When we think about the origin of Christianity, we cannot but ask these two questions; "Who was Jesus?" and "Who was the founder of Christianity, Jesus or Paul?". Traditional Christianity seemed to make their foundation on Paul's gospel rather than Je...
When we think about the origin of Christianity, we cannot but ask these two questions; "Who was Jesus?" and "Who was the founder of Christianity, Jesus or Paul?". Traditional Christianity seemed to make their foundation on Paul's gospel rather than Jesus' religion. Paul considered Jesus Christ and His salvation as a core of his proclamation, but scarcely quoted Jesus' sayings and works except His death and the Resurrection. So some critics conclude that Paul did not know Jesus' traditions nor concerned historical Jesus. But this thesis investigates whom Jesus Christ was Paul believed in and propagated, on the basis of texts from Paul's epistles referring to historical Jesus.
In the process of development of Christology and the quest of historical Jesus, Paul was misunderstood and underestimated because studies of Paul's text were insufficient. Recent studies of historical Jesus have constituted the image of Jesus only with canonical Gospels, and their results are not different from biographies of Jesus, which overflowed in the early 19th century. Also, Paul's epistles have been used to protect the orthodox dogma and to adjust Jesus to the dogmatic frame, without an accurate commentary.
It is required that scholars of the historical Jesus should examine Paul's epistles comparing with other materials. Without studies of Paul, the quest of historical Jesus cannot be complete. Studies of Paul allow us to approach the period when Jesus lived.
Next, we can reconstruct Jesus Christ whom Paul propagated, by collecting scattered texts in Paul's epistles; Jesus was a man(Ro 5:15, 1Co 15:21) and a Jew(Ro 9:5), born of a women under law(Gal 4:4), a seed of Abraham(Gal 3:16) and a descendant of David(Ro 1:3). He had brothers(1Co 9:5), one of them was named James(Gal 1:19), and He had become a servant to the circumcision(Ro 15:8). He gave an instruction about the marriage(1Co 7:10-11) and the Eucharist(1Co 11:23-26). He became obedient to death(Php 2:6-11) and was crucified(1Co 2:2). After the death, He was raised from the dead by the power of God(Ro 1:4), and became the first fruits of those who had fallen asleep(1Co 15:20). He was witnessed by a lot of people(1Co 15:3-8) and became Christ who would come again at the end of the world(1Th 4:14).
In conclusion, Jesus Christ Paul propagated through his epistles should not be separated from historical Jesus that Paul was familiar with and accepted. According to Paul, Jesus' Resurrection was absolutely dependent upon God and Jesus was not same as God, which is different from the viewpoint of later Christology. Now we had better reconsider the relation between the historical Jesus and Paul's faith of Christ.