Spreading The Gospel

1
Spreading The Gospel

• New Influences, New Meaning

2
The Timeline of Acts

• 35-36 AD - Crucifixion, Resurrection and
  Pentecostal Experience
• 36-39 AD - A Great many Priests and
  Greeks join the Brethren
• - First Missionary efforts to Samaria
• - Saul of Tarsus persecutes the Way
• -The Brethren scatter to Cyprus,
  North Africa, and Lebanon -
  Pauls 1st conversion experience

3
New Testament Timeline (continued)

• 39-41AD -The Word spreads widely
• 41-44 AD - Herod Agrippa becomes King of the
  Jews and persecutes the Way. James is
  martyred.
• 45-46 AD - Paul travels to Antioch, where
  they are called Christians
• 47-48 AD - Pauls 1st Missionary Journey
• 49-50 AD - The Brethren are excluded from
  synagogues Jerusalem Council on Pauls
  Gospel

4
New Testament Timeline (continued)

• 50-52 AD -The Jews are expelled from Rome for
  rioting over Chrestus
• - Pauls 2nd Missionary Journey
• 53-54 AD - Pauls 3rd Missionary Journey
• 55-58 AD - Zealots wreak havoc in Jerusalem
• - Paul returns to Jerusalem
• 60-62 AD - Paul awaits trial in Rome
• - James the Just is assassinated

5
The Roman-Jewish War (65-68 AD)

• - High Priest Annas II is deposed and then
  murdered in the Temple
• - The Holy Ones of the Poor under Simeon flee
  first to Galillee, and then to Gilead
• - The Roman Army sweeps through Galilee and
  Judea, camping outside Jerusalem
• - Nero commits suicide, his army stalls
  out- side Jerusalem for two years before finally
  sacking the city and its temple.

6
Cause and Effect in the Gospels

• Emergence of three factions of the Way ---
  Peter, Barnabas and the Greeks
• James the Just and the pious priests
• Paul and his Christians
• What began as a Jewish Reform Movement became a
  new religion
• Each had their own interpretation of calling,
  baptism, meal rituals, and Jesus

7
Differences of Interpretation

• Mission a holy remnant Lost Sheep and pagan
  Gentiles
• Baptism a purity ritual Johns Baptism (for
  atonement) forgiveness of sins
• Communal Meal a seder for Jews only for all
  God-fearers open to pagans as well
• Jesus the final judge the Righteous Prophet of
  the Word Lord and Savior
• Other daily Temple worship foot-washing the
  holy kiss

8
Jesus is Lordmantra of a new religion

• Caesar Augustus and his successors were called
  Lord, Savior, and son of God
• Paul applied these terms to Jesus in open
  mockery of the religion of Caesar worship.
• 3 times Jews had successfully resisted the power
  of those who wanted to be Lord.
• No Kingdom but Gods, no Lord but Yahweh was
  the slogan of the Zealots.

9
Jesus is Lord the fault line of faith

• Jesus followers may have thought of Him as the
  messianic Adonai (my Lord), but would never
  have called him LORD.
• son of God was a traditional term for any holy
  man whose prayers were answered.
• The Poor believed Jesus was adopted by God at his
  baptism by John the Baptist.
• Jesus is Lord is why the Brethren were expelled
  from the Jewish synagogues.

10
Reading Between the Lines of Acts

• Acts 9 20-22 Paul at Damascus is the first to
  call Jesus son of God and Christ a Greek
  term meaning Gods anointed.
• Acts 13 4-12 on Cyprus he seems to have had a
  second conversion, changing his name to Paul and
  abandoning the mission to Jews in the synagogues
  to a more concerted effort to convert pagan
  Gentiles to his gospel.
• Acts 13 23 Paul refers to Jesus as Savior.
  Jews didnt need a Savior Gentiles did.

11
The Controversy Over Pauls Gospel

• Acts 13 13 John leaves Cyprus to report on
  Paul to the Jerusalem Brethren
• Acts 15 1-21 Is Pauls Gospel or the
  acceptance of Gentiles on trial at the
  Jerusalem Conference?
• Acts 15 22-35 Gentiles accepted if they
  follow the Noahide food laws Paul is forbidden
  to preach his gospel to established (Jewish)
  congregations.

12
Paul Finds a New Way

• Acts 15 36 16 10 Paul is dogged by Jewish
  spies, splits with Barnabas, and, guided by the
  Spirit, sets out for Greece.
• Acts 16 11 Luke joins Pauls team
• Acts 21 17-36 After successful travels in
  Greece Paul returns to Jerusalem with the tribute
  of his congregations. His presence in the city
  stirs up a huge uproar among both Jews and the
  Brethren.

13
The Interface Between Jews and Gentiles

• God-fearers Gentile proselytes worshipped
  with Jews in their synagogues
• Josephus reports Gentiles out-numbered the Jews
  in the synagogues of Antioch.
• Jews of the Diaspora and Gentiles shared a common
  ritual and commemorative meal in the Greek burial
  societies.
• Gal. 2 11-13 Paul is shunned by Peter and
  Barnabas for eating with pagans.

14
Mithra Worship the number two religion in the
Roman Empire

• Worship of Mithra, the Persian sun god, the deity
  of light and wisdom in the Zoroastrian pantheon,
  combined elements of hero worship, mythology, and
  dualism.
• Mithra was said to have been cradled in a manger,
  heralded by shepherds, born on December 25, and
  the son of an earthly mother and a divine father.

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Parallels with Mithra Worship

• As he grew to manhood, Mithra became the champion
  of all that was good (chrestos) in an epic battle
  against the dark forces of evil.
• Mithra first captured and then sacrificed a
  sacred bull, whose blood was said to bring
  eternal life to his followers.
• Novitiates to Mithra worship drank the blood of a
  bull from a chalice to celebrate that they had
  been reborn into eternity by its sacrifice.

16
Other Pagan Parallels in Pauls Gospel

• Pauls native city of Tarsus was the center of
  Mithra worship.
• The mystery god Baal-Taraz, who died a
  sacrificial death and was resurrected, was the
  namesake and protector of Tarsus.
• Worshippers of the hanged god Attis in Cilecia
  (Tarsus) believed that his sacrifice and
  resurrection fertilized their fields.

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Did Paul Invent Christianity Pagan cults?

• No. Instead he merely borrowed themes an images
  that would have been familiar to his audience to
  explain his own religious experiences of
  conversion and salvation.
• This was a common rhetorical tactic.
• His message was meant to convert Gentiles from
  meaningless emperor and pagan worship to a real
  resurrected Lord, son of God, and Savior.

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Example The Communion Ritual

• Mark 14 22-24 And as they were eating, he took
  bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it
  to them, saying, Take, this is my body. And he
  took a cup, and when he had given thanks . . . He
  said to them, This is my blood of the new
  covenant, which is poured out for many.
• Matthew 26 28 adds, for the forgiveness of
  sins.

19
Communion in the Gospels

• Luke 22 19 has been doctored to add in more
  ritual after This is my body.
• John omits the meal ritual, but has a long I Am
  the Bread of Life pronouncement that ends he
  who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in
  me, and I in him (6 35-58).
• There is no indication of a comparable ritual or
  saying in Thomas or the hypothetical Q.

20
Pauls Communion Ritual

• 1 Cor. 11 23-26 For I received from the Lord
  what I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on
  the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he
  had given thanks, he broke it, saying, This is
  my body which is broken for you. Do this in
  remembrance of me. In the same way also He
  took the cup, after supper saying, this cup is
  the new covenant in my blood, Do this as often as
  you drink it, in remembrance of me.

21

• Paul received the ritual directly from Jesus (in
  a vision), not from the disciples.
• Did Paul purposely emphasize the drinking of
  blood to make the meal offensive to Jews in
  retaliation for their making it a seder?
• An Aramaic would express his struggle to bring
  forth his lifes calling by saying that he really
  ate his flesh and drank his blood.
• Isnt the message of Pauls communion that that
  the open table was a symbol of Jesus lifes work
  a mission that He wanted His disciples to carry
  on?