TSIYON NEWS

From Eliyahu

 

Consider this:

 

A lot of people think they know Paul the apostle, while being totally wrong about him. Others have reinterpreted Paul's words to represent him as saying and doing things that have nothing to do with what he actually said and did. This is not a new problem. Way back in the 1st Century AD Peter wrote:

 

Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.  2 Peter 3:15-16

 

Peter seems to be referring to the problem of people twisting the letters of Paul. Indeed, a careful comparison of Paul's letters as translated in most English translations, with the account of Paul's words and deeds in the book of Acts, can be a real head-scratcher.

 

Paul's letters, as they appear in most English Bibles, are used to support the idea that Paul was against the Jews and against the Torah. Also, that he was somehow in conflict with James and the apostles in Jerusalem over these issues. In this view, Paul is presented as the most enlightened apostle, and James and the other apostles are, well, slow learners, at best. This is strange indeed, given that Yeshua Himself choose those other apostles, and trained and walked with them for years! How is it that Paul, who never knew Yeshua when He walked among His own here on earth, was so much smarter and better than those who had Messiah's personal hands-on training? Frankly, this view of Paul seems to defy logic.

 

What if none of that is true? What if Paul has been misrepresented through ignorance and deception regarding Paul's letters, just as Peter said? What if Paul actually loved his Jewish brothers, loved and kept the Torah commandments, and far from being in conflict with James and the other apostles, was actually part of their ministry team? In truth, it is this latter picture that's presented in the book of Acts, as we have seen in our study of Paul in those pages.

How is it possible to draw 2 completely different narratives regarding Paul from the same Bible? In a quote in a recent Fast Track video, we saw this answer:

 

Flacius discovered "blemishes" in Justin's theology, which he attributed to the influence of pagan philosophers; and in modern times Semler and S.G. Lange have made him (Justin) out a thorough Hellene ... Albrecht Ritschl has argued that it was precisely because he (Justin) was a Gentile Christian that he did not fully understand the Old Testament foundation of Paul's teaching, and explained in this way the modified character of his Paulinism and his legal mode of thought. Engelhardt has attempted to extend this line of treatment to Justin's entire theology, and to show that his conceptions of God, of free will and righteousness, of redemption, grace, and merit prove the influence of the cultivated Greek pagan world of the 2nd century, dominated by the Platonic and Stoic philosophy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Martyr)

 

Justin Martyr was the first of the so-called "Church Fathers" who established himself as such by breaking away from all things Jewish. This was very early, around the middle of the 2nd Century AD. As the above quote explains, Justin did not understand Paul's grounding in the Torah, so instead, reinterpreted Paul's letters from a mindset of Platonic and Stoic philosophy, in which Justin was well schooled. The Church father's who followed Justin took his misrepresentations of Paul's words as their own. This now-ancient Gentile misrepresentation of Paul, rooted in Greek philosophy, has dominated Christian theology ever since. This twisted representation of Paul's letters has made its way into translations of the Bible, because even the best translators cannot correctly translate Paul without knowing and understanding the Torah basis from which Paul wrote. Since Christians largely ignore, if not reject the Torah, it is not surprising this error is endlessly replicated in Christian Bible translations. I have demonstrated key mistranslations of Paul from English Bibles on numerous occasions, and over time, I want to unpack each one of his letters, verse by verse. Paul was a Torah scholar, demonstrated in all he wrote.    

 

Until then, the book of Acts tells the true story of Paul, and shows us who he really was. Nowhere in Acts is this more true than Acts 21. This chapter of Acts is absolutely devastating to Justin's misrepresentation of  Paul's words!  We will be diving deeply into this hornet's nest at tonight's Tsiyon Meeting. Join us tonight at Tsiyon.Net at 8:00 PM CST to clear out the Justinian cobwebs that have distorted the message of Paul since the 2nd Century right down to our day.

 

Blessings and good health to you!

 

Eliyahu
Tsiyon.Org

 

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