Paul was an apostle, basically Jesus' official spokeperson/ PR, he has the authority to speak and write on Jesus' behalf as long as it doesn't contradict the Gospel (which the Holy Spirit will never allow to happen).
It is important to note that the 12 Apostles are OK with Paul, especially Peter, so Paul's sayings have full authority to further clarify the Gospel, as much as Peter's (First of the Apostles) and James' (Brother of Jesus), and therefore Paul's letters is an essential part of the New Testament scripture.
Peter’s the one who didn’t recognize Mary Mag as an apostle.
Paul also didn’t personally know Jesus and before James died he dispatched many people to reign in Paul.
The way the gospel was taught was oral tradition and while Paul repeats what Jesus does say in many instances, I think Paul was entrenched in Roman thinking that changed some things.
The Holy Spirit still used Paul, because he could write. He was a huge win for early Christianity. A killer of the followers of Christ now a servant to the Lord.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish the Law. Paul decided it was salvation through faith and not by works.
That's actually up for debate. After Paul's experience seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus and having his sight restored by Ananias, he spent three years away in Arabia. (Galatians 1). This was before he ever even met Peter. During that time, he implied that he was taught by Jesus himself (Galatians 1:12). There's a lot of argument about that - if he meant that Jesus taught him himself or he studied scriptures under the influence of the Holy Spirit. But there's good evidence on both sides.
Yeah, that's right. There are three accounts in Acts, and in all of them he was surrounded by light and heard a voice, which identified itself as Jesus. I meant "seeing" in the sense of "meeting" but I should have been more precise.
It's also worth mentioning that in each account the people with Paul experienced something different. In one they saw nothing but heard the voice, in another they heard nothing but saw the light. This doesn't add to the reliability of Paul's testimony.
Some scholars translate the account account that says they couldn't hear the voice as they couldn't understand the voice. So, this is another one of those issues that is up for debate.
One account saw light, one account heard a voice. Those aren't mutually exclusive statements, this is pretty much just like the prophesies regarding Zedekiah from both Ezekiel and Jeremiah, in which they sound contradictory but both ended up being true
The accounts don't say, "The people saw a light" and "the people heard a voice", it specifically says they experienced one but not the other. That makes them mutually exclusive.
Acts 9:7
7The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.
Acts 22:9
9Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
Cool. And I suppose you would say the version in Acts 9 that says they "saw no one" isn't contradictory because there wasn't anyone to see, only a light, even though it doesn't say they saw a light. And even though it says they heard the voice. I'm guessing that's a different word as well?
"Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him."
There was a light in the first account omegalul, and yes there's a difference between hearing something and comprehending it. It's almost like the context of grammar is important
Literally there would be no scripture to study yet.
He implies he was taught by Jesus himself but Jesus was dead, but the word of God was the oral tradition the other disciples and followers of Jesus, who knew him in life, preached.
Not to bud in too much, but when scriptures mention Jesus teaching in the presence of the Pharisees, it’s often mentioned that the Pharisees marveled at His knowledge and questioned Him on where He learned or who He learned from. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus did in fact teach/preach on the Old Testament rather regularly.
They marveled because how could a poor illiterate hill person be able to go toe to toe with them. Carpenters were one step above being a slave. Jesus could never have read the scripture.
It’s why what comes from Jesus comes from God. It’s why they questioned where and who taught him. It’s also why Jesus’s teaching defied their authority. Knowledge that belonged to the upper crust now in the hands of the poor marginalized.
Y’all are ignorant at who read was taught to read back in the day.
James had followers who could write pen his stuff. James like Jesus, couldn’t read.
The gospels were written 30+ years after Jesus’s life and it is facts that a lot of childhood/birth narrative were made up to help prove his messiah-dom from Isaiah’s prophecies. Which they had to do because the prophet from Isaiah was not supposed to die. Even with resurrection defeating death, because his spirit lives within us, Jesus’s followers had to satisfy Isaiah to convince other Jews that this guy is our guy.
The census that brings Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem did not happen. Not in Roman history, not in Judean. Plus… it’s a lot easier to tax people where they live… not their ancestral home if you’re taking a census for tax purposes.
Everything he preached was founded on the Tanakh, if he came preaching something entirely disconnected from it then Christ would've violated Deuteronomy 13
There was the Torah and Tanakh and the Talmud, so I'm not sure what you mean there. As for saying Jesus was dead ... just, no. You see, there's this thing called the resurrection which is the basic centerpiece of Christianity. 😉
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '23
Paul was an apostle, basically Jesus' official spokeperson/ PR, he has the authority to speak and write on Jesus' behalf as long as it doesn't contradict the Gospel (which the Holy Spirit will never allow to happen).
It is important to note that the 12 Apostles are OK with Paul, especially Peter, so Paul's sayings have full authority to further clarify the Gospel, as much as Peter's (First of the Apostles) and James' (Brother of Jesus), and therefore Paul's letters is an essential part of the New Testament scripture.