Corpus-Paul

[Antonio Jerez <antonio.jerez AT privat.utfors.se>]

Liz Fried wrote:


> Dear All,
> The question popped up on another list asking whether Paul was indeed a
> Pharisee. I thought I'd bring the question over here.
> 
> It seems to me that understanding Paul as a Pharisee goes a long way in
> helping to understand Paul.  Paul said that he had persecuted Christians
> prior to his conversion. I had always wondered what form this persecution
> would take. It occurs to me that the Gospels describe the Pharisees as
> hounding Jesus. They are shown continually questioning the degree to which
> he follows the law or teaches following the law.  It seems the Pharisees are
> shown persecuting him. Could this be the sort of thing Paul refers to?
> 
> Moreover, the Pharisees are shown criticizing Jesus for eating with sinners.
> Sanders says the main criticism the Pharisees had against Jesus is that he
> ate with sinners without attempting to reform them first. He ate with
> unrepentant sinners.  Sanders says the Pharisees would have had no problem
> with Jeus if he had eaten with *repentant* or *reformed* sinners. Presumably
> that is what the Pharisees themselves tried to do. According to Sanders,
> that Jesus ate with sinnners "just as they were", unreformed and
> unrepentant, is what angered the Pharisees.

I think this is one the weakest points in Sander's book about the
historical Jesus. I don't see any evidence at all in the gospels that
Jesus ate regularly with unrepentant sinners and admitted them to
his group without prior repentance. On the contrary. The gospels are
full of Jesus admonishing sinners to "repent - the kingdom of God
is near" (Mark 1:15).
Dominic Crossan has rightly criticised Sanders for his views on this
matter in his latest book "The birth of Christianity".

Best wishes

Antonio Jerez
University of Goteborg
Sweden