Paul have been the authoritative teacher and influencer in Christianity. The New Testament is the section of the Bible which contain the material that direct teach us something about Jesus, is a collective of 27 books.
Out of the 27 books, 14 books are authored by Paul. The rest of the books are mainly written after Paul. The four Gospels Mathew, Mark, Luke and John were also written after Saint Paul.
Paul letters in the Testament show us what Paul was thinking and debating about, and what issues he had to deal within his days.
Paul will go to a place and teach people his own Gospels because there is no Mathew, Mark, Luke and John at that time, later when Paul left the city some other teachers will come and teach something different, then Paul will write a letter to them condemning them turning to what Paul called a different Gospel. For example in his letter too Galatians Paul says: "Oh foolish Galatians, how quickly you turn away from which I thought you and you are accepting a different Gospel."
Today we do not have the writing of those people who are teaching other Gospels, we do not have from that early group of Christians any surviving documents that teach a particular Gospel. So there was another Gospel flooding around, there was another teaching which the teachers called Gospel, and what these teachers did is to go to a regime where Paul was already teaching and converts the people from what them believe to be the true Gospel.
Who are these people? Are they authoritative? Shall we trust them?
We do not have any direct evidence as who these people was, or what there name was, but we have some indirect evidence in Paul's writings after he condemn his opponent by saying; these teachers of the Law, these people who insist upon circumcision's, they tried to teach a different Gospel, the teach to observe Sabath and so on.
Now you can get the image of these people without knowing their names, you know that they are people who practice the antient Jews Law and you know that they are insisting that circumcision is part of the religion teaching, and insisting that it most be done. Their names are not mentioned, but you can see that these people are the people who observe the Sabath as a holy day for worship and prayers.
However, there's one occasion where Paul revealed the names of his opponent, in his letter to Galatians Paul refers to his opponents as Peter, James and John. Here we can see that these are the people teaching the other Gospel apart from what Paul is teaching.
Who was Peter?
According to the Gospel of Mathew Peter was a very close disciple of Jesus, whom Jesus says he will build his Church upon. In fact Peter was not his name, his name was Simon, and Jesus says Simon you are the rock where i will build my church. So Peter was the foundation, and if you want to find what the religion of Jesus is, you will go to Peter.
Who was James?
James according to Acts of the Apostle was the leader of the first Christians church in Jerusalem. In fact according to the Bible James was a brother of Jesus. So if you want to know what teaching Jesus left behind you will go to Peter or James.
Who was John?.
John according to the Bible John was one the disciple of Jesus, and a very close disciple. When Jesus had anything private to deal with, he will have three person with him Peter, James and John.
These are the main people to teach the teaching left by Jesus. Paul realize this, in his letter to Galatians Paul refers to them as the pillars of the church , but not that he consider them to be the pillars or influential. Paul says "And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) -those, i say, who seemed influential added nothing to me" (Galatians 2:6). Paul doesn't consider them to have that position anymore, and that means nothing to him. You may think now Paul is very special to judge all these all people.
Who was Paul
Paul as we know from the New Testament was not the follower of Jesus while Jesus walk on the earth, there's no occasion that Paul met Jesus Christ personally.
Christians believe that Jesus had an occasion of conversion, that he saw Jesus appearing to him as a a spirit preacher and gave him a message to reach to the world.
Paul become a disciple of Jesus not by meeting Jesus during his life time but by having a vision of Jesus Christ from the sky after Jesus has been already taken up by God.
The book of Acts of the Apostle says that Paul had some other people with him, but the story was not consistent on what happen to the these people. Another report says they are standing hearing, while another report says when all these happened they fell to the ground.
After Paul saw this vision he went direct to Damascus and met a man named Ananias. This man had been visiting by Jesus also, meaning Jesus also appeared to him and told him that Paul is coming to you and i have appoint him as my disciple to take my teaching forward.
Post a Comment