Defending the Apostle Paul: Part 4

Paul’s Character:

It appears that even the Apostle Paul’s character is questionable. There are a number of passages which appear to suggest he was not, at least in his direct interactions with others living out of a Torah observant lifestyle. Again, before we look at this ‘conflicting evidence’, let us consider the supporting evidence.

His words such as the Corinthians love chapter, his Ephesians exhortation on marriage, his statement on peaceable living in Romans 12 and the brilliant description in Romans 9-11 of how Gentiles can be grafted into the cultivated Olive Tree of Israel are, in my opinion amongst the most beautiful and powerful words ever written and continue to be amongst the most quoted words in history. 

Add to this his summation of the commandments of God in Gal 5:14 which is also brilliant, even though just a rewording of some of Leviticus 19 (essentially, he repeats like Yeshua, that for those who love God – i.e. those who adhere to the first 5 Words of the 10 Commandments, are to also love their neighbour – the second 5 Words).

Here he stated:  “For the whole Torah is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

Here are a few quotes from Acts and Peter’s epistles that, at least to some degree speak to the character of Paul:

“But Sha’ul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?” - Acts 13:9-10

“As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.” - Acts 13:42-43

“So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.” - Acts 14:3

“But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.” - Acts 14:14-15

“… it seemed good unto us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,” - Acts 15:25

“Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a believer?" Paul replied, "Short time or long--I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains." - Acts 26:28

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” - Acts 17:11

“As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Yeshua I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah, " he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.” - Acts 17:2-4

“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.
Indeed, he speaks about these things in all his letters. They contain some things that are hard to understand, things which the uninstructed and unstable distort, to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.[1] - 2 Peter 3:15-16

While perhaps not as reliable a witness to his own character as the words of his contemporaries, he did speak to his character a number of times:

“For it is we who are the Circumcised, we who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in the Messiah Yeshua! We do not put confidence in human qualifications, even though I certainly have grounds for putting confidence in such things.

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for putting confidence in human qualifications, I have better grounds: circumcised on the eighth day, by birth belonging to the people of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents, in regard to the Torah, a Pharisee, in regard to zeal, a persecutor of the Messianic Community of Yeshua, in regard to the righteousness which in Torah, found blameless”[2] - Phil 3:3-6

“Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” - Philippians 3:17

“Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” - 1 Corinthians 4: 16, 17

“Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” - Philippians 4:9

“because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.” - 1 Thessalonians 1: 5-7

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Messiah Yeshua. I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings, just as I passed them on to you.” - 1 Corinthians 11:1-2

“In the name of the Lord Messiah Yeshua, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. - 2 Thessalonians 3:6-9

“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” - 1 Timothy 4:13

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith of Messiah Yeshua. - 2 Timothy 3:15

“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” - Romans 15:4

“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” - 1 Corinthians 15:9 -11

“In my earlier letter I wrote you not to associate with people who engage in sexual immorality. I didn't mean the sexually immoral people outside your community, or the greedy, or the thieves or the idol-worshippers - for then you would have to leave the world altogether! No, what I wrote you was not to associate with anyone who is supposedly a brother but who also engages in sexual immorality, is greedy, worships idols, is abusive, gets drunk or steals. With such a person you shouldn't even eat! For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Isn't it those who are part of the community that you should be judging? God will judge those who are outside. Just expel the evildoer from among yourselves”. 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13

Paul was from the Diaspora: 

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city and trained at the feet of Gamli'el in every detail of the Torah of our forefathers. I was a zealot for God, as all of you are today.” (Acts 22:3).

Note that it is Luke who is writing and confirming this. Being from the Diaspora gives some insight into why Paul would originally have been less likely to have known about Yeshua and why he was better equipped than most to be an emissary to the Gentiles.

This should also help explain how he had such a great understanding of the Hellenistic philosophies of his day such as Platonism, Stoicism, and Cynicism. This understanding is very evident in his Colossians and Philippians epistles.

I discuss this in my ‘Colossians 2:16 and the Sabbath’ and my ‘Re-evaluating Philippians 3’ articles.

Coming next: 
The new understanding regarding Gentiles 

or if you can't wait download the book here

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[1] Many scholars question the authenticity of 2 Peter. If Peter was the author, it seems unlikely (given the chronology) that he would have seen all of Paul’s epistles, though the ‘all’ here need only refer to those Peter has read or heard about. The fact that Peter both calls Paul a ‘beloved brother’ and acknowledges some difficulty in the interpretation of Paul’s epistles does I believe lend some credence to this letter. I seriously doubt though that Peter would have implied that Paul’s epistles were indeed ‘Scripture’ though, especially as Paul clearly did not see his own efforts as such.

[2] You might ask how can someone (Paul) guilty of complicity in the murder of some of his fellow Jews consider himself blameless? As a Torah observant Jew, he would have understood that through Yom Teruah, the Days of Awe and Yom Kippur, he could repent and be forgiven and thus stand blameless before the Almighty. For more of this see Podcasts at Global Truth International such as 'From Awe and Atonement'