Paul de Tarse

Paul de Tarse (at the origin Saul ) or holy Paul (born v. 10 with Tarsus, in Cilicie, (auj. İçe, in Turkey) - died v. 65 with Rome) is one of the principal figures of the Christianisme, by the part which he played in his initial expansion, and by its interpretation of the teaching of Jesus. According to the New Testament (delivers Acts of the Apostles and Épître S of Paul), Paul is asserted like one of the Apôtre S of Jesus-Christ which, a few years after its death and its resurrection, would have appeared to him and would have converted it. Festivals the January 25th (its conversion) and the June 29th (its martyrdom with that of Pierre saint).

Life of Paul according to the ancient texts

The Épître S pauliniennes give some information on their author:

“Because me also I am Israélite, of the posterity of Abraham, the tribe of Benyahmin. ” - (Romanian. 11:1).

“Me, circoncis the eighth day, of the race of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew Hebrew born; as for the law, pharisee; as for the zeal, persecutor of the Church; irreproachable, with regard to the justice of the law. ” - (Phil. 3:5).

According to Luc, Paul was born from an Jewish family with Tarse in Cilicie (located in current the Turkey):

“I am Jewish, took again Paul, of Tarsus in Cilicie, citizen of a city which is not of no importance. ” - (ac. 21,39).

According to Jerome de Stridon:

“the parents of Paul were originating in Gyscal, province of Judaea, and when all the province was devastated by the Roman armies and the Jews dispersed in all the universe, it were transported to Tarse, town of Cilicie. Paul, any young person still, followed his parents. ”

He would have been born around the year 10. He had a brother, if one interprets what follows in the literal sense:

“Greet Rufus, the elected official of the Lord, and his mother, who is also mine. ” - (Romanian. 16:13).

He, around twelve or thirteen years, would have been sent by his parents to Jerusalem, to follow the career of scribe and would have been informed by Gamaliel.

“I Jewish, was born in Tarse in Cilicie; but I high in this city, and was informed with the feet of Gamaliel in exact knowledge of the law of our fathers, being full with zeal for God, as you all are to it today. ” - (Act. 22,3).

It showed a major zeal for its religion (the Judaïsme, of the sect of the Pharisien S) and joined the rows of the persecutors of the first disciples of the Christ. It took part in this period with the lapidation of Etienne.

It would have obtained letters of introduction to seek and persecute the Christians with Damas. According to the Acts of the Apostles, during the voyage to go there, it met Jesus ressuscity (towards 33). It left this temporarily blind meeting. Three days later, he was cured by a disciple living in Damas: Ananie. It converts with Christianity and was made baptize. It is then presented itself like a Apôtre of Christ, and in the form of a recipient of the last appearance of Jesus.

It helped, but without being about it the initiator, the “opening towards the Gentils” of the incipient Church. At that time, teaching was addressed mainly to the Juifs that one sought to convert. With the eyes of the first Christians, who felt still Jewish, the incirconcis were not very frequentable people, even impure, and the message of Christ seemed not to be to them intended. Paul, following Barnabe, went to preach on their premises. According to Luc, with the Concile of Jerusalem it succeeds in convincing the other chiefs of the first Christian community which one could be baptized without to have been as a preliminary circoncis (ac 21,18), but the tensions persisted with the current carried out by Jacques (Ga 2,11s). Paul, large traveller, founded and supported Churches in all Is Mediterranean basin. When it did not visit them personally, it communicated with them by letters (epistles).

Its engagement near the nice ones and its religious convictions attracted the enmity of certain Jews to him. It was stopped with Jerusalem and missed being lynched. Stopped by the Romans, he asserted his Civis Romanus Sum (Roman citizenship) to be judged not by the Sanhédrin but by the governor. This one imprisoned it during two years with Césarée. Then, on the request of Paul, it was led to Rome to appear before the emperor. A storm diverted it on Malta where there remained a few months then he settled in Rome, initially in completely free release on probation then. It died there decapitated (as a Roman citizen), probably in 67, following the fire of Rome (64), and after a probable lawsuit under the reign of Néron:

“One tells that, under his reign, Paul even had the head cut to Rome” (Eusèbe de Césarée, ecclesiastical Histoire , II, XXV, 5)

Problems concerning the biography of Paul

Several aspects of the life of Paul remain badly explained: its dual membership Jewish and Roman, its radical conversion, its contacts with the Roman authorities.

According to Marcel Simon:

“it knew, seems he, the Araméen and the Hebrew . But its native tongue is the Greek , and it is in the translation of the Seventy that it reads the Bible. He adds to his Hebraic name, Saul, the Roman cognomen of Paulus. He was subject to the influence, rather major, perhaps, of the medium where he grew, and its Christianity carries the print of the hellenistic religiosity. But its profane culture appears to have been rather surface. It does not try, like its contemporary Philon, a synthesis of the biblical revelation and Greek philosophy. It was of apparently easy family, since she had the established among Roman; what did not prevent it, according to a rather current practice at the time in the Jewish families, and in particular among the rabbis, to learn a manual trade: the Actes teach us that it manufactured tents, i.e. it was probably Tisserand or saddler. ”.

Its arrest is consecutive with the fact of having introduced pagan into the sanctuary of Jerusalem or with its presence itself, which liable to had died according to the Jewish law, but its state of Roman citizen prevented that it is not delivered to the Sanhédrin and is embarrassed the two procurateurs who followed one another in Judaea, and made trail the business, just as the imperial jurisdiction before which it required to appear

Conversion

Saül had been one of the keenest persecutors of the first Christians of Jerusalem. At the time of a voyage to Damas it had the revelation of the faith and a little later was made baptize, giving up its Jewish name for that of Paul, as a sign of humility. It is brought back in the Acts of the Apostles:

“As it was in way, and than it approached Damas, suddenly a light coming from the sky resplendit around him. It fell by ground, and it heard a voice which said to him: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? He answered: Who are you, Seigneur? And the Lord known as: I am Jesus whom you persecute. He would be hard for you of regimber against the pivots. Trembling and seized of fear, he says: Lord, whom do you want that I make? And the Lord says to him: Rise, enters the city, and one will say to you what you must do. The men who accompanied it remained amazed; they heard the voice well, but they did not see anybody. Saul was concerned ground, and, though its eyes were opened, he did not see anything; one took it by the hand, and one led it to Damas. There remained three days without seeing, and he did not eat nor did not drink. ” (Ac 9,3-9).

Voyages of Paul

After its conversion, Paul remains some time with Damas, then in Arabia, then with Jerusalem, Tarse, before being invited by Barnabé with Antioche. It is of this city that it will leave for these voyages missionaries. One can reasonably go back his voyages in an interval to a few years of 45 at 58 approximately.

First voyage (estimated from 45 to 49)

It is a voyage return ticket which it accomplishes in company of Barnabé and of Jean Marc (cousin of Barnabé). He visits Cyprus, the Pamphylie (Pergé) and preaches around Antioche de Pisidie.

Paul and Barnabé seek to convert Juif S, preach in the Synagog S, are often badly received and obliged to leave precipitately. (because of their advertisement of the hello and resurrection in Jesus: to see Acts 13:15 - 41 but inevitably badly not received: to see Acts 13:42 - 49.

On the way of the return, they do not pass by again by Cyprus and go directly of Pergé to Antioche.

Second voyage (estimated from 50 to 52)

Paul accomplishes this second voyage in company of Silas.

Its primary goal is to again meet the communities which were created in Cilicie and Pisidie.

With Lystre, it meets Timothée which continues the voyage with them. They traverse the Phrygie, the Galatie, the Mysie. With Troy, they embark for the Macedonia. Paul remains some time with Athens then with Corinthe.

He turns over then to Antioche while passing by Éphèse and Césarée.

Third voyage (estimated from 53 to 58)

It is a voyage of consolidation: Paul turns over to see the communities which were created in Galatie, Phrygie, with Éphèse, in Macedonia until Corinthe. Then it turns over to Troy while passing by the Macedonia. From there, it embarks and finishes its way by boat until Tyr, Césarée, Jerusalem where it is stopped.

Travel of the captivity

The voyage to Rome is not a voyage missionary. However, the action of evangelization of Paul is reported out of ac 28,30-31. It is during this voyage that it stops in the island of Malta.

The Epistles pauliniennes

Authenticity

The attribution of the letters of Paul was not called in question before 1840, when work of German Ferdinand Christian Baur led it to accept only four letters like authentic (Romans, Corinthiens 1 & 2, and Gallates). If the exegetic currents of the radical Critique estimated a long time that nothing the letters of Paul were authentic, the theologists Hilgenfeld (1875) and H.J. Holtzmann (1885) added with the list of Baur the epistles with Philémon, in Thessaloniciens 1 and Philippiens, to constitute what is generally regarded today as the seven " letters inconstestées" of Paul or epistles “proto-pauliniennes”. Nowadays, the authenticity or the attribution of the others is more or less discussed. One distinguishes classically:

epistles “proto-pauliniennes”

They are regarded as being of Paul, with dates of drafting going of 51 the first in Thessaloniciens with 55 for the first with the Corinthians)

epistles “deutero-pauliniennes”

These three letters would be companions of Paul without one being able to identify them

In 2000, the question of the authenticity of the epistles arises as follows:

the Epistle in Colossiens is regarded as pseudepigraphic by 60% of the exégètes. The essential reason is due to the fact that the town of Colossus did not exist any more when it was written;

the epistle in Ephésiens is regarded as pseudepigraphic by 80% of the exégètes. It one is resucée of the epistle in Colossiens;

2nd in Thessaloniciens, they is 50/50;

These statistics evoked by Régis Burnet are recognized by the scientific community as a whole.

pastoral epistles “trito-pauliniennes” or “epistles”

These three letters would be of " successeurs" of Paul: he is very generally admitted by the exégètes (for example Raymond E. Brown) that the epistles “pastoral” are pseudépigraphes

The epistle with Hebrew

Since 1976 and work of Albert Vanhoye, it is allowed that the epistle with the Hebrews is not an epistle, but a treaty, that she is not addressed to Hebrew and is not Paul.

Reasons of the pseudepigraphy

According to Governed Burnet, “ evolves/moves the reflection on the reasons of the pseudepigraphy, dominated up to now by the search for excuses to the writers as for the reasons why they relative of the feathers of the peacock to equip their writings. The theories of the excuse of a gun which carries the fraud as marks infamy are divided into 3 groups:

"the concept of work thus the Intellectual property did not exist in the Antiquité " … they is false (to refer to the Sophiste S, with Plato proposing to burn the work of Démocrite;
"the concept of Autorité did not exist: they was schools of auteurs" … with regard to the proto-pauliniens, it has no trace of school there, it is well an authority which is expressed.
"the writers were not aware to be authors but to only be inspired, had by the divinity… " : If one follows this reasoning, Paul which writes on his behalf has less of legitimacy than those which counterfeit it… This reasoning is not very solid considering the fate only one makes in Paul in the majority Christian churches . ”

Teaching of Paul

“the attempts to rebuild its theology (or to rebuild Christianity from it) generally amplified and underlined certain ideas at the expense them others, without taking account of the tensions, sometimes discrepancies and contradictions that there is between them. It is necessary to indeed take account of the diversity of their origin (Christian Writings, traditions, personal revelations), of the duality of its culture, Hellenic and Jewish, and especially owing to the fact that the majority of its writings are writings of circumstance.”

The differences between the Jesus of Paul and that of the Évangiles were sometimes considered to be considerable. Indeed, Paul, contrary to the other apostles, did not know Jesus on the subject of which it carries out a reflection more than it does not reflect the direct message of it:

“the Jesus to which Paul converted is not the preacher of the Reign of God. ” (Alfred Loisy).

Conversely, it is also highlighted continuity between the teaching of Jesus de Nazareth and that of Paul concerning the interpretation of the history, the love of God for all the men, the justification by the faith, ethics.

This teaching is centered on the Christ, “died for our sins, according to the Writings”, “ressuscity the third day, according to the Writings” (1 Co 15,3-4), “Lord” (1 Co 12,3), “Sons of God” (Rm 1,4, etc) which is the “Spirit of life” (Rm 8,2), and in whom “corporally live all the plenitude of the divinity. ” (Collar 2,9):

“If there is resurrection of deaths, Christ either is not ressuscity. And if Christ is not ressuscity, our preaching is thus vain, and your faith also is vain. ” (1 Co 15,13-14).

“the Jews ask for miracles and the Greeks seek wisdom: we, we preach Christ crucifié; scandal for the Jews and madness for the pagan ones, but power of God and wisdom of God for those which are called, as well Juifs as Greek. ” (1 Co 1,22-24).

Role of Paul in the foundation of Christianity

A minority current among the historians supports that Paul is the true founder of the Christianisme because of his Théologie and of the part which he played in the propagation of the Christian message to the pagan . Here what Etienne Trocmé says on this subject:

“Without underestimating the immense range of the thought paulinienne, one must say that the Apôtre is not the creator of the central ideas of the Christian Doctrine. Its doctrines of God come straight of the Old Testament and the Judaïsme. The Christologie which defines the person of the Christ goes up to a large extent with the primitive Église of Jerusalem (cf the speeches of Pierre in Acts 2 to 4, and titrates it of “Lord” (`' Kurios'') so frequent under the feather of Paul, has an origin palestino-Syrian woman. The doctrines of the Holy Spirit, that Paul developed much, are however not its creation, since it has deep biblical roots and that it is preceded, not only with Qumrân, but also among Palestinian Christians of the first generation (Mc 3,28-30 and by; Ac 2,1-13; 8,29-39; 15,28). As for the doctrines of the hello, reported on Paul with such an amount of strength in its Epistles to the Romans and the Gallates, it conveys many notions come from the Palestinian Judaïsme (death of the Christ interpreted like a Sacrifice, Rm 3,25; or like a legal payment, Rm 3,31-24; etc). In short, Paul is a brilliant interpreter here, not the creator who would have given to Christianity his own doctrinal system. ”

On the importance which played Paul in the christic propagation of the message in-outside Judaïsme, it is there too necessary to moderate and not to forget that Jesus and the first disciples were originating in Galileo, an area where were côtoyaient Juifs and not-Jews as recalled by Marie-Francoise Baslez:

“Ground of contacts, the Galileo was also at the time of Jesus, a ground of contrasts and antagonisms. In the apostolic preaching which was addressed, beyond the Juifs, the whole ground, insistence on the rooting galiléen made it possible to affirm from the start the prospect universalist for a religion whose founder had almost never left Palestine. One includes/understands better also the vocation of the Apôtre S.”.

Nevertheless, as it raises Henri Persoz, why Paul does it quote if little the words Christ? It is not enough to say like Christophe Senft only “the comparison of the preaching of Jesus and the Gospel of Paul reveals surprising convergences between the word of Jesus and that of his apostle”. According to Charles Eplattenier:

“… the character of the letters of Paul, writings of circumstance, did not call the reference to the words and the life of Jesus, and that Paul could more refer to it in his teaching with the Churches (the kérygme should here be distinguished, proclaiming the death and the resurrection of Jesus like events of hello, of teaching…). However we do not know anything the catechesis of Paul at the time of his long stays with Antioche, Corinthe or Ephèse. ”

Paul wants to be relatively independent of the other apostles. Being directly inspired Ressuscité, it does not feel related to a human tradition concerning Jesus (Gal.1: 16-17, cf II Horn, 5:16). Its Christianity has common points with the Christianity hellenistic of Etienne but is distinct from him. Christianity " paulinien" federated a posteriori with the tendencies directed by Pierre and Jacques (Gal.2: 9).

The tomb of Paul: archaeological data

A Christian tradition of the 4th century allots to Paul de Tarse a tomb located below the major furnace bridge of current the Basilique Saint-Paul-out-the-walls at the south of Rome. Recent excavations were carried out there which were reported in an official statement of the catholic international news agency Apic of the 2/17/2005:

“a sarcophagus which can contain the relics of the Paul apostle was identified in the Roman basilica of Saint-Paul-out-the-walls, according to Giorgio Filippi, person in charge of the department epigraphic of the Museums of the the Vatican.

Under the current, a marble plate of the IVe century, visible high altar since always, carries the inscription “Paulo apostolo mart” (Paul apostle mart, note). The plate is provided with three openings probably related to the funerary worship of Paul saint. According to Giorgio Filippi, these holes were used “for the “creation” of relics by simple contact” with the tomb of the apostle.

Along the way Ostiense, a shelter would have been high on the tomb of the Paul apostle, after his death in the course of. As for holy Pierre, the emperor Constantin then undertook at the beginning of the 4th century to make build a basilica to shelter fall it. Then, in 386, one half-century after the death of Constantin, in front of the surge of the pilgrims, a larger basilica was built at the request of the emperors Valentinien II, Théodose and Arcadius.”

Appendices

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