Lesson 3.9

It was fascinating to think of Paul as a “freelance religious expert.” We see Paul in the bible as a huge authority figure, a lot of the new testament books were written by him, by someone else trying to pose as him, or by someone telling a recount spin-off story about his life. A lot of people write in Paul’s name to assume some of his authority because he was such an authoritative apostle. This all being said we can surmise that Paul was kinda a big deal in the Christian faith.

Paul was kind of similar to a lot of other people though. A lot of people tried to gain authority in their specific area of expertise. These areas were not just in Christian circles but in lots of different groups. Paul started as this person who claimed to be an apostle where the qualifications for being an apostle were kind of blurry. He then started winning people over to his beliefs and then continuing to other places, but keeping in contact by writing letters and visiting later on. He proves that he is a “true apostle” by his special knowledge of the bible texts, “signs and wonders”(even though he is reluctant to do so), his stance as a Pharisee in his knowledge of the law. Paul also connects himself with authoritative figures in the bible to promote his legitimacy, such as Moses. From what I understand Paul takes stories of Moses that align with the points that he is trying to teach and uses them to strengthen and liken himself to Moses' authority.

Ehrman: Peter, Paul, & Mary Magdalene was illuminating!! Starting with this quote…

“Some would argue that no one has purely antiquarian interests, that every-
one is interested in the past precisely because they are interested in the present.”

Exactly. I think that a HUGE reason that historians look at the past is not solely to look at the past, but like this quote says because of an interest in the present. While some might look at the past just because of pure curiosity most of us look at the past to clarify the future, especially the bible in antiquity. The bible holds power in the present day and a way to tap into that power is to understand its beginnings.

This article talks about Acts of the Apostles as a re-representation of Paul used to push an agenda of someone else's. This Paul that we see written about in Acts of the Apostles does not line up with the Paul we see in books that were actually written by Paul. Sometimes these false writings are taken as authentically Paul’s and it makes Paul look like he is contradicting himself. It could be really confusing for someone who is not aware that this is not an authentic writing of Paul. The article says that the churches in the Acts of Apostles are not in a state of urgently waiting for Christ to come back, but living for the sake of the world, which is not what the authentic Paul would have accepted.

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