Paul Saw It Differently

 First Saturday of Lent

Lectionary Texts for the first Sunday in Lent (February 21)

OT: Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25 1-10

Epistle: 1 Peter 3:18-22

Gospel: Mark 1:9-15

 

Today our Acts Bible Study won't be on Acts. Please read Galatians 1:1-2:14.

In Galatians 2:1-10 Paul recounts the Apostolic Council (48 AD) and what happened in the weeks that followed. There are some major discrepancies between what Paul writes and what Luke reports in Acts 15. Some of these are not outright contradictions but just different viewpoints of the same event. 

We will examine these but first let me note that some of these differences stem from the differences in personality between Paul and Luke. Luke does not like conflict, especially conflict between Christians. He will write frankly and extensively about conflicts between Christians and Greeks, Romans, or Jews, but not internal conflict between Christians. These conflicts he minimizes and has quickly resolved. Luke is a smooth-it-over and resolve it quickly and peacefully kind of person.

Paul is the opposite. Paul thrives on conflict. Paul is a my-way-or-the-highway kind of person. Paul takes orders from no one but God. 

 

Here are some things to note in your reading of our Galatians text. Galatians was written about seven years after the Apostolic Council. Acts 15 shows the council as having resolved the circumcision issue. Galatians shows that the issue is still raging. People from what Paul refers to as the "circumcision faction" (Luke calls them the "sect of the Pharisees") have come from Jerusalem to Galatia and are preaching against Paul and for the belief that all male Christians must be circumcised. Paul says that these people were sent from James (Galatians 2:10-14). Paul is furious. He feels that Peter and James have betrayed him (Paul often calls Peter by his Aramaic name: Cephas).  Even Paul's traveling companion Barnabas goes over to the side of Peter and James. 

 

Paul does not disagree with Luke so much on what happened at the Apostolic Council. It's what happened in the weeks that followed, which Luke does not report, but Paul sees as devastating. 

 

Here are a couple of other differences: Luke sees James as the final authority on this matter. The Apostolic letter (Acts 15:23-29) which is sent from the Council with Paul and Barnabas back to Antioch is entirely the words of James.  In Acts 15:19 James says, "I have reached the decision..." The Apostolic Letter is that decision. Paul takes it as authoritative and delivers it to the church at Antioch.

Paul in his own writings does not mention the Apostolic Letter. He also stresses his complete independence from the Jerusalem Apostles (Peter, James, and John) (Galatians 2:6). Moreover, Paul says that he went from Antioch to Jerusalem on the basis of a revelation he had from God (Galatians 2:2). Luke writes that Paul and Barnabas were appointed by the Antioch elders to go to Jerusalem to seek apostolic guidance on the circumcision matter.

Who presents this material more accurately? Luke or Paul? Scholars go with Paul. Paul was an eyewitness to the events he records. Luke has eyewitness accounts but was not there himself. Luke is writing from 30 to 40 years after the event. The issue is settled when Luke writes. His tendency is to see it as having been settled at the Council. The events in Antioch in the following weeks and in Galatia in the following years are not important to him. Paul was smack-dab in the middle of those events. They were important to him.

The issue was not settled in 48 or even in 55. It was settled by 85. 

Peter disappears from the Acts narrative after chapter 15. James is mentioned only once more. Paul and Barnabas break up and go separate ways.  As we move deeper into Luke's narrative of Paul's life, we will have more occasions to see Paul's viewpoint in his letters in contrast to Luke's view in Acts.

 

Prayer:

O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the gospel to shine through the world. Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP, pp. 238-239)

Faithfully

Christian