Corpus-Paul

["David Inglis" <david AT colonialcommerce.com>]

Dave Hindley wrote in reply to Vince Edris:
[snip]
> 
> Whether this was the same James Paul meets with depends on which James the
> author of Gal 1:18-19a meant when he said "Then after three years I went up
> to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw
> none of the other apostles except James ... ."
> 
> It will also make a difference whether this trip to Jerusalem is the same as
> that mentioned in Acts 9:26-28: "And when he had come to Jerusalem he
> attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they
> did not believe that he was a disciple.  But Barnabas took him, and brought
> him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the
> Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the
> name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem."
> 
> Beware, there are serious discrepancies between the accounts of Paul (Gal &
> 2 Cor) and those of the author of Acts, not to mention problems with just
> about any attempt to reconcile them chronologically.

As I have commented before, the only 'discrepancies' occur because people
make completely unwarranted assumptions regarding the linkages between
Acts and the Pauline letters.  For example, it is assumed (usually on the
basis of no evidence at all) that Paul's visits to Jerusalem in Galatians
and Acts must 'dovetail' neatly, e.g. that a visit mentioned in Gal must
be mentioned in Acts, whereas in reality there is *no* requirement for
events mentioned in one document to be recorded in the other.  Once this
'assumption' is abandoned, things become much easier.  FWIW, here is my
take on the Gal - Acts 'linkage':

In Galatians Paul reports making two trips to Jerusalem:
·  The first was to see Peter, three years after being converted (Gal
1:18);
·  The second was to speak privately to the church leaders, either 14
years after the previous trip, or 14 years after being converted (Gal
2:1-2).

Paul visited the South Galatian area (which includes Lystra, Derbe, and
Iconium) on each of the three journeys recorded in Acts, but he did not
travel into the northern area on his first journey (as described in Acts
13 and 14).  Therefore, in the north Galatian theory Galatians could not
have been written until after Paul had returned from his second journey
(Acts 16:6), and the second trip to Jerusalem recorded in Gal 2 would then
correspond to the one recorded in Acts 15, during which the ‘Jerusalem
Council’ took place.  Paul would therefore most likely have written this
letter some time on his third journey, perhaps from Ephesus (Acts
19:8,10).

In the south Galatian theory the Jerusalem trip recorded in Gal 2 could
have taken place prior to the events of Acts 15, and Paul could therefore
have written this letter before his second missionary journey, for example
while at Antioch.  However, both theories give rise to some problems
regarding Paul’s trip to Jerusalem in Gal 1:18.  Acts records that Paul
made two other trips to Jerusalem prior to the one in Acts 15, and both of
them took place before his first journey:

·  Acts 9:26  This must be Paul’s first trip to Jerusalem after being
converted, since the apostles are initially afraid of him.  However, after
Barnabus speaks up for him, “he was staying with them, associating openly
with them in Jerusalem.”
·  Acts 11:30  After spending a year in Antioch, Paul and Barnabus take a
collection to Jerusalem (the so-called ‘famine relief’ trip).  According
to Acts, they then did not return to Antioch until after Herod Agrippa had
died (Acts 12:25).

Neither of these trips seems to fit well with the description in Gal 1:18,
in which Paul states that the only apostles he saw were Peter and James
(the brother of Jesus).  Also, Herod died in about 44 AD, much more than
three years after Paul’s conversion.  So the question arises, could Paul
have made another trip to Jerusalem?

There is also a problem with the Jerusalem trip recorded in Galatians 2. 
Paul reports what he has been doing “only in a private meeting with the
influential people.”  This certainly does not sound like the public affair
recorded in Acts 15.  Also, if Galatians 2 corresponds to Acts 15, then
why does Peter afterwards come to Antioch (Gal 2:11) and seem to ignore
what he had previously said in the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:7-11)?

Finally, nowhere in Galatians does Paul refer to the outcome of the
Jerusalem Council, which the Galatian churches would have known about from
the time that Paul and Barnabus delivered the letters recording the
council’s decision, during the second missionary journey (Acts 16:4).  As
this decision bore directly on the point Paul was trying to make, why
would he not refer to it in the letter?

In my view the problems mentioned above are sufficient to overturn the
north Galatian theory.  This is what I believe took place:
·  35 AD.  Three years after Paul’s conversion he went to Jerusalem, where
the disciples were afraid of him until Barnabus told the apostles about
his preaching in Damascus.  While there he saw Peter and James, but did
not see any of the other apostles (Gal 1:18-19, Acts 9:26).  These two
passages can refer to the same trip if “the apostles” and “them” in Acts
9:27 refer just to Peter and James.
·  44 AD.  At about the time of Herod’s death Paul made the ‘famine
relief’ trip to Jerusalem.  This trip is not recorded in Galatians simply
because it was not relevant to that letter.
·  45-47 AD.  Paul and Barnabus undertook the first journey, traveling
through the south Galatian region.
·  49 AD.  14 years after the Gal 1:18 trip, Paul, Barnabus and Titus made
the private trip to Jerusalem to see the leaders (Gal 2:10).  This trip is
not recorded in Acts precisely because it was private!
·  49 AD.  Peter and others from Jerusalem came to Antioch, and stated
that it was necessary to obey the Mosaic law to be saved (Gal 2:11-21,
Acts 15:1-2).
·  49 AD.  Paul wrote Galatians while in Antioch.
·  49 AD.  Paul and Barnabus went to Jerusalem (the 4th recorded time),
and the council meeting then took place.
50-52 AD.  Paul and Barnabus deliver the letters containing council’s
decision while undertaking the second journey.

Dave Inglis
david AT colonialcommerce.com
3538 O'Connor Drive
Lafayette, CA, USA