Kosher Jesus by Shmuley Boteach

Author:Shmuley Boteach [Boteach, Shmuley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Signalman Publishing
Published: 2011-12-07T18:43:31+00:00

Chapter 16: Paul the Pharisee?

The most influential figure in the changing of the Jesus narrative was Paul of Tarsus. He is the filter through whom Christianity reached the world. More than anyone else, he is responsible for recasting Jesus’ teachings in a light palatable to gentiles, thoroughly redefining and revising Jesus’ thought. Had Paul’s mission to the gentiles failed, Jesus would have been another valiant Jewish rebel leader the Romans had put to death. However, Paul transformed Jesus’ mission and made him into a global historical figure. To understand the changes he made to Jesus’ personality, we must also understand Paul. We would do well to begin with his own words. Paul tells us he was a Pharisee sent by the Jewish high priest to persecute Christians in Damascus. He claims to have converted to a belief in Jesus after an epiphany while on the road to the Assyrian city. Here he introduces himself:

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring thes people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.175

At face value, Paul’s account is troublesome. First, it’s unlikely Paul was a Pharisee or that he studied with Gamliel, the most advanced Pharisaic teacher of the time. By claiming status as a student of Gamliel, Paul is bestowing an impressive honor upon himself, for only the most highly regarded scholars in all of Israel were chosen to sit at the feet of this renowned rabbinic leader who is famous till today.

The Pharisees were great scholars, as any reading of their most important works – the Mishnah and Talmud – will demonstrate. Yet, as Hyam Maccoby points out, Paul is not only not a great scholar, he seems incapable of even reading Hebrew. When Paul quotes from the Hebrew Bible in his epistles, he uses the Greek Septuagint translation rather than the Hebrew. There are many situations in which the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint translation differ considerably. Whenever they do, Paul follows the faulty Greek translation rather than the original Hebrew.176 No disciple of Gamliel would have thought to read the Bible in translation; there would have been no need.

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians offer excellent examples of the resulting inaccuracies. Paul quotes Hosea 13:14, saying, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”177 This is the version found in the Greek Septuagint. But the Hebrew original reads: “Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” The Septuagint’s mistranslation changes the meaning completely.

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