Why Did Paul Hate Jesus and His Followers?

Episode Outline:
0:00 Why did Paul hate Christians before becoming one of them?
1:03 Bart and Megan on Sarah’s Shakespeare scholarship, movie nights, and academic households
5:15 Our sources for Paul’s pre-Christian life: his letters and the Book of Acts
7:25 What those sources say about Paul as a zealous Pharisee and persecutor
8:42 How far Paul’s persecution may actually have gone
11:58 Did Paul organize formal punishments, or was the violence more personal and informal?
13:56 Why some scholars think Paul was not reacting to Gentile inclusion yet
16:03 The main problem: how could a crucified man possibly be the Messiah?
17:28 What most Jews at the time probably thought about Jesus
19:44 Would other Jews have reacted as strongly as Paul did?
21:27 How Roman authorities tended to respond to sectarian disturbances
24:19 What Jews in Paul’s day actually expected a Messiah to be
26:43 Different Jewish messianic expectations: king, cosmic judge, or priest
31:17 Why Paul likely saw the Christian message as nonsense, scandal, and probably blasphemy
35:17 What we wish we knew about Paul’s upbringing, personality, and capacity for violence
36:46 Course promo: Paul and Jesus: The Great Divide
38:18 Weekly Update: Bart previews his Matthew course and the Sermon on the Mount
42:11 Listener Q&A: Bart’s languages, the creeds, Jesus and Jewish leaders, and Paul versus pagan civic authorities
50:18 Final summary: Paul persecuted Christians because a crucified Messiah contradicted Jewish expectations

Episode Description
Next to Jesus, Paul is the most important figure in the history of Christianity, but as is well known, before he was a zealous apostle he was an equally zealous antogonist. What was that all about? Why would a Jew in the Roman world outside Israel even care if a small group of Jews were claiming that Jesus was the messiah who brought salvation? Wouldn't he just write them off as another bunch of crazies? What about their claims did he find so offensive that he had to take them on? And when he took them on, what did he actually do? Was he murdering them? Sending them off to prison? On what authority? Can the NT be right that he was authorized by Jewish authorities? Was he just beating up people he didn't like? These are important questions because the answers can help explain the transformation of Christianity into a world religion. In this episode, we try to figure it all out!

Also watch these episodes:
Is the New Testament Actually Filled with Forgeries?
Is the New Testament Actually *Filled* with Forgeries?

If There Is a God, Why Do We Suffer?
If There Is a God, Why Do We Suffer?

Does the Book of James Attack the Teachings of Paul?
Does the Book of James Attack the Teachings of Paul?

Megan asks Bart:

-What do we usually mean when we talk about Paul's “conversion”, and is it an appropriate term to use here?

-How about “Christianity”? Should we even be using that designation this early in Christian history?

-When Christianity was in its infancy, Paul went from being someone who actively persecuted Christians, to a committed missionary. What reason does Paul give for this shift?

-Did other people claim to have similar visions?

-In the ancient world more broadly, were visions of the supernatural relatively common?

-How would people have understood these visions in the ancient world?

-What do you think really happened to prompt Paul’s conversion?

-Did Paul’s sudden belief affect his personal theology in some way?

-Paul’s conversion appears to have been on the more extreme end of the scale. It’s not like he just started attending a different house of worship, he embarked on a mission of conversion. What is it that prompted such a severe change of direction?

-Is this mission to the gentiles something that we see among other Jewish thinkers, or is it Paul’s personal mission?

-What was the general thought around gentiles converting to Judaism?

-How socially significant would this change have been for Paul?

-A cynical person might suggest that this is a power grab by Paul - the resurrection is starting, and he wants to be on the right side of the fight…and as an added bonus, he can be the one foretold to bring the gentiles in to god. Do you think that’s a valid argument?