The Quest For Mary Magdalene by Michael Haag

Author:Michael Haag
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 2017-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

Peter and Paul etched into the wall of a fourth-century Roman catacomb. The two were said to have founded the first church in Rome and, according to legend, Peter became the first pope.

Paul Hijacks Jesus

In writing the Acts of the Apostles Luke creates a narrative bridge between the gospels, which relate Jesus’ mission to his fellow Jews, and the rest of the New Testament, much of it taken up with the letters of Paul, which describe his journeys among the gentiles. In doing so, Acts makes it seem that Paul is an extension of the gospels – even the arrangement of the New Testament has Paul’s epistles immediately following Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Acts opens with Peter at Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit, but a third of the way through its focus changes and it devotes itself overwhelmingly to Paul. Paul never knew Jesus and only came to Jerusalem after his crucifixion where he turned to persecuting Christians. Yet Paul is mentioned 155 times in Acts, while Peter, a prominent disciple of Jesus in all four gospels, is mentioned only fifty-six times. The entire final two-thirds of Acts is a narrative about Paul.

Nor is that the end of it. Paul has been credited with writing a large part of the New Testament; of its twenty-seven books fourteen have traditionally been assigned to Paul, though the authenticity of several is disputed by biblical scholars, with some thought to be pseudographia, that is written by followers in his name. There is general scholarly agreement, however, that Paul was the author of seven epistles – Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon – and that these are authentic in whole. Whatever their authorship, all these books were seen fit to join the New Testament canon, and from the beginning of Acts to the end of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament, the ratio holds: Paul is mentioned three times as often as Peter. Apart from the gospels, the New Testament is essentially by and about Paul.

The faith preached by Paul was founded absolutely on the resurrection. ‘And if Christ be not risen’, Paul told the Corinthians, ‘then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:14). ‘I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures’ – the scriptures being prophetic verses in the Old Testament such as Isaiah 53:5. Paul goes on to explain his own special place in the scheme of things. ‘And that he [Jesus] was seen of Cephas [Peter], then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

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