Many contemporary authors like Hyam Macoby go to great length to demonstrate that Paul could not have been the man he purports to be. It's hard to know exactly who the historical Paul was. Christian tradition is that he was an ascetic Pharisee, and scholar of Jewish ceremonial Law. Saul/Paul, the man in the story is an ethnic Jew, but also a Roman citizen by virtue of his patronage. Paul is a tentmaker by trade.
The consensus of most modern biblical scholars I've read is that some of the material in the NT ascribed to Paul is not from his hand. These psuedo-Pauline works, like Hebrews, are written in the style of Paul by others.
How one understands Paul, it seems to me, depends on the context within which his story is framed: Paul, as a character in his own story within his own time, Paul in the context of the whole of the NT, or St. Paul- a much larger historical character in the story of the establishment of Christianity, and its evolution through time up to, and including the present.
Paul himself says that his evangelistic strategy is to become "all things to all men". Paul preaches a message designed for universal appeal, which he tailors to the cultural disposition of his audience. For Jews he's a Jew discussing the Law, to Greeks he purports to be, on one occasion, a representative of the "Unknown God" whose statue he noticed on the way into town, to Roman officials he's a Roman citizen.
When taken in the narrow, contemporary context of the world of Paul's own experience, and provided we understand his writings as audience specific epistles, or letters, his anti-semitic, misogynist, and apparently pro-slavery sentiments seem pretty unremarkable.
Paul may not have been a Pharisee, but he was no intellectual dolt. Paul's attempt to reason through the Jewish Law in order to co-opt the seminal elements of Judaism into his universalist Christian philosophy is an example of his acumen as Christ's number one salesman.
Paul's comments on marriage relations and the role of women in the church reflect the man he was. Paul was an ascetic. Paul probably believed that there was a trade off between abstaining from sex, and spiritual acuity and awareness. All of Paul's relations with women in his writings seem to be quite egalitarian, though he can't bring himself to take a stand against patriarchic control of the church . Paul realizes that his way won't work for everyone, and when pressed for advice he recommends marriage for anyone who just can't subjugate his sexual desire. Again, in terms of Paul's own time, his attitude toward women and sex seems almost liberal.
Paul exhorts slaves to respect and serve their masters. Is this Paul's endorsement of the "peculiar institution"? I don't think so. Paul wants to get along with the Roman government, and the Roman Empire of Paul's time was cracking down on miscreants and rebels. Paul seeks respectability, and he sees the pounding that anti-empirial messianists are taken at the hands of the forces of Roman law and order. No one in Paul's sphere could imagine a world without slavery, it was a fact of life. Paul the pragmatist chooses order over chaos as a means to an end.
Paul, when reduced to a local character in a small story becomes quite likeable and innocuous. Zoom out to the next frame of reference, that of the NT writers from Matthew thru John the Revelator, and consider the most immediate effects of the Pauline doctrine on young Christianity:
The evolution of religion is one process within the sum cultural evolution of humanity. The success of Christianity as the defacto religion of choice for empire building is owed directly to Paul's vision of an inclusive, cosmopolitan religion which transcended localized, ethnic identity oriented rivals. This is why, when the Roman Empire became over-extended and difficult to control centrally, Constantine saw a role for an organized state religion. Freed from it's ethno-particularist bindings, monotheism had come of age.
While it is true that Paul drove the stake between Judaism and Christianity, the authors of the Gospels evolved Paul's thesis of the universal applicability of God's covenant with the Jews through the Law into a wholesale rejection of the Christ by the Jews. Paul never envisions the Jews screaming "crucify him" and volunteering to have the bloodguilt for murdering the Messiah retroactively, and for perpetuity attached to them.
The everyday, on the street Jew hated, more than any Roman, the humiliating manner in which his interests were sold down the river by his own corrupt puppet government of the religious elite. It was to this sentiment that both Paul and the gospeliers appealed while they sought the indulgence of Rome by absolving the empire, through the device of Pilate's hand washing, of blame. In this context, the motives of the author of Revelation become clear. He is the backlash against the hypocrisy of condemning the scribes and Pharisees of the Jewish politico-religious establishment for selling out to Rome while actively engaging in the same bootlick behavior.
O.K., zoom all the way out to today. Paul has attained mythological status. He is encrusted, gilded, and opulated in sainthood. Thanks to Paul, some sects like the JW's still force women to cover their heads when taking an active part in the church service. That's merely emblematic of the frozen grip of patriarchic control that has ruled our societies from time in memorial. Thanks to Paul, proponents of human slavery were able to stay under biblical cover until only a century and a half ago. Thanks to Paul and the gospeliers, institutional anti-Semitism became an official function of organized Christianity- a dark legacy that is alive and well just below the surface of our illusions of civility in western society.
All of that said, I enjoy Paul for the real gems in his writing:
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Chris
