3.10 Earliest Christians II: Paul Against Peter Against Thomas

History in the Bible

Garry Stevens

History, Christianity, Judaism, Bible, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 693 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We believe there were four distinct early Christian communities: the gentile clubs of Paul, the Jewish clubs of Peter and James, the clubs who followed the writings of Thomas, and clubs attached to the disciple John. In this episode I tackle the first three.
The letter to the Hebrews is the most vigorous exposition of Paul's views and denigration of his own people, the Jews. But the letter never claims Paul as its author. And its not even a letter. Various books try to harmonise Paul and Peter. In Acts, Peter sounds like Paul of the letters, and Paul sounds like Peter of the gospels. Acts may conceal a hostility to Paul in its depiction of Simon Magus. The pastoral letters move Paul closer to Peter’s views. The two letters of Peter move Peter closer to Paul. The gospel of Thomas and Acts of Thomas show that some communities were attracted to early Gnostic views.

Theme music "Inspiring Teaser" by Rafael Krux, https://filmmusic.io/song/5672-inspiring-teaser, license https://filmmusic.io/standard-license.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Giday, I'm Gary Stevens.
0:09.9	And welcome to the third season of the History in the Bible podcast.
0:15.3	In this final season, I explore how the Jews and the Christians constructed new religions when they were sent
0:23.9	spinning into the void after the destruction of the temple. All of the history, about all of the
0:31.3	books beyond the Bible. Episode 3.10, The earliest Christians part two.
0:42.6	Paul against Peter, against Thomas.
0:46.7	In episode 3.8, I described the very first Christian communities
0:52.4	that emerged in the decades after the death of Jesus.
0:57.4	On the one hand, clubs of Jews for Jesus fans, who looked to the Jerusalem Club of Peter and James
1:05.6	for leadership. On the other hand, clubs of Gentiles for Jesus fans. Prime amongst those, the ones founded by
1:15.6	charismatic preachers such as Paul. Paul's work created the first division in the early Jesus
1:23.6	movement. Even though he was just one amongst many preachers, his letters must have been
1:31.6	very influential. Paul's letters reveal a man engaged in a project that the Jerusalem
1:39.1	Club regarded with suspicion, if not horror. Peter and James thought of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.
1:48.0	Paul knew Jesus was the universal saviour of all mankind.
1:54.0	The letter to the Hebrews is the most vigorous exposition of Paul's views,
2:00.0	and a strident denigration of his own people, the Jews.
2:05.8	The book is a real oddity in the New Testament canon.
2:10.1	When Paul writes a letter, he identifies himself as the sender and salutes his recipients by name.
2:21.7	Hebrews has none of that. The author is anonymous. Its recipients unnamed. The book never claims to be a letter, let alone one
2:29.6	written by Paul. The book is patently a homily, not a letter. Homilies tell Christians what they ought to know,
2:39.8	how they ought to believe, and what they ought to think. Church fathers argued about its
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