Paul and Jesus [Hardcover]

Paul and Jesus, How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by James D. Tabor

In November 2012, the author of The Jesus Dynasty once again releases a book that is sure to challenge our thinking when it comes to Christian Origins. In his latest work, published by Simon and Schuster, James D. Tabor turns his academic attention to a thorough investigation of a particular way of defining and understanding Christianity. Of all the works he has published in more than thirty years as a Biblical scholar and historian of Christian origins, this may prove to be Tabor's most important contribution yet to our understanding of how and why we have come to believe the way we do. Tabor asserts and then sets out to prove that Catholics, mainstream Protestants and evangelicals have all inherited much of their Christianity, not through the teachings of Jesus but through the teachings of the Apostle Paul.

Even though this book may challenge readers, Tabor presents his convincing arguments in a way that is both respectful and sensitive. Tabor makes no excuses for Paul. For better or for worse, Tabor allows Paul to explain himself from his own words at every turn. He does this by carefully reporting facts taken from ancient sources and by examining and contrasting Christianity before and after Paul.

Tabor's work claims that Paul effectively transformed Christianity from a thoroughly Jewish sect into something that would have been altogether foreign to Jesus and his first followers. He shows that for Paul, there was no interest in "Jesus according to the flesh." Paul admittedly never met Jesus according to the flesh, but rather relates that in a series of visionary experiences or revelations, a "heavenly Christ" came to him with a message that would become his gospel. To Paul, these revelations surpassed all other views of Jesus thereby placing him in a unique position if not a superior role to convey matters of spiritual import.

Tabor works through six major points he derives from Paul's letters to clearly show how Paul transformed the way people believe and in the process caused an irreparable rift between his own views and the views of the authentic "Jewish" faith of Jesus and his first followers. Paul and his views effectively won and authentic Jewish Christianity became marginalized and silenced. Church creeds would follow suit. Literal meanings of concepts would be replaced by allegorical interpretations carefully presented by the "least of all apostles." The one who persecuted Christians at first became the champion of a new religion in the end.

Even if one disagrees with Tabor's conclusions, the work contains much of value when it comes to understanding Paul and modern Christian beliefs and sacraments. In the end the reader is allowed to make his own mind up, but the decision may prove difficult for many. One is placed in the unenviable position of choosing between the religion of Jesus and a religion about him, also known as the religion of Paul.

Dr. James Tabor is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he is professor of Christian origins and ancient Judaism. He has his B.A. in Greek from Abilene Christian University (1966), his M.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University (1971), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Ancient Mediterranean Religions in the Humanities Division of the University of Chicago (1974, 1981).

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I highly recommend this book!

Ross K Nichols
[...]

Dr. Tabor's new book, "Paul and Jesus", is the culmination of the author's thirty-year examination of the life of Paul, the meaning of his message, and nature of his relationship with the Jerusalem apostles and with James, the brother of Jesus. In this eminently readable and ultimately challenging investigation into these issues, Tabor refreshingly portrays Paul without the added reinterpretation provided by the later church. Basing his analysis almost exclusively on the authentic letters of Paul, Tabor re-introduces us to a man many of us might have thought we already knew. We quickly realize that the popular image of Paul has been heavily based on the Acts of the Apostles, which is little more than an "Acts of Paul", written as late as the early second century according to the author, and thus by someone who never knew Paul.

In this fascinating and revealing portrait of the Apostle to the Gentiles, Tabor makes it clear that not only did Paul never meet Jesus, he paid scant heed to the inheritors of Jesus' teaching: the apostles and brothers of Jesus. Instead, Paul based his entire "gospel" on his repeated, self-reported revelations that he claimed were of the risen Christ. As the author convincingly shows, Paul's unique message conflicted with that of Jesus' own disciples and led to open hostility and perhaps even to Paul's arrest and imprisonment in Rome.

Throughout this reevaluation of Paul, Tabor challenges us to understand that the New Testament is, with few exceptions, comprised of books that represent the Pauline teachings, not those of early Palestinian Jewish Christianity. All of them were written after Paul's letters were composed. This leads to some startling discoveries. For example, Tabor claims that it was Paul, not any of the Gospel writers, who first interpreted Jesus' Last Supper as inaugurating the routine consumption of the body and blood of Christ, terminology that Jesus, as a devout Jew, would have never used. At another point, Tabor challenges the conventional view that when Paul referred to what he "received" about Jesus' death and resurrection, he was not referring to tradition obtained from the apostles but to revelations he received from the risen Christ.

These and other intriguing new insights make the purchase of "Paul and Jesus" a must for anyone interested in the history of the New Testament and Christian origins. While the book is based on solid scholarship by one of the world's top researchers in the field, it is easily readable and highly absorbing. You may not want to put it down once you start.

Paul and Jesus is a major, game-changing book. James Tabor is a meticulous historian who carefully and convincingly lays out the actual Jewish theology of earliest Christianity which lies shrouded in the New Testament. While it has been attempted before, this book persuasively shows with utmost lucidity how the innovative Hellenistic-Jewish teachings of Paul contrasted and ultimately collided with the more traditional Jewish teachings of the Nazarene movement led by Jesus' brother, James. Tabor's thorough yet succinct writing style brings a welcome new clarity to our understanding of the development of Christianity. While this book may disturb many Christians, Paul and Jesus lays down a challenge the church can no longer ignore, but must openly engage and ultimately accommodate if it wishes to proclaim an authentic gospel in the 21st century.
- The Rev. Jeffrey J. Bütz, S.T.M., adjunct professor of Religious Studies, Penn State University, author of The Brother of Jesus