Early Church Views on Paul

1. Surprisingly Negative on Close Exam: Luke in Acts Circa 80 A.D.

Most Christians have been trained to assume Luke is only praising Paul in Acts. However, there is so much damaging information about Paul in Acts when read carefully, many scholars (e.g., John Knox) now see an anti-Paul agenda to Luke's work. Knox believes that Luke intended Acts to bring Paul down a notch to undermine Marcion's Paul-only movement of 144 A.D. See John Knox, Marcion and the New Testament: An Essay in the Early History of the Canon(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1942) at 114-39.) On Marcionism, see our webpage summarizing it.

However, I prefer to think of it as objectivity. Clearly Luke gave much evidence in Paul's favor as well as much harmful information on Paul's legitimacy.

A. Luke Negative On Paul's Apostleship Coming From Jesus Christ

For example, while Paul claimed Jesus appointed himself (Paul) an apostle of Jesus Christ, in none of the three vision accounts - evidently which Luke heard from Paul and recorded in Acts 9, 22 and 26 -- does Luke identify Jesus making Paul His apostle. Jesus appoints Paul solely as a "witness" -- a martus in Greek. Jesus never says that Paul will be His apostle.

Also in Acts 1, Luke says Judas's replacement as an apostle is Matthias, not Paul.

As a result, scholars note that in "Acts...Paul is denied the title of Apostle." (Martin Hengel, Anna M. Schwemer, Paul between Damascus and Antioch: the unknown years (Westminster John Knox Press, 1997) at 321 n. 3.)

B. Luke Exposes Paul's Disobedience to Holy Spirit Which Led To Temple's Desecration

Furthermore, we discuss elsewhere that Luke records in Acts 21:28-29; 24:6, 13, 18; and 25:7-8 that the post-conversion Paul defied the message of the Holy Spirit not to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4). As a result, on that trip Paul's Gentile companion, Trophimus, ends up defiling the Temple. Trophimus became an uncircumcised Gentile in the Holy Place. Luke records, although few seek to emphasize this fact, that Trophimus, an Ephesian passed the middle wall that kept Gentiles out of the sacred area of the Temple. Trophimus obviously trusted Paul who wrote to the Ephesians that Christ tore down that same barrier at the Temple and now uncircumcised Gentiles were implicitly free to enter. See Eph. 2:14-15. See our in depth discussion about Trophimus' actions at this link.

Jesus, to the contrary, taught in 33 A.D. that Ezekiel's warning that an uncircumcised Gentile in the Temple was an "abomination" (Ez. 44:9) was still a valid principle because Jesus said Daniel's prophecy of an abomination standing in the Temple was still in the future tense. (Matt. 24:15-16.) This means Luke exposes to us that Paul was responsible in a spiritual sense for an abomination of the Temple of God in 58 A.D. Paul told Ephesians like Trophimus that the middle barrier no longer applied after Christ's resurrection. But Jesus warned the abomination of desolation -- an uncircumcised Gentile standing in the Holy Place as Daniel identified it -- was coming. This means had Paul truly known of Jesus's message, and was obedient to the Holy Spirit, Paul never would have uttered the words we read in Eph. 2:14-15 or gone to the Temple at Jerusalem when God told Paul not to do so. (Acts 21:4.) Paul disobeyed God, as Luke reveals, and the result of Paul's disobedience is that his travelling companion -- Trophimus -- defiled God's Temple.

Luke in fairness to Paul points out that Paul denied he escorted Trophimus into the sacred area, but that was little consolation to soften the bigger fact which Luke exposes -- Paul defied God's own instructions to Paul not to got to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4) on a trip that ended up in Paul's traveling companion defiling the Temple.

Hence, Luke was giving us a fair portrait of Paul -- giving the good along with the very bad.

2. Early Church Leaders Who Do Not Even Know of Paul's Works

"Justin [103-65 A.D.] took no notice of Paul...." (Encyclopedia Biblica.) Papias (a disciple of Apostle John) from 130 A.D. too never once quotes Paul. See JWO: 326.

3. Tertullian, 207 A.D.- Highly Critical Analysis

In 207 A.D., Tertullian in Against Marcion -- quoted at length in Jesus' Words Only at 395 (see this link to read it in full) -- made the following sobering points about Paul:

• Jesus never made Paul an apostle from the records that we can read.
• Paul's claim to apostleship solely relies upon Paul's veracity.
• If Paul were a true apostle, he is still an inferior apostle because Paul in Acts 15 submitted his doctrine to the twelve.
• If Paul later varied from the twelve, we must regard the twelve as more authoritative than Paul because Paul came later.
• Paul's claim of being selected as an apostle later by Jesus seems implausible. That story asks us to believe Jesus had not planned things adequately with the twelve.
• Lastly, Tertullian said Jesus warned us of false prophets who would come doing miracles in His name and signs and wonders, and Paul perfectly matches that prophesied type of prophet.

The key quote with most of these points is the following passage from Tertullian -- written in 207 A.D. in Against Marcion:

I desire to hear from Marcion the origin of Paul the apostle. I am a sort of new disciple, having had instruction from no other teacher. For the moment my only belief is that nothing ought to be believed without good reason, and that is believed without good reason which is believed without knowledge of its origin: and I must with the best of reasons approach this inquiry with uneasiness when I find one affirmed to be an apostle, of whom in the list of the apostles in the gospel I find no trace. So when I am told that he [i.e., Paul] was subsequently promoted by our Lord, by now at rest in heaven, I find some lack of foresight in the fact that Christ did not know beforehand that he would have need of him, but after setting in order the office of apostleship and sending them out upon their duties, considered it necessary, on an impulse and not by deliberation, to add another, by compulsion so to speak and not by design [i.e., on the Road to Damascus]. So then, shipmaster out of Pontus [i.e., Marcion], supposing you have never accepted into your craft any smuggled or illicit merchandise, have never appropriated or adulterated any cargo, and in the things of God are even more careful and trustworthy, will you please tell us under what bill of lading you accepted Paul as apostle, who had stamped him with that mark of distinction, who commended him to you, and who put him in your charge? Only so may you with confidence disembark him [i.e., Paul]: only so can he avoid being proved to belong to him who has put in evidence all the documents that attest his apostleship. He [i.e., Paul] himself, says Marcion, claims to be an apostle, and that not from men nor through any man, but through Jesus Christ. Clearly any man can make claims for himself: but his claim is confirmed by another person’s attestation. One person writes the document, another signs it, a third attests the signature, and a fourth enters it in the records. No man is for himself both claimant and witness. Besides this, you have found it written that many will come and say, I am Christ. If there is one that makes a false claim to be Christ, much more can there be one who professes that he is an apostle of Christ.... [L]et the apostle, belong to your other god:.... (Tertullian, Against Marcion (Oxford University Press, 1972) at 509, 511, reprinted online athttp://www.tertullian.org/articles/evans_marc/ evans_marc_12book5_eng.htm.)

In fact, Tertullian in Adversus Marcion at 3:5 (Caput V) (others erroneously cite 3:6:4) said Paul is the "apostle of the heretics." In Latin, he called Paul "haereticorum apostolus." One commentator says this meant "the writings of Paul --- the haereticorum apostolos of Tertullian ---  were regarded suspiciously at Rome." (Hans Lietzmann (Brill: 1979) at 282.) Tertullian spoke with justification. Among the early gnostic heretics, their writings refer to Paul as "the great (or greatest) apostle" and "Paul who has become like Christ." (A. H. B. Logan, A. J. M. Wedderburn, New Testament and Gnosis (2004) at 13.) Tertullian was correct: Paul was the "apostle of the heretics."

Incidentally, to hide this "apostle of the heretics" designation, some have suggested Tertullian meant to write "ethnicorum apostolus" meaning "apostle of the gentiles." Editors, however, reject this solution as "unnecessary." See Anti-Nicene Library at 126 fn 5. But I reject it because the context and views of Tertullian prove Tertullian meant precisely what he said. Paul was the "apostle of the heretics."

Also to hide "apostle of the heretics," the English translation mollifies the words. In the Ante-Nicene Fathers by Schaff, it offers an English translation which replaces this clear expression with these words instead: "When the very apostle whom our heretics adopt . . ." (Id., at 324 col. 2.)

Not only is this incorrect, it is clear from context what Tertullian is saying. Tertullian in context is saying that sometimes Scripture speaks figuratively and by analogies. First, Tertullian cites some non-Paul passages to prove this. Finally, Tertullian says in effect that even Paul (whom Marcion says is the sole apostle in the NT) spoke often figuratively and in allegories. It is in that context, the key words appear. And the correct translation perfectly fits. So Tertulian says:

"Buy why enlarge on the subject when the apostle of the heretics [i.e., Paul] ... alleges that the rock which followed (the Israelites) and supplied them with drink was Christ; [and] teaching the Galatians...that the two narratives of the sons of Abraham had an allegorical meaning in their course...." [i.e., Paul in Galatians ch. 4.]  (Schaff, Anti-Nicene, etc. id., at 324 col. 2.)

Why the alterations? To obscure from us the truth that Paul was often perceived negatively and inferior to follow.

That is not to ignore that Tertullian often treated Paul kindly when he found many edifying things in Paul's words or life. I also endorse this approach toward Paul as proper and fair. Indeed, Paul's words are often edifying, such as in his speech about love. But in the main, Paul's 'difficult to understand words' (if we are polite like Second Peter) make Paul the "apostle of the heretics," i.e., his words are a support to those who diverge from the true faith which Jesus taught.

4A. Macarius Magnes ca. 300

Macarius Magnes, Apocriticus, III.30-36 (ca. 300):

[Paul] says, ‘As many as are under the Law are under a curse’ (Gal 3:10). The man who writes to the Romans, ‘The Law is spiritual’ (7:14), and again, ‘The Law is holy and the commandment holy and just’ (7:12), places under a curse those who obey that which is holy!... In his Epistles … he praises virginity (I-Tim 4:1, I-Cor 7:25), and then turns round and writes, ‘In the latter times some shall depart from the faith,... forbidding to marry’ (I-Tim 4:1-3).... And in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says, ‘But concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord’ (I-Cor 7:25).

4B. Methodius Circa 311 A.D.

Methodius, bishop of a see somewhere in Lycia, perhaps at Olympus wrote of Paul: ‘You should not be upset by the sudden shifts in Paul’s arguments, which give the impression that he is confusing the issue or dragging in irrelevant material or merely wool-gathering.... In all his transitions he never introduces anything that would be irrelevant to his teaching; but gathering up all his ideas into a wonderfully harmonious pattern, he makes all bear on the single point which he has in view.’ (Symposium III, 3.) (Quoted in Henry Chadwick, The Enigma of St. Paul. The Ethel M. Wood Lecture delivered before the University of London on 27 February 1968 (London: The Athlone press, 1969) at 5.)

5. Jerome Believed Paul Lied About Peter (Reflected in Augustine's 394 & 397 A.D. Letters)

Augustine of Hippo, Letter 28, to Jerome (394): I have been reading also some writings ascribed to you, on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. In reading your exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians,... most disastrous consequences must follow upon our believing that anything false is found in the sacred books: that is to say, that the men by whom the Scripture has been given to us and committed to writing, did put down in these books anything false.... For if you once admit into such a high sanctuary of authority one false statement as made in the way of duty, there will not be left a single sentence of those books which, if appearing to any one difficult in practice or hard to believe, may not by the same fatal rule be explained away, as a statement in which intentionally and under a sense of duty, the author declared what was not true.... If indeed Peter seemed to (Paul) to be doing what was right, and if notwithstanding, he, in order to soothe troublesome opponents, both said and wrote that Peter did what was wrong— if we say thus,... nowhere in the sacred books shall the authority of pure truth stand sure. || Letter 40, to Jerome (397 AD): If it be possible for men to say and believe that, after introducing his narrative with these words, ‘The things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not’, the apostle (Paul) lied when he said of Peter and Barnabas, ‘I saw that they walked not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel’,... [then] if they did walk uprightly, Paul wrote what was false; and if he wrote what was false here, when did he say what was true? ||

6. Jerome's View That Paul Was A Hypocrite (Letter to Augustine, 404 A.D.)

Jerome, Letter 112, to Augustine (404): Porphyry ... accuses Paul of presumption because he dared to reprove Peter and rebuke him to his face, and by reasoning convict him of having done wrong; that is to say, of being in the very fault which he himself, who blamed another for transgressing, had committed.... Oh blessed Apostle Paul— who had rebuked Peter for hypocrisy, because he withdrew himself from the Gentiles through fear of the Jews who came from James—why are you, notwithstanding your own doctrine, compelled to circumcise Timothy (Acts 16:3), the son of a Gentile, nay more, a Gentile himself?

A Jerome's Reply To Augustine Preserved by Abelard: Insists Paul Was Hypocrite In Peter Incident

Peter Abelard, Sic et Non (1120 AD): Writing in reply to St. Augustine, after he had been brought to task by Augustine concerning the exposition of a certain spot in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, Jerome said (Epist.112.4), ‘You ask why I have said in my commentary on Paul's letter to the Galatians that Paul could not have rebuked Peter for what he himself had also done. And you asserted that the reproof of the Apostle was not merely feigned, but true guidance, and that I ought not to teach a falsehood. I respond that ... I followed the commentary of Origen.’

B. Aquinas Summarizes The Jerome Criticism of Paul

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, Q.103, Art.4, Reply Obj.2 (1272): According to Jerome, Peter [in Gal 2:6-14] withdrew himself from the Gentiles by pretense, in order to avoid giving scandal to the Jews, of whom he was the Apostle; hence he did not sin at all in acting thus. On the other hand, Paul in like manner made a pretense of blaming him, in order to avoid scandalizing the Gentiles, whose Apostle he was. But Augustine disapproves of this solution [offered by Jerome].

7. Jerome's Low View of Paul in 411 A.D.

Jerome severely criticizes Paul for lack of clarity, and giving feints difficult to understand. Jerome translated the Greek NT in 411 A.D. into the Latin Vulgate. Jerome in his Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians wrote: "Paul does not know how to develop a hyperbaton [i.e., a change of normal word order for emphasis], nor to conclude a sentence; and having to do with rude people, he has employed the conceptions, which, if, at the outset, he had not taken care to announce as spoken after the manner of men, would have shocked men of good sense." (Gaussen, Theopneusty (1844): 119 quoting Comm. Galatians Bk 11, titl. Bk 1, i.1; and Comm. Ephesians Bk. 11: 3.1; also quoted in Methodist Review at 602.) In other words, Paul is difficult to understand, as Second Peter says. Paul's writing and grammar is atrocious to decipher. And his arguments use terrible and shocking analysis that requires one to pick apart what he says to prevent him from meaning the opposite of what he is saying. Thus, one may be able to untangle Paul's word meanings, Jerome seems to imply, but it is very rough going. Obviously, basing doctrine on Paul was regarded as precarious in the early church.

8. Abelard, 1142 AD, Say Paul At Odds With What Christ Approved

Peter Abelard, Letters of Direction(before 1142): We know of course that when writing to the Thessalonians the Apostle [Paul] sharply rebuked certain idle busybodies by saying that ‘A man who will not work shall not eat.’... But was not Mary sitting idle in order to listen to the words of Christ, while Martha was ... grumbling rather enviously about her sister's repose?

9. Indirect Proof From Early Orthodox Doctrines

Another way to prove the low opinion of Paul in the early orthodox church is to examine the prevalant doctrines within that early church. We have demonstrated elsewhere that Marcion (ca. 144 A.D.) advanced all of Paul's views -- predestination, eternal security, faith alone, the abrogation of the Law of Moses, and finally that Jesus "appeared to have human flesh" (Phil. 2:7), but did not actually have such flesh, etc. However, Paul's views in the mouth of Marcion were uniformally rejected in the early church. See "Tertullian Criticizes Every Pauline Doctrine of Marcion" at JWO:402 et seq.

Then, without ever naming Paul, all his peculiar doctrines which had no foundation in Christ's teachings were rejecting uniformally in the pre-325 A.D. Church. See "Patristic Era Rejects Paul's Salvation Doctrine," at JWO:406 et seq.; "The Patristic Era Church Also Rejected Paul's Predestination Doctrine," at JWO:412 et seq.; "The Patristic Era Church Also Blasted Paul's Doctrine on Idol Meats," at JWO:415 et seq.

Also, see a webpage here entitled "Early Church View on Law given Moses" which shows the prevalent view in the early church prior to 325 A.D. endorsed the validity of the Law given Moses. This is completely opposite to Paul's view.

On the issue of salvation, scholars concur on the divergence between Paul and the Early Church as reflected in the gospels. For example, Guthrie (1871-1940), a Scottish-born Episcopalian, analyzed each of the gospels separately and found the early church writers emphasized morality as a key to salvation. See Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The soteriology of Jesus (Dunlap Printing Co., 1896) at 60. Matthew's and Luke's gospel set forth this same principle -- that repentance, morality, works etc., are criticial to salvation. Id., at 83 (Luke) and 90-92 (Matthew). While John's Gospel emphasized one must believe in Jesus for salvation (id., at 77), it did not say belief was the only requirement.

By contrast, Paul appears to emphasize that if one had faith, it was enough for salvation; that good works are merely a "desirable addition" to salvation. Id., at 61. Hence, Paul appears to teach that belief is the ONLY requirement, going far beyond the Gospel of John's stress on the importance of belief.

Thus what Paul taught was far in divergence from what the gospels were understood to teach in the early church.

The only explanation for this ignoring of Paul and rejection of his unique doctrines in the early church is that he had no weight in the early pre-325 A.D. church. Paul would be cited generally for agreeable sentiments, but not on anything that would teach repentance/works were merely a desirable addition to salvation. And in the earliest writers -- Justin and Papias -- write as if they never heard of Paul!

10. A Mirror of Negative Comments in Chrysostum, 391 AD

Below are quotes from Chrysostom, an apologist for Paul, who is identifying criticisms that can be leveled at Paul from various statements in his epistles. Then Chrysostom tries to reply. These criticisms must have been circulating in the early church although rarely preserved. Tertullian was the exception because of the obviously greater need to fight Marcionism than be too concerned about his negative comments about Paul in Against Marcion. In the quotes below, Chrysostom offers pallatians to mollify negative opinions about Paul. However, as I will explain, they are typically weak and unconvincing ones. Thus, you must read commentators in the early church who promote Paul as sometimes representing a mirror reflecting back of something you cannot see: the writings/views critical of Paul which were not being preserved with rare exception, e.g., Tertullian.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Galatians (391 AD):

Gal. 2:2 "What is this, Oh Paul! Thou who neither at the beginning nor after three years wouldest confer with the Apostles, do you now confer with them after fourteen years are past, lest you should be running in vain? Better would it have been to have done so at first, than after so many years; and why did you run at all, if not satisfied that thou were not running in vain? Who would be so senseless as to preach for so many years, without being sure that his preaching was true?...¹

[My Comment: In context, Chrysostum will then argue that the reason Paul went to the see the apostles was due to revelation, and therefore it would supposedly have been folly for Paul to see the Apostles sooner than revelation directed him. However, such a statement makes no sense. Had Paul stayed away by revelation telling him NOT to go, it would make sense. But Paul says he went to see the apostles by revelation to do something which evidently was so long overdue God had to tell Paul to go! The excuse Chyrsostom makes is thus an obvious white-wash of what Chrysostom intelligently expressed in the quote above from an unnamed critic who saw as a flaw that Paul had not gone to visit the true apostles of Jesus Christ for so long.]

Gal. 2:6 But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me, God accepteth no man's person.

"Here he not only does not defend the Apostles, but even presses hard upon those holy men, for the benefit of the weak. His meaning is this: although they permit circumcision, they shall render an account to God, for God will not accept their persons, because they are great and in station. But he does not speak so plainly, but with caution.²

[My Comment: Here Chrysostom is reading correctly. Then the context continues, and he attempts a white-wash, saying that Paul implies that the true apostles had given up the practice of circumcision. He bases this on the tense of "those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever theywere." Supposedly the 'were' did not mean the status of apostle at a prior time (which is the obvious meaning) but the practice of circumcision now supposedly being universally abandoned even among the true apostles. However, in Acts 21 we see James confronting Paul years after the Jerusalem Council, and telling him the prior policy of non-circumcision was only true for Gentiles, not Jews. James then seeks reconfirmation from Paul that it is not his policy to teach abrogation of the Law. Therefore, Chrysostom's excuse using "were" was grammatically and factually baseless.]

Gal. 5:11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution ?

"Observe how clearly he exonerates himself from the charge, that in many places he judaized andplayed the hypocrite in his preaching. He calls them as witnesses; for ye know, he says, that my command to abandon the Law is made the pretext for persecuting me. If I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? for this is the only charge which they of Jewish descent have to bring against me. Had I permitted them to receive the Faith, still retaining the customs of their fathers, neither believers nor unbelievers would have laid snares for me, seeing that none of their own usages were disturbed. What then! did he not preach circumcision ? did he not circumcise Timothy ? Truly he did. How then can he say, "I preach it not?" Here observe his accuracy; he says not, " I do not perform circumcision," but, " I preach it not," that is, I do not bid men so to believe. Do not therefore consider it any confirmation of your doctrine, for though I circumcised I did not preach circumcision."

[My Comment: Chyrsostom's handling of this shows Paul is a quibbler of words as a means of not blatantly lying, and Chrysostom tries using this to prove Paul is honest. Obviously critics pointed to Paul as hypocrite. Chrysostom's analysis is useful to prove in fact how hypocritical Paul truly was in the sense condemned by our Lord. For Chrysostom admits that Paul chose his words carefully. So Chrysostom says Paul does not preach circumcision even though, as in Timothy's case, he practiced it. But then this means Paul deliberately appeared outwardly to be righteous under the Law while internally he rejected the Law. How is this not identical to what Jesus said was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees? Thus, what is hard to fathom is how Chyrsostom could conclude his own argument was a valid means to rebut a charge of hypocrisy. The fine-line expressions of Paul prove hypocrisy: the listener had a right to expect that if Paul says he does not preach circumcision, then surely he would not teach circumcision needs to be sometimes performed. Such behavior is clealry hypocrisy as Jesus defined it! The outside of the cup is clean, but not the inside. They perform deeds conforming to the Law solely to be seen by MEN. That's Paul to a T!]

Conclusion

The notion that the early church was ecstatic about Paul is a myth.