APPENDIX: THE QUEST FOR THE HISTORICAL PAUL
1. The Quest was given both its history and its name by Albert Schweitzer, whose groundbreaking book, published in 1906 with the nondescript German title Von Reimarus zu Wrede (From Reimarus to Wrede), was given the more provocative title in English, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, translated by William Montgomery (London: A. & C. Black, 1910).
2. The beginning of the modern Jesus Quest is usually dated to around 1835 with the publication of David Strauss’s Life of Jesus. The full work, Das Leben Jesu kritisch bearbeitet (Tübingen, 1835–36), was published in English as The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, 3 vols. (London, 1846), translated by George Eliot, the pen name of British novelist Mary Ann Evans. Baur’s major work, Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi, sein Leben und Wirken, seine Briefe und seine Lehre (Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ: His Life and Works, His Letters and His Teaching), was published in 1845. Strauss was a student of Baur at the University of Tübingen.
3. Most recently, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, The First Pauclass="underline" Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon (New York: HarperOne, 2009). A more conservative, but nonetheless critical treatment relying more on the letters of Paul than the book of Acts is that of Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, Pauclass="underline" A Critical Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
4. An English copy of the New Testament, Revised Standard Version, with text only and no notes or references, runs 284 pages total. The thirteen letters attributed to Paul, plus the book of Acts, add up to 109 pages of the total—just over one-third.
5. See Bart Ehrman’s summary analysis “In the Wake of the Apostle: The Deutero-Pauline and Pastoral Epistles,” in The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 272–394.
6. “Chester Beatty Papyri,” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 901–3.
7. Not only was the composition of such speeches common in Greek literary histories: it was in fact expected. Thucydides, in his History of the Peloponnesian war, says that he composed speeches according to “what was called for in each situation” (1.22.2). Josephus, a contemporary of the author of Acts, is a prime example; see Henry Cadbury, The Making of Luke-Acts (New York: Macmillan, 1927), and Arthur J. Droge and James D. Tabor, A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), pp. 53–112.
8. The letters of James and Jude might be exceptions, though many scholars question whether these two brothers of Jesus were part of the Twelve and others question the authenticity of the letters themselves. Few scholars consider the letters of 1 and 2 Peter as written by Peter. 1 Peter, in particular, is surprisingly “Pauline” in tone and content and fits nothing we know of Peter based on more reliable sources—including Paul’s genuine letters. The letters of John are not from John the fisherman, one of the Twelve, but from a later John, sometimes referred to as “John the Elder,” who lived in Asia Minor (see Eusebius, Church History 3.39.4–7).
9. Pirke Avot 2.3.
10. Jerome, De Virus Illustribus (PL 23, 646).
11. See Murphy-O’Connor, Pauclass="underline" A Critical Life, pp. 1–5. The translation “ambassador,” found in the Revised Standard Version, is conjectural, with no manuscript support. It assumes the misspelling of the Greek word “ambassador” (presbeutes) as “elder” (presbytes), but “elder” is the reading in all our manuscripts. The New Revised Standard Version and New Jerusalem Bible correctly have “elder.”
12. Josephus, Jewish War 7.263–65. Josephus mentions John of Gischala often in his history of the revolt.
13. See Digest 48.6–7, a compendium of Roman law in The Digest of Justinian, edited by T. Mommsen, translated by A. Watson (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1985).
14. A comparison of Mark 13, sometimes called the “Synoptic Apocalypse,” or the “Little Apocalypse,” with Luke 21, which is the author’s rewriting of Mark, shows how the “end of the age” is indefinitely extended and no longer tied to the Jewish-Roman war of A.D. 66–70.
15. Translation by Wilhelm Schneemelcher, in Edgar Hennecke’s New Testament Apocrypha, edited by William Schneemelcher, translated by R. McL. Wilson, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965), p. 353.
16. Ignatius, Philippians 3:2.
17. See Eusebius, Church History 2.14.5–6 and 3.1.2. Eusebius says he is relying on Origen, an early-third-century Christian theologian.
18. An expanded legendary account is found in the apocryphal Acts of Peter 37–38.
* Quotations from the Bible throughout this book are taken from the Revised Standard Version (Old Testament, 1962; New Testament, 1971, editions) with some modifications by the author based on the original Hebrew or Greek.
INDEX
Page numbers beginning on 241 refer to endnotes.
Abba, 117–18, 143, 144
Abel, 192
Abraham, 109
Acts:
1:3–4, 87
1:9–10, 90
1:13–14, 32
1:21–26, 217
1:22, 136
2:38, 137
4:36, 215
5:33–39, 234
5:36, 243
7:54–8:1, 232
9:1–19, 232
9:11, 232
9:20, 254
9:26–28, 92
9:27, 215
9:30, 232
10:1–2, 261
11:22, 215
11:25–26, 215
11:25, 232
11:26, 145
12:1–2, 245
13:15, 254
13:16, 261
13:26, 261
13:43, 261
13:45, 234
13:50, 261
15, 210
15:13–21, 33
15:19–20, 151, 262
15:19–21, 261
15:21, 254
15:39, 216
16:13–15, 257
16:14, 261
16:37, 232
17:4, 261
17:17, 261
17:32, 61
18:1–3, 263
18:3, 232
18:7, 261
18:12, 234
18:24–25, 137
19:1–7, 138
19:6, 258
20:9–12, 56
20:23, 257
21:17–26, 34
21:18–26, 245
21:18, 33
21:20–21, 211
21:38, 243
21:39, 232
22:3, 232
22:3–11, 232
22:27–28, 232
23:6, 59
23:12, 234
23:16, 232
23:27, 232
24:5, 246
24:24, 256
26:12–18, 232
28:23–28, 207
apostolic feud in, 202, 211–12, 215–16, 221
Arabian journey’s omission in, 92
baptism variations in, 137–39
“Christ” terminology in, 256
chronology of, 8, 244
council of Seventy in, 36
historical validity of, 8–9, 68, 229–30, 254
James’ marginalization in, 29, 30, 32
James’ mentions in, 33–34
Jesus’ ascension in, 89–90
Jesus movement’s marginalization in, 32