Chris Weimer

Someone somewhere mentioned that since Paul was a Jew, that his works are still considered "Jewish". Does that even follow logically? If so, why does Paul talk about preaching Christ to the Jews? Why make the distinction of followers of Christ, Jew, and Gentile? I think we can definitely put the Pauline corpus and subsequent works in the Christian period, where Christian is defined as a set of beliefs branching off from Judaism and considering itself separate.

mikem

Depends what is meant by "Jewish". Paul's letters have a very Jewish stamp to them, and that is one of the reasons that I accept the consensus of the majority of scholars about which letters ar Pauline, and which not. Paul is a Jew in rebellion, but he is also deeply concerned about his fellow Jews. He does not seem to regard Christianity as a new religion, but as the fulfilment of the Jewish faith. Read passages like chapters 11 to 16 of Romans and you get a sense of the conflict he is going through because his fellow Jews by and large have rejected the one that he considers to be their Messiah. In Romans chater 9 he speaks of his anguish that his people have rejected Christ, and goes on to say

"They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the Patriarchs, and of their race according to the flesh, is the Christ".

These are not the words of a man who has rejected Judaism!

Elsewhere he boasts of his credentials as a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin, faultless as to the law.

In many of his writngs, the Xtian Paul seems to be in dialogue with his Jewish side, trying to reconcile the two. He is trying to make sense of his revelation of Christ within the framework of Judaism.