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  Paul: A Very Short Introduction

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  a clear advance.’

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  VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.

  The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.

  Very Short Introductions available now:

  ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas

  THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair

  ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia

  ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn

  ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne

  ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes

  ART HISTORY Dana Arnold

  ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland

  THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin

  ATHEISM Julian Baggini

  AUGUSTINE Henry Chadwick

  BARTHES Jonathan Culler

  THE BIBLE John Riches

  BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright

  BUDDHA Michael Carrithers

  BUDDHISM Damien Keown

  CAPITALISM James Fulcher

  THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe

  CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham

  CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson

  CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson

  CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard

  THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon

  CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY Simon Critchley

  COSMOLOGY Peter Coles

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  DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins

  DARWIN Jonathan Howard

  DEMOCRACY Bernard Crick

  DESCARTES Tom Sorell

  DRUGS Leslie Iversen

  THE EARTH Martin Redfern

  EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Geraldine Pinch

  EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford

  THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball

  EMOTION Dylan Evans

  EMPIRE Stephen Howe

  ENGELS Terrell Carver

  ETHICS Simon Blackburn

  THE EUROPEAN UNION John Pinder

  EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

  FASCISM Kevin Passmore

  THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle

  FREUD Anthony Storr

  GALILEO Stillman Drake

  GANDHI Bhikhu Parekh

  GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger

  HEGEL Peter Singer

  HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood

  HINDUISM Kim Knott

  HISTORY John H. Arnold

  HOBBES Richard Tuck

  HUME A. J. Ayer

  IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden

  INDIAN PHILOSOPHY Sue Hamilton

  INTELLIGENCE Ian J. Deary

  ISLAM Malise Ruthven

  JUDAISM Norman Solomon

  JUNG Anthony Stevens

  KANT Roger Scruton

  KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner

  THE KORAN Michael Cook

  LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews

  LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler

  LOCKE John Dunn

  LOGIC Graham Priest

  MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner

  MARX Peter Singer

  MATHEMATICS Timothy Gowers

  MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

  MODERN IRELAND Senia Pašeta

  MOLECULES Philip Ball

  MUSIC Nicholas Cook

  NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner

  NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew

  NORTHERN IRELAND Marc Mulholland

  PAUL E. P. Sanders

  PHILOSOPHY Edward Craig

  PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Samir Okasha

  PLATO Julia Annas

  POLITICS Kenneth Minogue

  POSTCOLONIALISM Robert Young

  POSTMODERNISM Christopher Butler

  POSTSTRUCTURALISM Catherine Belsey

  PREHISTORY Chris Gosden

  PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Catherine Osborne

  PSYCHOLOGY Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

  QUANTUM THEORY John Polkinghorne

  ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway

  ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler

  RUSSELL A. C. Grayling

  RUSSIAN LITERATURE Catriona Kelly

  THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION S. A. Smith

  SCHIZOPHRENIA Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone

  SCHOPENHAUER Christopher Janaway

  SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer

  SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just

  SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce

  SOCRATES C. C. W. Taylor

  SPINOZA Roger Scruton

  STUART BRITAIN John Morrill

  TERRORISM Charles Townshend

  THEOLOGY David F. Ford

  Available soon:

  THE TUDORS John Guy

  TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan

  WITTGENSTEIN A. C. Grayling

  WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman

  AFRICAN HISTORY John Parker and Richard Rathbone

  ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw

  THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea

  BUDDHIST ETHICS Damien Keown

  CHAOS Leonard Smith

  CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead

  CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy

  CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Robert Tavernor

  CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko

  CONTEMPORARY ART Julian Stallabrass

  THE CRUSADES Christopher Tyerman

  DERRIDA Simon Glendinning

  DESIGN John Heskett

  DINOSAURS David Norman

  DREAMING J. Allan Hobson

  ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta

  THE END OF THE WORLD Bill McGuire

  EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn

  THE FIRST WORLD WAR Michael Howard

  FREE WILL Thomas Pink

  FUNDAMENTALISM Malise Ruthven

  HABERMAS Gordon Finlayson

  HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson

  HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson

  HUMAN EVOLUTION Bernard Wood

  INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Paul Wilkinson

  JAZZ Brian Morton

  MANDELA Tom Lodge

  MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope

  THE MIND Martin Davies

  MYTH Robert Segal

  NATIONALISM Steven Grosby

  PERCEPTION Richard Gregory

  PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot

  PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards

  THE RAJ Denis Judd

  THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton

  RENAISSANCE ART Geraldine Johnson

  SARTRE Christina Howells

  THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR Helen Graham

  TRAGEDY Adrian Poole

  THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Martin Conway

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  PAUL

  A Very Short Introduction

  E. P. Sanders

  Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

  Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

  It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,

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  Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press

  in the UK and in certain other countries

  Published in the United States

  by Oxford University Press Inc., New York

  © E. P. Sanders 1991

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted

  Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

  First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1991

  First published as a Very Short Introduction 2001

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,

  without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press,

  or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate

  reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction

  outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department,

  Oxford University Press, at the address above

  You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover

  and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Data available

  ISBN 13: 978-0-19-285451-3

  ISBN 10: 0-19-285451-8

  7 9 10 8

  Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

  Printed in Great Britain by

  TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall

  Contents

  List of illustrations

  1 Paul’s mission

  2 Paul’s life

  3 Missionary strategy and message

  4 The return of the Lord and the resurrection of the dead

  5 Theological presuppositions: monotheism and providence

  6 Righteousness by faith and being in Christ: Galatians

  7 Righteousness by faith and being in Christ: Romans

  8 Christology

  9 The law

  10 Behaviour

  11 The salvation of Israel and of the world: Romans 9–11

  Notes on sources

  Further reading

  Index

  List of illustrations

  1 Mosaic of Saint Paul from Torcello Cathedral

  Photo: ©Araldo de Luca/Corbis

  2 Gustave Doré, The Conversion of Saint Paul

  Photo: © Chris Hellier/Corbis

  3 Ventura Salimbeni, Martyrdom of Saint Paul

  Photo: © Araldo de Luca/Corbis

  4 Giovanni Serodine, Meeting of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

  Photo: © Araldo de Luca/Corbis

  5 Illuminated manuscript of the Epistle to the Romans

  Photo: © Archivio Iconografico, S.A./Corbis

  6 Rubens, Saint Paul

  Photo: © Archivio Iconografico, S.A./Corbis

  7 Saint Paul preaching Christianity to the Athenians

  Hulton Getty

  1. Mosaic of Saint Paul from Torcello Cathedral.

  Chapter 1

  Paul’s mission

  Early in the sixth decade of the Common Era, Paul, an itinerant missionary of the Christian movement, was in Corinth, mapping out his own contribution to what he saw as the last stage of God’s plan for humanity. He looked simultaneously east and west. He wanted to press on to Spain, to preach the gospel where it had not yet been preached, but first he had a crucial mission to fulfil to the East: he was to take an offering from his Gentile churches, as well as representative Gentile converts, to Jerusalem (Rom. 15: 23–9; for the travelling companions, see 2 Cor. 8: 16–24). While preparing for his journey, and waiting for his ship, he wrote ahead to a way-station en route to Spain: the church at Rome. He intended to prepare them for his arrival by sharing with them his message, and he also asked for their support – both their prayers that his trip to Jerusalem would be successful and aid, probably monetary, for the trip to Spain (Rom. 1: 11–15; 15: 24; 15: 30f.).

  His mind, however, was still filled with conflicts that lay behind him, casting their shadow over his trip to Jerusalem – a trip that filled him with apprehension. He asked the Romans to pray that he would be ‘delivered from the unbelievers’ and also that his service for Jerusalem would be ‘acceptable to the saints’. That is, he anticipated danger from non-Christian Jews, and he feared rejection by the Jewish members of the Christian movement. His career up to then had been full of contention, including confrontation with prominent followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. As he thought about meeting the Jerusalem disciples, he rethought his past conflicts, and he considered how he could best state his case. Since his career in Asia Minor and Greece was over, he also paused to reflect on the overall progress of the Christian gospel, and he speculated on how it would all turn out.

  He wrote all this up: both his argument against other Christian leaders on disputed issues (the continuing validity of the Jewish law; the place of Gentiles in God’s plan; the maintenance of high standards of behaviour if the law were given up) and an exposition of the divine plan itself of God’s intention for both Jews and Greeks, and of his own role in that plan. He sent what he wrote as an introductory letter to Rome. The letter eventually became one of the most influential documents of Western history, the Epistle to the Romans. It began, however, as a quite particular letter, set in an identifiable context, and discussing concrete problems and plans.

  We learn, first, who Paul thought he was. This is absolutely crucial for understanding the controversies of his letters, and it is also the easiest point of entry for understanding his theology: his theology was bound up with a view of himself and his role in God’s plan; it was not, perhaps, determined entirely by his self-perception, but certainly not separable from it.

  Who was he? He was the one who would fulfil the expectations of the prophets and perhaps of Jesus himself: he would bring the Gentiles to worship the God of Israel. This assertion, which appears several times in the letter, is emphasized at the beginning and the end, where it would make most impact:

  [I] have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith . . . among all the Gentiles, including yourselves. (Rom. 1: 5 f.)

  I have often intended to come to you . . . in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians [that is, to all Gentiles], both to the wise and to the foolish: so I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (1: 13–15)

  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles: Since I am apostle to the Gentiles . . . (11: 13)

  In Chapter 15 the point of Paul’s definition of his role becomes clearer. He writes that Christ himself was ‘a servant to the circumcised’ partly to redeem God’s promises to the patriarchs, but partly in order to bring the Gentiles to glorify the God of Israel (15: 8f.). He, Paul, is the one who is seeing to this. He is ‘a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles’, carrying out ‘a priestly ministry’ in the service of the gospel of God, in order that ‘the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable’ (15: 16). Only about this will he speak: what God has done through him ‘to win obedience from the Gentiles’ (15: 18).

  These verses in Romans 15 show not only that Paul thought of himself as emissary to the Gentiles, but that he thought of himself in this way within a given context: a context both in history and, more important, in God’s plan. God planned it in advance: he sent his Son partly in order to bring in the Gentiles. In converting Gentiles, Paul had been fulfilling a ‘priestly’ ministry, and he was now bringing them as an ‘offering’ to Jerusalem, where the temple was. We know from what world-view, or view of saving history, that comes. It is the long-held Jewish expectation that, in the final days, Gentiles would come to worship the God of Is
rael. They would come to Mount Zion bearing gifts, or offerings, and they would come bringing themselves to serve God. This is the second half of a standard Jewish expectation about the end: God would first restore Israel, and then Gentiles would come in. In chapter 15 Paul quotes a catena of passages from the Jewish Scripture which express the hope that the Gentiles will come to worship the God of Israel. Paul saw himself as the agent of this, the second half of the divine plan. His job description was this: Apostle to the Gentiles in the Messianic Era.