gospels, neither of whom was
by any means ignorant of Jewish conditions, regard it as no
incongruity that some should have supposed such a man as
John to be the Messiah. The Messiah, therefore, could not
have been regarded always as being like the heavenly Son of
Man of 1 Enoch. But it is unnecessary to appeal to details.
The whole New Testament, whatever view may be taken of
the historicity of its narratives in detail, attests the preva-
lence in the first century of a Messianic expectation according
to which the Messiah was to be an earthly king of David's line.
This view of Messiahship becomes explicit in Justin Mar-
tyr's Dialogue with Trypho, which was written at about the
middle of the second century. In this book, the Jewish op-
ponent of Justin represents the Messiah as a "mere man." ^
No doubt this evidence cannot be used directly for the earlier
period in which Paul lived. There does seem to have been a
reaction in later Jewish expectations against that transcendent
view of Messiahship which had been adopted by the Christian
Church. Thus the apocalypses passed out of use among the
Jews, and, in $ome cases at least, have been preserved only
by the Church, and only because of their congruity with
Christian views. It is possible, therefore, that when Trypho
in the middle of the second century represents the Messiah
as a "mere man," he is attesting a development in the Jewish
doctrine which was subsequent to the time of Paul. But even
in that case his testimony is not altogether without value.
Even if Trypho's doctrine of a merely human Messiah be a
later development, it was probably not without some roots
in the past. If the Jews of the first century possessed both the
doctrine of an earthly king and that of a heavenly "Son .of
Man," it is possible to see how the latter doctrine might have
been removed and the former left in sole possession of the
field ; but if in the first century the transcendent doctrine alone
prevailed, it is unlikely that a totally different view could have
been produced so quickly to take its place.^

* Indeed Briickner himself (op, cit., p. 110) admits that there were
two lines of thought about the Messiah in pre-Christian Judaism. But
he denies that the two were separated, and insists that the transcendent
conception had transformed the conception of an earthly king.

186 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

Thus it must be insisted against Bruckner that in the first
century the transcendent conception of Messiahship attested
by the apocalypses was not the only conception that prevailed.
Despite its dominance in the apocalypses, it was probably not
the doctrine of the masses of the people. Probably the ordi-
nary view of the matter is essentially correct; probably the
Jews of the first century were eagerly awaiting an earthly king
of David's line who should deliver them from Roman rule.

If, however, the transcendent conception of Messiahship
which is found in the apocalypses was not the only conception
held by pre-Christian Judaism, it is none the less of special
interest, and will repay examination. It is foimd most fully
set forth in the ^^Similitudes" of 1 Enoch,^ but appears also
in 4 Ezra and in 2 Baruch.

In the Similitudes, the heavenly being, who is to appear
at the end of the age and be the instrument of God in judg-
ment, is usually called the Elect One, Mine Elect One, the
Son of Man, or that Son of Man. He is also called the
Righteous One, and twice he is called Messiah or Anointed
One (xlviii. 10; Hi. 4). This latter title would seem to connect
him with the expected king of David's line, who was the
Anointed One or the Messiah. Lake and Jackson, however,
would deny all connection. The heavenly Son of Man, they
maintain, was never in pre-Christian Judaism identified with
the expected king of David's line — that is, with the "Messiah"
in the technical sense — so that it is a mistake to speak of
"Messianic" passages in the Book of Enoch.^ But after
all,, the heavenly figure of 1 Enoch is represented as fulfilling
much the same functions as those which are attributed in the
Psalms of Solomon, for example, to the Messiah. It would
be difficult to conceive of the same writer as expecting two
deliverers — one the Messiah of the Psalms of Solomon, and
the other the Son of Man of 1 Enoch. On the whole, there-
fore, it is correct, despite the protest of Lake and Jackson,
to speak of the passages in 1 Enoch as Messianic, and of

*A11 parts of 1 Enoch are now usually thought to be of pre-Chris-
tian origin. The Similitudes (chaps, xxxvii-lxxi) are usually dated
in the first century before Christ. See Charles, op. cit., ii, pp. 163-^1;
SchUrer, op. cU., iii, pp. 26S-290 (English TranslaUon, Division II, vol. iii,
pp. 54-73).

•Lake and Jackson, The Begirmmgt of Chriitiamiy, Part I, vd. L 19fW,
pp. 373f.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 187

1

the Son of Man as the ^^Messiah." In 4 Ezra adi. 82, more-
over, the transcendent being, who is set forth under the figure
of the lion, is distinctly identified with the Messiah *Vho shall
spring from the seed of David.'' Of course, the late date of
4 Ezra may be insisted upon, and it may be maintained that
the Davidic descent of the Messiah in 4 Ezra is a mere tradi-
tional detail, without organic connection with the rest of the
picture. But it is significant that the writer did feel it neces-
sary to retain the detail. His doing so proves at least that
the heavenly being of the apocalypses was not always thought
of as distinct from the promised king of David's line. All
that can be granted to Lake and Jackson is that the future
Deliverer was thought of in pre-Christian Judaism in widely
diverse ways, and that there was often no eff^ort to bring the
different representations into harmony. But it is correct to
speak of all the representations as ^^Messianic." For the
coming Deliverer in all cases (despite the variety of the ex-
pectations) was intended to satisfy at least the same religious
needs.

The title "Son of Man," which is used frequently in the
Similitudes, has given rise to a great deal of discussion, espe-
cially because of its employment in the Gospels as a self-
designation of Jesus. It has been maintained by some scholars
that "Son of Man" never could have been a Messianic title, since
the phrase in Aramaic idiom means simply "man." Thus the
Greek phrase, "the Son of Man," in the Gospels would merely
be an over-literal translation of an Aramaic phrase which
meant simply "the man," and the use of "Son of Man" as a
title would not extend back of the time when the tradition
about the words of Jesus passed over into Greek. But in
recent years this extreme position has for the most part been
abandoned. In the first place, it is by no means clear that
the Aramaic phrase from which the phrase "the Son of Man"
in the Grospels is derived was simply the ordinary phrase mean-
ing simply "the man." Opposed to this view is to be put, for
example, the weighty opinion of Dalman.^ In the second
place, it has been shown that the linguistic question is not so
important as was formerly supposed. For even if "the son

^Dalman, Die Worte Jesu, i, 1898, pp. 191-197 (English Translation,
Th0 Words of Jeatu, i, 1902, pp. 234-241); Bousset, KyHo$ Christo$, 1913,
pp. IS, 14.

188 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

of man" in Aramaic meant simply **the man," it might still be
a title. The commonest noun may sometimes become a title,
and a title of highly specialized significance. For example,
the word "day" is a very common word, but "The iDay" in
certain connections, like the German, "Der Tag," altogether
without the help of any adjectives, comes to designate one
particular day. So "the Man" or "that Man" could become
a very lofty title, especially if it refers to some definite scene
in which He who is the "Man" par excellence is described.

In the Similitudes, such is actually the case; the phrase
"Son of Man," whatever be its exact meaning, plainly refers
to the "one like unto a son of man" who in Daniel vii. 18 ap-
pears in the presence of "the Ancient of Days." This refer-
ence is made perfectly plain at the first mention of the Son
of Man (1 Enoch xlvi. 1, 2), where the same scene is evidently
described as the scene of Dan. vii. 13. The "Son of Man''
is not introduced abruptly, but is first described as a **being
whose countenance had the appearance of a man," and is then
referred to in the Similitudes not only as "the Son of Man,"
but also as "that Son of Man." Charles and others suppose,
indeed, that the Ethiopic word translated "that" is merely
a somewhat false representation, in the Ethiopic translation,
of the Greek definite article, so that the Greek form of the
book from which the extant Ethiopic was taken had every-
where "the Son of Man," and nowhere "that Son of Man."
The question is perhaps not of very great importance. In
any case, the phrase "son of man" derives its special signifi-
cance from the reference to the scene of Dan. vii. 13. Not any
ordinary "man" or "son of man" is meant, but the mysterious
figure who came with the clouds of heaven and was brought
near to the Ancient of Days.

The Son of Man, or the Elect One, in the Similitudes,
appears clothed with the loftiest attributes. He existed be-
fore the creation of the world (xlviii. 3, 6). When he finally
appears, it is to sit in glory upon the throne of God (li. 3,
etc.), and judge not only the inhabitants of earth but also the
fallen angels (Iv. 4). For the purposes of judgment he is
endued with righteousness and wisdom. He is concerned, more-
over, not only with the judgment but also with the execution of
the judgment; he causes "the sinners to pass away and be
destroyed from off the face of the earth" (Ixix. 27). For the

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 189

righteous, on the other hand, the judgment results in blessing
and in communion with the Son of Man. "And the righteous
and elect shall be saved in that day, and they shall never
thenceforward see the face of the sinners and the unrighteous.
And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them, and with that Son
of Man shall they eat and lie down and rise up for ever and
ever*' (Ixii. 18, 14).

The entire representation in the Similitudes is super-
natural ; the Son of Man is a heavenly figure who appears sud-
denly in the full blaze of his glory. Yet the connection with
earth is not altogether broken off. It is upon a glorified
earth that the righteous are to dwell. Indeed, despite the
cosmic extent of the drama, the prerogatives of Israel are
preserved; the Gentile rulers are no doubt referred to in
"the Kings and the Mighty" who are to suffer punishment
because of their former oppression of "the elect." On the
other hand, mere connection with Israel is not the only ground
for a man's acceptance by the Son of Man ; the judgment will
be based upon a real understanding of the secrets of individual
lives.

In 4 Ezra vii. 26-31, the rule of the Messiah is represented
as distinctly temporary. The Messiah will rejoice the living
for four hundred years ; then, together with all human beings,
he will die; then after the world has returned to primeval
silence for seven days, the new age, with the final resurrection,
will be ushered in. It may be doubted whether this repre-
sentation harmonizes with what is said elsewhere in 4 Ezra
about the Messiah, indeed whether even in this passage the
representation is thoroughly consistent. Box, for example,
thinks that there are contradictions here, which are to be
explained by the composite nature of the book and by the work
of a redactor. But at any rate the result, in the completed
book, is clear. The Messiah is to die, like all the men who
are upon the earth, and is not connected with the new age.
This death of the Messiah is as far as possible from possessing
any significance for the salvation of men. Certainly it is
not brought into any connection with the problem of sin,
which, as has been observed above, engages the special atten-
tion of the writer of 4 Ezra. "It is important to observe
how the Jewish faith knew of a Saviour for external ills, but
not for sin and condemnation ; and how the Christ is able only

190 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

to create a brief earthly joy, which passes away with the de-
struction of the world." ^

In the "Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs," ^ although
Bruckner is no doubt right in saying that the Messiah here
as well as in 1 Enoch is a supernatural figure, the connection
of the Messiah with the tribe of Levi introduces the reader
into a somewhat different circle of ideas. The difference
becomes more marked in the "Psalms of Solomon," ' where
the Messiah is a king of David's line. It is no doubt true
that even here the Messiah is no ordinary human being; he de-
stroys his enemies, not by the weapons of warfare and not by
the help of Israelitish armies, but by the breath of his mouth.
Yet the local, earthly character of the Messiah's reign — ^what
may even be called, perhaps, its political character — ^is more
clearly marked than in the apocalypses. Also there is stronger
emphasis upon the ethical qualities of the Messianic king;
the righteousness of his people is celebrated in lofty terms,
which, however, do not exclude a strong element of Jewish and
Pharisaic particularism.

No complete exposition of the Jewish belief about the
Messiah has here been attempted. But enough has perhaps
been said to indicate at least some features of the Messianic
expectation in the period just preceding the time of Paul.
Evidently, in certain circles at least, the Messianic hope was
transcendent, individualistic, and universalistic. The scene
of Messiah's kingdom was not always thought of merely as
the earthly Jerusalem ; at least the drama by which that king-
dom is ushered in was thought of as taking place either in
heaven or upon an earth which has been totally transformed.
With this transcendent representation went naturally a ten-
dency towards individualism. Not merely nations were to be
judged, but also the secrets of the individual life; and individ-
uals were to have a part in the final blessing or the final woe.
Of course, for those who should die before the end of the age,
this participation in the final blessedness or the final woe
would be possible only by a resurrection. And the doctrine
of resurrection, especially for the righteous, is in the apoca-

* Volz, JUdische Eschatolopie von Daniel bis Akiba, 1903, pp. 202f.

"See Charles, op. ciL, ii, pp. 282-367; SchUrer, op. cit., iii, pp. 339-356
(English Translation, Division II, vol. iii, pp. 114-124).

See Gray, in Charles, op. cit., ii, pp. 625-652; Schiirer, op. eU., iii, pp.
205-212 (English Translation, Division II, vol. iii, pp. 17-23).

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 191

lypses clearly marked. In 2 Baruch, indeed, there is an in-
teresting discussion of the relation between the resurrection
state and the present condition of man; the righteous will
first rise in their old bodies, but afterwards will be trans-
formed (2 Baruch xlix-li). Finally, the apocalypses exhibit
a tendency toward universalism. The coming of the Messianic
kingdom is regarded as an event of cosmic significance. The
Grentiles are even sometimes said to share in the blessing. But
they are to share in the blessing only by subordination to the
people of Grod.

Despite the importance of the later period, it is inter-
esting to observe that all the essential features of later Jew-
ish eschatology have their roots in the canonical books of
the Old Testament. In the first place, the transcendence of
the latei^ representation has an old Testament basis. In
Isaiah ix and xi the Messiah appears clearly as a supernatural
figure, and in Isaiah Ixv. 17 there is a prophecy of new heavens
and a new earth. The heavenly "Son of Man" is derived from
Dan. vii. 13, and the individualistic interpretation of that
passage, which makes the Son of Man, despite verse 18, some-
thing more than a mere collective symbol for the people of
Israel, is to-day in certain quarters coming to its rights.
Not only in the Psalms of Solomon, but also in the apocalypses,
the Old Testament language is used again and again to describe
the heavenly Messiah. There is, in the second place, an Old
Testament basis for the individualism of the later represen-
tation. The doctrine of resurrection, with its consequences
for an individualistic hope, appears in Daniel. And, finally,
the universalism of the apocalypses does not transcend that
of the great Old Testament prophets. In the prophets also,
the nations are to come under the judgment of God and are
to share in some sort in the blessings of Israel.

If, therefore, the apostle Paul before his conversion be-
lieved in a heavenly Messiah, supernatural in origin and in
function, he was not really unfaithful to the Old Testament.

But was his pre-Christian notion of the Messiah really
the source of the Christology of the Epistles? Such is the
contention of Wrede and Bruckner. Wrede and Bruckner be-
lieve that the lofty Christology of Paul, inexplicable if it was
derived from the man Jesus, may be accounted for if it was
merely the pre-Christian conception of the Messiah brought

192 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

into loose connection with the prophet of Nazareth. This
hypothesis must now be examined.

At the beginning of the investigation, it may be questioned
whether Paul before his conversion held the apocalyptic view
of the Messiah. It might, indeed, even be questioned
whether he was particularly interested in the Messianic hope
at all. If Baldensperger is correct in saying that the Mes-
sianic dogma was in some sort a substitute for the Law, and
the Law a substitute for the Messianic dogma, so that finally
rabbinical interest in the Law tended to dampen interest in
the Messiah,^ then the pre-Christian life of Paul was pre-
sumably not dominated by Messianic expectations. For Paul
himself, as Baldensperger observes,^ does not, in speaking of
his pre-Christian life, reckon himself with the Messianists. He
reckons himself, rather, with those who were zealous for the
Law. Such considerations are interesting. But their impor-
tance should not be exaggerated. It must be remembered that
according to the testimony of the whole New Testament the
doctrine of the Messiah was firmly established in the Judaism
of Paul's day. It is hardly likely that Paul the Pharisee
dissented from the orthodox belief. In all probability, there-
fore, Paul before his conversion did hold some doctrine of the
Messiah.

It is not so certain, however, that the pre-conversion
doctrine of Paul presented a transcendent Messiah like the
heavenly Son of Man of the apocalypses. Certainly there is
in the Pauline Epistles no evidence whatever of literary de-
pendence upon the apocalyptic descriptions of the Messiah.
The characteristic titles of the Messiah which appear in the
Similitudes of Enoch, for example, are conspicuously absent
from Paul. Paul never uses the title "Son of Man" or "Elect
One" or "Righteous One" in speaking of Christ. And in the
apocalypses, on the other hand, the Pauline terminology is
almost equally unknown. The apocalypses, at least 1 Enoch,
use the title "Messiah" only very seldom, and the character-
istic Pauline title, "Lord," never at all. It is evident, there-
fore, that the Pauline Christology was not derived from the
particular apocalypses that are still extant. All that can

^ Baldensperger, Die Messianisch-apocalyptischen Uofnungen d€$ J%k-
dentuTM, 3te Aufl., 1903, pp. 88, 207f., 216f.
* Baldensperger, op. cit,, pp. 916f.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 198

possibly be maintained is that it was derived from apocalypses
which have been lost, or from an apocalyptic oral tradition.
But dependence upon lost sources, direct comparison not being
possible, is always very difficult to establish.

Thus the terminology of the Epistles and of the apoca-
lypses is rather unfavorable to the view which attributes to
the youthful Paul the apocalyptic doctrine of the Messiah.
No literary relation can be established between the Epistles
and the extant apocalypses. But will general considerations
serve to supply the lack of direct evidence of dependence?
On the whole, the reverse is the case. General considerations
as to the pre-Christian opinions of Paul point rather to a
less transcendent and more political conception than the con-
ception which is found in the apocalypses. No doubt the
Messiah whom Paul was expecting possessed supernatural at-
tributes; it seems to have been generally expected in New
Testament times that the Messiah would work miracles. But
the supernatural attributes of the Messiah would not neces-
sarily involve a conception like that which is presented in the
Similitudes of Enoch. Possibly it is rather to the Psalms of
Solomon that the historian should turn. The Psalms of Solo-
mon were a typical product of Pharisaism in its nobler aspects.
Their conception of the Messiah, therefore, may well have been
that of the pupil of Gamaliel. And the Messiah of the Psalms
of Solomon, though possessed of supernatural power and wis-
dom, is thought of primarily as a king of David's line, and there
is no thought of his preexistence. He is very different from
the Son of Man of 1 Enoch.

It is, therefore, not perfectly clear that Paul before the
conversion believed in a heavenly, preexistent Messiah like the
Messiah of the apocalypses. There is some reason for sup-
posing that the apocalyptic Messiah was the Messiah, not of
the masses of the people and not of the orthodox teachers, but
of a somewhat limited circle. Did Paul belong to that limited
circle? The question cannot be answered with any certainty.

The importance of such queries must not, indeed, be ex-
aggerated. It is not being maintained here that Paul before
his conversion did not believe in the Messiah of the apoca-
lypses; all that is maintained is that it is not certain that
he did. Possibly the diffusion of apocalyptic ideas in pre-
Christian Judaism was much wider than is sometimes sup-

194 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

posed ; possibly the youthful Paul did come under the influence
of such ideas. But Wrede and Bruckner are going too far if
they assert that Paul must necessarily have come under such
influences. The truth is that the pre-Christian life of Paul
is shrouded in the profoundest obscurity. Almost the only
definite piece of information is what Paul himself tells us — ^that
he was zealous for the Law. He says nothing about his con-
ception of the Messiah. The utmost caution is therefore in
place. Bruckner is going much further than the sources will
warrant when he makes Paul before his conversion a devotee of
the apocalyptic Messiah, and bases upon this hypothesis an
elaborate theory as to the genesis of the Pauline Christology.

But even if Paul before his conversion was a devotee of
the apocalyptic Messiah, the genesis of the Pauline Christology
has not yet been explained. For the apocalyptic Messiah is
different in important respects from the Christ of the Epistles.

In the first place, there is in the apocalypses no doc-
trine of an activity of the Messiah in creation, like that
which appears in 1 Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16. The Messiah of
the apocalypses is preexistent, but He is not thought of as be-
ing associated with God in the creation of the world. This
difference may seem to be only a difference in detail ; but it is a
difference in detail which concerns just that part of the Paul-
ine Christology which would seem to be most similar to the
apocalyptic doctrine. It is the Pauline conception of the
preexistent Christ, as distinguished from the incarnate or the
risen Christ, whicli Wrede and Bruckner find it easiest to con-
nect with the apocalypses. But even in the preexistent period
the Christ of Paul is different from the apocalyptic Messiah,
because the Christ of Paul, unlike the apocalyptic Messiah,
has an active part in the creation of the world.

In the second place, there is in the apocalypses no trace
of the warm, personal relation which exists between the be-
liever and the Pauline Christ.^ The Messiah of the apoca-
lypses is hidden in heaven. He is revealed only as a great
mystery, and only to favored men such as Enoch. Even after
the judgment, although the righteous are to be in company
with Him, there is no such account of His person as would
make conceivable a living, personal relationship with Him.
The heavenly Messiah of the apocalypses is a lifeless figure,

* Compare especially Olschewski, Die Wurzeln der paulinischen Chritt-
ologie, 1909.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 196

clothed in unapproachable light. The risen Christ of Paul,
on the other hand, is a person whom a man can love; indeed
He is a person whom as a matter of fact Paul did love. Whence
was derived the concrete, personal character of the Christ of
Paul? It was certainly not derived from the Messiah of the
apocalypses. Whence then was it derived?

The natural answer would be that it was derived from
Jesus of Nazareth. The fact that the risen Christ of Paul is
not merely a heavenly figure but a person whom a man can love
is most naturally explained by supposing that Paul attributed
to the Messiah all the concrete traits of the striking per-
sonality of Jesus of Nazareth. But this supposition is ex-
cluded by Wrede's hypothesis. Indeed, Wrede supposes, if
Paul had come into such close contact with the historical
Jesus as to have in his mind a full account of Jesus' words and
deeds, he could not easily have attached to Him the super-
natural attributes of the heavenly Son of Man ; only a man who
stood remote from the real Jesus could have regarded Jesus
as the instrument in creation and the final judge of all the
world. Thus the hypothesis of Wrede and Bruckner faces a
quandary. In order to explain the supernatural attributes
of the Pauline Christ, Paul has to be placed near to the apoca-
lypses and far from the historical Jesus; whereas in order to
explain the warm, personal relation between Paul and his
Christ, Paul would have to be placed near to the historical
Jesus and far from the apocalypses.

This quandary could be avoided only by deriving the warm,
personal relation between Paul and his Christ from something
other than the character of the historical Jesus. Wrede and
Bruckner might seek to derive it from the one fact of the cruci-
fixion. All that Paul really derived from the historical Jesus,
according to Wrede and Bruckner, was the fact that the
Messiah had come to earth and died. But that one fact, it
might be maintained, was sufiicient to produce the fervent
Christ-religion of Paul. For Paul interpreted the death of
the Messiah as a death suffered for the sins of others. Such
a death involved self-sacrifice; it must have been an act of
love. Hence the beneficiaries were grateful; hence the warm,
personal relationship of Paul to the one who had loved him
and given Himself for him.^

> Compare BrUckner, Die EnUtehung der paulifUtohen Chriitologie,

196 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

But how did the death of Jesus ever come to be interpreted
by Paul as a vicarious death of the Messiah? The natural
answer would be that it was because of something that Jesus
had said or because of an impression derived from His char-
acter. That answer is excluded by Wrede's hypothesis. How
then did Paul come to regard the death of Jesus as a vicarious
death of the Messiah? It could only have been because Paul
already had a doctrine of the vicarious death of the Messiah
before his conversion. But nothing is more unlikely. There
is in late pre-Christian Jewish literature not a trace of such
a doctrine.^ The Messiah in 4 Ezra is represented, indeed^ as
dying, but His death is of benefit to no one. He dies, along with
all the inhabitants of earth, simply in order to make way for
the new world.^ In Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, the
Jew Trypho is represented as admitting that the Messiah was
to suffer. But the suffering is not represented as vicarious.
And since the Dialogue was written in the middle of the second
century after Christ, the isolated testimony of Trypho cannot
be used as a witness to first-century conditions. It is perfectly
possible, as Schiirer suggested, that certain Jews of the sec-
ond century were only led to concede the suffering of the Mes-
siah in the light of the Scriptural arguments advanced by the
Christians. The rabbinical evidence as to sufferings of the
Messiah is also too late to be used in reconstructing the pre-
Christian environment of Paul. And of real evidence from the
period just before Paul's day there is none. In 4 Maccabees
vi. 28, 29, indeed (less clearly in xvii. 21, 22), the blood of the
righteous is represented as bringing purification for the people.
The dying martyr Eleazar is represented as praying:^ "Be
merciful unto thy people, and let our punishment be a satis-
faction in their behalf. Make my blood their purification, and
take my soul to ransom their souls." This passage, however, is
entirelv isolated. There is no evidence whatever that the vicari-
ous suffering of the righteous was anything like an estab-
lished doctrine in the Judaism of Paul's day, and in par-
ticular there is no evidence that in pre-Christian Judaism the
idea of vicarious suffering was applied to the Messiah. Un-

»See SchUrer, op. cit., ii, pp. 648-651 (English Translation, Division 11,
vol. ii, pp. 184-187).

'It will be remembered, moreover, that 4 Ezra, at least in its completed
form, dates from long after the time of Paul.

'Townsbendy in Charles, op. cih, ii, p. 674.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 197

doubtedly Isaiah liii might have formed a basis for such an
application; it may even seem surprising that that glorious
passage was not more influential. But as a matter of fact,
Judaism was moving in a very different direction; the later
doctrine of the Messiah had absolutely no place for a vicarious
death or for vicarious suffering. All the sources are here
in agreement. Neither in the apocalypses nor in what is pre-
supposed in the New Testament about Jewish belief is there any
trace of a vicarious death of the Messiah. Indeed, there is
abundant evidence that such an idea was extremely repulsive
to the Jewish mind. The Cross was unto the Jews a stumbling-
block.i

Thus the warm, personal relation of love and gratitude
which Paul sustains to the risen Christ is entirely unexplained
by anything in his Jewish environment. It is not explained by
the Jewish doctrine of the Messiah; it is not explained by re-
flection upon the vicarious death of the Messiah. For the
Messiah in Jewish expectation was not to suffer a vicarious
death. Such a relation of love and gratitude could be sus-
tained only toward a living person. It could be sustained
toward Jesus of Nazareth, if Jesus continued to live in glory,
but it could not be sustained toward the Messiah of the apoca-
lypses.

The third difference between the Pauline Christ and the
Messiah of the apocalypses concerns the very center of the
Pauline conception — there is in the apocalypses no doctrine

^B. W. Bacon {Je9us and Paul, 1991, pp. UA9) seeks to bridge the
gulf between Jesus and Paul bj supposing that Jesus lumself, somewhat
like the Maccabean hero, finally attained, after the failure of His original
prog^m and at the very close of His life, the conception that His ap-
proaching death was to be in some sort an expiation for His pedpk.
But the idea of expiation which Bacon attributes to Jesus is no doubt
very different from the Pauline doctrine of the Cross of Christ. The
gulf between Jesus and Paul is therefore not really bridged. Morebver,
it cannot be said that Bacon's hypothesis of successive stages in the ex-
perience of Jesus, culminating in the idea of expiation attained at the
last supper, has really helped at all to solve the problem presented to
every historian who proceeds upon naturalistic presuppositions by Jesus*
lofty claims. At least, however, this latest investigator of the problem
of ''Jesus and Paul" has betrayed a salutary consciousness of the fact
that the Pauline conception of Jesus* redemptive work is inexplicable
unless it' find some justification in the mind of Jesus Himself. Only,
the Justification which Bacon himself has found — ^particularly his account
of the way in which the idea of expiation is supposed to have arisen in
Jesus' mind — is entirely inadequate.

198 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

of the divinity of the Messiah. In Paul, the divinity of
Christ is presupposed on every page. The word "divinity*' is
indeed often being abused; in modem pantheizing liberalism,
it means absolutely nothing. But the divinity of Christ in
the Pauline Epistles is to be understood in the highest pos-
sible sense. The Pauline doctrine of the divinity of Christ is
not dependent upon individual passages; it does not depend
upon the question whether in Rom. ix. 5 Paul applies the term
"God*' to Christ. Certainly he does so by any natural inter-
pretation of his words. But what is far more important is
that the term "Lord" in the Pauline Epistles, the character-
istic Pauline name of Christ, is every whit as much a desig-
nation of deity as is the term "Grod.*' ^ Everywhere in the
Epistles, moreover, the attitude of Paul toward Christ is not
merely the attitude of man to man, or scholar to master; it
is the attitude of man toward God.

Such an attitude is absent from the apocalyptic repre
sentation of the Messiah. For example, the way in which Grod
and Christ are linked together regularly at the beginnings of
the Pauline Epistles — God our father and the Lord Jesas
Christ ^ — this can find no real parallel in 1 Enoch. The
isolated passages (1 Enoch xUx. 10; Ixx. 1) where in 1 Enoch
the Lord of Spirits and the Son of Man or the Elect One are
linked together by the word "and," do not begin to approach
the height of the Pauline conception. It is not surprising
and not particularly significant that the wicked are desig-
nated in one passage as those who have "denied the Lord of
Spirits and His anointed" (1 Enoch xlix. 10). Such an ex-
pression would be natural even if the Anointed One were, for
example, merely an earthly king of David's line. What is
characteristic of Paul, on the other hand, is that God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are not merely united by
the conjunction "and" in isolated passages — that might hap-
pen even if they belonged to different spheres of being — but
are united regularly and as a matter of course, and are just
as regularly separated from all other beings except the Holy
Spirit. Moreover, God and Christ, in Paul, have attributed
to them the same functions. Grace and peace, for example,

*See Warfleld, " *God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,'" in
Princeton Theological Review, xv, 1917, pp. 1-20.
"Warfield, loc. cit.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 199

come equally from both. Such a representation would be quite
incongruous in 1 Enoch. Equally incongruous in 1 Enoch
would be the Pauline separation of the Christ from ordinary
humanity and from angels. The author of 1 Enoch could hardly
have said, "Not from men nor through a man but through the
Elect One and the Lord of Spirits," as Paul says, "Not from
men. nor through a man but through Jesus Christ and God the
Father who raised him from the dead" (Gal. i. 1 ) . On the other
hand, the way in which 1 Enoch includes the Elect One in the
middle of a long list of beings who praise the Lord of Spirits
(1 Enoch Ixi. 10, 11) would be absolutely inconceivable in
Paul.

This stupendous difference is established not by isolated
passages, but by every page of the Pauline Epistles. The Paul-
ine Christ is exalted to an infinite height above the Messiah
of the apocalypses. How did He reach this height? Was it be-
cause He was identified with Jesus of Nazareth? But that
identification, if Jesus of Nazareth were a mere man, would
have dragged Him down rather than lifted Him up. There lies
the unsolved problem. Even if Paul before his conversion be-
lieved in the heavenly Messiah of the apocalypses, he had to
exalt that Messiah far beyond all that had ever been attributed
to Him in the boldest visions of the Jewish seers, before he
could produce the Christ of the Epistles. Yet the only new
thing that had entered Paul's life was identification of the
Messiah with Jesus. Why did that identification lift the
Messiah to the throne of God? Who was this Jesus, who by His
identification with the Messiah, lifted the Messiah even far
above men's wildest dreams?

Thus the Messianic doctrine of the apocalypses is an in-
sufficient basis for the Pauline Christology. Its insufficiency
is admitted by Hans Windisch.^ But Windisch seeks to sup-
ply what is lacking in the apocalyptic Messiah by appealing to
the Jewish doctrine of "Wisdom." The apocaljrptic doctrine
of the Messiah, Windisch admits, will not explain the origin of
the Pauline Christology ; for example, it will not explain Paul's
doctrine of the activity of Christ in creation. But "Wisdom"
is thought to supply the lack.

In Prov. viii, **wisdom" is celebrated in lofty terms, and

***Dic gOttliche Weishelt der Juden und die paulinische Christologie,"
in Neut§$tamentlich0 Studien Q$org Hemrici dargehracht, 1914, pp. 290-334.

«00 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

is said to have existed before the creation of the world. **Wi8-
dom" is here boldly personified in a poetic way. But she is
not regarded as a real person separate from God. In later
books, however, notably in the Alexandrian "Wisdom of Solo-
mon," the personification is developed until it seems to in-
volve actual personality. Wisdom seems to be regarded as an
"hypostasis," a figure in some sort distinct from God. This
hypostasis, Windisch believes, was identified by Paul with
Christ, and the result was the Pauline Christology.

The figure of Wisdom, Windisch believes, will supply two
elements in the Pauline Christ-religion which are lacking in
the Messiah of the apocalypses. In the first place, it wiU
account for the Pauline notion that Christ was active in
creation, since Wisdom in Jewish belief is repeatedly repre-
sented as the assessor or even the instrument of the Creator.
In the second place, it will account for the intimate relation
between Paul and his Christ, since Wisdom is represented in
the "Wisdom of Solomon" as entering into the wise man, and
the wise man seems to be represented in Proverbs viii and in
Ecclesiasticus as the mouthpiece of Wisdom.^

But when was the identification of the Messiah with Wisdom
accomplished? Was it accomplished by Paul himself after
his conversion? Or was it received by Paul from pre-Chris-
tian Jewish doctrine? If it was accompHiihed by Paul him-
self after his conversion, then absolutely no progress has
been made toward the explanation of the Pauline Christology.
How did Paul come to identify Jesus of Nazareth with the
divine figure of Wisdom? It could only have been because
Jesus was such a person as to make the identification natural.
But that supposition is of course excluded by the naturalistic
principles with which Windisch is operating. The identifica-
tion of Jesus with Wisdom at or after the conversion is, there-
fore, absolutely inexplicable; in substituting Wisdom for the
apocalyptic Messiah as the basis of the Pauline Christology,
Windisch has destroyed whatever measure of plausibility the
theory of Wrede and Bruckner possessed. For it is really
essential to Wrede's theory that Paul before his conversion had
not only believed in the existence of a heavenly being like
the Son of Man of 1 Enoch, but had also expected that heavenly
being to appear. Since he had expected the heavenly being to

* Windisch, op, cU,, p. 226,

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT «01

appear, it might seem to be not so absolutely inexplicable that
he came to think that that being had actually appeared in the
person of Jesus. But no one expected Wisdom to appear,
in any more definite way than by the entrance which she had
already accomplished into the hearts of wise men. The thought
of an incarnation or a parousia of Wisdom is absolutely for-
eign to Jewish thought. What possible reason was there, then,
for Paul to think that Wisdom actually had appeared and
would finally appear again in the person of Jesus?

Thus the theory of Windisch can be maintained only if the
identification of Wisdom with the Messiah was accomplished
not by Paul after the conversion but by pre-Christian Judaism.
If Paul's pre-Christian doctrine of the Messiah already con-
tained vital elements drawn from the doctrine of Wisdom, then
and then only might it be held that the Pauline Christ, with
His activity in creation and His spiritual indwelling in the
believer, was merely the pre-Christian Messiah. But was the
pre-Christian Messiah ever identified with the hypostasis
Wisdom? Upon an afiirmative answer to this question depends
the whole structure of Windisch's theory. But Windisch
passes the question over rather lightly. He tries, indeed, to
establish certain coincidences between the doctrine of the
Messiah in 1 Enoch and in the Septuagint translation of Micah
V. S and Ps. ex. 3 on the one hand, and the descriptions of
Wisdom on the other; but the coincidences apparently amount
to nothing except the ascription of preexistence to both figures.
But the fundamental trouble is that Windisch has an entirely
inadequate conception of what really needs to be proved.
What Windisch really needs to do is to ascribe to the pre-
Christian doctrine of the Messiah two elements — activity in
creation and spiritual indwelling — which in the extant sources
are found not at all in the descriptions of the Messiah but
only in the descriptions of Wisdom. Even if he succeeded
in establishing verbal dependence of the descriptions of the
Messiah upon the descriptions of Wisdom, that would not
really prove his point at all. Such verbal dependence as a
matter of fact has not been established, but if it were established
it would be without significance. It would be far more com-
pletely devoid of significance than is the similarity between the
descriptions of the heavenly Messiah as judge and the descrip-
tions of God as judge. This latter similarity may be signifi-

208 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

cant, when taken in connection with other evidence, as being
a true anticipation of the Christian doctrine of the deity of
Christ, but in itself it will hardly be held (at least it will
hardly be held by Windisch ) to establish the complete personal
identity, in Jewish thinking, of the Messiah and God, so that
everything that is said about God in pre-Christian Jewish
sources can henceforth be applied to the Messiah. Why then
should similarity in language between the descriptions of
the Wisdom of God as preexistent and the descriptions of the
Messiah as preexistent (even if that similarity existed) estab-
lish such identity between the Messiah and Wisdom that what
is attributed to Wisdom (notably spiritual indwelling) can
henceforth be attributed to the Messiah? There is really no
evidence whatever for supposing that the Messiah was con-
ceived of in pre-Christian Judaism either as being active in
creation or as dwelling in the hearts of men. Indeed, with re-
gard to the latter point, there is decisive evidence of the con-
trary. The figure of the Messiah in the apocalypses is as in-
congruous as anything can possibly be with the idea of spiritual
indwelling. Wisdom is conceived of as dwelling in the hearts
of men only because Wisdom in Jewish literature is not really
or completely a concrete person, but is also an abstract qual-
ity. The Messiah is a concrete person and hence is not thought
of as indwelling. It was something absolutely without pre-
cedent, therefore, when Paul regarded his Christ — who is noth-
ing if not a person, and a person who may be loved — as dwell-
ing in the heart of the believer.

Objection will no doubt be raised against this treatment
of the idea of personality. Wisdom, we have argued, was
never in Jewish literature regarded consistently as a person
distinct from God; whereas the Messiah was always regarded
as a person. Against this argument it will be objected that
the ancient world possessed no idea of personality at all,
so that the difference between Wisdom and the Messiah dis-
appears. But what is meant by the objection? If it is meant
only that the ancient world possessed no definition of per-
sonality, the point may perhaps be conceded. But it is quite
irrelevant. If, on the other hand, what is meant is that the
ancients had no way of distinguishing between a person and a
mere quality, no way of feeling the difference even if the differ-
ence could not be put into words, then an emphatic denial is

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 208

in place. Without such a power of practical, if not theoretical,
distinction, no mental or moral life at all, to say nothing of
the highly developed life of the Hellenistic age, would have
been possible. It is highly important, therefore, to observe
that Wisdom in Jewish literature hardly becomes regarded
as a person in any consistent way. Undoubtedly the hypostas-
izing has gone to considerable lengths, but it is always possible
for the writers to hark back to the original sense of the word
^^wisdom** — to play at least upon the original meaning. Wis-
dom seems to be treated not merely as a person but also as an
attribute of God.

Thus Windisch is entirely unjustified when he uses pas-
sages which represent the Messiah as possessing ^Visdom" to
prove that the Messiah was regarded as identical with Wisdom.
A striking example of this mistake is found in the treatment
of 1 Enoch xlix. 3, where it is said that in the Elect One
"dwells the spirit of wisdom, and the spirit which gives in-
sight, and the spirit of understanding and of might and the
spirit of those who have fallen asleep in righteousness." A
still more striking example is found in the use of 1 Cor. i. 24,
30, where Christ crucified is called the power of God and the
wisdom of God, and is said to have become to believers wisdom
and justification and sanctification and redemption. Windisch
actually uses these passages as evidence for the application
to the apocalyptic Messiah and to the Pauline Christ of the
attributes of the hypostasis Wisdom. Could anything be more
utterly unwarranted? The inclusion of "wisdom" in a consid-
erable list of what the Son of Man possesses or of what Christ
means to the believer, far from proving that 1 Enoch or Paul
identified the Messiah with the hypostasized Wisdom, rather
proves, if proof be necessary, that they did not make the identi-
fication. It is a very different thing to say that Christ pos-
sesses wisdom (along with other qualities) or brings wisdom
to the believer (along with other gifts) from saying that Christ
is so identical with the hypostasis Wisdom of the "wisdom
literature" that what is there said about Wisdom is to be at-
tributed to Him. Windisch himself observes, very significantly,
that Paul could not actually designate Christ as "Wisdom"
because the word wisdom is of feminine gender in Greek. The
difference of gender is here the symbol of a profound differ-
ence in essential character. The figure of Wisdom in Jewish

204 1*HE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

literature, with its curious vacillation between personality
and abstraction, is absolutely incongruous with the wamiy
living, concrete, personal figure of the Pauline Christ. The two
belong to totally different circles of ideas. No wonder that
even Bousset (as Windisch complains) has not ventured to
bring them into connection. The Pauline Christology was
certainly not based upon the pre-Christian doctrine of Wisdom.
Thus the first great objection to Wrede's derivation of
the Pauline Christology is that it is simply insufficient. The
Messiah of the Jewish apocalypses is not great enough to have
been the basis of the Pauline Christ. If before the conversion
Paul had believed in the apocalyptic Messiah, then when he
was converted he lifted his conception to far greater heights
than it had before attained. But what caused him to do so?
Apparently he ought to have done exactly the reverse. If
Jesus was a mere man, then the identification of the Messiah
with Him ought to have pushed the conception of the Messiah
down instead of lifting it up. As Baldensperger significant-
ly remarks, the Jewish apocalyptists faced less difficulty in
presenting a transcendent Messiah than did their successors,
the exponents of a metaphysical Christology in the Christian
Church, since the Jewish apocalyptists could give free course
to their fancy, whereas the Christians were hampered by the
recollections of the earthly Jesus. ^ This observation, on the
basis of Baldensperger's naturalistic presuppositions, is en-
tirely correct. But the strange thing is that the recollections
of Jesus, far from hampering the Christians in their ascrip-
tion of supernatural attributes to the Messiah, actually had
just the opposite effect. Paul furnishes a striking example.
Before he identified the Messiah with Jesus, he did not really
think of the Messiah as divine — not even if he believed in the
transcendent Messiah of 1 Enoch. But after he identified the
Messiah with Jesus, he said "not by man but by Christ." Why
was it that identification with Jesus, instead of bringing the
apocalyptic Messiah down to earth, lifted Him rather to the
throne of God? Was it, after all, because of something in
Jesus? If it was, then the eternal Son of God walked upon
earth, and suffered for the sins of men. If it was not, then the
fundamental historical problem of Christianity is still entirely
unsolved.

* Baldensperger, op. cit., p. 126.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 205

But another objection faces the solution proposed by
Wrede and Bruckner. Suppose the apocalyptic doctrine of the
Messiah were really adequate to the strain which is placed
upon it. Suppose it really represented the Messiah as active
in creation and as indwelling in the hearts of the faithful and
as exalted to the throne of God. These suppositions are
entirely without warrant in the facts; they transcend by far
even the claims of Wrede and Bruckner themselves. But sup-
pose they were correct. Even then the genesis of Paul's religion
would not be explained. Suppose the Pauline doctrine of the
Messiah really was complete in his mind before he was con-
verted. Even then, another problem remains. How did he come
to identify his exalted Messiah with a Jew who had lived but a
few years before and had died a shameful death? The thing
might be explained if Jesus was what He is represented in all of
the extant sources as being — a supernatural person whose
glory shone out plain even through the veil of flesh. It might
be explained if Paul before his conversion really believed that
the heavenly Christ was to come to earth before His final
parousia and die an accursed death. But the former alterna-
tive is excluded by the naturalistic presuppositions of the
modem man. And the latter is excluded by an overwhelming
weight of evidence as to pre-Christian Judaism and the pre-
Christian life of Paul. How then did Paul come to identify
his heavenly Messiah with Jesus of Nazareth? It could only
have been through the strange experience which he had near
Damascus. But what, in turn, caused that experience? No
answer, on the basis of naturalistic presuppositions, has yet
been given. In removing the supernatural from the earthly
life of Jesus, modem naturalism has precluded the only pos-
sible naturalistic explanation of the conversion of Paul. If
Jesus had given evidence of being the heavenly Son. of Man,
then Paul might conceivably, though still not probably, have
become convinced against his will, and might, conceivably
though still not probably, have experienced an hallucination
in which he thought he saw Jesus living in glory. But if
Jesus was a mere man, the identification of Him with the heav-
enly apocalyptic Messiah becomes inconceivable, and the ex-
perience through which that identification took place is left
absolutely uncaused. Thus the hypothesis of Wrede and
Bruckner defeats itself. In arguing that Paul's pre-conversion

C06 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

conception of the Messiah was not a conception of a mere
earthly being or the like» but that of a transcendent bein|^
Wrede and Briickner are really digging the grave of their own
theory. For the more exalted was the Messiah in whom PanI
betiered before his conversion, the more inexplicable becomes
the identification of that Messiah with a cruofied malefactor.
Bat still another objection remains. Suppose the Pauline
CSirist were simply the Messiah of the Jewish apocalypses; sup-
pose Paul knew so little about the historical Jesus that he could
even identify the exalted Messiah with Him. Even then an-
other fact requires exi>lanation. How did Paul come to be
so strikingly similar to the historical Jesus both in teaching
and in character? Wrede was audacious enou{^ to explain
the similarity as due to a common dependence upon Juda-
ism.^ But at this point few have foUowed him. For the
striking fact is that Paul agrees with Jesus in just those
matters to which Judaism was most signally opposed. It would
be more plausible to say that Paul agrees witii Jesus because
both of them abandoned contemporary Judaism and returned to
'the Old Testament prophets. But even that explanation would
be quite inadequate. The similarity between Jesus and Paul
goes far beyond what both hold in common with the Prophets
and the Psalms. And why did two men return to the Prophets
and Psalms at just the same time and in just the same way?
The similarity between Jesus and Paul might then be regarded
as due to mere chance. Paul, it might be supposed, developed
the ideal of Christian love from the death of the Messiah,
which he interpreted as an act of self-sacrifice.* This ideal
of love happened to be just the same as that which Jesus of
Nazareth exemplified in a life of service — to which life of
service, however, Paul was completely indifferent. Such, es-
sentially, is what the hypothesis of Wrede really amounts to.
The hypothesis is really absurd. But its absurdity is instruc-
tive. It is an absurdity to which the naturalistic account of
the origin of Christianity is driven by an inexorable logic.
Paul, it must be supposed, could not have regarded Jesus as a
divine being if he had really known Jesus. The similarity of

^ Wrede, PcnUus, 1904, pp. 90, 91 (English Translation, Ptmt, 1907, pp.
157, 158).
*See Briiclcner, op. cit,, p. 237.

THE JEWISH ENVIRONMENT 207

his life and teaching to that of Jesus cannot, therefore, be due
to knowledge of Jesus. It must therefore be due to chance.
In other words, it is dangerous, on naturalistic principles, to
bring Paul into contact with Jesus. For if he is brought into
contact with Jesus, his witness to Jesus will have to be heard.
And when his witness is heard, the elaborate modem recon-
structions of the "liberal Jesus'* fall to the ground. For ac-
cording to Paul, Jesus was no mere Galilean prophet, but the
Lord of Glory.

CHAPTER VI

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC

AGE

CHAPTER VI

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE

It has been shown in the last chapter that the religion
of Paul was not derived from the pre-Christian Jewish doctrine
of the Messiah. If, therefore, the derivation of Paulinism
from the historical Jesus is still to be abandoned, recourse
must be had to the pagan world. And as a matter of fact, it
is in the pagan world that the genesis of Paulinism is to-day
more and more frequently being sought. The following chap-
ters will deal with that hypothesis which makes the religion of
Paul essentially a product of the syncretistic pagan religion
of the HeUenistic age.

This hypothesis is not only held in many different forms,
but also enters into combination with the view which has been
considered in the last chapter. For example, M. Bruckner,
who regards the Pauline Christology as being simply the Jewish
conception of the Messiah, modified by the episode of the Mes-
siah's humiliation, is by no means hostile to the hjrpothesis
of pagan influence. On the contrary, he brings the Jewish
conception of the Messiah upon which the Pauline Christology
is thought to be based, itself into connection with the wide-
spread pagan myth of a dying and rising saviour-god.^ Thus
Bruckner is at one with the modern school of comparative
religion in deriving Paul's religion from paganism; only he
derives it from paganism not directly but through the medium
of the Jewish conception of the Messiah. On the other hand,
most of those who find direct and not merely mediate pagan in-
fluence at the heart of the religion of Paul are also willing
to admit that some important influences came through pre-
Christian Judaism — notably, through the Messianic expecta-
tions of the apocalypses. The division between the subject of
the present chapter and that of the preceding chapter is there-
fore difficult to carry out. Nevertheless, that division will be

* Brttckner, D€r ittrbende und auf€r9teh$nde Oottheiiand, 1908.

211

«1« THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

found convenient. It will be well to consider separately the
hypothesis (now in the very forefront of interest) which de-
rives Paulinism, not from the historical Jesus, and not from
pre-Christian Judaism, but from the pagan religion of the
Greco-Roman world.

Here, as in the last chapter, the discussion may hepn
with a brief review of that type of religion from which Paul-
inism is thought to have been derived. The review will again
have to be of a most cursory character, and will make free
use of recent researches.^ Those researches are becoming
more and more extensive in recent years. The Hellenistic age is
no longer regarded as a period of hopeless decadence, but is
commanding a larger and larger share of attention from philo-
logians and from students of the history of religion. The
sources, however, so far as the sphere of popular religion is con-
cerned, are rather meager. Complete unanimity of opinion,
therefore, even regarding fundamental matters, has by no
means been attained.

At the time of Paul, the civilized world was unified,
politically, under the Roman Empire. The native religion of
Rome, however, was not an important factor in the life of the
Empire — certainly not in the East. That religion had been
closely bound up with the life of the Roman city-state. It
had been concerned largely with a system of auguries and re-
ligious ceremonies intended to guide the fortunes of the city
and insure the favor of the gods. But there had been little
attempt to enter into any sort of personal contact with the
gods or even to produce any highly differentiated account of
their nature. The native religion of Rome, on the whole,
seems to have been rather a cold, unsatisfjring affair. It
aroused the emotions of the people only because it was an ex-
pression of stern and sturdy patriotism. And it tended to
lose its influence when the horizon of the people was broculened
by contact with the outside world.

The most important change was wrought by contact with
Greece. When Rome began to extend her conquests into the
East, the eastern countries, to a very considerable extent,

*For example, Rohde, Psyche, 2 Bde, 3te Aufl., 1903; Farnell, CtUU of
the Greek States, vol. iii, 1907; Wendland, Die hellenistisch-romische KuUur,
2te u. 3te Aufl., 1912; Anrich, Das antike Mysterienwesen, 1894; Cumont,
Les religions orientates dans le payanisme romain, 2i^me 6d., 1909 (£ng^
lish Translation, The Oriental Religions in Rom<in Paganism, 1911).

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE «18

had already been Hellenized, by the conquests of Alexander
and by the Greek kingdoms into which his short-lived empire
had been divided. Thus the Roman conquerors came into con-
tact with Greek civilization, not only in the Greek colonies
in Sicily and southern Italy, not only in Greece proper and on
the iEgean coast of Asia Minor, but also to some extent every-
where in the eastern world. No attempt was made to root out
the Greek influences. On the contrary, the conquerors to a
very considerable extent were conquered by those whom they
had conquered ; Rome submitted herself, in the spiritual sphere,
to the dominance of Greece.

The Greek influence extended into the sphere of religion.
At a very early time, the ancient Roman gods were identified
with the Greek gods who possessed roughly analogous functions
— Jupiter became Zeus, for example, and Venus became Aphro-
dite. This identification brought an important enrichment into
Roman religion. The cold and lifeless figures of the Roman
pantheon began to take on the grace and beauty and the
clearly defined personal character which had been given to their
Greek counterparts by Homer and Hesiod and the dramatists
and Phidias and Praxiteles. Thus it is not to the ancient offi-
cial religion of Rome but to the rich pantheon of Homer that
the student must turn in order to find the spiritual ancestry of
the religion of the Hellenistic world.

Even before the time of Homer, Greek religion had imder-
gone development. Modern scholarship, at least, is no longer
inclined to find in Homer the artless simplicity of a primitive
age. On the contrary, the Homeric poems, it is now supposed,
were the product of a highly developed, aristocratic society,
which must be thought of as standing at the apex of a social
order. Thus it is not to be supposed that the religion of
Homer was the only Hellenic religion of Homer's day. O^ the
contrary, even in the Homeric poems, it is said, there appear
here and there remnants of a popular primitive religion —
human sacrifice and the like — and many of the rough, primi-
tive conceptions which crop out in Greek life in the later
centuries were really present long before the Homeric age,
and had been preserved beneath the surface in the depths of
a non-literary popular religion. However much of truth there
may be in these contentions, it is at any rate clear that the
Homeric poems exerted an enormous influence upon subsequent

«14 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

generations. Even if they were the product of a limited cir-
cle, even if they never succeeded in eradicating the primitiTe
conceptions, at least they did gain enormous prestige and did
become the most important single factor in molding the re-
ligion of the golden age of Greece.

As determined by the Homeric poems, the religion of Greece
was a highly developed polytheism of a thoroughly anthropo-
morphic kind. The Greek gods were simply men and women,
with human passions and himian sins — ^more powerful, indeed,
but not more righteous than those who worshiped them. Such
a religion was stimulating to the highest art. Anthropomorph-
ism gave free course to the imagination of poets and sculptors.
There is nothing lifeless about the gods of Greece; whether
portrayed by the chisel of sculptors or the pen of poets, they
are warm, living, breathing, human figures. But however
stimulating to the sense of beauty, the anthropomorphic re-
ligion of Greece was singularly unsatisfying in the moral
sphere. If the gods were no better than men, the worship of
them was not necessarily ennobling. No doubt there was a cer-
tain moral quality in the very act of worship. For worship
was not always conceived of as mere prudent propitiation of
dangerous tyrants. Sometimes it was conceived of as a duty,
like the pious reverence which a child should exhibit toward has
parent. In the case of filial piety, as in the case of piety toward
the gods, the duty of. reverence is independent of the moral
quality of the revered object. But in both cases the very act
of reverence may possess a certain moral value. This admis-
sion, however, does not change the essential fact. It remains
true that the anthropomorphic character of the gods of Greece,
just because it stimulated the fancy of poets by attributing
human passions to the gods and so provided the materials of
dramatic art, at the same time prevented religion from lifting
society above the prevailing standards. The moral standards
of snowy Olympus, unfortunately, were not higher than those
of the Athenian market place.

In another way also, the polytheistic religion of Greece
was unsatisfying. It provided little hope of personal com-
munion between the gods and men. Religion, in Greece scarcely
less than in ancient Rome, was an affair of the state. A man
was born into his religion. An Athenian citizen, as such, was
a worshiper of the Athenian gods. There was little place for

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 816

individual choice or for individual devotion. Moreover, there
was little place for the mystical element in religion. The
gods of Greece were in some sort, indeed, companionable fig-
ures ; they were similar to men ; men could understand the mo-
tives of their actions. But there was no way in which compan-
ionship with them could find expression. There was a time, in-
deed, when the gods had come down to earth to help the great
heroes who were their favorites or their sons. But such favors
were not given to ordinary mortals. The gods might be revered,
but direct and individual contact with them was for the most
part not to be attained.

These limitations, however, were not universal; and for
purposes of the present investigation the exceptions are far
more important than the rule. It is not true that the religion
of Greece, even previous to the golden age, was entirely de-
void of enthusiasm or individualism or mystic contact with
the gods. The polytheism of Homer, the polytheism of the
Olympic pantheon, despite its wide prevalence was not the only
form of Greek religion. Along with the worship of the Olympic
gods there went also reUgious practices of a very different
kind. There was a place even in Greece for mystical religion.

This mystical or enthusiastic element in the religion of
Greece is connected especiaUy with the worship of Dionysus.
Dionysus was not originally a Greek god. He came from
Thrace and is very closely related to the Phrygian Sabazius.
But, at an early time, his worship was widely adopted in the
Greek world. No doubt it was not adopted entirely without
modification; no doubt it was shorn of some of those features
which were most repulsive to the Greek genius. But enough
remained in order to affect very powerfully the character of
Greek religion.

The worship of Dionysus supplied, to some extent at least,
just those elements which were lacking in the religion of the
Greek city-state. In the first place, there was direct contact
with the god. The worshipers of Dionysus sought to attain
contact with the god partly by a divine frenzy, which was in-
duced by wild music and dancing, and partly by the crass
method of eating the raw flesh of the sacred animal, the bull.
No doubt these savage practices were often modified when they
were introduced into Greece. It has been thought, for example,
that the frenzied dances and nightly excursions to the wilds

i

jei6 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

of the mountains, which originally had been carried on in true '
self-forgetfulness, became in Greece rather parts of an estab-
lished cult. But on the whole, the influence of Dionysus-wor-
ship must be regarded as very great. An element of true mys-
ticism or enthusiasm was introduced into the Greek world.

In the second place, the worship of Dionysus stimulated
interest in a future life. The Homeric poems had represented
the existence of the soul after death — at least the soul of
an ordinary mortal — as being a mere shadow-existence which
could not be called life at all. It is indeed questionable
whether at this point Homer truly represented the original
Hellenic belief, or the popular belief even of the time when
the poems were written. Modem scholars have detected in the
Iliad and the Odyssey here and there remnants of a more posi-
tive doctrine of a future life. But at any rate, the worship of
Dionysus brought such positive beliefs — if they existed in
Greece before — more to the surface. Thracian religion, ap-
parently, had concerned itself to a very considerable extent
with the future condition of the soul; the introduction of the
Thracian Dionysus, therefore, stimulated a similar interest in
Greece.

Finally, the worship of Dionysus tended to separate religion
from the state and make it partly at least an affair of the
individual man. Such individualism is connected of course
with the enthusiastic character of the worship ; a state religion
as such is not likely to be enthusiastic. The whole body of
citizens cannot be possessed of a divine frenzy, and if not,
then those who have the experience are likely to separate them-
selves to some extent from their countrymen. It is not sur-
prising, therefore, that the worshipers of Dionysus, here and
there, were inclined to unite themselves in sects or brother-
hoods.

The most important of these brotherhoods were connected
with the name of Orpheus, the mythical musician and seer.
The origin of the Orphic sects is indeed very obscure. Ap-
parently, however, they sprang up or became influential in the
sixth century before Christ, and were connected in some way
with Dionysus. They seem to have represented a reform of
Dionysiac practice. At any rate, they continued that interest
in the future life which the worship of Dionysus had already
cultivated. Orphism is especially important because it taught
men to expect in the future life not only rewards but also

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 217

punishmentsi' The soul after death, according to Orphic doc-
trine, was subject to an indefinite succession of reincarnations,
not only in the bodies of men, but also in those of animals.
These reincarnations were regarded as an evil, because the
body was thought of as a prison-house of the soul. At last,
however, the righteous soul attains purification, and, escaping
from the succession of births, enters into a blessed existence.

Related in some way to the Orphic sects were the brother-
hoods that owned Pythagoras as their master. But the rela-
tion between the two movements is not perfectly plain.

At any rate, both Orphism and Pythagoreanism stand apart
from the official cults of the Greek states. Even within those
cults, however, there were not wanting some elements which
satisfied more fully than the ordinary worship of the Olympic
gods the longing of individual men for contact with the higher
powers and for a blessed immortality. Such elements were
found in the "mysteries," of which far the most important
were the mysteries of Eleusis.^ The Eleusinian Mysteries
originated in the worship of Demeter that was carried on at
Eleusis, a town in Attica some fifteen miles from Athens.
When Eleusis was conquered by Athens, the Eleusinian cult of
Demeter, far from suffering eclipse, was adopted by the con-
querors and so attained unparalleled influence. Characteristic
of the cult as so developed was the secrecy of its central rites ;
the Eleusinian cult of Demeter became (if it was not one al-
ready) a mystery-cult, whose secrets were divulged only to
the initiates. The terms of admission, however, were very
broad. All persons of Greek race, even slaves — except those
persons who were stained with bloodguiltiness or the like —
could be admitted. As so constituted, the Eleusinian Mysteries
were active for some ten centuries; they continued until the
very end of pagan antiquity.

Initiation into the mysteries took place ordinarily in three
stages; the candidate was first initiated into the "lesser mys-
teries" at Agrae near Athens in the spring; then into a first
stage of the "great mysteries" at Eleusis in the following
autumn; then a year later his initiation was completed at
Eleusis by the reception of the mystic vision. The mysteries
of Eleusis were prepared for by a succession of acts about

*On the Eleusinian Mysteries and the cult of Demeter and Kore-
Pcrscphonc, sec especially Farnell, op. cit,, iii, pp. ^-279.

jei8 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

which some information has been preserved. These acts were
extended over a period of days. First the sacred objects were
brought from Eleusis to Athens. Then the candidates for
initiation, who had purified themselves by abstinence from cer-
tain kinds of food and from sexual intercourse, were called
upon to assemble. Then, at the cry, "To the sea, O mystae!*'
the candidates went to the sea-coast, where they made sacrifice
of a pig, and purified themselves by washing in the sea water.
Then came the solemn procession from Athens to Eleusis, inter-
rupted by ribald jests at the passage of the river Cephissus.
The initiation itself took place in the "telesterion." What
happened there is obscure; antiquity has well observed the
secrecy which was essential to the mysteries. Certainly, how-
ever, the ceremony was accompanied, or rather, perhaps, pre-
ceded, by the drinking of the "kykeon," a mixture composed
of water and barley-meal and other ingredients. The signifi-
cance of this act is not really known. It would be very rash,
for example, to assert that the partaking of the kykeon was
sacramental, or was thought of as imparting a new nature
to the recipients. Apparently the kykeon did not have a part
in the mysteries themselves, for if it had, it could hardly have
been spoken of so openly by pagan writers. The mysteries
seem to have consisted in some sort of sacred drama, repre-
senting the search of Demeter for her daughter Persephone
who had been carried off to the lower world, and in the ex-
hibition of sacred emblems or of images of the gods. Hippolytus
scornfully says that the supreme object of mystic awe was a
cut corn-stalk.^ His testimony is variously estimated. But
it is quite possible that he has here given us genuine informa-
tion. Since Demeter was the goddess of the fertility of the
soil, the corn-stalk was not ill fitted to be her sacred emblem.
It has been supposed that the cult of Demeter at Eleusis
was originally an agrarian cult, intended to celebrate or to
induce the fertility of the soil. But the chief significance of
the mysteries was found in another sphere. In the mysteries,
the cult goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, were thought of
chiefly as goddesses of the nether world, the abode of the dead ;
and the mysteries were valued chiefly as providing a guarantee
of a blessed immortality. How the guarantee was given is quite
obscure. But the fact is well attested. Those who had been
* Hippolytus, Ref, omn, haer,, V. viii, 39 (ed. Wendland, 1916),

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE ftl9

initiated into the mysteries were able to expect a better lot in
the future life than the lot of the generality of men.

The mysteries at Eleusis were not the only mysteries which
were practised in the golden age of Greece. There were not
only offshoots of the Eleusinian mysteries in various places,
but also independent mysteries like those of the Kabeiri on the
island of Samothrace. But the mysteries at Eleusis were im-
doubtedly the most important, and the others are even less
fully known. The moral value of the mysteries, including those
at Eleusis, should not be exaggerated. Slight aUusions in
pagan writers seem to point here and there to a purifying moral
effect wrought by initiation. But the indications are not very
clear. Certainly the secrets of Eleusis did not consist in any
body of teaching, either religious or ethical. The effect was
produced, not upon the inteUect, but upon the emotions and
upon the imagination.

Thus the religion of the golden age of Greece was an
anthropomorphic polytheism, closely connected with the life
of the city-state, but relieved here and there by practices in-
tended to provide more direct contact with the divine or bestow
special blessing upon individuals.

The religion of Greece was finally undermined by at least
three agencies.

In the first place, philosophy tended to destroy belief
in the gods. The philosophic criticism of the existing religion
was partly theoretical and partly ethical. The theoretical
criticism arose especially through the search for a unifying
principle operative in the universe. If the manifold phenomena
of the universe were all reduced to a single cause, the gods might
indeed still be thought of as existing, but their importance was
gone. There was thus a tendency either toward monotheism
or else toward some sort of materialistic monism. But the
objections which philosophy raised against the existing poly-
theism were ethical as well as theoretical. The Homeric myths
were rightly felt to be immoral; the imitation of the Homeric
gods would result in moral degradation. Thus if the myths
were still to be retained they could not be interpreted literally,
but had to be given some kind of allegorical interpretation.

This opposition of philosophy to the existing religion was
often not explicit, and it did not concern religious practice.
Even those philosophers whose theory left no room for the

ft»0 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

existence or at least the importance of the gods, continued to
engage loyally in the established cults. But although the
superstructure of religion remained, the foundation, to some ex-
tent at least, was undermined.

In the second place, since religion in ancient Greece had
been closely connected with the city-states, the destruction
of the states brought important changes in religion. The
Greek states lost their independence through the conquests
of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great. Those con-
quests meant, indeed, a wide extension of Greek culture through-
out the eastern world. But the religion of Alexander's empire
and of the kingdoms into which it was divided after his death
was widely different from the religion of Athens in her glory.
Cosmopolitanism brought mighty changes in religion, as in the
political sphere.

In the third place, the influence of the eastern religions
made itself more and more strongly felt. That influence was
never indeed dominant in the life of Greece proper so com-
pletely as it was in some other parts of the world. But in gen-
eral it was very important. When the Olympic gods lost their
place in the minds and hearts of men, other gods were ready
to take their place.

Before any account can be given of the eastern religions
taken separately, and of their progress toward the west, it
may be well to mention certain general characteristics of the
period which followed the conquests of Alexander. That period,
which extended several centuries into the Christian era, is
usually called the Hellenistic age, to distinguish it from the
Hellenic period which had gone before.

The Hellenistic age was characterized, in the first place,
by cosmopolitanism. Natural and racial barriers to an aston-
ishing extent were broken down; the world, at least the edu-
cated world of the cities, was united by the bonds of a common
language, and finally by a common political control. The com-
mon language was the Koine, the modified form of the Attic
dialect of Greek, which became the vehicle of a world-civiliza-
tion. The common political control was that of the Roman
Empire. On account of the union of these two factors, inter-
communication between various nations and races was safe and
easy; the nations were united both in trade and in intellectual
activity.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 221

With the cosmopolitanism thus produced there went nat-
urally a new individualism, which extended into the religious
sphere. Under the city-state of ancient Greece the individual
was subordinated to the life of the community. But in the
world-empire the control of the state, just because it was
broader, was at the same time looser. Patriotism no longer
engrossed the thoughts of men. It was impossible for a sub-
ject of a great empire to identify himself with the life of
the empire so completely as the free Athenian citizen of the
age of Pericles had identified himself with the glories of his
native city. Thus the satisfactions which in that earlier
period had been sought in the life of the state, including the
state-religion, were in the Hellenistic age sought rather in in-
dividual religious practice.

The ancient religions of the city-state did indeed find a suc-
cessor which was adapted to the changed condition. That
successor was the worship of the Emperors. The worship of
the Emperors was more than a mere form of flattery. It ex-
pressed a general gratitude for the reign of peace which was
introduced by Augustus, and it had its roots, not only in
Greek religion, but also, and far more fundamentally, in the
religions of the East. The worship of the rulers was firmly
established in the kingdoms into which Alexander's empire was
divided, and from there it was transmitted very naturally to
the new and greater empire of Rome. Very naturally it be-
came a dangerous enemy of the Christian Church; for the re-
fusal of the Christians to worship the Emperor seemed inex-
plicable to an age of polytheism, and gave rise to the charge of
political disloyalty. At first, however, and so during the
period of Paul's missionary journeys, the Church shared more
or less in the special privileges which were granted to the Jews.
Christianity at first seemed to be a variety of Judaism, and
Judaism in Roman practice was a religio licit a.

But the worship of the Emperors, important as it was,
was not practised in any exclusive way; it did not at all ex-
clude the worship of other gods. It remains true, therefore,
that in the Hellenistic age, far more than under the ancient
Greek city-state, there was room for individual choice in re-
ligious practice.

It is not surprising that such an age was an age of re-
ligious propaganda. Since religion was no longer an affair

fSS THE ORIGIN OP PAUL'S BEUGION

of the nation at such, but addreMed itadf to mot as ma,
free scope was offered for the extension to the whole world
of religions which originally had been national in character.
The golden age of sndi religions propaganda, it is trae^ did
not begin until the second century; and that fact is of very
great importance in dealing with certain modem tiieories df
dependence so far as Pauline Christianity is concerned. Nfsnat"
tiidess the cosmopolitanizing of national religions had begun to
some extent in an early period and was rendered natural by iint
entire character of the Hellenistic age. Even before the fall
of the Greek city-state, littie communities of the worshipcfs
of eastern gods had established themsdves here and thei« in
Greece; and in other parts of the world the barriers against
religious propaganda were even less effective. In the HeUea-
istic age such barriers were almost everywhere broken down.
When any religion ceased to be an affair of the nation, when it
could no longer count on the devotion of the citiaens or sub-
jects as such, it was obliged, if it desired to subsist, to seek its
devotees through an appeal to the free choice of individuals*

This rdigious propaganda, however, was not carried on
in any exclusive way; the adoption of one god did not mean
the abandonment of another. On the contrary, the Hdlenr
istic age was the age of syncretism par excellence. Gods of
different nations, originally quite distinct, were Identified al-
most as a matter of course. One example of such identifica-
tion, has already been noted; at an early time the gods of
Rome were identified with those of Greece. But in the later
portion of the Hellenistic age the process went on in more
wholesale fashion. And it was sometimes justified by the far-
reaching theory that the gods of different nations were merely
different names of one great divinity. This theory received
classic expression in the words of the goddess Isis which are
contained in the "Metamorphoses" of Apuleius: "For the
Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of
the gods at Pessinus; the Athenians, which are sprung from
their own soil, Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians, which are
girt about by the sea, Paphian Venus ; the Cretans which bear
arrows, Dictynnian Diana; the Sicilians, which speak three
tongues, infernal Proserpine; the Eleusians their ancient god-
dess Ceres; some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate, other
Rhamnusia, and principally both sort of the Ethiopians which

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE je«8

dwdl in the Orient and are enlightened by the morning rays
of the 8un» and the Egjrptians, which are excellent in all kind
of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustom
to worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis." ^

But what is perhaps the most important feature of the
religion of the Hellenistic age has not yet been mentioned. It
is found in the widespread desire for redemption. In the golden
age of Greece men had been satisfied with the world. Who
could engage in gloomy questionings, who could face the under-
lying problem of evil, when it was possible to listen with keen
appreciation to an ode of Pindar or to a tragedy of ^schylus?
The Greek tragic poets, it is true, present in terrible fashion
the sterner facts of life. But the glorious beauty of the pres-
entation itself produces a kind of satisfaction. In the age of
Pericles, life was rich and full ; for the Athenian citizen it was
& joy to live. The thought of another world was not needed;
this world was large and rich enough. Joyous development of
existing human faculties was, in the golden age of Greece, the
chief end of man.

But the glorious achievements of the Greek genius were fol-
lowed by lamentable failure. There was failure in political life.
Despite the political genius of Athenian statesmen, Athens soon
lay prostrate, first before her sister states and then before the
Macedonian conqueror. There was failure in inteUectual life.
The glorious achievements of Athenian art were followed by
a period of decline. Poets and sculptors had to find their in-
spiration in imitation of the past. Human nature, once so
proud, was obliged to confess its inadequacy; the Hellenistic
age was characterized by what Gilbert Murray, borrowing a
phrase of J. B. Bury, calls a "failure of nerve." ^

This failure of nerve found expression, in the religious
sphere, in the longing for redemption. The world was found not
to be so happy a place as had been supposed, and human nature
was obliged to seek help from outside. Thus arose the desire
for "salvation." The characteristic gods of the Hellenistic age
are in some sort saviour-gods — ^gods who could give help in the
miseries of life. Asclepius finally became more important than

'Apuldus, Metam, xi. 5, Addington*s translation revised by Gaselee, in
Apuleius, The Golden A$$, in the The Loeb Classical Library, p. 547.

"Gilbert Murray, Four Stages of Greek Religion, ^912, pp. 8, 108-154.
Compare, however, Rohde {op. cit., ii, pp. 298-300), who caUs attention to
an opposite aspect of the Hdlenistic a^

««4 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION .

Zeus. Dissatisfied with the world of sense, men turned their
thoughts to another world; dissatisfied with the achievements
of human nature, they sought communion with higher powers.

Opinions may differ as to the value of this development.
To the himianist of all ages, it will seem to be a calamity.
From the glories of Pindar to the morbid practices of the Hd-
lenistic mysteries, how great a fall ! But there is another way
of regarding the change. Possibly the achievements of ancient
Greece, glorious as they were, had been built upon an insecure
foundation. Scrutiny of the foundation was no doubt painful,
and it dulled the enthusiasm of the architects. But perhaps
it was necessary and certainly it was inevitable. Perhaps also
it might become a step toward some higher humanism. The
Greek joy of living was founded upon a certain ruthlessness to-
ward human misery, a certain indifference toward moral prob-
lems. Such a joy could not be permanent. But how would it
be if the underlying problem could be faced, instead of being
ignored? How would it be if human nature could be founded
upon some secure rock, in order that then the architect might
start to build once more, and build, this time, with a conscience
void of offense? Such is the Christian ideal, the ideal of a
loftier humanism — a humanism as rich and as joyful as the
humanism of Greece, but a humanism founded upon the grace
of God.

But however "the failure of nerve'* which appears in the
Hellenistic age be appreciated by the student of the pliilosophy
of history, the fact at least cannot be ignored. The Hellen-
istic age was characterized by a widespread longing for re-
demption — a widespread longing for an escape from the pres-
ent world of sense to some higher and better country. Such
longing was not satisfied by the ancient religion of Greece.
It caused men, therefore, to become seekers after new gods.

But what was the attitude of philosophy? Philosophy had
contributed to the decline of the ancient gods. Had it been
equally successful on the positive side? Had it been able to
fill the void which its questionings had produced. The answer
on the whole must be rendered in the negative. On the whole,
it must be said that Greek philosophy was unsuccessful in its
efforts to solve the riddle of the universe. The effort which
it made was indeed imposing. Plato in particular endeavored
to satisfy the deepest longings of the human soul ; he attempted

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 226

to provide an escape from the world of sense to the higher
world of ideas. But the way of escape was open at best only
to the few philosophical souls ; the generality of men were left
hopeless and helpless in the shadow-existence of the cave. And
even the philosophers were not long satisfied with the Platonic
solution. The philosophy of the Hellenistic age was either
openly skeptical or materialistic, as is the case, for example,
with Epicureanism, or at any rate it abandoned the great
theoretical questions and busied itself chiefly with practical
affairs. Epicureans and Stoics and Cynics were all interested
chiefly, not in ontology or epistemology, but in ethics. At
this point the first century was like the twentieth. The distrust
of theory, the depreciation of theology, the exclusive interest
in social and practical questions — these tendencies appear now
as they appeared in the Hellenistic age. And now as well as
then they are marks of intellectual decadence.

But if the philosophy of the Hellenistic age offered no
satisfactory solution of the riddle of the universe and no
satisfaction for the deepest longings of the soul, it presented,
on the other hand, no efi^ective opposition to the religious cui>
rent of the time. It had helped bring about that downfall of
the Olympic gods, that sad neglect of Zeus and his altars
which is described by Lucian in his wonderfully modem satires.
But it was not able to check the rising power of the eastern
religions. Indeed it entered into a curious alliance with the
invaders. As early as the first century before Christ, Posi-
donius seems to have introduced an element of oriental mysti-
cism into the philosophy of the Stoics, and in the succeeding
centuries the process went on apace. The climax was reached,
at the close of pagan antiquity, in that curious mixture of
philosophy and charlatanism which is found in the neo-Platonic
writers.

The philosophy of the Hellenistic age, with its intense
interest in questions of conduct, constitutes, indeed, an im-
portant chapter in the history of the human race, and can
point to certain noteworthy achievements. The Stoics, for
example, enunciated the great principle of human brother^
hood; they made use of the cosmopolitanism and individualism
of the Hellenistic age in order to arouse a new interest in man
as man. Even the slaves, who in the theory of an Aristotle
had been treated as chattels, began to be looked upon here and

ftJie THE ORIGIN OP PAULAS RELIGION

there as members of a great hiunan family. Men of every
race and of every social grade came to be the object of a
true humanitarian interest.

But the humanitarian efforts of Stoicism, though proceed-
ing from an exalted theory of the worth of man as man, proved
to be powerless. The dynamic somehow was lacking. Despite
the teaching of Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, despite the begin-
nings of true humanitarian effort here and there, the later
Empire with its cruel gladiatorial shows and its heartless
social system was sinking into the slough of savagery. What
Stoicism was unable to do, Christianity to some extent at least
accomplished. The ideal of Christianity was not the mere ideal
of a human brotherhood. Pure humanitarianism, the notion
of ^^the brotherhood of man," as that phrase is usually under-
stood, is Stoic rather than Christian. Christianity did make
its appeal to all men; it won many of its first adherents from
the depths of slavery. It did inculcate charity toward all men
whether Christians or not. And it enunciated with an unheard-
of seriousness the doctrine that all classes of men, wise and
unwise, bond and free, are of equal worth. But the equality
was not found in the common possession of human nature. It
was found, instead, in a common connection with Jesus Christ.
"There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither
bond nor free, there can be no male and female" — so far the
words of Paul can find analogies (faint analogies, it is true)
in the Stoic writers. But the Pauline grounding of the unity
here enunciated is the very antithesis of all mere humanitarian-
ism both ancient and modern — "For ye are all one person," says
Paul, "in Christ Jesus." Christianity did not reveal the fact
that all men were brothers. Indeed it revealed the contrary.
But it offered to make all men brothers by bringing them into
saving connection with Christ.

The above sketch of the characteristics of the Hellenistic
age has been quite inadequate. And even a fuller presentation
could hardly do justice to the complexity of the life of that
time. But perhaps some common misconceptions have been cor-
rected. The pagan world at the time when Paul set sail from
Seleucia on his first missionary journey was not altogether
without religion. Even the ancient polytheism was by no means
altogether dead. It was rather a day of religious imrest. The
old faiths had been shaken, but they were making room for the

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 227

new. The Orontes, to use the figure of Juvenal, was soon to
empty into the Tiber. The flow of eastern superstition and
eastern mystical religion was soon to spread over the whole
world.

But what were the eastern religions which in the second
century after Christ, if not before, entered upon their tri-
umphal march toward the west ? ^ They were of diverse origin
and diverse character. But one feature was common to a num-
ber of the most important of them. Those eastern religions
. which became most influential in the later Roman Empire were
mystery religions — that is, they had connected with them secret
rites which were thought to afford special blessing to the
initiates. The mysteries did not indeed constitute the whole of
the worship of the eastern gods. Side by side with the mysteries
were to be found public cults to which every one was admitted.
But the mysteries are of special interest, because it was they
which satisfled most fuUy the longing of the Hellenistic age
for redemption, for "salvation," for the attainment of a higher
nature.

It will be well, therefore, to single out for special mention
the chief of the mystery religions — those eastern religions
which although they were by no means altogether secret did
have mysteries connected with them.

The first of these religions to be introduced into Rome
was the religion of the Phrygian Cybele, the "Great Mother
of the Gods." ^ in 204 B.C., in the dark days of the Cartha-
ginian invasion, the black meteoric stone of Pessinus was
brought, by command of an oracle, to Rome. With the sacred
stone came the cult. But Rome was not yet ready for the
barbaric worship of the Phrygian goddess. For several hun-
dred years the cult of Cybele was kept carefully isolated from
the life of the Roman people. The foreign rites were supported
by the authority of the state, but they were conducted alto-
gether by a foreign priesthood; no Roman citizen was allowed
to participate in them. It was not until the reign of Claudius
(41-64 A.D.) that the barrier was finally broken down.

The myth of Cybele is narrated in various forms. Ac-

* The sketch which follows Is indebted e8})eciall7 to Cumont, I^#
rtligUmf orientalew (fani le paganittM romain, 9i^me 6d., 1909 (English
translation, Ths Oriental Religions m Roman Paganism, 1911).

■For the relision of Cybele and Attis, see Showerman, The Oreat
Mother of the Oode, 1901; Hepding, Attie, 1903.

228 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL»S RELIGION

cording to the most characteristic form, the youthful Attis,
beloved by Cybele, is struck with madness by the jealous god-
dess, deprives himself of his virility, dies through his own mad
act, and is mourned by the goddess. The myth contains no
accoimt of a resurrection; all that Cybele is able to obtain
is that the body of Attis should be preserved, that his hair
should continue to grdw, and that his little finger should move
The cult was more stable than the myth. No doubt, in-
deed, even the cult experienced important changes in the course
of the centuries. At the beginning, according to Hepding and
Cumont, Cybele was a goddess of the mountain wilds, whose
worship was similar in important respects to that of Dionysus.
With Cybele Attis was associated at an early time. The
Phrygian worship of Cybele and Attis was always of a wild,
orgiastic character, and the frenzy of the worshipers culmi-
nated even in the act of self -mutilation. Thus the eunuch-
priests of Cybele, the "Galli," became a well-known feature of
the life of the Empire. But the Phrygian cult of Cybele and
Attis cannot be reconstructed by any means in detail; exten-
sive information has been preserved only about the worship as
it was carried on at Rome. And even with regard to the Ro-
man cult, the sources of information are to a very consid-
erable extent late. It is not certain, therefore, that the great
spring festival of Attis, as it was celebrated in the last period
of the Roman Empire, was an unmodified reproduction of the
original Phrygian rites.

The Roman festival was conducted as follows:^ On
March 15, there was a preliminary festival. On March 22,
the sacred pine-tree was felled and carried in solemn proces-
sion by the "Dendrophori" into the temple of Cybele. The
pine-tree appears in the myth as the tree under which Attis
committed his act of self-mutilation. In the cult, the felling of
the tree is thought by modern scholars to represent the death of
the god. Hence the mourning of the worshipers was connected
with the tree. March 24 was called the *'day of blood"; on
this day the mourning for the dead Attis reached its climax.
The Galli chastised themselves with scourges and cut them-
selves with knives — all to the wild music of the drums and
cymbals which were connected especially with the worship of
the Phrygian Mother. On this day also, according to Hep-
' Sec Hepding, op, cU,, pp. 147-176.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 229

ding's conjecture, the new Galli dedicated themselves to the
service of the goddess by the act of self-mutilation. Finally,
the resurrection or epiphany of the god Attis was celebrated.
This took place perhaps during the night between March 24
and March 25. But Hepding admits that the time is not di-
rectly attested. It is also only conjecture when a famous
passage of Firmicus Matemus (fourth century after Christ)
is applied to the worship of Attis and to this part of it.^
But the conjecture may well be correct. Firmicus Matemus ^
describes a festival in which the figure of a god rests upon a
bier and is lamented, and then a light is brought in and the
priest exclaims, ^^Be of good courage, ye initiates, since the
god is saved; for to us there shall be salvation out of
troubles." ^ Apparently the resurrection of the god is here
regarded as the cause of the salvation of the worshipers;
the worshipers share in the fortunes of the god. At any
rate, March 25 in the Roman Attis festival was the ^^Hilaria,"
a day of rejoicing. On this day, the resurrection of the god
was celebrated. March 26 was a day of rest; and finally, on
March 27, there was a solemn washing of the sacred images
and emblems.

As thus described, the worship of Cybele and Attis was,
for the most part at least, public. But ihere were also mys-
teries connected with the same two gods. These mysteries ap-
parently were practised in the East before the cult was brought
to Rome. But the eastern form of their celebration is quite ob-
scure, and even about the Roman form very little is known.
Connected with the mysteries was some sort of sacred meal.*
Firmicus Maternus has preserved the formula: ^^I have eaten
from the drum ; I have drunk from the cymbal ; I have become
an initiate of Attis." ^ And Clement of Alexandria (about
200 A. D.) also connected a similar formula with the Phrygian
mysteries: "I ate from the drum; I drank from the cymbal;

^ Loisy {!/€» fMfsUres paiens et le mytUre chritien, 1910, p. 104) prefers
to attach the passage to Osiris rather than to Attis.
"See Hepding, op, cU., pp. 166, 167.

•Firmicus Matemus, De error, prof, rel., xxil (ed. Ziegler, 1907):

Bappelre fiifarai rw Oeov <rc<rciMr/iivov'

«See Hepding, op. cit., pp. 184-190.

' Firmicus Matemus, op. cit., xviii : k Tvtiw&tfou fikfipcoKo, k miJifiiiXotf irkin^a,
ykyoi^a fjubmis 'Arreow .

SSO THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

I carried the iLenios*; I stole into the bridal chamber."^
The rignificance of this ritual eating and drinking is not dear.
Certainly it would be rash to find in it the notion of new birth
or sacramental union with the divine nature. Hepdiog sug-
gests that it meant rather the entrance of the initiate intoi the
circle of .the table-companions of the god.

The actual initiation is eren more obscure in the Attis
mysteries than it is in those of Eleusis ; Hepding adndts Ihat
his reconstruction of the details, of the mysteries is based
largely on conjecture. Possibly in the formula quoted abofe
from Clement of Alexandria, the words, ^I stole into the bridsl
chamber," indicate that there was some sort of representation
of a sacred marriage; but other interpretations at the Gred^
words are possible. Hepding suggests that the candidate
entered into the grotto, descended into a ditch within the
grotto, listened to lamentations for the dead god, received a
blood-bath, then saw a wonderful light, and heard the joyful
words quoted above: ^^Be of good courage, ye initiates, sinoe
the god is saved; for to us shall there be salvation out of
trouUes,** and finally that the candidate arose out of the ditch
as a new man ('^reborn for eternity") or rather as a being
identified with the god.^

According to this reconstruction, the initiation represented
the death and the new birth of the candidate. But the recon-
struction is e:!^ceedingly doubtful, and some of the most im-
portant features of it are attested in connection with the Attis
mysteries if at all only in very late sources. Hepding is par-
ticularly careful to admit that there is no direct documentary
evidence for connecting the blood-bath with the March festivaL

This blood-bath, which is called the taurobolium, requires
special attention. The one who received it descended into a pit
over which a lattice-work was placed. A bull was slaughtered
above the lattice-work, and the blood was allowed to run
through into the pit, where the recipient let it saturate his
clothing and even enter his nose and mouth and ears. The
result was that the recipient was "reborn forever," or dse
reborn for a period of twenty years, after which the rite had
to be repeated. The tauroboliiun is thought to have signified

^ Clem. AL, Protrepticus, U. 15 (ed. Stilhlin, 1905) : k tv/iwApov ^wyor' k
' Hepdingy op, cU,, pp. 196ff.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 281

a death to the old life and a new birth into a higher, divine
existence. But it is not perfectly clear that it had that sig-
nificance in the East and in the early period. According to
Hepding, the taurobolium was in the early period a mere
sacrifice, and the first man who is said to have received it in
the sense just described was the Emperor Heliogabalus (third
century after Christ). Other scholars refuse to accept Hep-
ding's distinction between an earlier and a later form of the rite.
But the matter is at least obscure, and it would be exceedingly
rash to attribute pre-Christian origin to the developed tauro-
bolium as it appears in fourth-century sources. Indeed, there
seems to be no mention of any kind of taurobolium whatever
before the second century,^ and Hepding may be correct in
suggesting that possibly the fourth-century practice was in-
fluenced by the Christian doctrine of the blood of Christ.^

No less important than the religion of Cybele and Attis
was the Greco-Egyptian religion of Isis and Osiris. Isis and
Osiris are both ancient Egyptian gods, whose worship, in modi-
fied form, was carried over first into the Greek kingdom of the
Ptolemies, and thence into the remotest bounds of the Roman
Empire. The myth which concerns these gods is reported at
length in Plutarch's treatise, "Concerning Isis and Osiris."
Briefly it is as follows: Osiris, the brother and husband of
Isis, after ruling in a beneficent manner over the Egyptians,
is plotted against by his brother Typhon. Finally Typhon
makes a chest and promises to give it to any one who exactly
fits it. Osiris enters the chest, which is then closed by Typhon
and thrown into the Nile. After a search, Isis finds the chest
at Byblos on the coast of Phoenicia, and brings it back to
Egypt. But Typhon succeeds in getting possession of the
body of Osiris and cuts it up Into fourteen parts, which are
scattered through Egypt. Isis goes about collecting the parts.
Osiris becomes king of the nether world, and helps his son
Horus to gain a victory over Typhon.

The worship of Isis and Osiris was prominent in ancient
Egyptian religion long before the entrance of Greek influence.
Osiris was regarded as the ruler over the dead, and as such
was naturally very important in a religion in which supreme
attention was given to a future life. But with the establish-

*Showerman, op. cit., p. 280.

' Hepding, op, ciL, p. 200, Amn. 7.

282 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL»S RELIGION

ment of the Ptolemaic kingdom at about 300 B. C, there was
an important modification of the worship. A new god, Serapis,
was introduced, and was closely identified with Osiris. The
origin of the name Serapis has been the subject of much dis-
cussion and is still obscure. But one motive for the introduc-
tion of the new divinity (or of the new name for an old di-
vinity) is perfectly plain. Ptolemy I desired to unify the
Egyptian and the Greek elements in his kingdom by providing
a cult which would be acceptable to both and at the same
time intensely loyal to the crown. The result was the Greco-
Egyptian cult of Serapis (Osiris) and Isis. Here is to be
found, then, the remarkable phenomenon of a religion deliber-
ately established for political reasons, which, despite its arti-
ficial origin, became enormously successful. Of course, the
success was obtained only by a skillful use of existing beliefs,
which had been hallowed in Egyptian usage from time imme-
morial, and by a skillful clothing of those beliefs in forms
acceptable to the Greek element in the population.

The religion of Isis and Serapis was, as Cumont observes,
entirely devoid of any established system of theology or any
very lofty ethics. It was effective rather on account of its
gorgeous ritual, which was handed down from generation to
generation with meticulous accuracy, and on account of the
assurance which it gave of a blessed immortality, the wor-
shipers being conceived of as sharing in the resuscitation
which Osiris had obtained. The worship was at first repulsive
to Roman ideals of gravity, but effected an official entrance
into the city in the reign of Caligula (37-41 A. D.). In the
second and third centuries it was extended over the whole Em-
pire. In alliance with the religion of Mithras it became finally
perhaps the most serious rival of Christianity.

The cult was partly public and partly private. Prominent
in the public worsliip were the solemn opening of the temple
of Isis in the morning and the solemn closing in the afternoon.
Elaborate care was taken of the images of the gods — the gods
being regarded as dependent upon human ministrations. Be-
sides the rites that were conducted daily, there were special
festivals like the spring festival of the "ship of Isis" which is
brilliantly described by Apuleius.

But it is the mysteries which arouse the greatest interest,
especially because of the precious source of information about

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 283

them which is found in the eleventh book of the Metamorphoses
of Apuleius (second century after Christ). In this book, al-
though the secrets of the mysteries themselves are of course
not revealed, Apuleius has given a more complete and orderly
account of the events connected with an initiation than is to
be found anywhere else in ancient literature. The hero Lucius
is represented first as waiting for a summons from the goddess
Isis, which comes with miraculous coincidence independently
to him and to the priest who is to officiate in his initiation.
Then Lucius is taken into the temple and made acquainted
with certain mysterious books, and also washes his body at;
the nearest baths. This washing has as little as possible the
appearance of a sacrament; evidently it was not intended to
produce "regeneration" or anything of the sort.^ The pur-
pose of it seems to have been cleanliness, which was naturally
regarded as a preparation for the holy rite that was to follow.
There follows a ten days' period of fasting, after which the
day of initiation arrives. Lucius is taken into the most secret
place of the temple. Of what happens there he speaks with
the utmost reserve. He says, however: "I came to the limits
of death, and having trod the threshold of Proserpine and
been borne through all the elements I returned; at midnight
I saw the sun shining with a bright light; I came into the
presence of the upper and nether gods and adored them near
at hand." ^ It is often supposed that these words indicate
some sort of mysterious drama or vision, which marked the
death of the initiate, his passage through the elements, and
his rising to a new life. But certainly the matter is very
obscure. The next morning Lucius is clothed with gorgeous
robes, and is presented to the gaze of the multitude. Appar^
ently he is regarded as partaking of the divine nature. Two
other initiations of Lucius are narrated, one of them being
an initiation into the mysteries of Osiris, as the first had been
into the mysteries of Isis. But little is added by the account
of these later experiences, and it has even been suggested that
the multiplication of the initiations was due to the self-interest

* But compare Kennedy, 8t. Paul and the Myttery-ReUgiotu, 1913, p. 229.

'Apuleius, Metam,, id. 28 (ed. Van der Vliet, 1897, p. 270): "Access!
conflnium mortis et calcato Proserpinae limine per omnia vectus elements
remeavi; nocte media vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine; deos inferos
et deos superos accessi coram et adoravi de proxumo."

fM THE OBIOIN OF PAUL'S RELIGIOX

of the priesta rather than to an^ real adTaata^ for the
initiate.

Similar in important reapecta to the Egyptian Oairi* vaa
the Adonis of Pfamucia, who may therefore be mentioned in
tiie present connection, eren thou^ little is known about my»-
teries connected with hii worship. According to the wdl-
known myth, the youth Adonis, beloved by Aphrodite^ was
lolled by a wild boar, and then bonoaned by the goddess. Hie
cult of Adonis was found in various places, notably at Byblos
in Phcenicia, where the death and resurrection ot the god
were cdebrated. With regard to this double festival, Lndan
says in his treatise "On the Syrian Goddess": "ThCy [the
inhabitants of ByUos] assert that the legend about Adonis
and the wild boar is true, and that the facts occurred in their
country, and in memory of this calamity they beat their
breasts and wail every year, and perform their secret ritual
amid signs of mourning through the whole countryside. When
thej have finished their mourning and wailing, they sacrifice
in the first place to Adonis, as to one who has dq>arted this
life: after this they allege that he is alive again, and exhibit
his Mgy to the sky.** ^ The wailing for Adonis at Byfaloe
is similar to what is narrated about the worship of the Baby-
lonian god Tammuz. Even the Old Testament mentions in a
noteworthy passage *'the women weeping for Tammua" (Ezek.
viii. 14). But the Tammuz-worship does not seem to have con-
tained any celebration of a resurrection.

Attis, Osiris, and Adonis are alike in that all of them are
apparently represented as dying and coming to life again.
They are regarded by Bruckner " and many other modem
scholars as representing the widespread notion of a "dying
and rising saviout-god." But it is perhaps worthy of note
that the "resurrection" of these gods is very difTerent from
what is meant by that word in Christian belief. The myth of
Attis, for example, contains no mention of a resurrection;
though apparently the cult, in which mourning is followed
by gladness, did presuppose some such notion. In the myth
of Osiris, also, there is nothing that could he called resurrec-
tion ; after his passion the god becomes ruler, not over the liv-

'Lucian, De dea tyria, 6, translHtion of Garstanfr (Th» avrian Qoddiu,
1913, pp. 4Sf.).
■D«r tt»ri>»iuU uad <mf»rH»bmdt OodJMIoMd, 190§.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 235

ing, but over the dead. In Lucian's description of the worship
of Adonis at Byblos, there is perhaps as clear an account as
is to be found anywhere of the celebration of the dying and
resuscitation of a god, but even in this account there is not
strictly speaking a resurrection. A tendency is found in cer-
tain recent writers to exaggerate enormously the prevalence
and the clarity of the pagan ideas about a dying and rising
god.

According to a common opinion, Attis, Osiris, and Adonis
are vegetation-gods; their dying and resuscitation represent,
then, the annual withering and revival of vegetation. This
hypothesis has attained general, though not universal, accept-
ance. Certainly the facts are very complex. At any rate,
the celebration of the principle of fecundity in nature was
not of a purely agrarian character, but found expression also
in the gross symbols and immoral practices which appear in
connection with the gods just mentioned at various points in
the ancient world.

The most important of the religions which have just been
examined had their rise in Asia Minor and in Egypt. No less
important, at least in the last period of pagan antiquity, was
the religious influence of Syria. The Syrian gods, called
"Baals" ("Lords"), were not, according to Cumont, distin-
guished from one another by any clearly defined character-
istics. Every locality had its own Baal and a female divinity
as the Baal's consort, but the attributes of these local gods
were of the vaguest character. The female divinity Atargatis,
whose temple at Hierapolis is described by Lucian, and the
male divinity Hadad, of Heliopolis, are among the best-known
of the Syrian gods. The Syrian worship was characterized
by especially immoral and revolting features, but seems to
have become ennobled by the introduction of the Babylonian
worship of the heavenly bodies, and thus contributed to the
formation of the solar monotheism which was the final form
assumed by the pagan religion of the Empire before the tri-
umph of Christianity.

In point of intrinsic worth, the Persian mystery religion
of Mithras is easily superior to any of the religions which
have thus far been mentioned, but it is of less importance than
some of the others for the purposes of the present investiga-
tion, since it became influential in the Roman Empire only

286 THE ORIGIN OF PAULAS RELIGION

after the time of Paul. Great stress has indeed been laid upon
the fact that Plutarch attests the practice of Mithraic mys-
teries by the pirates whom Pompey conquered in the middle
of the first century before Christ, and says furthermore that
the Mithraic rites begun by the pirates were continued until
the writer's own day.^ The pirates practised their rites
at Olympus, which is on the southern coast of Asia Minor. But
the Olympus which is meant is in Lycia, some three hundred
miles from Tarsus. It is a mistake, therefore, to bring the
Mithraic mysteries of the pirates into any close geographical
connection with the boyhood home of Paul. Against the
hypothesis of any dependence of Paul upon the mysteries of
Mithras is to be placed the authority of Cumont, the chief
investigator in this field, who says: "It is impossible to sup-
pose that at that time [♦he time of Paul] there was an imita-
tion of the Mithraic mysteries, which then had not yet attained
any importance." ^ Attempts have often been made to ex-
plain away this judgment of Cumont, but without success. The
progress of Mithraism in the Empire seems to have been due
to definite political causes which were operative only after
Paul's day.

The Persian religion, from which Mithraism was descended,
was superior to the others which have just been considered in
its marked ethical character. It presented the doctrine of a
mighty conflict between light and darkness, between good and
evil. And Mithraism itself regarded religion under the figure
of a warfare. It appealed especially to the soldiers, and only
men (not women) were admitted to its mysteries. There were
seven grades of initiation, each with its special name. The
highest grade was that of "father." The Mithras cult was
always celebrated underground, in chambers of very limited
extent. There was a sacred meal, consisting of bread and
water, which Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second cen-
tury, regards as liaving been instituted through demoniac imi-
tation of the Christian Eucharist.® This religion of Mithras
finally became, with the religion of Isis, the most serious rival
of Christianity. But at the time of Paul it was without im-

* Plutarch, Vita Pompei, 24.

"Cumont, op. cit., p. xvi (English Translation, p. xx).

•Justin Martyr, Apol. 66.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 287

portance, and could not have exerted any influence upon the
apostle.

But the religion of the Hellenistic age was not limited to
the individual cults which have just been considered, and it
is not chiefly to the individual cults that recourse is had by
those modern scholars who would derive Paulinism from pagan
sources. Mention has already been made of the syncretism of
the age; various religions were mingled in a limitless variety
of combinations. And there was also a mingling of religion
with philosophy. It is in the manifold products of this union
between Greek philosophy and oriental religion that the genesis
of Paulinism is now often being sought. Not oriental religion
in its original state, but oriental religion already to some ex-
tent Hellcnized, is thought to have produced the characteristic
features of the religion of Paul.

The hypothesis is faced by one obvious difficulty. The
difficulty appears in the late date of most of the sources of
information. In order to reconstruct that Hellenized oriental
mysticism from which the religion of Paul is to be derived, the
investigator is obliged to appeal to sources which are long
subsequent to Paul's day. For example, in reproducing the
spiritual atmosphere in which Paul is supposed to have lived,
no testimony is more often evoked than the words of Firmicus
Maternus, "Be of good courage, ye initiates, since the god
is saved ; for to us there shall be salvation out of troubles.'' ^
Here, it is thought, is to be found that connection between the
resurrection of the god and the salvation of the believers
which appears in the Pauline idea of dying and rising with
Christ. But the trouble is that Firmicus Maternus lived in
the fourth century after Christ, three hundred years later
than Paul. With what right can an utterance of his be used
in the reconstruction of pre-Christian paganism? What would
be thought, by the same scholars who quote Firmicus Maternus
so confidently as a witness to first-century paganism, of a
historian who should quote a fourth-century Christian writer
as a witness to first-century Christianity.'^

This objection has been met by the modem school of com-
parative religion somewhat as follows. In the first place,
it is said, the .post-Christian pagan usage which at any time
*Scc above, p. 229, with footnote 3.

I .;.'r'»-i*^:'.'*ri«*"'T^^

S88 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BEU6I0N

may be under investigalion is plainly not infloeneed hj Ourib-
tianity. But, in the second placei it is too similar to Chn8tia&
usage for the similarity to be explained by mare omneideDoe.
Therefore, in the third place, since it is not depmde&t iipon
Christian usage, CSiristian usage must be dependent upon
it, and therefore despite its late attestation it must haye eziatad
in pre-Christian times.

A little reflection will reveal the precarious diaraet«r of
this reasoning. Every step is uncertain. In the fint place, it
is often by no means clear that the pagan usage has not been
influenced by Christianity. The Church did not long ranain
obscure; even early in the second century, according to the
testimony of Pliny, it was causing the hMthen tenqples to be
d^erted. What is more Ukdy than that in ma age of syncfe*
tism the adherents of pagan rdigion should borrow weapons
from so successful a rival? It must be remanbered that the
paganism of the Helloiistic age had devated syncretitoi to a
system; it had absolutely no objection of principle against
receiving elements from every source. In the CSiristian CSmrdi,
on the other hand, there was a strong objection to sudi pro-
cedure; Christianity from the beginning was like Judaism in
being exclusive. It regarded with the utmost abhorrence any-
thing that was tainted by a pagan origin. This abhorrence,
at least in the early period, more than overbalanced the fact
that the Christians for the most part had formerly been
pagans, so that it might be thought natural for them to retain
something of pagan belief. Conversion involved a passionate
renunciation of former beliefs. Such, at any rate, was clearly
the kind of conversion that was required by Paul.

In the second place, the similarity between the pagan and
the Christian usages is often enormously exaggerated; some-
times a superficial similarity of language masks the most pro-
found differences of underlying meaning. Illustrations will
be given in the latter part of the present chapter.

Thus the conclusion is, to say the least, precarious. It
is by no means so easy as is sometimes supposed to prove that
a pagan usage attested only long after the time of Paul is really
the source of Pauline teaching. And it will not help to say
that although there is no direct dependence one way or the
other yet the pagan and the Pauline teaching have a common
source. For to say that a usage has a pagan source several

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 239

centuries earlier than the time at which the usage is first at-
tested is really to assume the point that is to be proved. We
are not here dealing with a question of literary dependence,
where the unity of the books which are being compared is
assumed. In such a question the independence of the two
writers may be proved by the general comparison of the books ;
it may be shown, in other words, that if one author had used
the other author's work at all he would have had to use it
a great deal more than as a matter of fact the similarity would
indicate. In such cases, striking verbal similarity in one place
may prove that both books were dependent upon a common
source. But if a pagan usage of the fourth century is similar
to a Christian usage, the fact that in general the paganism
of the fourth century is independent of Christianity does not
disprove dependence of paganism upon Christianity at this one
point.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the reasoning just
outlined is usually supplemented by a further consideration.
It is maintained, namely, that the mystic piety of paganism
forms to some extent a unit; it was not a mere fortuitous
collection of beliefs and practices, but was like an enveloping
spiritual atmosphere of which, despite variations of humidity
and temperature, the fundamental composition was everywhere
the same. If, therefore, the presence of this atmosphere of
mystical piety can be established here and there in sources of
actually pre-Christian date, the investigator has a right to
determine the nature of the atmosphere in detail by drawing
upon later sources. In other words, the mystical religion of
the Hellenistic age is reconstructed in detail by the use of
post-Christian sources, and then (the essential unity of the
phenomenon being assumed) the early date of this oriental
mystical religion is established by the scanty references in
pre-Christian times. It is admitted, perhaps, that the elements
of oriental mysticism actually found in pre-Christian sources
would not be sufficient to prove dependence of Paul upon that
type of religion; but the elements found in later sources are
thought to be so closely allied to those which happen to have
early attestation that they too must be supposed to have been
present in the early period, and since they are similar to Paul-
inism they must have exerted a formative influence upon Paul's
religion. To put the matter briefly, the nature of Hellenized

«40 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

oriental religion is established by post-Pauline sources ; whereas
the early origin of that religion is established by the scanty
pre-Christian references.

This procedure constitutes a curious reversal of the pro-
cedure which is applied by the very same scholars to Chris-
tianity. Christianity is supposed to have undergone kaleido-
scopic changes in the course of a few years or even months,
changes involving a transformation of its inmost nature; yet
pagan religion is apparently thought to have remained from
age to age the same. When Paul, only a few years after the
origin of the Church, says that he "received" certain funda-
mental elements in his religion, the intimate connection of those
elements with the rest of the Pauline system is not cdlowed to
establish the early origin of the whole; yet the paganism of
the third and fourth centuries is thought to have constituted
such a unity that the presence of certain elements of it in the
pre-Christian period is regarded as permitting the whole sys-
tem to be transplanted bodily to that early time.

Of course, the hypothesis which is now being examined is
held in many forms, and is being advocated with varying de-
grees of caution. Some of its advocates might defend them-
selves against the charge of transplanting post-Christian
paganism bodily into the pre-Christian period. They might
point to special evidence with regard to many details. Such
evidence would have to be examined in any complete investiga-
tion. But the objection just raised, despite possible answers
to it in detail, is not without validity. It remains true, despite
all reservations, that adherents of the "comparative-religion
school" are entirely too impatient with regard to questions of
priority. They are indeed very severe upon those who raise
such questions. They do not like having the flow of their
thought checked by so homely a thing as a date. But dates
sometimes have their importance. For example, the phrase,
"reborn for eternity," occurs in connection with the blood-
bath of the taurobolium. How significant, it might be said,
is this connection of regeneration with the shedding of blood!
How useful as establishing the pagan origin of the Christian
idea! From the confident way in which the phrase "reborn
for eternity" is quoted in discussions of the origin of Chris-
tianity, one would think that its pre-Chrislian origin were
established beyond peradventure. It may come as a shock,

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 841

therefore, to readers of recent discussions to be told that as
a matter of fact the phrase does not appear until the fourth
century, when Christianity was taking its place as the estab-
lished religion of the Roman world. If there is any dependence,
it is certainly dependence of the taurobolium upon Christianity,
and not of Christianity upon the taurobolium.

The same lordly disregard of dates runs all through the
modem treatment of the history of religion in the New Testa-
ment period. It is particularly unfortunate in popular expo-
sitions. When the lay reader is overwhelmed by an imposing
array of citations from Apuleius and from Lucian, to say
nothing of Firmicus Matemus and fourth-century inscrip-
tions, and when these late citations are confidently treated
by men of undoubted learning as witnesses to pre-Christian
religion, and when the procedure is rendered more plausible by
occasional references to pre-Christian writers which if looked
up would be found to prove nothing at all, and when there
is a careful avoidance of anything like temporal arrangement
of the material, but citations derived from all countries and
all ages are brought together for the reconstruction of the
environment of Paul — under such treatment the lay reader
often receives the impression that something very important
is being proved. The impression would be corrected by the
mere introduction of a few dates, especially in view of the
fact that oriental religion undoubtedly entered upon a remark-
able expansion shortly after the close of the New Testament
period, so that conditions prevailing after that expansion are
by no means necessarily to be regarded as having existed be-
fore the expansion took place.

This criticism is here intended to be taken only in a pro-
visional way. The justice of it can be tested only by a detailed
examination of the hypothesis against which the criticism is
directed.

How, then, is the pre-Christian mystical religion of the
Hellenistic world to be reconstructed? What sources are to
be used? Some of the sources have already been touched upon
in the review of the individual oriental cults. And incidentally
the unsatisfactory character of some of these sources has
already appeared. But it is now necessary to examine other
sources which are not so definitely connected with any clearly
defined cult.

f4S THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

•Increasing attention has been paid in recent yean to the
complex of writings which goes under the name of Hermes
Trismegistus. These Hermetic writings embrace not only a
corpus of some fourteen tractates which has been presenred
in continuous Greek manuscript form, but also fragments con-
tained in the works of Stobcus and other writers, and finally
the ^Asdepius" attributed to Apuleius. It is not usually
maintained that the Hermetic literature was completed before
about 800 A.D.; no one claims anything like pre-Christian
origin for the whole. The individual elements of the litera-
ture — for example, the individual tractates of the Hermetic
corpus — are usually regarded as having been produced at vari-
ous times; but no one of them is generally thought to have
been written before the beginning of the Christian era. With
regard to the most important tractate, the ^^Poimandres,"
which stands at the beginning of the corpus, opinions differ
somewhat. J. Kroll, for example, the author of the leading
monograph on the Hermetic writings, regards the Poimandres
as the latest of the tractates in the corpus, and as having
appeared not before the time of Numenius (second half of the
second century) ; ^ whereas Zielinski regards it as the earliest
writing of the corpus.' By an ingenious argument, Reitzen-
stein attempts to prove that the Christian **Shepherd of
Hermes" (middle of the second century) is dependent upon
an original form of the "Poimandres." * But his argument
has not obtained any general consent. It is impossible to push
the material of the Poimandres back into the first century —
certainly impossible by any treatment of literary relationships.
With regard to the origin of the ideas in the Hermetic
writings, there is considerable difference of opinion. Reitzen-
stein allows a large place to Egyptian and Persian elements;
other scholars emphasize rather the influence of Greek phi-
losophy, which of course is in turn thought to have been modi-
fied by its contact with oriental religion. J. Kroll,* W.
Kroll,** Reitzenstein,® and others deny emphatically the

^J. Kroll, Die Lehren de$ Hermei Tri9megisto», 1914, in Beitrdge zur
Oeschichte der PhiloaophU de$ MittelaJters, xii. 2-4, pp. 388, 389.

'Zielinski, '^Hermes und die Hennetik," in Archw fUr ReUgiontvyiMen-
ichaft, viii, 1905, p. 323.

* Reitzenstein, Poimandrei, 1904, pp. 10-13.

*Op, cU.

'Article "Hermes Trismegistos," in Pauly-Wissowa, Rsal-Encyclopiidk
der cla$»i»chen Altertumewiieenechaft, xv, 1919, pp. 791-833.

•Op. cU.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 248

presence of any considerable Christian influence in Hermes;
but at this point Heinrici, after particularly careful researches,
differs from the customary view.^ Windisch is enough im-
pressed by Heinrici's arguments to confess that Christian
literature may have influenced the present form of the Her-
metic writings here and there, but insists that the Christian
influence upon Hermes is altogether trifling compared to the
influence upon primitive Christianity of the type of religion
of which Hermes is an example.^ The true state of the case,
according to Windisch, is probably that Christianity first re-
ceived from oriental religion the fundamental ideas, and then
gave back to oriental religion as represented by Hermes certain
forms of expression in which those ideas had been clothed.
At the same time Windisch urges careful attention to Hein-
rici^s argument for Christian influence upon Hermes for three
reasons: (1) all Hermetic writings are later than the New
Testament period, (2) the Hermetic writings are admittedly
influenced by Judaism, (3) at least the latest stratum in the
Hermetic writings has admittedly passed through the Christian
sphere. These admissions, coming from one who is very friendly
to the modem method of comparative religion, are significant.
When even Windisch admits that the form of expression with
regard to the new birth in the Poimandres may possibly be
influenced by the Gospel tradition, and that the author of the
fourth Hermetic tractate, for example, was somewhat familiar
with New Testament writings or Christian ideas and ^^assimi-
lated Christian terminology to his gnosis," and that the term
"faith'' has possibly come into Hermes (iv and ix) from Chris-
tian tradition — in the light of these admissions it may appear
how very precarious is the employment of Hermes Trisme-
gistus as a witness to pre-Christian paganism.

Opinions differ, moreover, as to the importance of the
Hermetic type of thought in the life of the ancient world.
Reitzenstein exalts its importance; he believes that back of
the Hermetic writings there lies a living religion, and that
this Hermetic type of religion was characteristic of the Hel-
lenistic age. At this point Cimiont and others are in sharp
disagreement; Cimiont believes that in the West Hermetism
had nothing more than a literary existence and did not pro-

' Heinrici, Die Hermes-Myttik und dof Neus TeitamerU, 1918.
'Windisdi, ^'Urchristentum und Hennesmystik," in Th^ologiteh Tiid^
sehnft, lii, 1918, pp. 186-940.

244 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL^ RELIGION

duce a Hermetic sect, and that in general Reitzenstein has
greatly exaggerated the Hermetic influence.^ With regard
to this controversy, it can at least be said that Reitzenstdn
has failed to prove his point.

Detailed exposition of the Hermetic writings will here be
impossible. A number of recent investigators have covered
the field with some thoroughness. Unfortunately a complete
modem critical edition of the Hermetic corpus is still lacking;
the student is obliged to have recourse to the edition of Parthey
(1854),^ which is not complete and does not quite measure
up to modern standards. Reitzenstein has included in his
"Poimandres'* (1904) a critical edition of Tractates I, XIH,
XVI, XVII, XVIII. There has been no collection, in the
original languages, of all the Hermetic writings (including
those outside of the corpus), though Menard has provided a
French translation,^ and Mead an English translation with
elaborate introduction and notes.* The work of Mead, which
is published by the Theosophical Publishing Society, is not
usually regarded as quite satisfactory. But the translation
at least will be found exceedingly useful. The systematic expo-
sition of the thought of the Hermetic writings by J. KroU is
clear and instructive;' and Heinrici, who differs from Kroll
in treating the individual writings separately, has also made a
valuable contribution to the subject.®

In the Hermetic tractates I and XIII, upon which Reit-
zenstein lays the chief emphasis, there is presented a notion
of the transformation of the one who receives divine revela-
tion. The transformation, as in the Hermetic writings gen-
erally, is for the most part independent of ceremonies or sac-
raments. An experience which in the mysteries is connected
with an initiation involving an appeal to the senses here seems
to have been spiritualized under the influence of philosophy;
regeneration comes not through a mystic drama or the like
but through an inner experience. Such at least is a conmion

*Cumont, op. cit., pp. 340, 341 (English Translation, pp. 233, 234, note
41).

"Parthey, HermetU Trismegisti Poemander, 1854.

•Menard, Herm^a TrUmSgiste, 1910.

*Mead, Thrice-OreaUat Hermes, three volumes, 1906.

■Op. cit, Cf. the review by Bousset, in Oottingische gelehrte Anz€ig$n,
clxxvi, 1914, pp. 697-755.

•Op. cU.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 846

modem interpretation of the genesis of the Hermetic doctrine.
At any rate, it seems to be impossible to reduce that doctrine
to anything like a consistent logical scheme. Reitzenstein
has tried to bring order out of chaos by distinguishing in
the first tractate two originally distinct views as to the origin
of the world and of man, but his analysis has not won general
acceptance. It must probably be admitted, however, that the
Hermetic literature has received elements from various sources
and has not succeeded in combining them in any consistent way.

The student who will first read Tractates I and XIII for
himself will probably be surprised when he is told (for example
by Reitzenstein) that here is to be found the spiritual atmos-
phere from which Paulinism came. For there could be no
sharper contrast than that between the fantastic speculations
of the Poimandres and the historical gospel of Paul. Both
the Poimandres and Paul have some notion of a transforma-
tion that a man experiences through a divine revelation. But
the transformation, according to Paul, comes through an
account of what had happened but a few years before. Nothing
could possibly be more utterly foreign to Hermes. On the
other hand, the result of the transformation in Hermes is
deification. "This,** says Hermes (Tractate I, 26), "is the
good end to those who have received knowledge, to be dei-
fied.'* ^ Paul could never have used such language. For,
according to Paul, the relation between the believer and the
Christ who has transformed him is a personal relation of love.
The "Christ-mysticism** of Paul is never pantheistic. It is
indeed supernatural; it is not produced by any mere influence
brought to bear upon the old life. But the result, far from
being apotheosis, is personal communion of a man with his God.

In connection with Hermes Trismegistus may be mentioned
the so-called Oracula Chaldaica, which apparently sprang
from the same general type of thought.^ These Oracula
Chaldaica, according to W. Kroll, constitute a dociunent of
heathen gnosis, which was produced about 200 A. D. Although
Kroll believes that there is here no Christian influence, and
that Jewish influence touches not the center but only the cir-
cumference, yet for the reasons already noticed it would be

^ Tomo loTt t6 ir)fa06v rOsm roli yvdatv kaxti^^^^ Bu^piu.
'See W. Kroll, D0 OracuUs Chaldoieii, 1894; ''Die chaldttischen Qrakel,"
in Bheinische9 Museum fiir Philologi^y 1, 1805, pp. 6S6-<iS9.

M6 THE OmatN OF PA1JL*S BSUGidir '

precariouB to use a doeument of 200 AJ>. in iwotistiiictii^;
pre-Pauline pagalnism.

A very important source of inf onnation alKmt the Oveeo-
oriental religion of the Hellemstic age is found by sciiolaii
like Dieterich and Reitsenstein in tl^ so-called * H nag ^ ca P
papyri. Among the many interesting papyrus docunienls
which have recently been discovered in Egypt are soine tluit
contain formulas inteided to be used in incantations. At 4ist
si^t these formulas look like hopeless nonsen^; it may p^
haps even be said that they are intended to be nonsaiie. ^Aiat
isy the effect is sou^^t, not from any logical und^fstanifng of
the formulas dther on the part of those who use theoi or on
the part of the higher powers upon whom they are to be iMed,
but simply and solely from the mechanical dfect of certain
combinations of sounds. Thus the magical papyri indade
not only divine names in fordgn languages (the ancient and
original name of a god being regard^ as eacerting a coercive.
effect upon that god), but also many meaningless rows of
letters which do not form words at alL But according to
Dieterich and Reitzenstein and others, these papyri, non-
seisical as they are in their completed form, often embody
materials which belong not to magic but to rdigion; in par-
ticular, they make use, for a magical purpose, of what was
originally intended to.be u^ed in a living religious cult. Indeed
the distinction between magic and religion is often difficult
to draw. In religion there is an element of interest, on the
part of the worshiper, in the higher powers as such, some
idea of propitiating them, of winning their favor; whereas in
magic the higher powers are made use of as though they
were mere machines through the use of incantations and spells.
But when this distinction is applied to the ancient mystery
religions, sometimes these religions seem to be little more
than magic, so external and mechanical is the way in which
the initiation is supposed to work. It is not surprising, there-
fore, if the composers of magical formulas turned especially,
in seeking their materials, to the mystery cults; for they
were drawn in that direction by a certain affinity both of
purpose and of method. At any rate, whatever may be the
explanation, the existing magical papyri, according to Die
tench and others, do contain important elements derived from
the oriental religious cults; it is only necessary, Dieterich
maintains, to subtract the obviously later elements — the non-

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 847

sensical rows of letters and the like — in order to obtain im-
portant sources of information about the religious life of the
Hellenistic age.

This method has been applied by Dieterich especially to
a Paris magical papyrus, with the result that the underlying
religious document is found to be nothing less than a liturgy
of the religion of Mithras.^ Dieterich*s conclusions have
not escaped unchallenged ; the connection of the document with
Mithraism has been denied, for example, by Cumont.^ Of
course, even if the document be not really a "Mithras liturgy,"
it may still be of great value in the reconstruction of Hellen-
istic gnosis. With regard to date, however, it is not any more
favorably placed than the documents which have just been
considered. The papyrus manuscript in which the **liturgy''
is contained was written at the beginning of the fourth century
after Christ; and the composition of the "liturgy** itself can-
not be fixed definitely at any very much earlier date. * Die-
terich supposes that the beginning was made in the second
century, and that there were successive additions afterward.
At any rate, then, not only the papyrus manuscript, but also
the liturgy which it is thought to contain, was produced long
after the time of Paul. Like the Hermetic writings, more-
over, Dieterich's Mithras liturgy presents a conception of
union with divinity which is really altogether unlike the Pauline
gospel.

But information about pre-Christian paganism is being
sought not only in ostensibly pagan sources; it is also being
sought in the Gnosticism which appears in connection with
the Christian Church. Gnosticism used to be regarded as
a "heresy," a perversion of Christian belief. Now, on the
contrary, it is being regarded as essentially non-Christian, as
a manifestation of Greco-oriental religion which was brought
into only very loose connection with Christianity; the great
Gnostic systems of the second century, it is said, when they
are stripped of a few comparatively unimportant Christian
elements are found to represent not a development from Chris-
tianity but rather the spiritual atmosphere from which Chris-
tianity itself sprang.

If this view of the case be correct, it is at least significant

^Dieterich, Eine MUhrasliturgie, 9te Aufl., 1910.
*0p. cU., p. 379 (English Translation, pp. 960f.).
'Dieterich, op. cU., pp. 43f.

248 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

that pagan teachers of the second century (the Gnostics)
should have been so ready to adopt Christian elements and so
anxious to give their systems a Christian appearance. Why
should a similar procedure be denied in the case, for example,
of Hermes Trismegistus? If second-century paganism, with-
out at all modifying its essential character, could sometimes
actually adopt the name of Christ, why should it be thought
incredible that the compiler of the Hermetic literature, who
did not go quite so far, should yet have permitted Christian
elements to creep into his syncretistic work? Why should
similarity of language between Hermes and Paul, supposing
that it exists, be regarded as proving dependence of Paul upon
a type of paganism like that of Hermes, rather than dependence
of Hermes upon Paul?

But the use of Gnosticism as a witness to pre-Christian
paganism is faced with obvious difficulties. Gnosticism has
admittedly been influenced by Christianity. Who can say,
then, exactly how far the Christian influence extends? Who
can say that any element in Gnosticism, found also in the New
Testament, but not clearly contained in pagan sources, is
derived from paganism rather than from Christianity? Yet
it is just exactly such procedure which is advocated by Reitzen-
stein and others.

The dangers of the procedure may be exhibited by an ex-
ample. In Hermes Trismegistus the spirit is regarded as the
garment of the soul.^ This doctrine is the exact reverse of
Pauline teaching, since it makes the soul appear higher than
the spirit, whereas in Paul the Spirit, in the believer, is exalted
far above tlie soul. In Hermes the spirit appears as a material
substratum of the soul; in Paul the Spirit represents the
divine power. There could be no sharper contradiction. And
the matter is absolutely central in Reitzenstein's hypothesis,
for it is just the Pauline doctrine of the Spirit which he is
seeking to derive from pagan religion. The difficulty for
Reitzenstein, then, is that in Hermes the spirit appears as
the garment of the soul, whereas in the interests of his theory
the soul ought to appear rather as the garment of the spirit.
But Reitzenstein avoids the difficulty by appealing to Gnosti-
cism. The Hermetic doctrine, he says, is nothing but the neces-

^Corp. Herm, x. 13.

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 249

sary philosophic reversal of the Gnostic doctrine that the
soul is the garment of the spirit.^ Thus Gnosticism is here
made to be a witness to pre-Christian pagan belief, in direct
defiance of pagan sources. Is it not more probable that the
difference between Gnosticism on the one hand and pagan
gnosis as represented by Hermes on the other, is due to the
influence upon the former of the Christian doctrine? It is
interesting to observe that J. Kroll, from whom the above
illustration is obtained, insists against Reitzenstein that the
Gnostic doctrine, as over against the doctrine of Hermes, is
here clearly secondary.^ At any rate, then, the reconstruc-
tion of a pre-Christian pagan doctrine of the soul as the gar-
ment of the spirit is a matter of pure conjecture.

Similar docilities appear everywhere. It is certainly very
hazardous to use Gnosticism, a post-Pauline phenomenon ap-
pealing to Paul as one of its chief sources, as a witness to
pre-Pauline paganism. Certainly such use of Gnosticism should
be carefully lin^ited to those matters where there is some con-
firmatory pagan testimony. But such confirmatory testi-
mony, in the decisive cases, is significantly absent.

The use of Gnosticism as a source of information about pre-
Christian paganism might be less precarious if the separa-
tion of the pagan and Christian elements could be carried
out by means of literary criticism. Such a method is employed
by Reitzenstein in connection with an interesting passage in
Hippolytus. In attacking the Gnostic sect of the Naassenes,
Hippolytus says that the sect has been dependent upon the
pagan mysteries, and in proof he quotes a Naassene writing.
This quotation, as it now exists in the work of Hippolytus,
is, according to Reitzenstein, ^^a pagan text with Gnostic-
Christian scholia (or in a Gnostic-Christian revision), which
has been taken over by an opponent who did not understand
this state of the case, and so, in this form, has been used by
Hippolytus." * Reitzenstein seeks to reproduce the pagan
document.*

Unquestionably the passage is interesting, and unques-

^ Rdteenstein, HeUeniitische MyiterienreUgiansn, 3te Aufl., 1920, p. 183.
'J. Kroll, op, cit, pp. 986-389, especially p. 988, Anm. 1.
'Reitzenstein, Poimandres, p. 89.
* Op, cU,, pp. 83-98.

t60 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

tionably it contains important infonnation about the pagan
mysteries. But it does not help to establish influence of the
mysteries upon PauL It must be observed that what is now
b^ng maintained against Reitzenstein is not that the Gnostics
who appear in the polemic of the anti-heretical, ecclesiastical
writers of the close of the second century and the beginning of
the third were not influenced by pre-Christian paganism, or
eren that they did not derive the fundamentals of thdr type
of religion from pre-Christian paganism. All that is bring
maintained is that it is very precarious to use the Gnostic
systems in reconstructing pre-Christian paganism in detail —
especially where the Gnostic systems differ from admittedly
pagan sources and agree with Paul. In reconstructing tlw
origin of Paulinism it is precarious to employ the testimony
of those who lived after Paul and actually quoted PauL

All the sources of information about Greco-oriental re-
ligion which have thus far been discussed belong to a time
subsequent to Paul. If the ty})e of religion which they attest
is to be pushed back into tiie pre-Christian period, it can
be done only by an appeal to earlier sources. Sudi earlier
sources are sometimes foimd in passages like Livy's description
of the Bacchanalian rites of the second century before Christ
in Italy, and in writers such as Posidonius and Philo. But
the presence of Bacchanalian rites in Italy in the second
century before Christ is not particularly significant, and
the details of those rites do not include the features which
in the later sources are thought to invite comparison with
Paul. Posidonius, the Stoic philosopher of the first century
before Christ, seems to have been a man of very great influence;
and no doubt he did introduce oriental elements into the Stoic
philosophy. But his works, for the most part, have been lost,
and so far as they have been reconstructed by the use of
writers who were dependent upon him, they do not seem to con-
tain those elements which might be regarded as explaining the
genesis of Paulinism. With regard to Philo, who was an older
contemporary of Paul, the investigator finds himself in a
much more favorable position, since voluminous works of the
Alexandrian philosopher have been preserved. There is a
tendency in recent investigation to make Philo an important
witness to Greco-oriental religion as it found expression in

THE RELIGION OF THE HELLENISTIC AGE 261

the mysteries.^ But the bearing of the evidence does not
seem to be absolutely unequivocal. At any rate, the relation
between Paul and Philo has been the subject of investigation
for many years, and it cannot be said that the results have
accomplished anything toward explaining the genesis of Paul's
religion. Direct dependence of Paul upon Philo, it is ad-
mitted, has not been proved, and even dependence of both
upon the same type of thought is highly problematical. The
state of the evidence is not essentially altered by designating
as the type of thought upon which both are supposed to have
been dependent the Greco-oriental religion of the mysteries.
The real question is whether the testimony of Philo establishes
as of pre-Christian origin that type of mystical piety from
which Paulinism is being derived — the type of religion which
is attested, for example, by Firmicus Matemus or by the
fourth-century inscriptions that deal with the taurobolium,
or by Hermes Trismegistus, or by Dieterich's "Mithras lit-
urgy," or by the pagan elements which are supposed to lie back
of second-century Gnosticism. And so far as can be judged on
the basis of the evidence which is actually being adduced by
the comparative-religion school, the question must be answered
in the negative. Even the living connection of Philo with the
mysteries of his own day does not seem to be definitely estab-
lished. And if it were established, the further question would
remain as to whether the mystery religions of Philo's day con-
tained just those elements which in the mystery religions of
the post-Pauline period are supposed to show similarity to
Paul. If the mystical piety which is attested by Philo is
sufficient to be regarded as the basis of Paulinism, why should
the investigator appeal to Firmicus Matemus? And if he does
appeal to Firmicus Matemus, with what right can he assume
that the elements which he thus finds existed in the days of
Philo and of Paul?

*Helbig, review of "Philo von Alexandrien: Werkc, in dcut Ueberseteg.
hrsg. V. Prof. Dr. Leop. Cohn. 3. TL," in Theologuehe LUeraturzsitung, xlv,
1920, column 30: "Here one perceives with all requisite clearness that
Pliilo did not merely imitate the language of the mystery religions, but
had been himself a niHrnit"

CHAPTER VII

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION AND

IN PAUL

CHAPTER VII

EEDEMPTION IN PAGAN EELI6ION AND IN PAUL

It has been observed thus far that in comparing Paul
with Hellenistic pagan religion, the question of priority can-
not be ruled out so easily as is sometimes supposed. Another
preliminary question, moreover, remains. Through what chan-
nels did the supposed influence of the mystery religions enter
into the life of Paul? The question is somewhat perplexing.
In view of the outline of Paulas life which was set forth in
Chapters II and III, it would seem difficult to find a place for
the entrance of pagan religious thought.

One suggestion is that pagan thought came to Paul only
through the medium of Judaism. That suggestion would ex-
plain the consciousness that Paul attests of having been, be-
fore his conversion, a devout Jew. If pagan religion had al-
ready entered into the warp and woof of Judaism, and if the
throes of the process of assimilation had already been for-
gotten before the time of Paul, then Paul might regard him-
self as a devout Jew, hostile to all pagan influence, and yet be
profoundly influenced by the paganism which had already
found an entrance into the Jewish stronghold.

But the trouble is that with regard to those matters which
are thought to be necessary for the explanation of Paul's
religion there is no evidence that paganism had entered into
the common life of the Jews. It has been shown in Chap-
ter V that the Judaism of the first century, as it can be re-
constructed by the use of the extant sources, is insufficient
to account for the origin of Paulinism. That fact is admitted
by those scholars who are having recourse to the hypothesis
of pagan influence. Therefore, if the pagan influence came to
Paul through the medium of Judaism, the historian must first
posit the existence of a Judaism into which the necessary pagan
elements had entered. There is no evidence for the existence
of such a Judaism; in fact the extant Jewish sources point

255

«56 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

clearly in an opposite direction. It is exceedingly difficult,
therefore, to suppose, in defiance of the Jewish sources, and
in the mere interests of a theory as to the genesis of Paulin-
ism, that the Pharisaic Judaism from which Paul sprang was
imbued with a mystical piety like that of the mystery religions
or of Hermes Trismegistus. In fact, in view of the known
character of Pharisaic Judaism, the hypothesis is nothing short
of monstrous.

Therefore, if Paid was influenced by the pagan mystery
religions it could not have been simply in virtue of his con-
nection with first-century Judaism; it must have been due to
some special influences which were brought to bear upon him.
Where could these influences have been exerted? One sugges-
tion is that they were exerted in Tarsus, his boyhood home.
Stress is thus laid upon the fact that Paul was bom not in
Palestine but in the Dispersion. As he grew up in Tarsus, it
is said, he could not help observing the paganism that sur-
rounded him. At this point, some historians, on entirely
insufiicicnt evidence, are inclined to be specific; they are
tempted, for example, to speak of mysteries of Mithras as
being practised in or near Tarsus in PauPs early years. The
hypothesis is only weakened by such incautious advocacy; it
is much better to point merely to the undoubted fact that Tar-
sus was a pagan city and was presumably affected by the exist-
ing currents of pagan life. But if Paul grew up in a pagan
environment, was he influenced by it? An affirmative answer
would seem to run counter to his own testimony. Although
Paul was bom in Tarsus, he belonged inwardly to Palestine; he
and his parents before him were not "Hellenists" but "Hebrews."
Moreover, he was a Pharisee, more exceedingly zealous than
his contemporaries for his paternal traditions. The evidence
has been examined in a previous chapter. Certainly then, Paul
was not a "liberal" Jew ; far from being inclined to break
down the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles he was
especially zealous for the Law. It is very difficult to conceive
of such a man — ^with his excessive zeal for the Mosaic Law,
with his intense hatred of paganism, with his intense conscious-
ness of the all-sufficiency of Jewish privileges — as being sus-
ceptible to the pagan influences that surrounded his orthodox
home.

The hypothesis must, therefore, at least be modified to

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 867

the extent that the pagan influence exerted at Tarsus be re-
garded as merely unconscious. Paul did not deliberately ac-
cept the pagan religion of Tarsus, it might be said, but at
least he became acquainted with it, and his acquaintance with
it became fruitful after he entered upon his Gentile mission.
According to this hypothesis, the attitude of Paul toward
pagan religion was in the early days in Tarsus merely nega-
tive, but became more favorable (whether or no Paul himself
was conscious of the real source of the pagan ideas) because of
subsequent events. But what were the events which induced in
Paul a more favorable attitude toward ideas which were really
pagan? When did he overcome his life-long antagonism to
everything connected with the worship of false gods? Such
a change of attitude is certainly not attested by the Epistles.

It will probably be admitted that if pagan influence en-
tered into the heart of Paul's religious life it could only have
done so by some more subtle way than by the mere retention
in Paul's mind of what he had seen at Tarsus. The way which
finds special favor among recent historians is discovered in the
pre-Pauline Christianity of cities like Damascus and Antioch.
When Paul was converted, it is said, he was converted not to the
Christianity of Jerusalem, but to the Christianity of Damascus
and Antioch. But the Christianity of Damascus and Antioch,
it is supposed, had already received pagan elements ; hence the
very fact of Paul's conversion broke down his Jewish prejudices
and permitted the influx of pagan ideas. Of course Paul did
not know that they were pagan ideas; he supposed that they
were merely Christian ; but pagan they were, nevertheless. The
Hellenistic Jews who founded the churches at Damascus and
Antioch, unlike the original apostles at Jerusalem, were liberal
Jews, susceptible to pagan influence and desirous of attributing
to Jesus all that the pagans attributed to their own cult-gods.
Thus Jesus became a cult-god like the cult-gods of the pagan
religions, and Christianity became similar, in important re-
spects, to the pagan cults.

This hypothesis has been advocated brilliantly by Heit-
miiller and Bousset.^ But what evidence can be adduced in
favor of it? How may the Christianity of Damascus and An-

*See especially HeitmiQler, "Zum Problem Paulus und Jesus," in ZeU-
schrift ftar die neutestametUliche Wissenschaft, xiii, 191S, pp. 320-337;
^Jesus und Paulus," in Zeitschrift fUr Theologie und Kirche, zxv, 1915,
pp. 156-179; Boussety J$9u$ d4r Herr, 1916, pp. 30-37.

tioch, whidi u toppoMd to hftTe been influenced bj pagan re-
ligion, be reconitnicted? Etcq Hcitmiilkr and Bousset admit
that the reconitmctioii ij very difficult. The only unques-
tioned •ooree of information about the pre-Paulinc Christiauit;
which ia the lobject of inTeatigatlon is to be found in the
Pauline Episttea tbenudTes. But if the material is found in

' the Pauline Epistlea, how can the historian be sure that it it
not the prodnct of Panl'a own thinking? How can the speciSc-
allj Paoline element in the E|MitIos be separated form the ele-
ment which ii aappond to have been derived from pre-Pauline
Hdleniitic Christianity?

The process of separati9n, it most be admitted, is diffi-
cult. But, according to Bousset and Heitmiiller, it is not im-
posaiblc. There are passages in 'the Epistles where Paul evi-
dently assumes that certain things are known already to his
readers. In churches where Paul himself had oot already
had the opportunity of teaching, notably at Rome, those ele-
ments assumed as already known must have been derived, it is
said, from teachers other than Paul; they must have formed
part of the pre-Pauline fund of. Hellenistic Christiamt^.
But in order to reconstruct this pre-Pauline Hdlsnjrtil

' Christianity, it is not sufficient to separate iriiat Paul Iwd
received from what he himself produced. Another process of
separation remains; and this second process is vastly more
dif&cult than the first. In order to reconstruct the Hellen-
istic Christianity of Antioch, upon which Paulinism is thought
to be based, it is necessary not only to separate what Paul
received from what he produced, but also to separate what he
received from Antioch from what he received from Jerusalen.
It is in connection with this latter process that the hypothesis
of Heitmiiller and Bousset breaks down. Unquestionably xomi
elements in the Epistles can be established as having been
received by Paid from those who had been Christians before
him. One notable example is found in 1 Cor. xv. 1-7. In that
all-important passage Paul distinctly says that he had **re-
ceived" his account of the death, burial, and resurrection of
Jesus. But how does Bousset know that he received it from
the Church at Antioch or the Church at Damascus rather than
from the Church at Jerusalem? Paul had been in intimate
contact with Peter in Jerusalem ; Peter is prominent in 1 Cor.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 269

XV. 1-7. What reason is there, then, for deserting the common
view, regarded almost as an axiom of criticism, to the effect
that 1 Cor. xv. 1-7 represents the tradition of the Jerusalem
Church which Paul received from Peter?

Moreover, what right have Bousset and Heitmiiller to use
the Epistle to the Romans in reconstructing the Christianity
of Antioch? Even if in that Epistle the elements of specifically
Pauline teaching can be separated from those things which
Paul regards as already matter of course in the Roman Church,
what reason is there to assume that the pre-Pauline Christian-
ity of Rome was the same as the pre-Pauline Christianity
of Antioch and Damascus? Information about the pre-Pauline
Christianity of Antioch and Damascus is, to say the least,
scanty and uncertain. And it is that Christianity only — ^the
Christianity with which Paul came into contact soon after
his conversion — and not the Christianity of Rome, which can
be of use in explaining the origin of Paid's religion.

Finally, what reason is there for supposing that the Chris-
tianity of Damascus and Antioch was different in essentials
from the Christianity of Jerusalem? An important step, it
is said, was taken when the gospel was transplanted from its
native Palestinian soil to the Greek-speaking world — ^the most
momentous step in the whole history of Christianity, the most
heavily fraught with changes. But it must be remembered
that the primitive Jerusalem Church itself was bilingual; it
contained a large Greek-speaking element. The transplanting
of the gospel to Antioch was accomplished not by any ordinary
Jews of the Dispersion, but by those Jews of the Dispersion
who had lived at Jerusalem and had received their instruction
from the intimate friends of Jesus. Is it likely that such
men would so soon forget the impressions that they had re-
ceived, and would transform Christianity from a simple accept-
ance of Jesus as Messiah with eager longing for His return into
a cult that emulated the pagan cults of the surrounding world
by worship of Jesus as Lord? The transition, if it occurred at
all, occurred with astonishing rapidity. Paid was converted
only two or three years after the crucifixion of Jesus. If,
therefore, the paganizing Hellenistic Christianity of Damascus
and Antioch was to be the spiritual soil in which Paulas religion
was nurtured, it must have been formed in the very early days.

860 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

The pagan influences could hardly have begun to enter after
the conversion of Paul.^ For then Paul would have been con-
scious of their entrance, and all the advantages of the hypothe
sis would disappear — ^the hypothesis would then be excluded
by the self-testimony of Paul. But the formation of a pagan-
izing Christianity at Antioch and Damascus, in the very early
days and by the instrumentality of men who had come under
the instruction of the intimate friends of Jesus, and despite
the constant intercourse between Jerusalem and the cities in
question, is very difficult to conceive. At any rate, the sepa-
ration between what Paul received from Antioch and Damasciu
and what he received from Jerusalem is quite impossible.
Heitmiiller and Bousset have not really helped matters by try-
ing to place an additional link in the chain between Paul and
Jesus. The Hellenistic Christianity of Antioch, supposed to
be distinct from the Christianity of Jerusalem, is to say the
least a very shadowy thing.

But Bousset and Heitmiiller probably will not maintain that
all the pagan influences which entered the life of Paid entered
through the gateway of pre-Pauline Hellenistic Christianity.
On the contrary, it will probably be said that Paul lived all
his life in the midst of a pagan religious atmosphere, which
affected him directly as well as through the community at
Antioch. But how was this direct pagan influence exerted?
Some suppose that it was exerted through the reading of
pagan religious literature; others suppose that it came merely
through conversation with "the man in the street." Paul de-
sired to become all things to all men (we are reminded), in
order that by all means he might save some (1 Cor. ix. 22).
But what was more necessary for winning the Gentiles than
familiarity with their habits of thought and life? Therefore,
it is said, Paul must have made some study of paganism in
order to put his proclamation of the gospel in a form which
would appeal to the pagans whom he sought to win.

A certain element of truth underlies this contention. It
should not be supposed that Paul was ignorant of the pagan
life that surrounded him. He uses figures of speech derived
from the athletic games ; here and there in his Epistles he
makes reference to the former religious practices of his con-
verts. It is not unnatural that he should occasionally have
^But compare Bousset, op, cU,, p. 39f ^

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 861

sought common ground with those to whom he preached, in ac-
cordance with the example contained in the seventeenth chapter
of Acts. But on the whole, the picture of Paul making a studj
of paganism in preparation for his life-work is too modem to
be convincing. It may seem natural to those modem mis-
sionaries who no longer regard Christianity as a positive re-
ligion, who no longer insist upon any sharp break on the
part of the converts with their ancestral ways of thinking,
who are perfectly content to derive help from all quarters and
are far more interested in improving political and social con-
ditions in the land for which they labor than they are in se-
curing assent to any specific Christian message. The Chris-
tianity of such missionaries might consistently be hospitable to
foreign influence; such missionaries might assign the central
place in their preparation to the investigation of the religious
life of mission lands. But the Christianity of Paul was entirely
diff^erent. Paul was convinced of the exclusiveness and the all-
sufficiency of his own message. The message had been revealed
to him directly by the Lord. It was supported by the testimony
of those who had been intimate with Jesus; it was supported
by the Old Testament Scriptures. But throughout it was the
product of revelation. To the Jews it was a stumbling-block,
to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who were saved it
was the power of God and the wisdom of God. "Where is the
wise,'' says Paul, *S«rhere is the scribe, where is the disputer
of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the
world?'* It is a little difficult to suppose that the man who
wrote these words was willing to modify the divine foolishness
of his message in order to make it conform to the religion of
pagan hearers.

Two reservations, therefore, are necessary before the in-
vestigator can enter upon an actual comparison of the Pauline
Epistles with Hermes Trismegistus and other similar sources.
In the first place, it has not been proved that the type of re-
ligion attested by these sources existed at all in the time of
Paul ; ^ and in the second place, it is difficult to see how any
pagan influence could have entered into Paul's life. But if
despite these difficulties the comparison be instituted, it will
show, as a matter of fact, not agreement, but a most striking
divergence both of language and of spirit.

»See Chapter VI.

Mff THE OBiaiN OF PATJL« WBUlSsm

The iiiTeitigatian may be diyidad into tibiee parli> atHimij^
the tluree parts win be found to oTaiap at maiij p(^^ Tteee
fundamental dements in Paul's rdigimi have bean deriwsl
from Oreco-oriental syncretism: first, the eooipler of iiess
connected with fhe obtaining of salvation; secondf tbt eacM^
ments; third, the Christology and the wmsk of Ourist in it*
demption.^

The first of the three divisions just enumoratedi ii oen-
nected especially with the name of R. Rettienstein.' BeifaMn-
stein lays great stress iqK>n the lexical nrathod of atndy; If
may be proved, he bdieves, that Paul used teens wUdi wmk
derived from Hell^stic mystical rdigion^ and willl tbe Usa$^
w&kt the ideas. The ideas, he admits, were not tal«i mnt
without modification, but even after the Pauline modiicatJons
are subtracted, enouji^ is thou|^ to remain in order to sho#
that the mystery rdtigions exertedi an inqportant infinenee nqpsn
Paul.

Thus Reitsenstdn attempts to exhibit in the PauUno S^pis-
tles a technical vocabulary derived from the Hfllfiriaed «ui»
tery religions. This supposed technical voeafaolary matttmom
especially the terms connected with ^^knowiedtge'' * and
"Spirit.''* -

In the mystical religion of Paul's day, Reitzenstdn says,
^^gnosis" (knowledge) did not mean knowledge acquired by
processes of investigation or reasoning, but the knowledge that
came by immediate revelation from a god. Such immediate
revelation was given, in the mystery cults, by the mystic vision'
which formed a part of the experience of initiation; in the
philosophizing derivatives of the mystery cults, like the type
of piety which is attested in Hermes Trismegistus, the revda-

* For what follows, compare especially Kennedy, 8t, Paml and tk$
MH/stery-IUUgions, [1913]; Clemen, Reliataniff0$chiehtUeh§ BrkUhmmg dti
Neuen Testaments, 1909 (English Translation, PHmUive ChriititmUp €md
Its Non-Jevnsh Sources, 1919), Der Einfluss der Mysterienreligionen amf
das dlteste ChristeiUum, 1913. Tliese writers deny for the most part any
influence of the mystery religions upon the center of Paul's religion. For
a thoroughgoing presentation of the other side of the controversy, see,
in addition to the worlcs of Bousset and Reitzenstein, Loisy, Lee mysUree
paiens et le mysthre chritien, 1919.

^Poimandres, 1904; Die hellenistischsn MysterienreUgionen, 9te Ait&,
1990; ''Religionsgeschichte und Eschatologie," in Zeitsehrift fUr die
testamentliche Wissenschaft, xiii, 1919, pp. 1-^.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 863

tion could be divorced from any external acts and connected
with the mere reading of a book. But in any case, "gnosis**
was not regarded as an achievement of the intellect; it was
an experience granted by divine favor. The man who had re-
ceived such favor was exalted far above ordinary humanity;
indeed he was already deified.

This conception of gnosis^ Reitzenstein believes, is the
conception which is found in the Pauline Epistles; gnosis ac-
cording to Paul was a gift of God, an experience produced
by the divine Spirit. In the case of Paul, Reitzenstein con-
tinues, the experience was produced through a vision of .the
risen Christ. That vision had changed the very nature of Paul.
It is true, Paul avoids the term "deification" ; he does not say,
in accordance with Hellenistic usage, that he had ceased to
be a man and had become God. This lunitation was required
by his Jewish habits of thought. But he does say that through
his vision he was illumined and received "glory." Thus, al-
though the term deification is avoided, the idea is present. As
one who has received gnosis, Paul regards himself as being
beyond the reach of human judgments, and is not interested in
tradition that came from other Christians. In short, accord-
ing to Reitzenstein, Paid was a true "gnostic."

But this conclusion is reached only by doing violence to
the plain meaning of the Epistles. "Gnosis" in the early
Church (including Paul), as Von Hamack well observes,^ is
not a technical term; it is no more a technical term than is,
for example, ^Srisdom." In 1 Cor. xii. 8 it appears, not by
itself, but along with many other spiritual gifts of widely
diverse nature. Gnosis, therefore, does not stand in that
position of prominence which it ought to occupy if Reitzen-
stein's theory were correct. It is, indeed, according to Paul,
important; and it is a direct gift from God. But what rea-
son is there to have recourse to Hellenistic mystery religions
in order to explain either its importance or its nature? An-
other explanation is found much nearer at hand — namely, in
the Old Testament. The possibility of Old Testament in-
fluence in Paul does not have to be established by any elaborate
arguments, and is not opposed by his own testimony. On the

*Von Hamack, "Die Tenninologie der Wiedergeburt und verwandter
Erlebnisse in der iUtesten Kircbe,*^ in Texte und UiUer9w:hun^fin zur
Oesohickte der altchristUchen LUsratur, xlii, 1918, pp. 198f., Anm. 1.

264 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL*S REUOION

contrary, he appeals to the Old Testament again and again
in his Epistles. And the Old Testament contains all the de-
ments of his conception of the knowledge of Ood. Ereni the
Greek noun ^^gnosis** occurs in the ' Septuagint (though with
comparative infrequency) ; but what is far more important is
that the idea is expressed countless times by the verb. Let
it not be said that the Septuagint is a Hellenistic book, and
that therefore if the Septuagint idea of the knowledge of God
affords the basis for Pauline teaching that does not disprove
the influence of the Hellenistic mystery religions. For in its
rendering of the passages dealing with the knowledge of Godi
whatever may be said of other matters, the Septusigint is
transmitting faithfully the meaning of the Hdbrew tczL
Knowledge of Grod in the Hebrew Old Testament is sometfaiiig
far more than a mere intellectual achievement. It is the gift of
Grod, and it involves the entire emotional nature.

But may it not be objected that the Pauline conception
transcends that of the Old Testament in that in Paul the knoirf*
edge of Grod produces a transformation of human nature — the
virtual deification of man? This question must be answered in
the negative. Undoubtedly the Pauline conception does tirnn-
scaid that of the Old Testament, but not in the way which is
here supposed. The intimate relation between the believer
and the risen Christ, according to Paul, goes far beyond any-
thing that was possible under the old dispensation. It in-
volves a fuller, richer, more intimate knowledge. But the ex-
perience in which Paul saw the risen Christ near Damascus
was not an end in itself, as it would have been in the milieu of
the mystery religions; it was rather a means to an end.* It
was the di\4nely appointed means by which Paul was con-
vinced of an historical fact, the resurrection of Jesus, and was
led to appropriate the benefits of that fact. Thus, as Oepke *
has well observed, Paul does not expect his converts all to see
Christ, or even to have experiences like that which is de-
scribed in 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. It is sufficient for them to receive
the historical account of Christ's redeeming work, through
the testimony of Paul and of the other witnesses. That ac-
count, transmitted by ordinary word of mouth, is a sufficient
basis for faith; and through faith comes the new Ufe. At this

*Oq>ke, Die M%s»ion$predigt de$ Apost$U Paulu9, 1930, p. 53.
*Loc, cit.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 866

point is discovered an enormous difference between Paul and
the mystery religions. In the mystery religions everything led
up to the mystic vision; without that mystic vision there was
no escape from the miseries of the old life. But according to
Pauly the mighty change was produced by the acceptance of a
simple story, an account of what had happened only a few
years before, when Jesus died and rose again. From the ac-
ceptance of that story there proceeds a new knowledge, a gnosis.
But this higher gnosis in Paul is not the means of salvation,
as it is in the mystery religions ; it is only one of the effects of
salvation. This difference is no mere matter of detail. On the
contrary, it involves a contrast between two entirely different
worlds of thought and life.

The message of Paul, then, was a "gospel," a piece of news
about something that had happened. As has well been ob-
served,^ the characteristic New Testament words are the
words that deal with "gospel," "teaching," and the transmission
of an historical message. Paul was not a "gnostic," but a
witness ; salvation, according to his teaching, came not through
a mystic vision, but through the hearing of faith.^

Thus, so far as the idea of "knowledge" is concerned,
Reitzenstein has not been successful in showing any dependence
of Paul upon the mystery religions. But how is it with regard
to the doctrine of the "Spirit"?

In 1 Cor. ii. 14, 16, the "spiritual man" is contrasted with
the "psychic man." The spiritual man is the man who has
the Spirit of God ; the psychic man is the man who has only a
human soul. It is not reaUy correct to say that the spiritual
man, according to Paul, is a man not who has the Spirit but
who is the Spirit. Paid avoids such an expression for the same
reason that prevents his speaking of the "deification" of the
Christian. Everywhere in Paid the personal distinction be-
tween the believer and the Christ who dwells in him is care-
fully preserved. His "mysticism" (if the word may be used
thus loosely) is never pantheistic. Here already is to be found
a most vital difference between Paul and Hermes Trismegistus.

But this observation constitutes a digression. It is neces-
sary to return to 1 Cor. ii. 14, 16. The spiritual man, ac-

*Hcinrici, Die HerrMS-Mystik und da$ Neu0 TestafMnt, 1918, pp.
178-180.
* Compare Oepke, op, eit,, pp. 40ff.

M6 THE' ORIGIN 0? PAUL'S

cording to that pas0Age» is the man who has the fipiiit of Gait
the psychic man is the man who has only a hnman sooL Mo^
lenstein apparently insists that the %nly^ in this aeutenee
should be l^t out. The psychic man, according to Piinl» lie
says, has a sool; the spiritual man has no ^ul*^ biit has
the divine Spirit instead. But such a repre^entatikm is w»l
really Pauline.^ Paul dearly teaches that the human soul
continues to exist even after the divine Spirit ha^ entered in.
•The Spirit himsdf 9*^ he says, ^'beareth witness with our s^ritir^
that we are children of God'' (Rom. viii. 16). Here ••our
spirit" clearly means ••our soul,** and is expressly distiiictuiihed
from the divine Spirit. At every point, thm, the attempt to
find a pantheistic mysticism in Paul breaks down before ^bt
intensdy personal character of his religion. The rdation «f
Paul to tibe ris^i Christ, intimate as it is, mediated as it is
by the all-pervasive Spirit, is a relation of one person to an-
other.

But it is still necessary to return to the PauHne ocmtrast
between the ••spiritual man'' and the ••psydhic man." Beit-
xenstein lays great stress upon that contrast. He regards it
as lying at the heart of Paul's rdigion, and he thinks Hiat
he can explain it from the Hellenistic mystery rdigions. Ap-
parently the method of Reitzenstein can be tested at tins
point if it can be tested at all. If it does not succeed in ex-
plaining the Pauline doctrine of the Spirit, upon which the
chief stress is laid, probably it will explain nothing at alL

At first sight the material adduced by Reitzenstein is im-
pressive. It is impressive by its very bulk. The reader is
led by the learned investigator into many new and entranc-
ing fields. Surely after so long a journey the traveler must
arrive at last at his desired goal. But somehow the goal is
never reached. All of Reitzenstein's material, strange to say,
seems to prove the exact opposite of what Reitzenstein desires.

Reitzenstein desires apparently to explain the Pauline use
of the adjectives "psychic" and "spiritual" ^ in l Cor. ii.
14, 15; apparently he is quite sure that the usage finds its
sufficient basis in Hermes Trismegistus and related sources.

*Sce especially Vos, *Thc Eschatologlcal Aspect of the Pauline Con-
ception of the Spirit," in Biblical and Theological Studie* by the Membert
of the Faculty of Pnnceton Theological Seminary, 1919, pp. 948-950.

' }hncuo&s and nvfv/MiruD^s.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 867

But the plain fact — almost buried though it is under the mass
of irrelevant material — is that the adjective **p8ychic'* and
the adjective "spiritual" occur each only once in the sources
which are examined, and that they never occur, as in 1 Cor.
ii. 14, 16, in contrast with each other.^ What is even far
more disconcerting, however, is that the noun "spirit*' ^ is not
used (certainly not used ordinarily) in contrast with "soul,"'
as Paul uses it. Certainly it is not so used ordinarily in the
Hermetic writings. On the contrary, in Hermes the spirit
appears, in certain passages, not as something that is higher
than the soul, but as something that is lower. Apparently the
common Greek materialistic use of "pneuma" to indicate
"breath" or "wind" or the like is here followed. At any rate,
the terminology is as remote as could be imagined from that
of Paul. There is absolutely no basis for the Pauline con-
trast between the human soul and the divine Spirit.*

It might be supposed that this fact would weaken Reitzen-
stein's devotion to his theory. But such is not the case. If,
says Reitzenstein, "Spirit" in Hermes Trismegistus does not
indicate something higher than "soul," that is because the
original popular terminology has here suffered philosophical
revision. The popular term "spirit" has been made to give
place to the more philosophical term "mind." ^ Where
Hermes says "mind," therefore, it is only necessary to restore
the term "spirit," and an admirable basis is discovered for the
Pauline terminology. But how does Reitzenstein know that
the popular, unphilosophical term in the mystery religions was
"spirit," rather than **inind" or the like? The extant pagan
sources do not clearly attest the term "spirit" in the sense
which is here required. Apparently then the only reason for
positing the existence of such a term in pagan mystery religion
is that it must have existed in pagan mystery religion if the

^ On the occurrence of ^fvxucSs at the beginning of Dieterich's
**Mithra8 Liturgy" (line 94), see Bousset, Kyrios Christos, 1913, p. 141,
Anm. 1. On the occurrence of TytvuarucSs, see Reitzenstein, Hellenii-
tischs MysterisnreUgionen, 9te Aufl., 19^, p. 169. Compare Bousset,
Jesus dsr Hsrr, 1916, pp. SOf.

•For this whole subject, see especially the comprehensive monograph
of Burton (SfHrit, Soul, and Flssh, [1918]), with the summary on pp.
905-907.

* JWl.

£68 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S REUOION

Pauline use of it is to be explained. It looks, therefore^ as
thou|^ the learned argument of Reitsenstein had been moving
all the time in a circle. After pursuing a roundabout course
through many centuries and many races of men, after acquiring
boundless treasures of curious information, after impressuBg
the whole world with the learning thus acquired, the explorer
arrives at last at the exact point where he started, and no richer
than when he first set out! The Pauline terminology canr
not be explained except as coming from the mystery religions;
therefore, says Reitcenstein in effect, it must have had a place
in the mystery religions even though the extant sources provide
no sufficient, evidence of the fact.^

But is there not some way out of the vicious circle? Is
there not some witness to the terminology which is required?
The investigator turns naturally to Philo. Philo is thought
to be dependent upon the mysteries; perhaps he wHl attest
the required mystical use of the term ^spirit.'* But, alas,
Philo apparently deserts his friends. Except where he is in-
fluenced by the Old Testament use of the word '^spirit,'' he
seems to prefer other terminology.' His terminology, then,
like that of Hermes must be thought to have suffered philosophr
ical reversal. And still the required mystery terminology
eludes the eye of the investigator.

Of course there is one place where the terms "Spirit** and
spiritual'' are exalted above the terms "psyche** and **psy-
chic/' in quite the manner that is desired. That place is found
in the Christian Gnosticism of the second century. But the
Gnostics of the second century are plainly dependent upon
Paul; they vie with the Catholic Church in their appeal to
the Pauline Epistles. The origin of their use of the terms
"psychic** and "spiritual** is therefore only too plain. At least
it might seem to be plain. But Reitzenstein rejects the com-
mon view.^ According to Reitzenstein, the Gnostics have

^See Burton, op, cU,, p. 906: **For the Pauline exaltation of vycviia
over }/nfxfi there is no observed previous parallel. It marks an advance
on Philo, for which there is no precedent in non-Jewish Greek, and only
partial and imperfect parallels in the magical papyri. It is the reverse of
Hermetic usage."

'See Bousset, Kyriot Christos, pp. 138, 140, 141 (Anm. 9).

'Also Bousset, op, cit,, pp. 14bf. According to Bousset, it is unlikdy
that *'the few and difficult terminological explanations of Paul . . . should
have exerted such extensive influence upon the most diverse Gnostic systems.**
But is the teaching of Paul about the Spirit as higher than the soul really
obscure? Does it not appear plainly all through the Epistles?

«

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 869

derived their usage not from Paul but from the pre-Pauline
mystery religions ; and the Gnostic usage of "Spirit" as higher
than "soul" is the source of the Hermetic usage of "soul" as
higher than "spirit/* which, Reitzenstein believes, has been de-
rived from it by philosophical revision. But the argument is
beyond the reach even of J. Kroll, who cannot be accused of
theological interest. As has already been observed, KroU
insists that the Gnostic usage is here secondary.^

One argument remains. The trouble, from Reitzenstein's
point of view, is that when the Hermetic writings ought, in
the interests of the theory, to say "Spirit" they actually say
"mind." It becomes necessary, therefore, to prove that "mind"
means the same thing as "spirit." A proof is found by Reit-
zenstein in Paul himself, in 1 Cor. ii. 16, 16. "But the spiritual
man," says Paul, "examines all things, but he himself is ex-
amined by none. For Srho hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he should instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ."
Here, says Reitzenstein,^ the possession of the ^'mind" of Christ
makes a man a "spiritual" man, that is, a man who has the
"Spirit." Hence "mind" is the same thing as "spirit." Hence
— such, at least, would seem to be the only inference from the
passage in 1 Corinthians which would really establish Reitzen-
stein's theory — when Hermes Trismegistus says "mind," it is
legitimate to substitute "spirit" in order thus to find the basis
for the ordinary Pauline terminology.

But it is by no means clear that "mind" in 1 Cor. ii. 16b
is the same as "spirit." If a man has the Spirit of Christ, he
also has the mind of Christ; the Spirit gives him an under-
standing of the thoughts of Christ. Conversely, the j>ossession
of the mind of Christ is a proof that the man has the Spirit
of Christ; it is only the Spirit who could have given him his
understanding of Christ's thoughts. But it does not follow
by any means that the term "mind" means the same thing as the
term "spirit." Moreover, the passage is entirely isolated ; and
the choice of the unusual word "mind" may be due to the
form of the Septuagint passage which Paul is citing.

At any rate, the plain fact is that the terminology in
Hermes Trismegistus and related sources is strikingly differ-
ent from that of Paul. Reitzenstein finds himself in the pe-
culiar position of proving that Paul is dependent upon pagan

* See above, p. S49, with footnote 9.

* ff0Ufnifti9eh€ Mif9terienr$Ufion0nf 9te Aufl., 1920, pp. 189f,

no THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

sources by the fact that the Pauline terminology does not
occur in the pagan sources. It will not do for him to say that
the terminology is of little importance and that the ideas of
' Paul, if not the terminology, are derived from the pagan mys*
teries. For it is just Reitzenstein who insists upon the impor-
tance of words as the vehicle of ideas. His fundamental argu-
ment is that Paul used the terminology of the mystery re-
ligions, and with the terminology received also the ideas. It
is therefore important to observe that Reitzenstein's lexical
parallel utterly breaks down.

But if the Pauline doctrine of the Spirit was not derived
from the pagan mystery religions, whence was it derived? The
answer is perfectly plain. It was derived ultimately from the
Old Testament.^ Unquestionably, indeed, it goes far beyond
the Old Testament, and the enrichment of its content may con-
ceivably be explained in various ways. The Gospels and Acts
explain the enrichment as due partly to the teaching of Jesus
Himself and to the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pente-
cost. This explanation will be rejected for the most part by
naturalistic criticism. Paul explains the enrichment as due
partly to the experience which he had of the presence of Christ.
This explanation is regarded as no explanation at all by the
school of comparative religion. But it is not necessary in the
present connection to discuss these matters. All that needs
to be observed now is that the basis for the Pauline doctrine
of the Spirit is found in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is represented
as distinct from man and higher than man ; there is no question
in the Old Testament of a usage by which the Spirit is degraded,
as in Hermes Trismegistus, below the soul. In the Old Testa-
ment, moreover, the Spirit is regarded as bestowing supernat-
ural gifts such as prophecy and producing supernatural ex-
periences — exactly as in Paul. But the fruit of the Spirit ac-
cording to the Old Testament is something more than prophecy
or any momentary experience ; it is also a permanent possession
of the soul. "Take not thy holy Spirit from me," says the

* Bousset (op. cit., p. 141, Anm. 2) admits that the terminology of Paul,
especially his use of the term "Spirit" instead of "mind" and his use of the
terms in the contrast between "Spirit" and "flesh" may possibly be due
partly to the Old Testament, but insists that such terminological influence
does not touch the fundamentals of the thought. Such admissions arc
important, despite the way in which Bousset qualifies them.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 871

Psalmist. (Ps. li. 11.) Let the student first examine the la-
bored arguments of Reitzenstein, let him examine the few faint
approaches to the Pauline terminology which have been gleaned
from pagan sources, mostly late and of uncertain origin, let
him observe that just where Greek usage approaches Paul most
closely in form (as in the "divine Spirit** of Menander)/ it
is most diametrically opposed in content, let him reflect that
the influence of pagan usage is contrary to Paul's own con-
sciousness. And then let him turn to the Old Testament ! Let
him remember that the Pauline use of the Old Testament is no
matter of conjecture, but is attested everywhere in the Epistles.
And. let him examine the Old Testament usage in detail. The
Pauline terminology— "the Holy Spirit," the "Spirit of God"
— so signally lacking in early pagan sources,^ appears here in
all its richness ; and with the terminology go the depths of life.
In turning from Hermes to the Hebrew Scriptures, the student
has turned away from Stoic pantheism, away from the polythe-
ism of the mystery religions, away from the fantastic specula-
tions of a decadent philosophy, to the presence of the personal
God. And, in doing so, he has found the origin of the religion
of Paul.

Thus the lexical argument of Reitzenstein breaks down
at the decisive points. It would indeed be rash to assert that
Paul never uses a term derived from the pagan mysteries.
For example, in Phil. iv. 12 he uses the verb that means "to be
initiated." "In everything and in all things I have been ini-
tiated," he says, "both to be filled and to suffer himger, both
to abound and to be in want." But this example shows clearly
how little importance is sometimes to be attributed to the
ultimate derivation of a word. The word "initiate" is here
used in a purely figurative way. It is doubtful whether there
is the slightest thought of its original significance. The word
has been worn down by repeated use almost as much as, for
example, the word which means "supply" in Gal. iii. 6. Ety-
mologically that word means "to be the leader of a chorus."
It referred originally to the Athenian custom by which a
wealthy citizen undertook to defray the cost of the chorus at
one of the dramatic festivals. But later it was used to desig-
nate any act of bountiful supplying. And when it was used by

*Sec Burton, op. ciL, pp. 114-116.
* Burton, op. oit,, pp. 17S-176, 187f.

m* THE OBIGIN OF PAUL'S REUfflKH^

Paul, ita origin wu entirdy forgotten. It would be ridiculoni
to make Paul say that in bettowing the Sparit upon the Galatian
Cbriatians Grod acted ae the leaito of a dwrus. It is not es-
Mntially different with the retb meaning **to be initiated" in
PhilipjHani. tn both cases, an inititiitiMi of ancient Hellenic
life — in the fom^er case, the rdigioiu festivals, in the latter
;Mwe, the mysteries — has given rise to the use of a. word, which
found its way into the Greek world-language of the Hellenistic
age, and continued to be used even where there was no thought
of its ultimate origin.

This example is instructive because the cOntcxt ikr ttf
Philij^ians passage is plainly free from all mystieal ■Moeii
tions. Plainly, therefore, the use of a word derived from ttie
mysteries does not necessarily indicate any a g re u a ent vilii
the mystical point of view. Indeed, it may periUtps imBertf
the exact opposite. If the idea *^ initiate*' had swociatfinH
etninected with the coiter of Paul's rdigioos Hfie, tt ia po^
haps doubtful whether Paul could have used the word ia M
purely figurative a way, just as he would not have osed' ttii
word meaning "to be the leader of a chorus'* in refennllg t*
God's bestowal of the Spirit, if he had had Uie sfij^tteri tlMii||^
of the Athenian festivals.

If, then, it should appear that Paul uses a vocabulary
derived from the mjateries, the fact would not necessarily be
of any significance whatever in determining the origin of hii
religion. Every missionary is obliged to take the words which
have been used in the religion from which converts are to be won
in order to express the new ideas. Translators of the Bible
in the modern mission fields are obliged to proceed in this way.
Yet the procedure does not necessarily involve any modificattoa
of Christian ideas. The old words are given loftier meanings
in order to become the vehicle of Christian truth; the original
meanings provide merely a starting-point for the new teaching.
Conceivably, the apostle Paul might have proceeded in tlus
way; conceivably he niight*have used words connected with the
mystery religions in order to proclaim the gospel of Christ

As a matter of fact, the evidence for such an employment
of a mystery terminology in the Pauline Epistles is very sli^t.
In 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, Paul uses the terms "mystery" and "perfect"
or "full-grown." * Tlie former word was sometimes used to

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 278

designate the "mysteries" in the technical, religious sense. But
it is also used in Greek in a very much more general way. And
certainly as it is used in Paul it is very remote from the
technical meaning. The Christian "mystery" according to
Paul is not something that is to be kept secret on principle,
like the mysteries of Eleusis, but it is something which, though
it was formerly hidden in the counsels of God, is now to be
made known to all. Some, it is true, may never be able to
receive it. But that which is necessary in order that it may
be received is not "gnosis" or an initiation. It is rather ac-
ceptance of a message and the holy life that follows. "If
you would know the deep things of God," Paul says to the Cor-
inthians, "then stop your quarreling." We find ourselves here
in a circle of ideas quite different from that of the mystery
religions. As for the word "teleios," it seems not to have
been discovered in pagan sources in the sense of "initiated,"
which is sometimes attributed to it in 1 Corinthians. Appar^
ently it means simply "full-grown"; Paul contrasts the full-
grown man with the babes in Christ.

On the whole, it seems improbable that the converts of Paul,
in any great numbers, had lived in the atmosphere of the mys-
tery religions.^ At any rate, Paul certainly does not use
the technical vocabulary of the mysteries. That fact has been
amply demonstrated by Von Harnack in the illuminating study
which he has devoted to the "terminology of the new birth." ^
The earliest genuine technical term in the vocabulary of the
early Church, Von Harnack believes, is "illumination," as
Justin Martyr uses it to designate baptism. Certainly in the
earlier period, there is not the slightest evidence of any such
fixity in the use of terms as would have appeared if the New
Testament writers had adopted a technical vocabulary.

Therefore, if the dependence of Paul upon the mystery
religions is to be demonstrated, the lexical method of Reitzen-
stein must be abandoned. The terminology of Paul is not
derived from the terminology of the mysteries. But possibly,
it may be said, although there is no clear dependence in the
terminology, the f imdamental ideas of Paul may still be shown

^Oepke, Di0 Missionspredigt d€» Apoitelt PauUu, 1920, p. 26,
"Von Harnack, "Die Terminologie der Wiedergeburt und verwandtcr
Erlebnisse in der ftltcsten Kirche," in Texte und Untersuchungen zur Oe-
tehichte der altchrUtlichen Liieraiur, xlii, 1918, pp. 97-143. See especially
pp. 139-143.

•74 THE OBIOIK OF PAUL'S RELIGION

to ha>Te come from the nin^unding paganiBin. It is in &as
more caatioiu form that the hypothesis is maintained by Bou§-
ict; at leaat Bouuet ia lesa inclined tlmn Rcitzenstein to lay
stresa upon verbal coincKicnces.' The entire outlook of
Paul, BouMet belieres, regardless of the way in which that out-
look ia ezpreaaed, waa derived from the mystical piety of the
Hdleniaiie age; it waa from his pagan environment that Paul
derived the pessimistic estimate of human nature which is at
the basis of bis teaching.

At this point it may be admitted very freely that Paul
waa convinced of the inaufficiency of humnn nature, and that
that conviction was also prevalent in the paganism of the
Hc^eniatic age. The Hdlenittic age, like Paul, recognized
the need of redemption; aalvation, it waa believed, could not
be attained by unaided human reaonrees, but was a gift of
hitler powera. But this aimilarity is quite insufficient to estab-
liah any relationahip of dependence. Both Paulinism and the
Hellenistic myatery religiooa were rdigions of redemption.
But there have been many religions of redemption, in many ages
and among many peoplea, which have been oitirdy hkdepsidBit
of one another. It will probably not be maiatahiedt for ck-
ample, that eariy Buddhiam stood in any fundamental eaitaal
relation to the piety of the Hellenistic age. Yet eariy
Buddhism was a religion of redemption.

No attempt indeed should be made to underestimate the
community of interest which binds all redemptive religions to-
gether and separates them sharply from all others. Common
recognition of the fundamental evil of the world ia a far
closer bond of union than agreement about the details of con-
duct. Gautama under the tree of knowledge in India, seeking
in ascetic meditation for freedom from the misery of existence,
was inwardly far nearer to the apostle Paul than is many a
modem liberal preacher who loves to read the sixth chapter
of Ephesians in Church. But such community of interest does
not indicate any relation of dependence. It might do so if the
sense of human inadequacy were an abnormal thing. In that
case, the appearance of a pessimistic view of human nature
would require explanation. But if human nature is really
hopeless and helpless in an evil world, then the indepoid^it
' But compare Jtiui der Etrr, 1910, pp. 80-Sfi.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 276

recognition of the fact by many men of many minds is no longer
cause for wonder.

Historical judgments at this point, then, are apt to be
influenced by the presuppositions of the investigator. To
Bousset the whole notion of redemption is distasteful. It
seems to him to be an abnormal, an unhealthy thing. To ex-
plain its emergence, therefore, in the course of human history
he is prone to look for special causes. So he explains the
Pauline doctrine of the radical evil of human nature as being
due to the piety of a decadent age. But if this world is really
an evil world, as Paul says it is, then recognition of the fact
will appear spontaneously at many points. For a time, in an
age of high achievements like the age of Pericles, the funda-
mental problem of life may be forgotten. But the problem
is always there and will force itself ever anew into the con-
sciousness of men.

At any rate, whether desirable or not, the longing for
redemption is a fimdamental fact of history, and may be shown
to have emerged independently at many points. The character
of Paulinism as a redemptive religion, the Pauline doctrine of
human depravity, is therefore insufficient to establish depend-
ence of Paul upon the mystery religions of the Hellenistic age.
Dependence could be established only by similarity in the form
in which the doctrine of depravity appears. But as a matter
of fact such similarity is strikingly absent. The Pauline use
of the term "flesh*' to denote that in which evil resides can
apparently find no real parallel whatever in pagan usage. And
the divergence appears not only in terminology but also in
thought. At first sight there might seem to be a parallel be-
tween the Pauline doctrine of the flesh and the Greek doctrine
of the evil of matter, which appears in the Orphic sects, then
in Plato and in his successors. But the parallel breaks down
upon closer examination. According to Plato, the body is
evil because it is material; it is the prison-house of the soul.
Nothing could really be more remote from the thought of Paul.
According to Paul, the connection of soul and body is en-
tirely normal, and the soul apart from the body is in a con-
dition of nakedness. It is true, the body will be changed at the
resurrection or at the coming of Christ; it will be made more
adequate for the Kingdom of God. But at any rate, there is

S76 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S REUOION

in Paul no doctrine of the inherent evil of matter. The Teal
starting-point of ihe Pauline doctrine of the fleah is to bt
found in the Old Testament, in the passages irfiere ^esh'' de-
notes human nature in its frailty. Certainly the PaaKne
teaching is far more highly developed than the teaching of the
Old Testament, But liie Old Testament provides the startinip-
point. The ^^esh" in Paul, when it is used in its devdoped»
ethical sense, does not mean the material nature of man; it
includes rather all that man receives by ordinary generatioii.
The contrast between '^flesh" and ^'Spirit'' therefore it not the
contrast between matter and spirit; it is a contrast bctwws
human nature, of which sin has taken possession, and the Spirit
of God.

Certainly, at any rate, whatever solution may be found
for the intricate problem of the Pauline use of the tcnn
^esh," tiie Pauline pessimism with regard to human nature
is totally different from the dualistic pessimism of the Hd-
lenistic age. It is different because it does not make evil v^
side in matter as such. But it is different also in a far more
fundamental way. It is different in its ethical character*
The Hellenistic age was conscious of the need of salvation;
and salvation, it was recognized, must come from outside of
man. But this consciousness of need was not always, and not
clearly, connected with questions of right and wrong. The Hel-
lenistic age was conscious of inadequacy, of slavery to fate^ of
the futility of human life as it is actually livei upon the
earth. Here and there, no doubt, there was also a recognition
of existing moral evil, and a longing for a better life. But
such longings were almost submerged amidst longings of a non-
ethical kind. The mysteries were cherished for the most part
not because they offered goodness but because they offered hap-
piness.

In Paul, on the other hand, the consciousness of human
inadequacy is essentially a consciousness of sin. And redonp-
tion is desired because it satisfies the hunger and thirst after
righteousness. At this point the contrast with the Hellenistic
mystery religions is profound. The religion of Paul is like
the mystery religions in that it is a religion of redemption.
But there the similarity ceases. There is certainly no such
similarity in the conception of that from which men are to be
redeemed as would raise any presumption of dependence in the

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 277

presentation of the means of redemption. And it is dependence
in the presentation of the means of redemption which alone
would serve to explain the origin of the religion of Paul. It is
unwarranted to argue that because Paul agrees with the mys-
tery religions in a longing for redemption therefore he must have
derived from the mystery religions his method of satisfying
the longing — namely his conception of the redemptive work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. For even in the longing for re-
demption — to say nothing of the way of satisfying the longing
— ^Paul was totally different from the mysteries. The long-
ing which was aroused in the devotees of the mysteries was a
longing for a happier immortality, a freedom from the pres-
sure of fate ; the longing which Paul sought to arouse in those
for whom he labored was a longing for righteousness and for
acceptance by the righteous God.

This difference is intimately connected with a highly
significant fact — the presence in Paul of a "forensic" view
of salvation. Salvation, according to Paul, is not only sal-
vation from the power of sin; it is also salvation from the
guilt of sin. Not only regeneration is needed, if a man is to be
saved, but also justification. At this point, there is apparently
in the mystery religions no parallel worthy of the name. At
least there is none if Reitzenstein's attempt to exhibit a paral-
lel ^ is at all adequate ; for Reitzenstein has succeeded only
in setting in clearer light the enormous difference at this point
between Paul and his pagan environment. The word ** justify"
appears, indeed, in the Hermetic corpus (xiii. 9), but as Reit-
zenstein himself observes, it means not "declare righteous" but
**make righteous." A parallel with Paul can be set up, there-
fore, only if "justify" in Paul also means "make righteous."
Reitzenstein actually finds such a meaning in Rom. vi. 7, and
in Rom. viii. 80. But the expedient is desperate in the ex-
treme. It will probably be unnecessary to review again the
absolutely overwhelming evidence by which the word "justify"
in the Pauline Epistles is shown to mean not "make righteous"
but "declare righteous." Without the slightest question Paul
did maintain a forensic view of salvation. The believer, ac-
cording to Paul, is in himself guilty in the sight of God. But
he is given a sentence of acquittal, he is "justified," because

^ Reitienstein, DU helleniittiachen MpHerienreligionen, 9te Aufl.. pp.
11^116. '^^

n I, '. HE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

Chiift has borne on the cross the curse of the Law which rightly
reated irpon those whom Christ died to save.

The presence of this forensic element in the teaching of
Paul ia universally or generally recognized; and it is usually
admitted to be not Greek but Jewish. But there is a tendency
HHrwmg recent scholars to ininitnize its importance. According
to Wnde, the forensic conception of salvation, the complex
of ideftS centering around justification apart from the works
of the Law, was merely a weapon forged by Paul in the exi-
geocies of controversy.' Against the Judaizing contention for
the continued vaUdity of the Law Paul developed the doctrine
that the penalty imposed by the Law upon sin was borne by
ChrUtf to that for the believer the bondage of the Law is over.
But, Wrede believes, this whole conception was of minor im-
portance in Paul's own life; it was merely necessary in order
that he might refute the Judaizers and so continue his free
Ooitile mission. A somewhat similar view is advocated by
BboHet; Bousset believes, at least, that the forensic concep-
tion of salvation occupies a subordinate place in the thought
and life of Paul.

But there could he no greater mistake. The doctrine of
jlutiflcation by faith alone apart from the works of the Law
appears indeed in the Epistle to the Galatians as a weapon
against thu Judiiizers. But why wiia Paul opposed to the Juda-
izers in the first place? Certainly it was not merely because
the Judaizing demand that Gentile Christians should be circum-
cised \ind keep the Law would interfere in a practical way with
the Gentile mission. Paul was not Uke some modem leaden of
the Church, who are interested in mere bigness; he wag not
interested in the extension of the Church if such extension
involved the sacrifice of principle. Nothing could be more
utterly unhistorical than the representation of Paul ak a prac-
tical missionary, developing the doctrine of justification by
faith in order to get rid of a doctrine of the Lav whicjt
would be a hindrance in the way of his Gentile mission. Such
a representation reverses the real state of the case. The
real reason why Paul was devoted to the doctrine of justifica-
tion by faith was not that it made possible the Gentile mis-
sion, but rather that it was true. Paul was not devoted to the

* "Kampfeslehre." Sec Wrede, Paului, 1904, pp. T9ff. (Eariisli Ttu»-
UUon, Paul, 190T, pp. ]9Sff.).

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 279

doctrine of justification by faith because of the Gentile mis-
sion; he was devoted to the Gentile mission because of the
doctrine of justification by faith. And he was opposed to the
Judaizers, not merely because they constituted a hindrance in
the way of the Grentile work, but because they made the cross of
Christ of none effect. "If righteousness is through the law,
then Christ died in vain" (Gal. ii. 21). These words are at
the very heart of Paul's life ; for they involve the Pauline doc-
trine of the grace of God.

There could be no greater error, therefore, than that of
representing the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith
as a mere afterthought, as a mere weapon in controversy. Paul
was interested in salvation from the guilt of sin no whit less
than in salvation from the power of sin, in justification no whit
less than in the "new creation." Indeed, it is a great mis-
take to separate the two sides of his message. There lies the
root error of the customary modem formula for explaining
the origin of the Pauline theology. According to that formula,
the forensic element in Paul's doctrine of salvation, which cen-
ters in justification, was derived from Judaism, and the vital
or essential element which* centers in the new creation was de-
rived from paganism. In reality, the two elements are inex-
tricably intertwined. The sense of guilt was always central
in the longing for salvation which Paul desired to induce in
his hearers, and imparted to that longing an ethical quality
which was totally lacking in the mystery religions. And sal-
vation in the Pauline churches consisted not merely in the
assurance of a blessed immortality, not merely in the assurance
of a present freedom from the bondage of fate, not merely even
in the possession of a new power of holy living, but also, and
everywhere, in the consciousness that the guilt of sin had been
removed by the cross of Christ.

There is no affinity, therefore, between the Pauline doc-
trine of salvation and that which is found in the mystery re-
ligions. The terminology is strikingly different, and the dif-
ference is even greater in the underlying ideas. Paulinism
is like the mystery religions in being a religion of redemption,
but within the great category of redemptive religions there
could be no greater contrast.

This conclusion might be overthrown if certain recent con-
tentions should prove to be correct with regard to the second

. '•

<>•

980 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BBLKHKXN

of the dements in Panlinism wliidi an being derivei frai
pagan rdigion. Tliis second d«ient it found in the Budht
doctrine of the sacraments. In the teaching of Paul ali s nt
baptism and liie Lord's Supper, we are told, there is dbaify
to be observed the influence of the mystery religions*

This contention dqiends partly upon the siqppoeed Batve
of these particular sacraments and partly upon the men isfit
of the presence of sacraments in the religion of PauL

Witii regard to the nature of these particular
there might seem at first sight to be a paralld with the myst«!y
religions. The mysteries usually had connected with tfoi
ablutions of one khid or another and some sort of parlafcim
of sacred food. But it is singularly diflkult to detmnwe Hm
meaning of these practices. The various ablutions which put*
ceded tiie celebration of the mysteries may have been often
nothing more than sjrmbols of deansing; and sudi symbolism
is so natural that it might appear independently at nu^y
places. It appears, for example, highly ^vdoped amo^g the
Jews ; and in the baptism of John the Baptist it aMumes a fmsi
far more dosdy aUn to Christian baptism than in the wash-
ings which were connected with the pagan mysteries. The wnr
dence for a sacramental significance of the ablutions in the
mysteries, despite confident assertions on the part of some
modem writers, is really very slight. Most interesting, per-
haps, of all the passages which have been cited is that which
appears in Pap. Par. 47, a papyrus letter written in the second
century before Christ.^ This passage may be translated as
follows : *^For you are imtruthful about all things and the gods
who are with you likewise, because they have cast you into great
matter and we are not able to die, and if you see that we are
going to be saved, then let us be baptized." It is possible to
understand the death that is referred to as the mystical death
which would be attained in the mysteries, and to connect the
baptism with that death and with the consequent salvation.
There would thus be a parallel, external at least, with the sixth
chapter of Romans, where Paul connects baptism with the

^ See ReiUenstein, op. cit., 9te Aufl., pp. 85 f. The passage in Uie papvnis
reads as follows (Notice» ei exiraita det manuscriti ds la biblufMqms
imp4riale, xviii, 1865, p. 315) : 5ri ^tOSjn Tiarra, nal ol TOfiA v€ Btol d/mUatt ^
bffiiffXriKaM iftiat eU GXriv fAtyAXrp^t ical ob iwktuBa AirodoMlr* kAm I5]|f ^t /i4XXopi9
ao£ripiUt Hnt /3airr(^<&Me^a. The letter is also contained in Witlcowski, BfU-
tula$ prhcUae grascae, 1906» pp. 63-66.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 881

death and resurrection of Christ. But the papyrus passage
is hopelessly obscure, and is capable of very different interpre-
tations. Moulton and Milligan, for example, take the verb
"to be baptized,*' in a purely figurative sense, as meaning
simply "to be overwhelmed with calamities." ^ According to
this interpretation the reference to the mysteries disappears
altogether. At any rate, the passage, if it does refer to the
mysteries, is altogether isolated. And in view of its extreme
obscurity it should not be made the basis of far-reaching con-
clusions. What is now being maintained is not that the wash-
ings which were connected with the mysteries were never sacra-
mental. It is incautious to make such sweeping negative as-
sertions. But so far as the pre-Pauline period is concerned, the
evidence which has been adduced is, to say the least, exceed-
ingly scanty. It has by no means been proved that in the
pre-Pauline mysteries, "baptism" was connected closely with
the new birth.^

With regard to the partaking of sacred food, the evidence
is in some respects more abundant. Even in the mysteries of
Eleusis, a special significance seems to have been attributed
to the drinking of the "kykeon"; and the initiates into the
Phrygian mysteries are reported by Clement of Alexandria
(similarly Firmicus Matemus) to have used a formula includ-
ing the words, "I ate from the drum, I drank from the cymbal."
So far as the form of the act is concerned, the similarity to the
Christian Eucharist is here certainly not great; there was
eating and drinking in both cases, but everything else, so far
as can be seen, was different. In the mysteries of Mithras
the similarity of form seems to have been greater ; the initiates
partook of bread and of a cup in a way which Justin Martyr
regarded as a demoniac imitation of the Christian sacrament.
According to Cumont, moreover, the Mithraic practice was
clearly sacramental; the initiates expected from their sacred

^Moulton and Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Oreek Testament, s. v.
fiairrli:<a. Part ii, [1915], p. 102. Similarly Sethe, "Sarapis," in Ahhandn
lungen der koniglichen OeselUchaft der WUsentchaften zu Oottingen,
philologisch-historische Klasse, Neue Folge, xiv, Nro. 5, 1913, p. 51.

'Tcrtullian, de ha^t. 5 (cd. Reifferscheid et Wlssowa, 1890), it must be
admitted, connects baptism in heathen religion with regeneration, and
mentions the part which sacramental washings had in the mysteries of Isis
and of Mithras, and in Eleusinian rites. Despite the post-Pauline date
of this testimony, the passage is certainly interesting. Compare Kennedy,
op. cU,, p. 229,

Mt THE ORXOIK OF TAWS KSUSSQ^

bwnqnet s mpentatursl effect.* But it will be remembered
that conndwstioiu of dfttt render an influence of Mithras upon
Paul exceedin^y improbaUe. And tlie significance of the eat-
iag and dzinkutg in connection with other mysteries is obscure.
Apparoitly these acta did not fonn a part of the mysteries
^oper, bat were only a prqiaratiim for them.

In' a very sava^ form of rdifion there appear^J
taon that men could partake of the divine nature by i
eating the god. For aatofit, in the worship of Dionysus, the
worshipers in the hei^ of rdigiooi frotiy tore in pieces the
■aersd bull and derowed the raw fledu Here the bull appar-
aitly represented the god himsdf. ^lia aavage practice stands
in external paralld with certwn passages in the New Testa-
ment, not mdj with the references in John vi to the eating
of the flesh and drinking of the tUKid of Christ, but also
(tiwngfalesscLeaiiy) with the Pauline teaching about tlie Lord's
Supper. In 1 Cor. x. 16 Paul speaks of the "cup of blessing"
as being communion of the blood of Christ, and of the bread
as being communion of the body of Christ. Have we not here
a snhlimated form of the pagan notion of eating the god ? The
BOj^raation mi^t seon to be Btrengthened by the parallel
K^ucb Paul draws a few verses further on between the cup of
the Lord and the cup of demons, and between tlie table of the
Lord and the table of demons (verse SI), the demons, it is
said, being regarded by Paul as identical with the heathen
gods.

But the trouble is that the savage notion of eating the
god does not seem to have survived in the Hdlenistic mystery
religions. At this point, therefore, the student of comparative
religion is faced with a difficulty exactly opposite to that
which appears in most of the parallels which have been set up
between the teaching of Paul and pagan religion. In most
cases the difficulty is that the pagan parallels are too late;
here, on the contrary, they are too early. If Paul is de-
pendent upon the pagan notion of eating the god, he must have
deserted the religious practice which prevailed in his own day
in order to have recourse to a savage custom which had long
since been abandoned. The suggestion does not seem to be very

' Cumont, TtetM at momim^ntt flgurit rftatifi ana mgttkru d* Mithr*.
i, 1899, p. 381. See HeitrotlUer. Tmfe vn^ AtfrnOmM b>i PmIw, 1903^
p. 46, Aran. 3.

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 288

natural. It is generally admitted that even where Christianity
is dependent upon Hellenistic religion it represents a spirit-
ualizing modification of the pagan practice. But at this point
it would have to be supposed that the Christian modification
proceeded in exactly the opposite direction; far from mark-
ing a greater spiritualization of pagan practice, it meant a
return to a savage stage of religion which even paganism had
abandoned.

Efforts are sometimes made to overcome this objection.
**We observe in the history of religion,'* says Heitmiiller, **that
tendencies connected with low stages of religious develop-
ment, which in the higher stages were quiescent or extinct, sud-
denly spring up again — of course in a modified form adapted
to the changed circumstances." ^ Such general observations,
even if they are based upon fact, will hardly serve to render
the present hypothesis any more plausible. Dependence of the
Pauline teaching about the Lord's Supper upon the savage no-
tion of eating the god, when even paganism had come to abandon
that notion, will always seem very unnatural.

Certainly the hypothesis is not supported by the parallel
which Paul draws in.l Cor. x. 21 between the table of the Lord
and the table of demons. Paul does not say that the heathen
had fellowship with their gods by partaking of them in a meal ;
the fellowship with those gods (verse 20) could be conceived
of in other ways. For example, the cult god may have been
conceived of in the sacrificial meals as the host at a feast.
In point of fact, such an idea was no doubt widely prevalent.
It is attributed to the Phrygian mysteries, for example, by
Hepding, who supposes that the eating from the drum and
drinking from the cymbal meant the entrance of the initiate
into the circle formed by the table-companions of the god.^
At any rate, the savage notion of eating the god is not clearly
attested for the Hellenistic period, and certainly dependence
of Paul upon such a notion is unlikely in the extreme.

No close parallel, then, can be established between the Chris-
tian sacraments and the practices of the pagan cults. But
the very fact that the Pauline churches had sacraments at all
— ^irrespective of the form of the particular sacraments — may
conceivably be made a ground for connecting Paulinism with

* HeitmttUer, Taufe und Abendmahl bet Paulus, 1903, p. 47.
'Hepding, Attit, 1903, pp. 186f.

184 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BEU^ON

the Hdlenittic relipoiu. Tbe «TgiiiiMnt depeads i^OB «Bt
particnlar view of ihe Pauline Bacnunents ; it depends vpoK tfe
view that baptism aod the Lord'a Supper were oonorfrcd of as
eottnymg bleising not in virtae of tiie difpoeition of ■onl ^ri&
which they were administered or received bat in virfaw of tke
tacramental acts thansdvea. In other words (to um tndi-
tional language), the argmneDt depends upon the nor tiwt
the Pauline sacraments conveyed Uieir blesaiiig not m Of$n
operantU but ex opere operato. In the Faulnw dnirdiei* it
is argued, the beginning of the new life and the rnn— niriso
with the cult god were connected with certain cercoMmial aets.
So it was also in the mystery religions. Therefore pMiliBi«a
is to be understood in connection with the mysteriei.

But the interpretation of the Panline Epistles i^on lAkh
this hypothesis is based is fran^^t with serioos difknlty. Did
Paul really conceive of the sacraments as conveying tbar Uese-
ing AC opert operatot The general character of the Epistles
certainly points in an opposite direction. An unprejudiced
reader of the Epistles as a whole certainly reteives the im-
pression that the writer laid extraordinarily little stress upon
forms and ceranoniea. Salvation according to Paul was de-
pendent solely upon faith, the simple acceptance of the offer
contained in the meBsage of the Ctobb. Any connection of such
a religion with external forms seems even to be excluded ex-
pressly by the Epistle to the Galatians, A dispensation of
forms and ceremonies, according to that Epistle, belongs to the
period of childish bondage from which Christ has set men free.

Yet such a writer, it is maintained, actually taught that
the mere act of baptism conveyed the blessing of a new life
and the mere partaking of food and drink conveyed the blessing
of communion with the risen Christ. The supposition seems at
first sight to be preposterous. If it is to he established, it can
only be on the basis of the clearest kind of evidence.

The evidence, it should be noted at the start, is at any
rate decidedly limited in extent. It is only in the First Epistle
to the Corinthians that Paid mentions the Lord's Supper
at all, and it is only in Rom. vi and Col. ii. 12 that baptism is
connected with the death and resurrection which the behever
is said to have shared with Christ. The hmited extent of the
evidence may in itself be significant. If Paul held the high
sacramentarian view of baptism and the Lord's Supper, it seons

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 885

a little strange that he should have laid so little stress upon the
sacraments. High sacramentarians of all ages have preserved
a very different proportion. It seems still more strange, per-
haps, that Paul should have said that Christ sent him not to
baptize but to preach the gospel (1 Cor. i. 17). On the ex
opere operato view of baptism, baptism was the highest possible
function. Could an apostle who held that view have attributed
relatively so little importance to it? In order to appreciate
how much less importance is attributed in the Epistles to bap-
tism and the Lord's Supper than to certain other elements in
Paul's teaching, it is only necessary to compare the references
to the sacraments with the references to faith. The fact is
perfectly plain. When Paul speaks, in the large, about the
way of salvation, it never seems to occur to him to mention the
sacraments ; what he does think of is the message of the gospel
and the simple acceptance of it through faith.

These facts are sometimes admitted even by those who
attribute a high sacramentarian view of the sacraments to
Paul; Paulinism when taken as a whole, it is admitted, is cer-
tainly not a sacramentarian religion. What has happened,
then, it is supposed, is that Paul has retained in the doctrine of
the sacraments an element derived from a lower type of religion,
an unassimilated remnant of the type of religion which is rep-
resented by the mystery cults. Thus the Pauline doctrine of
the sacraments is thought to introduce a glaring contradiction
into the thought and life of Paul.

Can such a glaring contradiction be attributed to Paul?
It could probably be attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. But
can it be attributed to Paul? The writer of the Pauline Epis-
tles was no mere compiler, receiving unassimilated materials
from many sources. He was a person of highly marked char-
acteristics. And he was a person of commanding intellect.
Could such a writer have introduced a glaring contradiction
into the very center of his teaching?* Could a writer who in the
great mass of his writing is triumphantly and even polemically
anti-sacramentarian have maintained all along a crassly
sacramentarian view of the way in which religious blessing was
to be obtained ?

An affirmative answer to these questions could be rendered
only on the basis of positive evidence of the most unequivocal
kind. And such positive evidence is not forthcoming. The

«8t THE 0BI6IN OF PAUL'S BSUGaON

*

■lost tluit can by any pmribiKty be saU Itif tibe ^Mm/lfy
meiitariaii interprctatioa of Rom. ti b Hmt it im pomMe.
It mii^t concaVably be adopted if Bobbl vi atood akoe. But
aa a matter of fact Eom. Ti does not stand alone; it otands in
tiie midst of a considerable body of Pai£ne Bpktks. ' And it
■mat be interpreted in the Ugfat of what Paul aaya eiflearlHte.
If Rom. vi stood absolutely almot Panl mi|^ coooeifafaiy be
thought to mean that the act of biq^tism in itsdtf «folv«s a
dying with Qirist and a rising with Him to a new lile^ . But
the whole character of the Pauline Epistles dbsoi uMy pi^
dudes such an interpretatiim. And another intarpyttatiom does
full justice to tiie words as they stand. That uAtrfmtaAiimm
the obvious one which makes the act of baptism mtk ^nfapaid
sign of an inner expmenoe, ^^e were buried with ]|is%^* aayi
Paul, 'Hhrough baptism unto death.^ These wmiB asw fwmmd
by the modem sdtf>ol of comparative religion veigr Meli as
Lutiier at the Marburg Conference pressed the I4ittn^:ww4i ef
institution of the Loid's Supper. Luther wrote on tiba taUe^
^'Tliis is my body^ (^hoc est corpus maun**), and jroiiU jBMit
hear of anything but the most Uteral interpretatim of<;tte
words. So the modem school of comparative rd^pon IPMSSS
the words 'Hhroui^ baptism^ in Rom. vi. 4. '^e wnna faHMd
with him through baptism," says Paul. Therefore, it is said,
since it was through baptism, it was not through faith, or
through any inner disposition of the soul ; therefore the sacra-
mentarian interpretation is correct. But if LutherV over-
literalness, fraught with such disastrous consequences for the
Church, is deserted by most advocates of the grammatico-his-
torical method of exegesis, should an equally bald literalness
be insisted upon in connection with Rom. vi. 4?

Interpreted in connection with the whole trend of the
Epistles, the sixth chapter of Romans contains an appeal to
the outward sign of an inner experience. It is perfectly nat-
ural that. Paul should here appeal to the outward sign rather
than to the inner experience. Paul desires to strengthen in his
readers the conviction that the life which they are leading as
Christians is a new life in which sin can have no place. Un-
questionably he might have appealed to the faith which had
been the means by which the new life had been begun. But faith
is not something that can be seen. Baptism, on the other hand,
was a plain and obvious fact. To use a modem term, it 'Sdsual-

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION 287

ized" faith. And it is just the visualizing of faith that Paul
here desires. When the Roman Christians were baptized, they
were convinced that the act meant a dying with Christ and a
rising with Him; it meant the beginning of their Christian
life. It was a solemn and a definite act. It was something
that could be seen as well as felt. Conceivably, indeed, the
act in itself might have been unaccompanied by faith. But in
the early Church such cases were no doubt extremely rare.
They could therefore be left out of account by Paul. Paul
assumes — and no doubt he is correct — that, whatever might
conceivably have been the case, as a matter of fact when any
one of the Roman Christians was baptized he died and rose
again with Christ. But Paul does not say that the dying and
rising again was produced by the external act otherwise than
as that act was an expression of faith. Here, however, it is to
the external act that he appeals, because it is the external act
which can be seen and can be realized. It can only be because
the newness of the Christian life is not realized that Christians
can think of it as permitting a continuance in sin. What
enables it to be realized is that which can actually be seen,
namely, the external and obvious fact of baptism. In other
words, baptism is here made to discharge in typical fashion
its divinely appointed function as an external sign of an inner
experience, and an external sign which is made the vehicle of
special blessing.

A similar interpretation may be applied to all the refer-
ences to the sacraments which occur in the Pauline Epistles.
What sometimes produces the impression of an ex opere operato
conception of the sacraments is that Paul does not take into
account the possibility that the sacraments might be unac-
companied by faith. So in Gal. iii. 27 he says, "All ye who were
baptized into Christ did put on Christ." These words if taken
alone might mean that every man, whatever the condition of his
soul, who went through the external form of baptism had put
on Christ. But of course as a matter of fact Paul means noth-
ing of the kind. What he does mean is that the baptism of
the Galatians, since that baptism was accompanied by faith
(Gal. iii. 2), meant in that concrete case the putting on of
Christ. Here again there is an appeal, in the presence of
those who were in danger of forgetting spiritual facts, to the
external sign which no one could forget.

988 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BSUQJOVt

Thia interpreUtaon CMUwt be ioTalidsted by the pass&ge*
whidi lum been appealed to u nipportiiig ft crassly ex open
optrato conception of tbe ■mcmiKnta. In 1 Cor. xi. 30, for
example, Pml ssyi Uiat becaoie of an unworthy partaking of
the Lord*! Snpper many of tbe Cortnthiaiw were ill and many
had died. But these vorda need not neceuarily mean that tbe
bread and wine, becaoM of a dangerona magical virtue that woa
in them, had ii^cted harm iq>on those who bad not Tned tlien
ari^t. Tliey may mean at leaat equally wdl tbat tbe pbyaual
ilia of the Corint^ana were a chastiaemnt which had V«n imr
fficted by Ood. Aa for 1 Cor. xv. 20 (baptiam in bdutlf of
the dead), it can be aaid at leaat that that mne b laolatcd
and exceedin^y obscure, and that it is bad historical ncihiid
to allow what ia obscure to color the interpretation of -wimt
ia idain. Many interpretationa of the verse have been pro-
posed. And it ia by no means clear that Paul lent his own
aiq}port to tbe coatom to which reference is berc made.

Thus it cannot be maintained that PaoHnism vas lik*
the pagan mysteries even in the general sense tbat both Paai-
iniam uid the mysteriea connected salration with ^[terAal acta.
The acta themaetrea were different; and the meaaiiig of Ae.
acts waa atill more diverse. An dement of truth doea indeed
underlie the sacramentarian interpretation of Paul. Tlie de-
ment of truth consists in the protest which is here raised against
the interpretation which has sometimeB been favored by "lib-
eral" scholars. According to this liberal interpretation, when
Paul speaks of dying and rising with Christ he is referring
to a purely ethical fact; when he says that he has died to
the Law, he means that he has made a radical break with an
external, legalistic type of religion; when he says that it is
no longer he that lives but Christ that lives in him, he meana
that be has made Christ his supreme guide and example; when
he says that through the Cross of Christ he has been crucified
to the world, he means that the Cross has led him to renounce
all worldliness of purpose. Such interpretation is exceed-
ingly common. But it is radically false. It is false because
it does away with the supematuralism of Paul's teaching.
There could be no greater mistake than that of making salva-
tion according to Paul an affair of the human will. On the
contrary, the very essence of Pauline teaching is supemat-

REDEMPTION IN PAGAN RELIGION «89

uralism. Salvation, according to Paul, is based upon a sui)er-
natural act of God — the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And
equally supernatural is the application of salvation to the
individual. The new creation which stands at the beginning
of the Christian life is according to Paul just as little a product
of natural forces, and just as little a product of the human
will, as the first creation was. The modem school of com-
parative religion is entirely correct in insisting upon the thor-
oughgoing supematuralism of the Pauline gospel. Paulinism
is a redemptive religion in the most thoroughgoing sense of
the word; it finds salvation, not in a decision of the human
will, but in an act of God.

But the error comes in confusing supematuralism with
sacramentalism. Paul's conception of salvation is supernat-
ural, but it is not external. It is indeed just as supernatural as
if it were external. The beginning of a man's Christian Ufe,
according to Paul, is just as little a product of his own moral
forces, just as little a product of any mere moral influence
brought to bear upon him, as it would be if it were produced
by the water into which he was dipped or the bread and wine
of which he partakes. Conceivably God might have chosen to
use such means. If He had done so. His action would have
been not one whit more supernatural than it actually is. But
as a matter of fact. He has chosen, in His mysterious wisdom,
to use the means of faith. Such is the teaching of Paul.
It is highly distasteful to the modem liberal Church. But
even if it is to be rejected it should at least be recognized aa
Pauline.

Thus the interpretation of the sacraments which is pro-
posed by the modem school of comparative religion — and in-
deed the whole modem radical treatment of Paulinism as a
thoroughgoing religion of redemption — marks a reaction
against the modernizing exegesis which was practised by the
liberal school. But the reaction has at any rate gone too far.
It cannot be said that the newer exegesis is any more objective
than the liberal exegesis which it endeavors to replace. The
liberal scholars were concerned to keep Paul as near as possible
to their modem naturalistic principles, in order to continue
to use him for the edificatipn of the Church ; the radical scholars
of the school of comparative religion are concerned to keep

290

THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

him as fur away as possible from modern naturalistic principlM
in order to bring him into connection with the crass eiternal-
ism of the mystery religions. Neither group has attained the
whole truth. The Pauline conception of salvation is just as
spiritual as it is thought to be by the liberal scholars; but
on the other band, it Js just as supernatural as it is repre-
sented ns being bj Reitzenstein and Bousset.

CHAPTER VIII
THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS

CHAPTER Vm

THE liOBDSHIP OF JESUS

Two of the contentions of the modem school of compara-
tive religion have so far been examined. It has been shown
that neither the group of Pauline conceptions which centers
around the new birth (or, as Paul calls it, the new creation)
nor the Pauline teaching about the sacraments was derived from
the mystery religions. The third element of Paulinism which
is thought to have come from pagan religion is found in the
Pauline conception of Christ and of the work of Christ in
redemption. This contention is connected especially with the
name of Bousset,^ who is, however, supported in essentials
by a considerable number of contemporary scholars. The
hjrpothesis of Bousset is intimately connected with those hypo-
theses which have already been examined. A complete treat-
ment of it at this point would therefore involve repetition. But
it may here be set forth at least in a somewhat systematic,
though still in a merely summary, way.

According to Bousset, the primitive Christian community
in Jerusalem regarded Jesus chiefly as the Son of Man — the
mysterious person, mentioned in the Jewish apocalypses, who
was finally to come with the clouds of heaven and be the in-
strument in ushering in the Kingdom of God. Bousset is doubt-
ful whether or no the title Son of Man was ever assumed by
Jesus Himself, and regards the settlement of this question as
lying beyond the scope of his book. But the tendency of the
book is decidedly toward a radical denial of the Messianic
consciousness of Jesus. And at this point the cautious inves-
tigator, even if his presuppositions are the same as Bousset's
own, may well be inclined to take alarm. The method which
is here pursued seems to be leading logically to the elimination
from the pages of history of the whole Gospel picture of Jesus,
^Kyrioi Chruto», 191S; Jetns d€r Herr, 1916.

293

AM THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BEU6I0N

or rather to the use of that pieture in the reconsfanietioB nof
of the historical Jesus, but only of the bdief of the OixistiaB
oonuaunity. Of course Bousset does not push matters to muk
lengths; he is by no means inclined to foObw W. B. Smilli and
Drews in denying the historicity of Jesus. But the reader at
the first part of the 'Vyrios Christos'* has an uneasy fedii^
that if any of the Gospel picture still escapes the keen edge
of Bousset's criticism, it is only by accident, Ifaiqr ^ thoae
incidents in the Gospd narratiire, many of those dfmsnts in
the Gospd teaching, which have been oonndned moat dbai^
acteristic of the historical Jesus have here been lemof^ Tfcevs
seems to be no particular reason why the rest AoM lenwin;
for &e elements that remain are quite similar to the diments
that have been made to go. No mark of authentietty seems
to be proof against the skepticism of this latest historian.
Bousset thus illustrates the difflculty of separating the natnral
from the supernatural in the Gospd picture of Jesus. WlkQ
the process of separation begins, it is diitcult to brinff it to a
halt ; the wheat is in danger of being rooted up with we.teies.
Bousset has dealt a severe blow to the prestige of tlie Ubcarml
reconstruction of Jesus. By the recent devdioimiento in Ins
thinking he has shown by his own exanqile tliat tile Hbenil
reconstruction is in a state of unstable equilibrium. It is al-
ways in danger of giving way to radical denial either of the
historicity of Jesus or of the historicity of the Messianic con-
sciousness. Such radicalism is faced by insuperable difficulties.
Perhaps, then, there is something wrong with the critical
method from which the radicalism always tends to result.

But it is necessary now to examine a little more closely
the belief of the primitive Jerusalem Church. That belief,
Bousset maintains, did not involve any conception of Jesus
as "Lord." The title "Lord," he says, was not applied to
Jesus on Palestinian ground, and Jesus was not regarded by
the early Jerusalem Church as the object of faith. The piety
of the primitive Church was thus exclusively eschatological ;
Jesus was expected to return in glory from heaven, but mean-
while He was regarded as separated from His disciples. He
was the heavenly "Son of Man," to come with the clouds of
heaven, not the "Lord" now present in the Church.

These momentous assertions, which lie at the very basis of
Bousset's hypothesis, are summed up in the elimination from

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 896

Jerusalem Christianity of the title **Lord" as applied to Jesus.
This elimination of the title "Lord" of course involves a rejec-
tion of the testimony of Acts. The Book of Acts contains
the only extant narrative of the early prop-ess of Jerusalem
Christianity. And so far as the designations of Christ are
concerned, the early chapters of the book have usually been
thought to produce an impression of special antiquity and
authenticity. These chapters apply the title "Lord" to Jesus ;
the words in Acts ii. 36, "God has made him both Lord and
Christ," have often been regarded as especially significant.
But to Bousset, in view of his opinion about the Book of Acts
as a whole, the elimination of this testimony causes no difficulty.

But how does Bousset know that the primitive Jerusalem
Church did not apply the term "Lord" to Jesus? The prin-
cipal argument is derived from an examination of the Synoptic
Gospels. The title "Lord," as applied to Jesus, Bousset
believes, appears only "on the margin" (as it were) of the
Gospel tradition; it does not appear as one of the primitive
elements in the tradition. But since it does not appear firmly
fixed in the Gospel tradition, it could not have formed a part
of Christian belief in the community where the Gospel tradition
was formed. The community where the Gospel tradition was
formed was the Jerusalem Church. Therefore the title Lord
as applied to Jesus did not form part of the belief of the
Jerusalem Church. Such, in bare outline, is the argument of
Bousset.

An examination of that argimient in detail would far trans-
cend the limits of the present discussion.^ But certain ob-
vious remarks can be made.

In the first place, it is not perfectly clear that the title
Lord appears only in secondary elements of the Gospel tradi-
tion. Certainly it must be granted to Bousset that the in-
stances where the word "Lord" appears in the vocative case
do not necessarily involve any recognition of the lofty title
"Lord" as belonging to Jesus ; for the word could be used in
direct address in the presence of any person to whom respect
was to be paid. Nevertheless, in some of the passages the word
does seem to be more than a mere reverential form of address.

*Sec Vos, "The Kyrios Christos Controversy," in Th0 Princeton Theo-
logical Review f xv, 1917, pp. 21-89. See also the review of Bousset's "Kyrios
Christos" by the same author, ibid,, zii» 1914, pp. 636-645.

f96 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S BELHHON

Booftset bimsdf admits that sach ia the case at kaat in Matt
vii. Sly **Not every one who says unto me Lord, Loid, diaB
enter into the kingdmd of heaven,** and his opinicm .that tint
passage is secondary as compared with Lk. vL 46 is iasnft-
dently grounded. The cases in the Oospds where the titie is
used absolntdy are not very numerous, and they occur dbid|f
in the Gosjiel of Luke. But the estimate of them as seooadaxy
depends of course upon certain critical conclusions about the
vdationships of the Synoptic Gospels. And it is dmMctA
whether Bousset has quite succeeded in refutii^ the argmiMinl
which can be derived from Mk. ziL 86-87 (and paralleis)» Urn
passage about David's son and David's Lord. Bousset him-
sdf uses this passage as an important testamcmy to the bcKil
of the early Jerusalem CSiurch, thou|^ he does not regpued jt
as representing a genuine saying of Jeras. Tet heate Jesip
is made to call attention to the fact that David ealbd tki
Messiah **Lord." If this passage repremnts the bdlieC about
Jesus of the primitive Jerusalem Oiurdi, what stronger testi-
mony could there be to the use in that churdi of the* tilie
^Xord" as applied to Jesus? Bousset avoids the dtfkiilty by
caUing attention to the fact that the Old Testament passsge
(Ps. ex. 1) is here quoted not according to the oxiguial but
according to the Septuagint translation. In the original He-
brew, says Bousset, there was a distinction between the word
"Lord" as applied to God and the word **Lord" as applied
to the other person who is referred to ; the Hebrew has, **Jahwe
said to my Lord (adoni)." Thus that second person, ac-
cording to the Hebrew, can be regarded as a human individual,
and all that is meant by the term ^^Lord" as used of him by
David is that lie stood higher than David. Bousset seems
to think that this explanation destroys the value of the passage
as a witness to the use in the Jerusalem Church of the TCligious
term "Lord" as applied to Jesus. But such is by no means
the case. For if the Messiah (Jesus) was higher than David,
so that David could call Him Lord, then Jesus must have oc-
cupied some very lofty position. If David could call Him
Lord, would the title be refused to Him by humble members
of the Jerusalem Church? On Bousset's interpretation the
passage may not directly attest the use of the title by the
Jerusalem Church, but it does seem to presuppose it. It may
also be questioned whether Bousset has succeeded in getting

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 897

rid of Mk. xi. 3, as a witness to the title Lord as applied to
Jesus in the Jerusalem Church.

But does the infrequency of the use of the title **Lord"
in the Gospels necessarily indicate that that title was not
prevalent in the primitive Jerusalem Church? It must be re-
membered that the title "Christ,'* which was of course applied
to Jesus by the Jerusalem Church, is also very infrequent in
the Gospels. Why should the infrequency in the Grospel use
of one title be regarded as an argiunent against the use of that
title in the Jerusalem Church, when in the case of the other
title no such argiunent can possibly be set up? Bousset is
ready with his answer. But the answer is entirely inadequate.
The title "Christ," Bousset says, was an eschatological title;
it referred to a dignity which in the belief of the Jerusalem
Church Jesus was not to attain imtil His coming in glory.
Therefore it could not readily be applied to Jesus in the ac-
counts of His earthly ministry. Hence in the case of that
title there was a special obstacle which hindered the intrusion
of the title into the Gospel tradition. But in the case of the
title "Lord," there was no such obstacle; therefore the non-
intrusion of that title into the Gospel tradition requires a
special explanation; and the only possible explanation is that
the title was not used in the Jerusalem Church.

It would be difficult to crowd into brief compass so many
highly debatable assertions as are crowded together in this
argument. Was the title **Christ" a purely eschatological
title? It is not a purely eschatological title in Paul. It is
not really a purely eschatological title anywhere in the New
Testament. At any rate, Bousset is here adopting a concep-
tion of the Messiahship of Jesus which is at best problematical
and is rejected by men of the most widely divergent points of
view. And did the title "Lord" designate Jesus especially as
the present Lord of the Church, rather than as the one who
was finally to usher in the Kingdom? Was Jesus in the belief
of the early Church the "coming" Christ any more than He
was the "coming" Lord; and was He the present Lord any
more than He was the present Christ? These questions cannot
be answered with absolute certainty. At any rate, even if
Bousset can point to a larger proportion of eschatological
interest in the one title than that which appears in the other^
yet such a distinction is relative only. And it still remains

S98 tOE OBIGIN OF PAUL'S MBSmiOS

true tliat if the iiif requency of the title ^'Christ'' m tiie Qtmpdi
does not indicate the non-eiistenGe of that titk in the Jerutaf-
lem Churchy the inf requency of the title ^Xord^ in the Goqpdi
is not any more significant.

With T^ard to the title ^Son of Man,^ Bonssrt b^aIks a
remark somewhat similar to that wUch he makes aboat the
title ••Oirist.'' The title •*Smi of Man,** he says, was escfaato-
logical ; therefore it coaU not be introduced mto the narraiife
part of tiie Gospeb. Bnt it will always remidn <me of the
paradoxes of Bousset's theory tliat according to Bowaet tiis
title **Son of Man," whidi (except in Acts tiL 06) appears
in the tradition only in the words of Jesus, and never as
the title used wh^i men spoke about Jesus, should be soi^posed
to have been the characteristic title used in speaking abort
Jesus in the Jerusalan Church. If the bdief of the Jenualem
Church about Jesus was so exdusiTely a Smi-^f-Man dogmai
as Bousset supposes it was, and if that church was so littk
concerned with historical fact, it seems somewhat strange tibat
the title, ^Son of Man,** has not been allowed, despite its
eschatological character, to intrude into the Gospd namitite^
Another hypothesis wiU always suggest itself — the hypotibesis
that Jesus really used the title, ^Son of Man,'' in a somewhat
mysterious way, in speaking about Himself, and that the mem-
ory of the fact that it was His own special designation of
Himself has been preserved in the curious limitation of the
use of the title in the New Testament. In that case, in view
of the accuracy thus established with regard to one title, the
testimony of the Gospels with regard to the other title, **Lord,"
cannot lightly be rejected.

But the evidence for the use of. the title "Lord'* in the
primitive Jerusalem Church is not contained merely in the
Gospels. Other evidence appears in the Pauline Epistles.

The most obvious fact is that Paul himself uses the term
as the characteristic title of Jesus. And it is equally evident
that he did not invent this usage. Evidently it was a continua-
tion of a usage which prevailed before he began his work.
So much is fully admitted by Bousset. But whence did Paul
derive the usage? Or rather, supposing that he began his
own use of the title at the moment of the conversion, in ac-
cordance with the representation in Acts ("Who art thou,
Lord?"), whence did he derive his assumption that the title

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 299

was already in use? The most obvious view is that he assumed
the title to be already known because it was in use in the early
Jerusalem Church. The matter-of-course way in which Paul
applies the title "Lord'* to Jesus has always, until recently,
been taken as indicating that the title had been prevalent from
the very beginning of the Church's life.

But at this point appears one of the most important fea-
tures of Bousset's theory. Paul derived the title "Lord,"
Bousset believes, from those who had been Christians before
him; but he derived it, not from the Jerusalem Church, but
from the Christian commimities in such cities as Antioch,
Tarsus, and perhaps Damascus. It is in these communities,
therefore, that the genesis of the title "Lord," as applied to
Jesus, is to be placed.

Attention has already been called to the difficulties which
beset this interposition of an extra link between Paul and the
Jerlisalem Church. It has been shown that what Paul "re-
ceived" he received not from the churches at Antioch and
Tarsus but from the original disciples at Jerusalem. But in
addition to the general considerations which connect the whole
of Paulinism with the Jerusalem tradition about Jesus, there
are certain special indications of a Jerusalem origin of the
title "Lord."

One such indication may be found, perhaps, in Gal. i. 19.
When, in connection with a visit to Jerusalem which occurred
three years after the conversion, Paul speaks of "James the
brother of the Lord," the natural inference is that "the brother
of the Lord" was a designation which was applied to James in
Jerusalem ; and if so, then the title "Lord" was current in the
Jerusalem Church.^ Of course, the inference is not abso-
lutely certain; Paul might have designated James as "the
brother of the Lord" because that was the designation of
James in the Galatian Churches and the designation which
Paul himself commonly used, even if it was not current in
Jerusalem. But the natural impression which the passage
will always make upon an unsophisticated reader is that Paul
is using a terminology which was already fixed among James'
associates at the time and place to which the narrative refers.
It should be observed that in speaking of Peter, Paul actually
uses the Aramaic form and not the Greek form of the name.
* Knowling, The Witness of the Epistles, 1892, p. 15.

I

800 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

The indications are that with regard to the leaders of the
, Jerusalem Church Paul is accustomed generally to follow the
Jerusalem usage. And the evidence of such a passage fti
Gal. i. 18, 19, where Jerusalem conditions are mentioned, is
doubly strong. The use in this passage of the title "brother
of the Lord" would indeed not be absolutely decisive if it stood
alone. But taken in connection with the other evidence, it
does point strongly to the prevalence in the early Jerusalem
Church of the title "Lord" as applied to Jesus.

More stress is usually laid upon the occurrence of "Mara-
Datha" in 1 Cor. svi. 22. "Maranatlia" is Aramaic, and it
means "Our Lord, come!" Why was the Aramaic word "Our
Lord" included, as a designation of Jesus, in a Greek letter?
The i^atural supposition is that it had been hallowed by its use
'D the Aramaic-speaking church at Jerusalem. Accordin^y
"t pushes the use of tlie title "Lord" back to the primitive
Christian community; tlie title cannot, therefore, be regarded
as a product of the Hellenistic churches in Antioch and Tarsus.

This argument has been met in various waj's. According
to Bohlig, the passage does attest the application of the
Aramaic title "Lord" to Jesus, but that application, Bohlig
believes, was made not in Palestine but in Syria, not in Jerusa-
lem but in Antioch. Syria, indeed, with Cilicia, was, Bohlig
insists, the special home of the designation "Lord" as applied
to the gods; the word "Baal," the common Semitic title of the
Syrian gods, means "Lord.'* And Bohlig also points to the
appearance of the title Mar along with Baal as a title of
divinity.'

But why was the Semitic title "retained in a Greek letter?
In answer to this question the bilingual condition of Syria
may be appealed to. But what particular sanctity could be .
attached to the Semitic usage of Syria; why should Paul fol-
low that usage in writing to a church that was situated, not in
the East, but in Greece proper? If, on the other band, the
title "Mar" had been hallowed by the use of the original dis-
ciples of JesuB, then the retention of the original word without
translation is perfectly natural.

Bousset now proposes another hypothesis.^ The phrase

■See BShlig, "Zuin Begrlff KjTios bei Puulus," tn ZnUekrift f*r 4U
N«ittM(am«»tlicA« WitMiachaft, xiv, 1913, pp. 33-3T.

■Bounet, J***» d*r Hirr, IBIS, pp. 99f. Compaie fjprfaw Chriito$,
1913, p. lOS.

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 801

"Maranatha," he says, probably had nothing to do with Jesus ;
it constitutes merely a formula of cursing like the "anathema**
which immediately precedes in 1 Cor. xvi. 22; the Maran (or
Marana) refers not to Jesus, but to God; the formula means,
"Our Lord (God) shall come and judge." But Bousset ad-
duces no real evidence in support of his explanation. No such
formula of cursing seems to have been found in Semitic sources.
And why should Paul introduce such a Semitic curse in writing
to Corinth? The latest hypothesis of Bousset is certainly a
desperate expedient.

"Marana" in 1 Cor. xvi. 22, therefore, certainly refers to
Jesus, and the strong presumption is that it was derived from
Palestine. The passage constitutes a real testimony to the
use of the title "Lord" as a designation of Jesus in the Pales-
tinian Church.

Possibly, moreover, this passage may also serve to fix the
original Aramaic form of the title. Bousset and certain other
scholars have been inclined to detect a linguistic difficulty in
the way of attributing the title "Lord" to the Aramaic-speak-
ing Church. The absolute "Mara," it is said, does not seem
to have been current in Aramaic; only "Mari" ("my Lord")
and "Maran" ("our Lord") seem to have been commonly
used. But it is just in the absolute form, "the Lord," that the
title appears most frequently in the Greek New Testament.
Therefore, it is concluded, this New Testament Greek usage
cannot go back to the usage of the Aramaic-speaking Church.
It will perhaps be unnecessary to enter upon the linguistic side
of this argimient. Various possibilities might be suggested for
examination to the students of Aramaic — among others, the
possibility that "Mari," "Maran," had come to be used abso-
lutely, like "Rabbi," "Rabban," the original meaning of the
possessive suffix having been obscured.^ But in general it
can probably be said that if persons of Aramaic speech had
desired to designate Jesus, absolutely, as "Lord" or "the
Lord," the language was presumably not so poor but that the
essential idea could have been expressed. And it is the essen-
tial idea, not the word, which is really important. The im-
portant thing is that the attitude toward Jesus which is ex-
pressed by the Greek word "Kyrios," was, unless all indica-
tions fail, also the attitude of the Jerusalem Church.

But may not the Greek title itself have originated in
* Compare Bousset, Kyrioi Chriitoi, 1913, p. 99» Anm. 8.

Jerusalem? This possibility has been neglected in recent dis-
cuBsions of the subject. But it is worthy of the most careful
considers tion. It should be remembered that Palestine id
the first century after Christ was a bilingual coutitry.' No
doubt Aramaic was In common use among the great body of
the people, and no doubt it was the language of Jesus' teach-
ing. But Greek wag also in use, and it is by no means beyond
the bounds of possibility that even Jesus spoke Greek when
occasion demanded. At any rate, the early Jerusalem Church
included a large body of Greek -speaking persons ; the "Hel-
lenists" are mentioned in Acts vi. 1 in a way to which high
historical importance is usually attributed. It is altogether
probable, therefore, that the terminology current in the Jerusa-
lem Church from the very beginning, or almost from the very
beginning, was Greek as well as Aramaic. From this Greek-
speaking part of the Church the original apostles could hardly
have held themselves aloof. Total ignorance of Greek on the
part of Galileans is improbable in view of what is known in
general about linguistic conditions in Palestine; and in the
capital, with its foreign connections, and its hosts of Hellen-
ists, the opportunity for the use of Greek would be enormously
increased. It is altogether improbable, therefore, that the
Greek terminology of the Hellenists resident in Jerusalon waa
formed without the approval of the original disciples of Jesus.
When the apostle Paul, therefore, assumes everywhere that the
term "Lord" as applied to Jesus was no peculiarity of his own,
but was familiar to all his readers, the phenomenon can be
best explained if not only the sense of the title, but also its
Greek form, was due to the mother Church. In other words,
the transition from Aramaic to Greek, as the language of the
disciples of Jesus, did not occur at Antioch or Tarsus, as
Bousset seems to think. In all probability it occurred at
Jerusalem, and occurred under the supervision of the imme-
diate friends of Jesus. It could not possibly, therefore, have
involved a transformation of the original faith.

But the linguistic considerations just adduced are only
supplementary. Even if the use of Greek in Jerusalem was
less important than has here been suggested, the state of the

■Zahn, EitUtUung in dot Nene Tettament, 3te Aufl,, i, 1906, pp. 34-39,
39-lT (English Translation, Introduction to tht JV«ic Ttttamtni, 2nd Ed,
1B17, i, pp. 34-46, 57-61).

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 808

case IS not essentially altered. Every attempt at separating
the religion of Paul sharply from the religion of the Jerusa-
lem Church has resulted in failure. Whatever mav have been
the linguistic facts, the divine Lord of the Epistles was also
the Lord of those who had been intimate friends of Jesus of
Nazareth.

Bousset of course rejects this conclusion. But he does
so on insufficient grounds. His theory, it may well be main-
tained, has already broken down at the most decisive point.
It is not really possible to interpose the Christianity of Antioch
and Tarsus between the Jerusalem Church and Paul; it is
not really possible to suppose that that Christianity of Antioch
was essentially different from the Jerusalem Christianity
which had given it birth; in particular it is not possible to
deny the use of the title "Lord," and the religious attitude
toward Jesus which the title represents, to the original friends
of Jesus. Examination ' of the further elements of Bousset^s
theory, therefore, can be undertaken only under protest. But
such examination is important. For it will confirm the un-
favorable impression which has already been received.

If, as Bousset says, the title "Lord," as a designation of
Jesus, originated not at Jerusalem but at Antioch, in what
way did it originate? It orginated, Bousset believes, in the
meetings of the Church, and it originated in dependence upon
the surrounding pagan cults. At Jerusalem, according to
Bousset, the piety of the disciples was purely eschatological ;
Jesus was awaited with eagerness. He was to come in glory,
but meanwhile He was absent. There was no thought of com-
munion with Him. At Antioch, however, a different attitude
began to be assumed. As the little community of disciples
was united for comfort and prayer and the reception of the
ecstatic gifts of the Spirit, it came to be felt that Jesus was
actually present; the wonderful experiences of the meetings
came to be attributed to Him. But if He was actually present
in the meetings of the Church, a new title was required to ex-
press what He meant to those who belonged to Him. And one
title lay ready to hand. It was the title "Lord." That title
was used by the pagans to designate their own false gods.
Surely no lower title could be used by the Christians to desig-
nate their Jesus. The title "Lord," moreover, was especially
a cult-title; it was used to designate those gods who presided

804 THE OBIOIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

especially over the wonbip, over the "cult," of the pagan re-
ligiom. But it was jost in the "cult," in the meetings of the
Church, that the neir attitude toward Jesus had arisen. The
experience of Jesua' presence, therefore, and the title which
would give expression to it, were naturally joined together.
In the rapture of a meeting of the group of worshipers, in
the midst of wonderful ecstatic experiences, some member of
the Church at Antioch or Tarsus, or perhaps many members
simultaneously, uttered the momentous words, **Lord Jesus."

Thus occurred, according to the theory of Bousset, the
most momaitoua evoit in tfae history of Christianity, one of
the most mommtous events in the whole religious history of
the race. Christianity ceased to be merely faitli in God like
the faith which Jesus had; it became faith in Jesna. Jama
was now no longer merely an example for faith ; He had be-
come the d}ject of faith. Tht prophet of Nasarc4:fa had be-
come an object of worship; the Messiah had given inij to tbe
"Lord." Jesus had taken a place which before had bcaa
assigned only to God.

This estimate of the event of course depends vpoa BooncA
critical conclusions about the New Testament fitoatofc lAnl
those conclusions are open to serious i^jectawu. ^w objec-
tions have already been considered so far as the title "Lord**
is concerned ; that title cannot really be denied to the original
disciples of Jesua. Equally serious are the objections against
what Bousset says about "faith in Jesus." A consideration
of these objections lies beyond the scope of the present dis-
cussion. The ground has been covered in masterly fashion
by James Donney, who has shown that even in the earliest
strata of the Gospel literature, as they are distinguished by
modem criticism of sources, Jesus appears not merdy as an
example for faith but as the object of faith — indeed, that
Jesus actually so presented Himself.* Christianity was
never a mere imitation of the faith which Jesus reposed in
God. But it is now necessary to return to the examination
of the Antioch Church.

The title "Lord," as applied to Jesus, Bousset believes,

originated in the meetings of the Antioch disciples — in what

may be called, for want of a better term, the "public worship"

of the Church. This assertion constitutes an important step

Detiney, J»nu and Ikt Ootpel, 1906.

THE LORDSfflP OF JESUS 806

in Bousset's reconstruction. But the evidence adduced in sup-
port of it is insufficient. The passages cited from the Pauline
Epistles show, indeed, that great importance was attributed
to the meetings of the Church; they show perhaps that the
custom of holding such meetings prevailed from the very
beginning. But they do not show that the whole of the Church's
devotion to Christ and the whole of Paul's religion were derived,
by way of development, from the cult. It is not necessary to
suppose either that the individual relation to Christ was de-
rived from the cult, or that the cult was derived from the
individual relation. There is also a third possibility — that
individual piety and the cult were both practised from the
very beginning side by side. At any rate, Bousset has vastly
underestimated the importance of the conversion as determining
the character of Paul's religious life. The Damascus experi-
ence lay at the very foundation of all of Paul's thinking and
all of his actions. Yet that experience had nothing to do with
the cult.

But even if, in accordance with Bousset's reconstruction,
the title *^Lord" was applied to Jesus under the influence of
the ecstatic conditions that prevailed in the meetings of the
Church, the origin of the title is not yet explained. How did
the Christians at Antioch come to think that their ecstatic
experiences were due to the fact that Jesus was presiding over
their meetings? And if they did come to think so, why did
they choose just the title "Lord" in order to express the dig-
nity that they desired to attribute to Him?

At this point, Bousset has recourse to a comparison with
the surrounding paganism. The term "Lord," he says, was
common in the Hellenistic age as a title of the cult-gods of
the various forms of worship. And the material which Bousset
has collected in proof of this assertion is entirely convincing.
Not only in the worship of the Emperors and other rulers, but
also in the Hellenized religions of the East, the title "Lord"
was well known as a designation of divinity. Indeed, Paul
himself refers plainly to the currency of the title. "For though
there be," he says, "that are called gods, whether in heaven
or on earth; as there are gods many, and lords many; yet to
us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we
unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all
things, and we through him" (1 Cor. viii. 5, 6). In this pas-

5 THE ORIGIN OF PAl'L'S RELIGION

sage, the "lords many" are of course heathen god§, and it u
clearly implied that the term "lord" was the title which wm
given tbem by their own worshipers. Boussct is entirely cor-
rect, therefore, when he says that the title "Lord," at Antioch,
at Tarsus, and everywhere in the Greco-Ronian world, was
clearly a title of divinity. Indeed, it may be added, the word
"lord" was no whit inferior in dignity to tlie term "god,"'
When the early Clirlstian missionaries, therefore, called Jesus
"Lord," it was pcrfictty plain to their pagan hearers evcry-
i^ere that tjiey meant to ascribe divinity to Hun And deaind
to worship Him.

Thus the cumnc; of the title in pagan rdigion waa of
great importance for the esriy Chiiatian nuBsioD. Bnt that
does not necessarily mean that the title was applied to Jc«u
in the first place because of the pagan usage, or that the
ascription of divine dignity to Jesns was first ventored uptm
because the Christians desired to place the one whom iAtey
revered in a position at least equal to that of the pagan cnli-
gods. It is these assertions which have not beoi proved, ht-
deed, they are improbable in the extreme. - They are nsidered
improbable, for example) by the sturdy monotheinaa of the
Christian communities. That monotheism was not at all im-
paired by the honor which was paid to Jesus; the Christian
communities were just as intolerant of other gods as had been
the ancient Hebrew prophets. This intolerance and exclusive-
ness of the early Church constitutes a stupendous difFerence
between the Christian "Jesus-cult" and the cults of the other
"Lords." The pagan cults were entirely tolerant; worship
of one Lord did not mean the relinquishment of another. But
to the Christians there was one Lord and one only. It is
very difficult to see how in an atmosphere of such monotheism
the influence of the pagan cults coidd have been allowed to
intrude. Any thought of the analogy which an application of
the title "Lord" to Jesus would set up between the meetings
of the Church at Antioch and the worship of the heathen gods
would have hindered, rather than have actually caused, the
use of the title. Evidently the title, and especially the divine
dignity of Jesus which the title expressed, were quite inde-
pendent of the pagan usage.

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 807

Certainly the mere fact that the Christians used a title
which was also used in the pagan cults does not establish any
dependence upon paganism. For the title **Lord"^ was
almost as well established as a designation of divinity as was
the term "God." ^ Whatever had been the origin of the
religious use of the word, that use had become a part of the
Greek language. A missionary who desired to proclaim the
one true God was obliged, if he spoke in Greek, to use the term
"God," which of course had been used in pagan religion. So
if he desired to designate Jesus as God, by some word which
at the same time would distinguish Him from God the Father,
he was obliged to use the word "Lord," though that word also
had been used in paganism. Neither in the one case nor in the
other did the use of a Greek word involve the slightest influ-
ence of the conceptions which had been attached to the word
in a polytheistic religion.

But there was a far stronger reason for the application
of the Greek term "Lord" to Jesus than that which was found
in its general currency among Greek-speaking peoples. The
religious use of the term was not limited to the pagan cults,
but appears also, and if anything even more firmly established,
in the Greek Old Testament. The word "Lord'* is used by the
Septuagint to translate the "Jahwe" of the Hebrew text.
It would be quite irrelevant to discuss the reasons which gov-
erned the translators in their choice of this particular word.
No doubt some word for "Lord" was required by the associa-
tions which had alceady clustered around the Hebrew word.*
And various reasons may be suggested for the choice of
"kyrios" rather than some other Greek word meaning
"lord." ^ Possibly the root meaning of "kyrios" better ex-
pressed the idea which was intended ; perhaps, also, a religious
meaning had already been attached to "kyrios," which the
other words did not possess. At any rate, whatever may have
been the reason, "kyrios" was the word which was chosen.
And the fact is of capital importance. For it was among the
readers of the Septuagint that Christianity first made its
way. The Septuagint was the Bible of the Jewish synagogues,
and in the s3magogues the reading of it was heard not only

* icbptos.

* Be&s,

* As, for example, 6ni%&€av

008

bj JcwB bttt alio by buta of Omtiles, the "God-fearers" of
the Book of AcU. It waa with the "God-fearers" that the
Gentile miuion began. And vrai where there were Gentile
converta who had not pawed at all through the school of the
lynagogae — in the Tery eariiest period perhaps such converts
w»e few^-reven then the Septuagint was at once used in their
uutructioD. Thus whai the Chriatian missionaries used the
word •'Lord" of JesoB, thar hearere knew at once what they
meant. They knew at once that Jesus occupied a place which
it occupied only by God. For the word '*Lord" is used count-
ha times in the Gred acziptnret as the holiest name of the
eorenant God of latad, and theae passages were applied freely
to Jenu.

Thia Septoagint nae of the term "Lord," with the appli-
cation of the Septoagint passages to Jesus, which appears
at a matter of eonrae in the Epistles of Paul, was of vastly
more importance for the early Christian mission than the use
of the term in the pagan cults. And it sheds vastly more
li^t upon the original aignificance of the term as applied to
Jeaoa. But the pagan naage is interesting, and the exhibition
of it by Bouaaet and others should be thankfully received. An
important fact haa been establislicd more and more firmly by
modem research — the fact that the Greek word "kyrios" in the
first century of our era was, wherever the Greek language
extended, distinctly a designation of divinity. The common
usage of the word indeed persisted; the word still expressed
the relation which a master sustained toward his slaves. But
the word had come to be a characteristically religious term,
and it is in the religious sense, especially as fixed by the Sep-
tuagint, that it appears in the New Testament.

Thus it is not in accordance with New Testament uaage
when Jesus is called, by certain persons in the modem Church,
"the Master," rather than "the Lord." Sometimes, perhaps,
. this usage is adopted in conscious protest against the New
Testament conception of the deity of Christ; Jesus is spoken
of as "the Master," in very much the way in which the leader
of a school of artists is spoken of as "the Master" by his fol-
lowers. Or else the word means merely the one whose com-
mands are to be obeyed. But sometimes the modem fashion
is adopted by devout men and women with the notion that the

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 809

English word ^^Lord" has been worn down and that the use
of the word "Master" is a closer approach to the mean-
ing of the Greek Testament. This notion is false. In trans-
lating the New Testament designation of Jesus, one should
not desire to get back to the original meaning of the word
"kyrios." For the Greek word had already undergone a de-
velopment, and as applied to Jesus in the New Testament it
was clearly a religious term. It had exactly the religious
associations which are now possessed by our English word
"Lord." And for very much the same reason. The religious
associations of the English word "Lord" are due to Bible
usage; and the religious associations of the New Testament
word "kyrios" were also due to Bible usage — the usage of the
Septuagint. The Christian, then, should remember that "a
little learning is a dangerous thing." The uniform substitu-
tion of "the Master" for "the Lord" in speaking of Jesus has
only a false appearance of freshness and originality. In reality
it sometimes means a departure from the spirit of the New
Testament usage.

Accordingly, Bousset has performed a service in setting
in clear relief the religious meaning of the word "Lord." But
he has not succeeded in explaining the application of that
word to Jesus.

Further difficulties, moreover, beset Bousset's theory. The
term "Lord" as applied to Jesus, and the religious attitude
toward Jesus expressed by the term, arose, according to Bous-
set, in the meetings of such communities as the one at Antioch,
and under the influence of pagan conceptions. But of course
Bousset's explanation of the origin of Paulinism has not yet
been completely set forth. Paulinism is something far more
than an ecstatic worship of a cult-god; the personal relation
to Christ dominates every department of the apostle's life.

Bousset recognizes this fact. The religion of Paul, he
admits, is something far more than the religion which was
expressed in the meetings of the Antioch Church. But he sup-
poses that the other elements of Paul's religion, far-reaching
as they are, had at least their starting-point in the cult. Here
is to be found one of the least plausible elements in the whole
construction. Bousset has underestimated the individualistic
character of Paul's religion. At least he has not succeeded

810 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

in filiowing that the Pauline life "in Christ" or "in the Lord"
was produced by development from ecstatic experiences in the
meetings of the Antioch Church,

But if the individuahstic religion of Paul was developed
from the "cult," how was it developed? How shall tlie intro-
duction of the new elements be explained? Bousset has at-
tacked this problem with great earnestness. And he tries to
show that the religion of Paul as it appears in the Epistles
was developed from tlic cult religion of Antioch by the identifi-
cation of "the Lord" with "the Spirit," and by the generalizing
and ethicizing of the conception of the Spirit's activity-

The Pauline doctrine of the Spirit, Bousset believes, was
derived from the pagan mystical religion of the Hellenistic
age. Quite aside from tlic matter of terminology — though the
contentions of Reitzenstein are thought by Bousset to be es-
sentially correct — the fundamental pessimistic dualism of Paul
was based, according to Bousset, upon that widespread type
of thought and life which appears in the mystery religions and
in the Hermetic writings. According to this pessimistic way
of thinking, salvation could never be attained by human na-
ture, even with divine aid, but only by an entirely new begin-
ning, produced by the substitution of the divine nature for the
old man. By the apostle Paul, Bousset continues, this super-
naturalism, this conception of the dominance of divine power
in the new life, was extended far beyond the limits of the cult
or of visionary experiences; the Spirit was made to be the
ruling principle of the Christian's life; not only prophecy,
tongues, healing, and the like, were now regarded as the fruit
of the Spirit, but also love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kind-
ness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. But this
Pauhne extension of the Spirit's activity, Bousset insists, did
not involve the slightest weakening of the supematuralism
which was characteristic of the original conception; the Spirit
that produced love, joy, peace, had just as little to do with
the human spirit as the Spirit that caused men to speak with
tongues. And the supematuralism which here appears in
glorified form was derived, Bousset concludes, from the mys-
tical pagan religion of the Hellenistic age.

This contention has already been discussed, and the weak-
ness of it has been pointed out. The Pauline doctrine of the
Spirit was not derived from contemporary paganism. But

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 811

the exposition of Bousset's theory has not yet been finished.
The Spirit whose activities were extended by Paul into the
innermost recesses of the Christian's life was identified, Bousset
says, with "the Lord'* (2 Cor. iii. 17). This identification
exerted an important influence upon both the elements that
were brought together ; it exerted an important influence upon
the conception both of "the Lord" and of "the Spirit.'' If
"the Lord" was identified, or brought into very close relation,
with the Spirit, and if the Spirit's activity extended into the
whole of life, then "the Lord" could no longer be for Paul
merely the cult-god who was present in the meetings of the
Church. On the contrary. He would have to be present every-
where where the Spirit was present — that is. He would have
to be that in which the Christian lived and moved and had his
being. Thus Paul could form the astonishing phrase '4n
Christ" or "in the Lord," for which Bousset admits that no
analogy is to be found in pagan religion. On the other hand,
the conception of the Spirit, Bousset believes, was necessarily
modified by its connection with "the Lord." By the identifi-
cation with an actual person who had lived but a few years
before, "the Spirit" was given a personal quality which other-
wise it did not possess. Or, to put the same thing in other
words, the Pauline phrase "in the Lord" is not exactly the
same in meaning as the phrase **in the Spirit" ; for it possesses
a peculiar personal character. "This remarkable mingling
of abstraction and personality," says Bousset, "this connec-
tion of a religious principle with a person who had walked here
on the earth and had here suffered death, is a phenomenon of
peculiar power and originality."

At this point, Bousset is in danger of being untrue to the
fundamental principles of his reconstruction; he is in danger
of bringing the religion of Paul into connection with the con-
crete person of Jesus. But he detects the danger and avoids
it. It must not be supposed, he says, that Paul had any very
clear impression of the characteristics of the historical Jesus.
For if he had had such an impression, he never could have con-
nected Jesus with an abstraction like the Spirit. All that
he was interested in, then, was the fact that Jesus had lived
and especially that He had died.

Yet these bare facts are thought to have been sufficient
to impart to Paul's notion of the Spirit-Lord that peculiar

813 THE ORIGlSr OF PAUL'S RELIGION

personal quality which arouses the admiration of Bousset!
The truth is, Bousset finds himself at this point face to face
rith the difficulty which besets every naturalistic explanation
of the genesis of Paul's religion. The trouble is that a close
connection of Paul with the historical Jesus is imperatively
required by the historian in order to impart to Paul's relation
to Christ that warm, personal quality which shines out from
every page of the Epistles ; whereas, on the other hand, a wide
separation of Paul from the historical Jesus is just as im-
peratively required in order that Paul might not be hampered
by historical tradition in raising Jesus to divine dignity and
in bringing Him into connection with the Spirit of God,

Modern criticism has wavered between the two require-
ments; it tries to preserve the rights of each. Bousset is more
impressed by the second requirement ; Wernle, his opponent, is
more impressed by the former.^ But both are equally wrong.
There is really only one way out of the difficulty. It is an
old way and a radical way. But the world of scholarship may
come back to it in the end. The fundamental difficulty in
explaining the origin of Paulinism will never disappear by
being ignored; it will never yield to compromises of any kind.
It will disappear only when Jesus is recognized as being reaUy
what Paul presupposes Him to be and what all the Gospels
represent Him as being — the eternal Son of God, come to earth
for the redemption of man, now seated once more on the throne
of His glory, and working in the hearts of His disciples through
His Spirit, as only God can work. Such a solution was never
so unpopular as it is to-day. Acceptance of it will involve
a Copemican revolution in many departments of human
thought and life. But refusal of such acceptance has left
an historical problem which so far has not been solved.

At one point, Bousset admits, the religion of Paul waa
based upon an historical fact. It was based upon the death
of Jesus. But the Pauline interpretation of the death of
Jesus was derived, Bousset believes, in important particulars
from contemporary pagan religion; the Pauline notion of
dying and rising with Christ was formed under the influence
of the widespread pagan conc^tion of the dying and rising
god. This assertion has become quite common among recent

' Wemle, "Jesus and Paulus. ADtitbeMn m BouMcts KttIob OuiBtaa,"
in Z»UiehHft fUr ThwiogU wnd KWeU, xxf, 191fi, pp. l-M.

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 818

scholars; material in support of it has been collected in con-
venient form by M. Briickner.^ But as a matter of fact, the
evidence in support of the assertion is of the feeblest kind.

The review of HeUenistic religion which was attempted
in Chapter VI revealed, indeed, the fact that certain gods,
especially Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, were represented first as
dying and then as being resuscitated. The similarity of these
figures to one another may perhaps be explained by the hypo-
thesis that all of them were originally vegetation gods, whose
death and resuscitation represented the withering of vegetation
in the autunm and its renewal in the spring. At first sight,
the parallel between these gods and Jesus may seem striking.
Jesus also was represented as dying and as coming back to
life again. But what is the significance of the parallel? Can
it mean that the entire New Testament story of the death
and resurrectioji of Jesus was derived from these vegetation
myths? Such has been the conclusion of certain modem
scholars. But of course this conclusion is absurd, and it is
not favored by Bousset. The essential historicity of the
crucifixion of Jesus under Pontius Pilate and of the rise of the
belief in His resurrection among His intimate friends stands
too firm to be shaken by any theory of dependence upon pagan
myth. Thus the argiunent drawn from the parallel between
the New Testament story and the pagan myth of the dying
and rising god proves too much. If it proves anything, it
proves that the New Testament story of the resurrection was
derived from the pagan myth. But such a view has not been
held by any serious historians. Therefore it will have to be
admitted that the parallel between the belief that Adonis and
Osiris and Attis died and rose again, and the belief that Jesus
died and rose again was not produced by dependence of one
story upon the other. It will have to be recognized, therefore,
that a parallel does not always mean a relationship of de-
pendence. And if it does not do so at one point, perhaps it
does not do so at others.

But Bousset will insist that although the New Testament
story of the death and resurrection of Jesus was not originally
produced by the pagan myth, yet the influence of the pagan
conception made itself felt in the interpretation which Paul
placed upon the story. Paul believed that the Christian shared
^Der iterbende und aufentehende Oottheikmd, 1908.

814 THE ORIGIN OF PAULn9i BEU6I0N

the fate of Christ— died with CSiiist and roee with QxAL
Bttt a Bimilar eoncepticm appears in the pagan rdi|pims. The
classical expression of this kfea appears in the 0ft-qii|it«|l
words reported by Firmieus Matemiis» ''Be of good courage
ye initiates, since the god is saTed; for to vs there shall be
salvation out of troubles.''

But it must be remembered that the testimony of Knucns
Matemus is very late, and that the evidence f ojr the pRvafenee
of the conception in tibe early period is somewhikt scanty. l!|ie
confident assertions of recent writers with regard to ibiaie
matters are nothing diort of astonishing. Lay readets are
Ukdy to receve the impression that the investigator .can »-
construct the conception of a dying and rinng god» and of
the share wfaidi the worshipers have in the death and lesor-
rection, on the basis of smne vast store of information in ^m
extant sources. As a matter of fact, nothing of tiie sort Is
the case. The extant information about the conception in
question is scanty in the extreme, and for the most purt dates
from long after the time of Paul.

It would be going too far, indeed, to amert tiiat the con-
ception of the dying and rising god, with its rfiigioiis sir
nificance, was not in existence before the Pauline pmod. An
ancient Egyptian text, for example, has been quoted by Er-
man, which makes the welfare of the worshiper depend upon
that of Osiris : "Even as Osiris lives, he also shall live.** *
Very likely some such conceptions were connected also with the
mourning and subsequent rejoicing for Attis and Adonis. But
if the conception was existent in the pre-Pauline period, it by
no means follows that it was common. Certainly its prevalence
has been enormously exaggerated in recent years. Against
such exaggerations, J. Weiss — ^who surely cannot be accused
of any lack of sympathy with the methods of comparative re-
ligion as applied to the New Testament — ^has pertinently
called attention to 1 Cor. i. 28. Christ crucified, Paul says,
was "to the Gentiles foolishness.'* ^ That does not look
as though the Gentiles among whom Paul labored were very

^ Erman, "A Handbook of Egyptian Religion" (published in the original
German edition as a handbook, by the OeneralvenDaltung of the Berlin
Imperial Museum), 1907, p. 95.

*J. Weiss, "Das Problem der Entstehung des Christentums," in Arekh
far ReUgionswistemchaft, xvi, 1913, p, 490,

THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS 816

familiar with the notion of a dying god. If the contentions
of Bruckner were correct, if the conception of the dying god
were as common in Paul's day as Bruckner supposes, the Cross
would not have been "to the Gentiles foolishness"; on the con-
trary, it would have seemed to the Gentiles to be the most
natural thing in the world.

But even if the early prevalence of the conception of a
dying and rising god, with its religious significance, were better
established than it is, the dependence of Paul upon that con-
ception would by no means be proved. For the Pauline con-
ception is totally different. One difference, of course, is per-
fectly obvious and is indeed generally recognized — the Paiiline
Christ is represented as dying voluntarily, and dying for the
sake of men. He "loved me," says Paul, "and gave himself for
me.'* There is absolutely nothing like that conception in the
case of the pagan religions. Osiris, Adonis, and Attis were
overtaken by their fate; Jesus gave His life freely away. The
difference is stupendous; it involves the very heart of the re-
ligion of Paul. How was the difference caused? Whence was
derived the Pauline conception of the grace of Christ? Was it
derived from Jesus Himself? Was it derived from the knowl-
edge which Paul had of the character of Jesus? The supposi-
tion might seem to be natural. But unfortunately, from the
point of view of Bousset, it must be rejected. For if Paul had
had any knowledge of Jesus' real character, how could he ever
have supposed that Jesus, a mere man, was the heavenly Lord?

Another difference is even more fundamental. The death
and resurrection of the pagan gods was a matter of the cult;
the death and resurrection of the Pauline Christ was a fact
of history. It has been observed in the review of Hellenistic
religion that the cults in the pagan religions were much more
firmly fixed than the myths ; in the opinion of modem scholars,
the myths were derived from the cults rather than vice versa.
So in the case of the "dying and rising gods," one is struck
above all things with the totally fluid character of the myths.
The story of Attis, for example, is told in many divergent
forms, and there does not seem to have been the slightest
interest among the Attis worshipers for the establishment
of any authentic account of the death and resurrection of
the god. Particularly the "resurrection" of the god appears
in the myths of Attis, Adonis, and Osiris scarcely at all. The

816 THE ORIGIN OF PAUL'S RELIGION

real death and resurrection occurred only in the cult. Every
Jear in March, the A ttis -worshipers at Rome first saw tJie
god lying dead as he was represented by the fir-tree, and then
j-ejoiced in his resurrection. The death and resurrection were
hardly conceived of as events which had happened once for
bll long ago. They were rather thought of as happening at
Vfvrj cdcbntion of tlw f otind.

Hie Paaline treatmoit of Um death ukl mometiiMi af
CSiritt is entirdy diffcMnt. By Bmuwt, indeed^ the di ffew ei
it partly obscorcd; Bonwet triet to show that th» Pb^hw
oimception of the dying and rising of the bdiever witik Ouiit
was derived from the cdebratioo of the -saowBicnts. Bat
there could be no more radical error. What ia pl>i»aafr of-aB
in the Epstlei is the historieal ^Mracter of the pMiliiia turn .
sage, 'thit rdigion of Paul was rooted ia an evoat* and tiw
•acram^its were one way of setting forth the al^^flaiMt of
the event. The evait was the r ole mpti v e work of GSuist ia
His death and resurrection.

Here lies the profoundest of all differenoea betwen Paal
and contonporary rdigion. Panlinina was not a jAjleeiqihy;
it was not a set of directions for escape from the nSmwf nf
the world; it was not an account of what had ahraya been tme^
On the contrary, it wai an account of something that had
happened. The thing that had happened, moreover, was not
hidden in the dim and distant past. The account of it was
not evolved as a justification for existing religious forma.
On the contrary, the death and resurrection of Jesus, upon
which Paul's gospel was based, had happened only a few years
before. And the facts could be established by adequate testi-
mony; the eyewitnesses could be questioned, and Paul appeals
to the eyewitnesses in detail. The single passage, 1 Cor. iv, 1-8,
is sufficient to place a stupendous gulf between the Pauline
Christ and the pagan saviour-gods. But the character of
Faulinism does not depend upon one passage. £verywhere
in the Epistles Paul stakes all his life upon the truth of what
he says about the death and resurrectioD of Jesus, The
gospel which Paul preached was an account of something that
had happened. If the account was true, the ori^n of Paulin*
ism is explained; if it was not true, the Church is based upon
an inexplicable error.

This latter alternative has been examined in the preceding

THE LORDSfflP OF JESUS 817

discussion. If Jesus was not the divine Redeemer that Paul
says He was, how did the Pauline religion of redemption arise?
Three great hypotheses have been examined and have been
found wanting. Paulinism, it has been shown, was not based
upon the Jesus of modem naturalism ; if Jesus was only what
He is represented by modem naturalistic historians as being,
then what is really distinctive of Paul was not derived from
Jesus. The establishment of that fact has been a notable
achievement of Wrede and Bousset. But if what is essential
in Paulinism was not derived from Jesus, whence was it de-
rived? It was not derived, as Wrede believed, from the pre-
Christian apocalyptic notions of the Messiah; for the apoca-
lyptic Messiah was not an object of worship, and not a living
person to be loved. It was not derived from pagan religion,
in accordance with the brilliant hypothesis of Bousset; for
pagan influence is excluded by the self-testimony of Paul, and
the pagan parallels utterly break down. But even if the paral-
lels were ten times closer than they are, the heart of the prob-
lem would not even have been touched. The heart of the prob-
lem is found in the Pauline relation to Christ. That relation
cannot be described by mere enumeration of details ; it cannot
be reduced to lower terms ; it is an absolutely simple and indi-^
visible thing. The relation of Paul to Christ is a relation
of love ; and love exists only between persons. It is not a group
of ideas that is to be explained, if Paulinism is to be accounted
for, but the love of Paul for his Saviour. And that love is
rooted, not in what Christ had said, but in what Christ had
done. He "loved me and gave Himself for me." There lies
the basis of the religion of Paul; there lies the basis of all of
Christianity. That basis is confirmed by the account of
Jesus which is given in the Gospels, and given, indeed, in all
the sources. It is opposed only by modern reconstructions.
And those reconstructions are all breaking down. The religion
of Paul was not founded upon a complex of ideas derived from
. Judaism or from paganism. It was founded upon the his-
torical Jesus. But the historical Jesus upon whom it was
founded was not the Jesus of modem reconstruction, but the
Jesus of the whole New Testament and of Christian faith ; not
a teacher who survived only in the memory of His disciples,
but the Saviour who after His redeeming work was done still
lived and could still be loved.

INDEX

I NAMES AND SUBJECTS

Acts, Book of, 39-40, should be al-
lowed to help in interpreting the
Pauline Epistles, 195

Adonis, 314f., religion of, 934f.

Adoptionist Christology, not found
in PauUne Epistles, 118

Agabus, 33f., 78

Agrae, mysteries of, 917

Alexander the Great, 990

Alexandria, Church at, 16

Ananias (in Acts), 71

Ananias (in Josephus), 19

Andronicus and Junias, 140f.

Anrich, 919

Antioch, 99f., 77fF., 199fF.: Apostolic
Decree addressed to, 94fF.; Peter
at, 97-106; Church at, 16

Antioch, pre-Pauline Christianity of:
not channel by which pagan re-
ligion influenced Paul, 957 ff.; how
investigated, 957-959; not essen-
tially oifFerent from that of Je-
rusalem, 959f.; did it originate
appUcation of term "Lord" to
Jesus, 999, 303-307

Apocalypses, Jewish, not used by
Paul, 199f.

Apocrypha, Old Testament, 189f .

Apollos, 109

Apostles, the original: attitude to-
ward Paul at t& Apostolic Coun-
cil, 86f.; relation with Paul, 190-
137; observed Mosaic Law, 196-
198; were inwardly free from
Law, 197 f.; agreed with Paul
about the person of Christ, 135-
137; contact with Paul, 139

Apostolic Council, the, 39, 80-100

Apostolic Decree, the, 87-98, 110:
was accompanied by Judas and
Silas, 140

Apostolic Fathers, the, 6

Apuleius, 999f., 933f., 941

Arabia, Paul's journey to, 71-74

Aretas, 74

"Asclepius," the, 949

Atargatis, 935

Athenodorus, 45

Athletic games, use of figures re-
garding the, by Paul, 960

Attis, 314-316: religion of, 997-931;
mysteries of, 983

Baals, the Syrian, 935

Bacchanalian rites in Italy, 950

Bacon, B. W., 91, 139, 181, 197

Baldensperger, 178, 199, 904

Baptism, in pagan religion, 980f.

Baptism for the dead, 988

Barnabas, 16, 78ff., 83f., 99: was car-
ried away with Peter at Antioch,
109; dispute with Paul, 105-107;
relations with Paul, 106f.; was
member of Jerusalem Church,
137f.; contact with Paul, 137f.

Barnabas, Epistle of, 18

Baruch, Second Book of, 180, 191

Baur, F. C, 6, 31, 37, 85, 105, 107,
119ff., 194f., 198f.

Beecher, 189

Bengel, 103

Beyschlag, 60, 63, 65

Bible, introduction of the, into Indo-
European civilization, 90

Blass, 90

Bohlig, 45, 141, 300

Bousset, W., 98-30. 47, 49, 59, 67, 79,
78, 156, 161, 179-199, 904-907, 944,
957-969, 967f., 970, 974, 978, 993-
317

Brttckner, 97, 185, 191, 194ff., 905f.,
911, 934, 313, 315

Buddhism, early, 974

Burton, E. D., 967f., 971

By bios, 931, 934f.

Charles, 180, 186, 188, 190

"Christ," the term, 997f.

Christianity, origin of: importance
of the question, 3f.; two ways of
investigating, 4f.; testimony of
Paul to, 4f.

310

"ChrSUans," first sppUcatlon of the

name, 78
Chrislolo^. the Pauliiwi not derived

from pre-Christifln Jewish doc-

trine of the Messiah, ITS-SOT; not
I derived from pre-Christian Jewish

doctrine of Wii,d<)m, 1S9-301; not
derived from pagan religlDU, £93-
S17

Christ-party, tlte, at Corinth, 190
Circuiaciaioo, 17
Clemen, 909

Clement of Alcitandria, 330, »81
Clement of Rome, 103
Colossie, erroristB in, 199f.
Cobssiuns, Epistle tu the, 31, 101
Corlnthlaji Chareh, parties in the,

107-109
Coriiilhians, Epistles to the, 31
Cornelius, 16, 19,83
Cross of Christ, the, 19, 63f.
Cuit, Bousset's exaggemtion of the

importance of the, 303fr.
Cumont. ai9, ana., 239, 938, 243f.,

947, 991 f.
Cybcle, reli^on of, 8, 997-331
Cybetc and Attls, mysteries of, 399-

931
Cynics, the, 935

Dalman, 1B7

Damascus, Tlff^ 76: preaching of
Paul at, 79f,; escape of Paul froni,
74

Damascus, pre-Pauline Christianity
of: how investigated, 95T-959; not
diannel by which pagan religion
influenced Paul, 25Tff.; not es-
sentially different from that of
Jerusalem, 9S9f.; did it originate
application of tlie term "Lord" to
Jesus. 999

Date, question of, with reference to
pagan ideas and practices, 33T-41

Death of Christ, the, was voluntary,
315

Death and resurrection of Jesus: his-
toricity of, 3I2f.; not derived from
the cult, 31S{.

Deutli and resurrection of pagan
gods, the myths concern inj^,
thought to have been derived from
the cults, 3ISf.

Deification: in pagan religion, 945,
963; not found in Paul, 963-26S

Demeler, 91Tf.

Denney, James, l&A, 304

DIeterich, S46f., 9S1

Dionysus, 9ISf., rcUpon of, 989f.

Dispersion, Judaism of the: wag it

■'liberal," ITS-177; did not prwlucc

Gentile mission of Paul, 1757.
Drews. 994
Dualism of Hellenistic age, different

from PauUniam, 978
Dying and rising god, the, 911, 23*f.,

237, 319-318

Eblonltes, the, ISfif.

Ecclesiasticus, 900

Eleusis, mysteries of, 217-219, 961

Emnict, 81, ITG, 180

Emperors, worsiiip of the, 221

Enoch, p'irst Book of, 181, 184, 186-

189, 193, I98f., 903
Epicureans, the, 92fi
Ephesians, EpisUe to the. SI. 104
Enuan, 314

Eschatology, consistent. 156f.
EsseneSi 1T7
Ethics, same teaching about. In

Jesus and in Paul, I64f.
Euscbius. 139
Ezra. Fourth Book of, ITG. 180, 187,

I89f., 196

Faith in Jesus, did not originate b1

Antioch, 303ir.
"Famine visit." historicity of the,

84-88
Famell, 912, 31T
Fatherhood of God, same teaching

about, in Jesus and in Paul, 161-

184
Firmlcus Mnlemus, 929, 937, 941,

9S1, 281, 314
'•Flesli," Pauline use of the tenn:

Future life, interest in the, stimulat-
ed by worship (if Dionysus and liy

Orphism, ai6f.

Galatians, Epistle to the: genuIiK-
ness, 31 ; addressees, SI ; date,
Slff.; must be interpreted in the
lisbt of I Cor. XV. 1-11, lUf.

Gamaliel, 17, 59

Gautama, 274

Gentile Christianity: in what scjise
founded by Paul, T-91; in what
sense founded by Jesus, 13-15;
part in the founding of, taken by
missionaries Other tEan Paul, I5f.

INDEX

821

Gentiles, reception of, according to
the Old Testament, 17

Gischala, 44

Gnosis, 263'965: idea of, in Paul,
263-265; not a technical term in
Paul, 963

Gnosticism, 247-251, 268f.i pagan
basis of, 247; can it be used as a
witness to pre-Christian paganism,
247-250; Christian elements in,
249f.; use in, of terms **Spirit"
and **spiritual" due to dependence
on the New Testament, 268f .

"God," the term, 306f.

Golden Rule, negative form of the,
88f.

Gospel, the Pauline, was a matter of
history, 264f.

Gospels, the: contain an account of
Jesus like that presupposed in the
Pauline Epistles, 153f.; were they
influenced by Paul, 154f., 159

Grace, doctrine of, both in Jesus and
in Paul, 164

Grace of Crod according to Paul, 279

Greece, religion of: influenced Rome,
212f.; moral defects of, 214; was
anthropomorphic polytheism, 214
f.; was connected with the state,
214f.; mystical elements in, 215ff.;
was undermined by philosophy, by
the fall of the city-state, and by
the influence of the eastern re-
ligions, 219f.

Greek lan^age: in Palestine, 53,
302; Pai3*s use of, 44, 46, 53

Gressmann, 181

Hadad, 235

Hamack, A. von, et.^ 26, 33-36, 98,
119, 263, 273

"Hebrew,** meaning of the word, 46

Heinrici, 265

HeitmiiUer, 47, 49, 52, 76-78, 157,
243f., 257-261, 265, 282f.

Helbig, 46

"Hellenist," meaning of the word,
46

Hellenistic age, the: cosmopolitanism
in, 220; individualism in, 221; re-
ligious propaganda in, 221 f.; syn-
cretism in, 222f.; longing for re-
demption in, 223f.

Hellenists, the, 302

Hepding, 227-231, 283

Hennas, Shepherd of, 242

Hermes Trismegistus, 242-245, 248f^
261f., 265-267, 285: was it influ-

enced by ChrlstianilT, 949f^ 947f.;
importance of, 248r.; places soul
hi^er than spirit, 248f.; tennin*
ology different from Paul's, 265-
270

Hermetic Corpus, 242-245, 277

Herod Agrippa I, death of, 79

HUgenfem, 90

Hippolytus, 218, 249f.

Holstein, 63-65, 76

Holtzmann, H. J., 22

Homer, 213f.

"Illumination," the term, 273
Initiated, to be, use of the verb by

Paul, 271 f.
Irenseus, 89
Isis, religion of, 8f.
Isis, mysteries of, 232ff^ had sacrar

mental washings according to

Tertullian, 281
Isis and Osiris, religion of, 231-234
Isates of Adiabene, 12

James, 94, 98: contact of with Paul,
75, 109-113, 137; men who came
from, 101; attitude of, toward
Paul, inf.; attitude of Paul to-
ward, 120ff.; called 'the brother of
tiie Lord," 299f.

Jerusalem Church, the, 293-303: at-
titude of, toward the Law, 19; re-
lief of the poor of, 99f., 104, 112f.;
new principle of the life of, 127;
community of goods in, 138; con-
tact of, with Paul, 139; treasured
tradition about Jesus, 139; direct
influence of, upon Paul, 258f.; use
of the term "Lord" by, 294-303

Jesus Christ: historici^ of, 5; in
what sense founder of the Gentile
mission, 13-15; Pauline conception
of, S2; deification of, according to
modern liberalism, 22-24; Mes-
siahship of, according to the lib-
eral hypothesis, 25; consciousness
of sonship, according to the liberal
hypothesis, 25; importance of, in
the liberal explanation of the ori-
gin of Paulinism, 25; Messiahship
of, according to Bousset, 29;
Lordship of, according to Bous-
set, 29f.; divinity of, disputed by
no one in the Apostolic Age, 129-
137; knowledge of, according to
Paul, 142-144; words of, in Paul-
ine Episties, 147-149; details of the

INDEX

UU oft known to Fral» 14»f,t
duurocter of, mpmeM^d by Panl,
150f.} eompmon of» wMi PmL
1<8*1<0} praented Hfamdlf as
Mcsriab, U5-U8; penKNMl ofln-
ttf of, with Pan], ieS| r^purded bjr
Paol as a Rodeemer, not as a nmo
teadier, 107-lM
Jesos Christ, tlio liberal aeeoont of s

155; involves psydMdogleal eontia^
diction, 155-1M{ cannot ei|ilafai tiie
ori|rin of tlie beiSef in tiis dlfine
Redeemer, IMf.

'Joim, 08, ifODit to Bphcsns, 196

JTones, Maurice, SI

Josephns, 79, 177, 18S

JTndiM, C3karelics of, 50-39, 75f .

Judaism t missionary activity of, 9-
11; prepared for PauHne mlsrion,
lOf.i md not produce OnMian
universalism, ll-lS; liad no doe-
trine of tlie vicarious death of tlie
Messiah, 9ft, 199ir.| divislfms with-
in, 175-177; did not serve as
medium for pagan Influence upon
Paul, 955f .

Judaism, rabUntcal, 179

Judas, 140

Judaiaeis, llie^ 19, 89, 99^ 191, 19ftf ^
198, ISl, 185, 978t activHy of, sub-
sided during the third imssionary
journey, 10^ 107; did not dispute
Paul's doctrine of the person of
Christ, 129-137

Judgment, teaching about, both in
Jesus and in Paul, 164

Justification, Pauline idea of: can
find no analogy in Hermes Trisme-
gistus, 377; importance of, in
PauPs thinking, 977-279; not pro-
duced merely as weapon against
the Judaisers, 278f.; intimately
connected with the doctrine of the
new creation, 279

Justin Martyr, 185, 196, 236, 273,
281

Juvenal, 227

Kabeiri, the, 219

Kennedy, H. A. A., 118, 233, 262,

281
Kingdom of God, same teaching

alS^ut, in Jesus and in Paul,

leof.

KnowUng, 104, 109, 147, 299
Koin6, the, 220

KrauDd, 44f iM 99

Ki^l^^94^M5
i^rlbOon, lli^ 91% 9ffil

Laborers in tlie vliMm>d» psMUs Off
the^ 194

Lake, KiraowL lif^Slf, 91^ 98

Lake and JacksiDii, 189

Law, tiie ceieaMda], attHuiii of
Jesus toward, 14f •

Law, the Mosalct fmiMim of, i6-
cording to Paul, 18{ altltade'of
tibe eailf Jerusalcai Cbnell ti&
ward, 19$ obsefvaiioe 9§^-^ff Jowitt
Christians, 99f^ 10lf.| Mwkh
Christians asalons fnt^ 118| vidil
tob bjr tlie Jew^ 178; Fninr ^mUf
seal for, 999

L^pdton, Jewld^ lW*m

]f tfHg|f ft| BBfthod of .^

tioQS of dcpeadenei^ 999
LNieralism, was not tiio aMted ^

Paul in founding QtMS^OsM^

unify, IT
Lft«ral JMalm, was ndt tbo ai-

nKMrtphere of Paol^ boytiood iMMn%

Lletmam^ 197
Ui^itfbot, Jr. B., 47, 119

Lipsius, i9

Livy, 250

Ix)isv, 47, 76, 229, Stei

Lord, the, connected by Paul with
the Spirit, Sllff.

"Lord," the term: applied by Paul
to the Jesus who was on earth,
117f.; use of, in primitive Jeru-
salem Church, 294-303; occurrence
of, in the Gospels, 295-,298; the
Aramaic basis of, 301, received
Greek form in Jerusalem, 301 f.;
not for the first time applied to
Jesus at Antioch, 303ff.; use of,
in pagan religion, 305 f.; use of, in
the Septuagint, 307f.

Lord's Supper, the: account of insti-
tution of, 148f., 151f.; was thought
by Justin Martyr to be imitated
in religion of Mithras, 236; com-
parison of, with pagan rites, 281-
283; not dependent upon pagan
notion of eating the god, 282f.

Lucian, 225, 234f^ 241

Luke, 36f.

Lycaonia, Apostolic Decree extended
into, 94

INDEX

823

Maccabees, Fourth Book of, 196

Magic: aflfinlty of, for the mysteries,
246; difference of, from religion,
246

Magical papyri, the, 946f.

"Mar," the term, SOOf.

Maranatha, SOOf.

Marcion, 18

Marcus Aurelius, 296

Mark, John, 105, 106, 107, relations
of, with Paul and with Peter, 138f.

Marriage, the sacred, 230

"Master,** Uie term, applied to Jesus,
308

Mead, 244

Meals, sacred, in the mystery re-
ligions, 281-283

Menander, 271

M6nard, 244

Messiah, the: doctrines of, in Old
Testament, 181 f.; doctrine of, in
Judaism, 182ff.; Old Testament
basis for later doctrine of, 191;

E re-Christian doctrine of, exalted
y identification with Jesus, 204

Messiah, the apocalyptic: was dif-
ferent from the Pauline Christ,
194-199; had no part in creation,
194; ha[d no intimate relation to
the believer, 194-197; was not di-
vine, 197-199; what could have led
to his identification with Jesus,
205f.

"Mind," the term, in Hermes Tris-
meffistus, 267f., not produced by
philosophical modification of the
term "Spirit"

Mind, not the same thing as Spirit in
1 Cor. ii. 15, 16, 269

Miracles: objection drawn from ac-
counts of, against Lucan author-
ship of Acts, 33-37; cannot be
separated from the Gospel account
of Jesus, 154f.

Mithras, mysteries of, 236, 256: had
sacramental washings according to
Tertullian, 281; bread and cup in,
281 f.

Mithras, religion of, 8f., 235-237

Mithras-liturgy, the so-called, 247,
251, 267

Mnason, 112

Mommsen, 46f.

Montefiore, 176f.

Morsan, W., 118, 164

MouTton and Milligan, 281

Murray, Gilbert, 223

"Mystery," the term, in Paul, 272f.

Mystery religions, the, 227fF: did
not produce Gentile Christianity,
8f.; were tolerant of other faiths,
9; information about, in a Naas-
sene writing, 249f.; technical vo-
cabulary of, 262ff.; idea of gnosis
in, 262-266; not the source of
Paul's doctrine of the Spirit, 270;
probably had not dominated many
converts of Paul, 273; produced
no strong consciousness of sin,
276; did not produce the Pauline
teaching about the sacraments,
279-290

Mysticism, pagan, 239ff.

Naassenes, sect of the, 249f.
Neutral text, the, 87ff.

Oepke, 264f ., 273

Old Catholic Church, 6, 119f.: found-
ed on unity between Peter and
Paul, 104f.

Olschewski, 194

Oraciila Chaldaica, the, 245f.

Orphism, 216f.

Osiris, 229, 231 ff., 314f.

Pagan religion: through what chan-
nels could it have influenced Paul,
255-261 ; did it influence Paul di-
rectly, 260f.

Papias, 139

Parthey, 244.

Particularism, in the Old Testament,
17

Pastoral Epistles, the, 31 f.

Paul: testimony of, as to origin of
Christianity, 4f.; influence of, 6-
21; geographical extent of the la-
bors of, 16f.; importance of the
theolo^ of, in foundation of Gen-
tile mission, 17-20; in what ways
a witness about the origin of
Christianity, 21 ; the genius of, not
incompatible with the truth of bus
witnessing, 21; monotheism of, 23;
sources of information about, 31-
40; birth of, at Tarsus, 43f.; Ro-
man citizenship of, 45 f.; Pharisa-
ism of, 46f.; was not a liberal Jew,
47, 175fF.; was in Jerusalem be-
fore conversion, 47-53; rabbinical
training of, 52f.; did he see Jesus
before the conversion, 54-57; knew
about Jesus before the conversion,
57f., 66f.; conversion of, 58-68,

IU-14T, S05, SOA; malady of, S8f..
did he hnve the consciousness of
sin before his conversion, 64-fi6i
the conversion of, involved meet-
ing with n person, fiTf. ; baptism
of, 71 ! at Damascus. Tiff.; went

Arabia, 71-74; escaped from
Damascus, 74; rebuked Peter, 97,
lOS; division of labor with Peter,
99f.t first visit of, to Jerusalem,
74-77; In Syria and Cilida, 77; at
Antioch, Tb; famine visit of, tu
Jerusalem, 7Bff. ; agreed with
Peter in principle, 1(H, l?3f.; rela-
Uona of, with Peter, 103-105, 137;
dispute of, with Barnabas, 105-
107; rdatioofl of, with Barnabas,
loer., ISTf.i relaUoQS of. with
James, 109-113; participation of.
In B Jewish vow, llOf.; has been
regarded by the Church as a dis-
ciple of Jesus, 117; regarded him-
self as a disciple of Jesus, ItTf.;
was regarded as a disciple of
Jesus by Jesus' friends, 118-I3T;
attitude of, toward Peter, I^ff.;
attitude of, toward James, l^ff.;
rebuked Peter, 1^-134; had
abundant sources of information
obout Jesus, 137-143; relations of,
with Marit, 138f.i contact of, with
the original apostles and with the
Jerusalem Church, 139; contact of,
with Silas, 140; the gospel of, In
what sense did lie receive it direct-
ly from Christ, 145-I4T; meaning
of the conversion of, for him, 14S-
147; shows knowledge of words of
JesuB, 147-149; shows knowledge
of details of Jesus' life, ]49f.;
shows appreciation of Jesus' char-
acter, ISOf. i knew more about
Jesus than he has told in the
Epistles, 111-153; comparison of,
with Jesus, 153-169; personal af-
finity of, with Jesus, 165; was not
a disciple of "the liberal Jesus,"
166-169; his pre-con vers ion belief
atmut the Messiah, 193-194; was
not dependent upon the .Jewish
apocalypses, 199f.; personal rela-
tion of, to Christ, was not derived
from mere reflection on the death
of the Messiah, 194-197; similarity
of, to Jesus, not explained by com-
mon dependence on Judaism, 30(ij
the gospel of, was a matter of his-
tory, S64f.; how far did be use a

terlM, 9TI-97S
PullDe EpMlcK, Ite g

31 f.

I'nuliiiisnii required exclusive devo-
tion, 9; was a religion of redemp-
tion. i2, 167-169; doctrine of the
person of Christ in, was not dis-
puted eveo by Jndtdiera, 139-
131; was supematurnlislic, jSSf.;
was not external, 989f.; was In-
dividualistic, 309ff.; was not de-
veloped from the cult, 3097.; was
personal, 31 If., 317; was Mstori-
csl, 318

Paulinisu, the origin ofj four wi^
of explaining, 34ff. ; suftematuru-
istic explanation of, H; liberal ex-
planation of, ii-iB; radical expla-
nations of, 36ff.; found in pre-
Christian Judaism by Wrede and
Brllclcner, 3Tf.; found in paganism
by Bousset, 30; not really ex-

filained by development from the
iberal Jesus, 117-169; not really
explained by Judaism, 1T3-207; not
really explained by paganism, 311-
317
FcraeplwD^ Hi

PerMuUfy, idea of, 9D>f.

Peter t received Comellns, IS; with
Paul In Jerusalem, 75-77; at
Antioch, 97-106; rebuked by Paul,
97, loa, 13S-134t division of labor
with Paul, SBf.; relations of, with
Paul, 109-105; attitude of Paul to-
ward, ISOff.i agreed with Paul in
principle, 133f.; not In barmony
with Ebionism, 135f.; went to
Rtnne, 137f.; conUct with Paul,
13T; relatiMis of, with Mark,
I3S

Pharisaism, not influenced by pagan
rdlgion, 35£f.

Pharisees, the, 177

Philemon, Epistle to, 31

Philippians, Epistle to the, 31, 104

PhUo, IBS, 950f.: use of temi
"Spirit" by, due to Old Testunent,
968

Philosophy: undermined the religion
of Greece, 319; practical interest
of, in the HeUenistic age, 334ff.

Plato, 3S4f., 375

Plooij, 81

PluUrch, 331, 336

Poimandres, the, 349-344

Posidoniua, 995, 350

INDEX

825

Princeton BibUcal Studies, 7, 17, 37,
117

Princeton Theologicai Review, S7, 78,
155

Psalms of Solomon, 190,193

Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa-
ment, 189

Ptolemy 1, 231

P^rthagoreanism, 217

Ramsay, 45, 56, 81

Rationaliiing, revived by Torrey
and others, 34

Redemption: Paulinism a religion of,
22, 167-169; was desired in the
Hellenistic age, 223f.; value of,
224; in pasan religion and in Paul,
255-279; i&A of, in Hellenistic age,
274ff.; idea of, not an abnormal
thing, 275; Pauline conception of,
was not derived from pagan cults,
274ff.; Pauline idea of, involves
salvation from sin, 276f.

Regeneration: in pagan religion, 230,
233, 240f., 244f.; associated, in
Paul, with lustification, 279

Reitsenstein, R., 242-244, 246, 248ff.,
274, 277, 262-280

Religion and theology: union of, ac-
cording to Wrede, 27; separation
of, according to the liberal hy-
pothesis, 25f . ; not to be separated
in Paul, 166ff.

Revelation, Book of, 120

Ritschl, A., 6, 38f., 119f., 125

Ritschlian theology, the, 23

Rohde, 212, 223

Romans, Epistle to the: genuineness
of, 31; aate of, 81 f.; can it be
used in the reconstruction of the
pre-Pauline Christianity of Da-
mascus and Antioch, 259

Rome, Church at, 16

Rome, the native religion of, 212f.

Sabazius, 215

Sacraments, the Pauline: were not
derived from the mystery re-
ligions, 279-290; did not convey
bfessing ex opere operato, 283-288;
were outward signs of an inner
experience, 286f.

Sadaucees, the, 177

Samothrace, the mysteries of, 219

SchUrer, 23, 65, 79, 156, 180, 183,
186, 190, 196

Seneca, 226

Septuagint, importance of the, 307f.

Serapis, religion of, 232ff.

Servant coming in from the field,
parable of the, 164

Sethe, 281

Showerman, 227, 231

Sieffert, 72

Silas, 16: contact of, with Paul, 140;
was member of the Jerusalem
Church, 140

Sin, consciousness of: in Judaism,
178-181; in Paul, 276f.

Smith, W. B^ 294

Solomon, Psalms of, 184

Son of Man, the: in I Enoch, 181,
186ff.; origin and meaning of the
title, 187ff.; idea of, dominated
the early Jerusalem Church, ac-
cording to Bousset, 293f^ 298

Soul: placed higher than spirit in
Hermes Trismegistus ana lower
than Spirit in Paul, 248f., 267f.;
conception of the, in Paut 266ff.

Spirit: placed lower than soul in
Hermes Trismegistus and (when
the word designates the Spirit of
God) higher than soul in Paul,
248f.,267f.; no evidence of popular
pagan use of the term analogous
to Pauline usage, 267-270; Greek
materialistic use of the term, 267;
use of the term in Philo shows in-
fluence of the Old Testament,
268; use of the term in Gnosticism
due to dependence on New Testa-
ment, 268f.; use of the term in
Menander, 270

Spirit, Pauline conception of the,
265-271: different from that in
mystery religions, 265, 270; does
not make the divine Spirit taJce the
place of the human soul, 266; has
roots in the Old Testament, 270f.;
brings enrichment of Old Testar
ment teaching, 270; not derived
from paganism, 310; BousseVs
view of, 310ff.

"Spiritual man:" contrast with "psy-
chic man," 265-270; the term not
in accord with the terminology of
Hermes Trismegistus, 2^ft.

Stephen, 16, 19, 66

Stobaeus, 242

Stoics, the: humanitarian achieve-
ments of, 225 f.; humanitarian
ideal of, differed from Christian
ideal, 225f.

Strauss, 34

Supcrnaturollmi In Paul's religioai

aear.

Syncretism, «if.. 23Tff., 263
Syria: rcUgion of, 77; use of the

tf rm "Lord" In, 300
Syria and CtlicJa, 77, tbe Apostolic

Decree addressed to, Mff.

Tammui. iSi

Tarsua, iSt., 7Ti did not bring pa-
gan influences effectively to bear
upon Paul, 350t.i Christianity of,
did it originate ajiplication of the
term "Lord" to Jesus, SB9.

Taurobolium, 930f., MOf^ Ml

"Teleios," the term, in Paul, 37af.

Terminology, not necessarily Impor-
tant as establishing dependence in
ideas, 31i

Tennlnoloey of the mysteries, the
technical, does not appear in the
New Testament, «3

TertuUian, 361

Test amenta of tbe Twelve Patri-
archs, 190

Thessalonisns, Epistles to tbe, 31,

Thrace, religion of, SlSf.

Titus, 93

Torrey, C. C, SI

Townshend, IBC

Tradition, Paul not indifferent to-
ward, U3-IS3

Trvpho, Dialogue with, iHS, 196

Tubingen School, the, 31, 37, 99, 106
f, IID

VegcUtion gods, 935

Vespasian, 183

Voli. 190

Vos, Geerhardus, 366, 395

Wsrfleld, B. B., 198, 306

Weber, 81

Weiss, B.. 73

Weiss, J., 40, 50, 85, 107, 135, IS%
154, 156, 314

Wellhausen. 53, 138

Wendland, 313

Wendt, 94f.

Wcrnlc 312

Westcott and Hort, 89

Western text, the, 88ff.

Wiclied husbandmen, parable of, U

Windisch, H., 199-304, 343

Wisdom, in Pauline Epistles, not
identified with Christ, 303f.

Wisdom, in pre-Christian Judaism;
will not account for the Paulioc
Christology, 199-204; is active in
creation, 300; enters into tbe wise
men, 300; is not expected to ap-
pear at a deflnite lime, 300f.i is
not identified with the Messiah.
301-304; is not fully personal.
S03f.

Wisdom of Solomon. 200

Witkowski, 380

Wrede, W„ 36-38, 67, 158, 166, IT*-
199, 304-307, 37B, 317

Zahn, Th., 44, S3, 73, 90, 119, 303.
Zeller. E., 37.
Zielinski, 343.

n BIBLICAL PASSAGES

OLD TESTAMENT

PsalmB —
IL 11 .
cz. 1 .

s(

)

Proverbfl —
▼iii

Isaiah —
ix ....
xi ....

970f.

996

901

199f.

191
191

liii (»» 65, 181

lxv.17 191

Eiekiel—

viiL 14 «84

Daniel—

viL IS 188, 191

viL 18 191

Micali—
y. 9 (lxx)

901

NEW TESTAMENT

Matthew —

V. 45 169

vii. 91 996

XXL41 15

zzviii. 19,90 14

Mark—

iii. 7,8 51

▼ii. 15 15

X. 45 154» 159

xi. 3 997

xii. 35-37 996

Luke —

iii 15 184

vi. 35 169

vi.46 996

John —

i. 19-97 184

vi 989

Acts —

ii. 36 995

iv. 36, 37 137f.

vi. 1 46, 309

vii. 56 998

vii. 58-viii. 1 47

ix. 1 47

ix. 10-19 71

ix. 19 79

ix. 99 79

ix.93 79

ix. 96-30 73, 74-76

ix. 97 75

ix. 98 51

X. 41 85

xi.19-30 79

xi. 96 78

xi. 30 781f. '

xii 78

xii. 1-17 138

xiL95 781f.

xiii-xiv 97

XV 39, 140

XV. 1-99 80.100, 139

XV. 19, 90 87

XV. 91 99

XV. 93 94

XV. 97 140

XV. 98, 99 87-98

xvi. 4 94

xxi. 17 109, 119

xxi. 90-96 llOf.

xxi. 90-99 113

xxi. 90 110

xxi. 95 ; 87, 91

xxi. 96 110

xxii.3 47

xxii. 19-16 71

xxii. 17-91 49, 74

xxiii. 6 46f.

xxiii. 16-99 49

xxiv. 17 119

xxvi. 14 60-69

327

i 7 89

vl 984, a»8f.

ti.i 386

■vi.i 3rr

vii esr

Ti. 7-94 65f.

viil. 18 366

Tlli. 30 877

Ix. 5 IM

lUv 93

xiv. IT 181

W. 9.3 ISO

XT. 8 149

XV. 31 113f.

xri 141

ivi. 7 140f.

1 ,1 Corinthlnna —

' Uv 108

1. 19 i07f., 109, lao

L 17 asfi

i. B3 314f.

i. 94 903

1.30 903

U. 6, 7 «79f.

ii. 8 117f.

1L14,15 284-367

il. 15, 18 889

UL 91, 92 109

ill. 98 104

Ti. 9 180

vii. 10 1*7

yU. la 147

vii. 95 147

viii 93

riii. S, 6 30Sf.

viii. 6 104

ix. 5 104

IK. 6 108

ix. 1* 147

Ix. 19-K 99f., 110

ix. 90 Ill

ix. 33 960

X. 16 98a

*. 20 983

X. 91 283f.

X. 39-xi. 1 151

xl. I 150

xi. 33ff 148f., 16ir.

xi. 93 149

xi. 30 988

xii. B 983

xiii 66

xlT. 37 147

XV. 1-11 104, 124f., 144f,

XV. 1-8 316

IV. 1-7 S68f.

XV. 3-8 SS

XV. 3-7 76

XV.3 144f., 149

XV. 4 149

XV. a 77, 194

XV. 11 77, 104, 109

XV. 99 9B8

XV. 50 181

xri. 99 SOOf.

9 Corinthians—

iii. 1 108

iU. 17 311

V. 16 54-56, ISOf., 143-lU

vHJ. 9 150

x-xlii 107, 109, ISlf.

I. 1 ISO

xt 4-e 131-135

xi. S lOSf., 133

xL 13 109

xL 19, SO 134

xi. 99 46

xi. 95 4S

xii. 1-8 S9f.

xii. 9-1 9«4

xii. II I08f.

Galatians—

Ul 144-147

i, 1 199

i. 14 47

I. 16, 17 74

i. 16 71

i. 17 50

1. 18, 19 74-76, 84, 300

I. 18 79

i. 19 75, B99f.

i. 99 SOsa, 75

i. 93 53

il. l-IO ...78-100, 104, 121f., 139

ii. 1 84, 137

ii. 9 19011.

ii. 6 87, 95, liOff.

il. 9 100, 104, ISOff.

il. 10 99f.

ii. 11-91. .87,93, 100-106, 193-194

ii. 11-13 97

ii. 14-91 I93f.

II. 19 109

ii. 90 liO

ii. 91 379

III. 1 14Bf.

Hi. 9 987

HI. 5 S71f.

iii. 97 987

Iv. 14 59f.

V. 19-81 160

vi.3 181

INDEX

829

Philippians—

ii. 6ff 150

ii. 10, 11 118

iii. 2ff 104

iii. 5 46, 47

iv. 19 371f.

Colossians —

i. 16 194

ii. 19 984

iv. 10, 11 107

iv. 10 105f., 138

1 Thessalonians —

i. 6 151

iv. 15 147f.

1 Timothy—
i. 13 61

9 Timothy—
iv. 11 106

Philemon —
94 105, 107, 138

1 Peter—
V. 13 105, 139