Jayco

I'm interested in the historicity that Paul was Jewish. What do mainstream Christians think and who has the facts?

Javaman

I found Hyam Maccoby's argument compelling that Paul was not a Pharisee but still a Jew. I've promoted them before but I liked both Wilson's Paul: The Mind of the Apostle and Maccobys The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity for learning more.

Toto

Our only source of information on Paul is the New Testament. Paul claims in his letters to be Jewish. He uses Jewish imagery and quotes the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.) It might seem strange that he did not quote the Hebrew Scriptures in Hebrew, and that his letters were written in Greek, but many Jews at that time spoke Greek.

There are people who claim that he was not a very learned Jew, and that some of his translations are not the best, but I've never seen anyone present a case that Paul was not in some sense Jewish.

Clouseau

'I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.' Rom 11:1 NIV

'Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.' Acts 9:1-2 NIV

'Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."

At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"

Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest ?"

Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest ; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'"

Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee."' Acts 23:1-6 NIV

'Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.' Phil 3:4-6 NIV

'I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.' Rom 9:3-4 NIV

Baalazel

Maccoby makes the case in chapter nine of The Mythmaker that Paul was a Gentile convert to Judaism. Discussing the influence of Gnosticism on Pauls theology he says this referring to Paul in Romans 7:14-8: 1.

“In style, terminology, and content Paul’s declaration can be paralleled
in the writings of the Gnostics.”

“Thus Paul’s espousal of this philosophy shows him to be not only
unPharisaic, but unJewish, for not only Pharisaism but every variety
of Judaism opposed it.”

“ but it needs to be supplemented by the further insight that Paul identifies
himself so completely with the situation he describes that he can not be
regarded as a Pharisee empathizing with the Gentiles, but instead must be
recognized as a Gentile himself, i.e. as a Gentile convert to Judaism.”

Understanding Paul is not easy, but knowing that the creator of Christianity was neither born nor raised a Jew allows us some greater insight into his character.

Baal

gurugeorge

There's another theory from a school of radical biblical scholarship that thinks he may have been a Samaritan, and that the Saul=Paul equation is a later invention (involving the fabrication of some pseudo-history in Acts and a little bit of interpolation in the Epistles). This would also fit in with the almost-Jewish-but-not-quite vibe other scholars mentioned above have detected. See: The Falsified Paul: Early Christianity in the Twilight.

Solo

Epiphanius' Panarion (30.16.6-9) quotes the Ebionite heretics as teaching that Paul was a Greek who converted to Judaism to marry a daughter of a high priest and when his suit failed he turned against the Law. Hyam Maccoby believed that garbled as the Epiphanius account may be, it nonetheless presented something of a "real Paul - a tormented adventurer, threading his way by guile through a series of stormy episodes, and setting up a form of religion that was his own individual creation". (The Mythmaker, p. 183)

Jiri

Doug Shaver

Mainstream Christians think he was a Jew.

From his writings, it seems to be a fact that Paul claimed to be a Jew. I am aware of no other facts that imply he was being dishonest when he made that assertion. To my way of thinking, that settles it.

Timetospend

Unfortunately, the only information concerning Paul comes from the NT and on interpretation/speculation concerning what is written in it. The speculation includes sources that Paul is just about anything that can be imagined. Yet, the NT is clear that he was a Jew and does not suggest that he was anything else. If one anaylzes long enough, one can convince oneself of just about anything if that analysis is not based in something of substance. Off to the Milky Way!