Introduction

Geoffrey Bingham, Paul, the pursued and pursuer of God, NCPI 1986. P. 2,

'Apart from the man Jesus of Nazareth, God's Messiah and His Son, Paul the apostle is the greatest man who ever lived.'

An assessment not shared by all. Nietzsche called Paul's gospel 'the most evil of all.He embodies the immense creative power of hatred.' (Günther Bornkamm, Paul, Hodder and Stoughton, 1969, p. 230). Many positions in between, including those who claim that 'Paul was the real founder of Christianity, misrepresenting Jesus and inventing a theology in which a 'Christ' figure, nothing really to do with the Jesus of history, becomes central' (Tom Wright, What St Paul Really Said, Lion Publishing, 1997-this is not Wright's position, nor is it my own). There are many agendas here, which we will not go into, which seek to justify some disagreement with words and actions attributed to Paul in the New Testament (eg. 'Paul is a woman-hater, so we can disregard everything he said about women in ministry and marriage').

Paul provoked severe antagonism during his ministry, as he has since. Even amongst those sympathetic, there has not always been full understanding:

13 But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. 15 And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3

Note, however, that even here, Paul's writings are accounted among the 'scriptures'.

This introduction is just to get you interested, like they do at the beginning of any TV drama! We can leave these issues with the scholars, as we seek from the New Testament to get to know something of Paul and his message.