Meet Paul...The Pharisee

If there is any character from scripture, particularly post-Jesus context, that is spoken about almost as much as Jesus, it would be Paul. This happens for good reason. Paul is either an absolute genius or the spawn of satan...Depends on who you ask, or better yet, what you actually credibly know. I have spent probably as much time in ministry, teaching on Paul as I have on Yeshua to be honest.

What I have realised therefore is that we have to "meet Paul", I mean the real Paul of incredible works such as Romans, Galatians, Corinthians etc.

WHO WAS HE?

Simply put, Paul was a Pharisee. Yes even after he encountered Jesus. Now, depending on what you assume a Pharisee to be, you may agree or strongly disagree. Either way, Paul still remained a Pharisee.

There is no boogeyman under the theological bed so let me clear up that Pharisees were not bad people. Im not going to attempt to become legal defence for Pharisees in this blog. I will however, through explaining who Paul is, give some perspective to the sect of the Pharisees. Paul was a student of Gamliel, who was himself the grandson of one of the most respected rabbi's of all time, Hillel.

Paul was on his way to becoming the Nasi(president) of the Sanhedrin when he encountered Jesus. Paul was never "saved" from being a Pharisee. Pharisees expected Messiah and so Jesus could recruit Paul. What we find is that Paul is considered radically changed, not in terms of belief, rather in terms of who was the likely candidate for Messiahship.

When you allow Paul to be in context, you find that his issue with the followers of Yeshua was that they were claiming a man crucified on a cross was the Messiah. If you are a Pharisee who is passionate about Torah and about the kingdom to come, you would also take exception to a sect claiming a "dead guy" is Messiah.

You do need to stop, take a moment and realise that while Paul was persecuting Jews/Israel for joining the Jesus-movement, Jesus had not revealed Himself to Paul yet. So Paul is very much justified in being revolted by a sect which claims a dead man is David's son and Messiah. Zombies don't make for good Messiah figures.

WHY WAS PAUL A GOOD CANDIDATE FOR JESUS TO MANIFEST TO?

Paul was a mystic/spiritualist/Kabbalastic rabbi.

This is going to be the most important grappling you have to do with the person of Paul if you are going to get to really understand his content.

As a mystic rabbi, Paul would be open to visions, dreams and other esoteric experiences. Now if you consider how he meets Jesus, then it makes good sense. The trouble I find with most believers who struggle to understand Paul is that when they read about Paul, they do so from their own perspective and not that of Paul, a rabbi in the first century. when you put yourself in Paul's "sandals", things look different.

HOW DID THIS EFFECT PAUL'S WRITING?

In every conceivable way.

Paul very clearly does not only write in literal terms. He considers himself a gardener when speaking of grafting, he considers himself the "father" of the Gentile contingent of the Body of Messiah when he claims to have "betrothed you to one husband". This same Paul also considers himself the worst of sinners and lowest of Apostles? If you opted to read Paul in purely literal terms, then this man suffers from multiple personality disorder.

If however you let Paul be a mystic Pharisee and rabbi who speaks as rabbi's do, there is no problem.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE YOU THE READER?

Well, for one thing, if you are part of the commonwealth of Israel from the nations, it makes you a disciple of Paul. Yes, even if you claim to be a disciple of Jesus, which is fine, because you are, by proxy, you are still under the authority of Paul. This is because Jesus literally commissioned Paul to go to the nations, which of course, Paul does.

Technically as a son of Aaron through Levi, Paul is not directly the rabbi I am supposed to be under in terms of yoke(interpretation of Torah) and halacha(rulings of torah applied by a rabbi), yet I absolutely do generally submit to Paul, because I generally work with those of the commonwealth of Israel, through the gospel entrusted to Paul. This means when I teach people from the nations, who undoubtedly are joining Israel, I make sure to guide them through the writings of Paul, who, again is commissioned by Yeshua directly.

All of this to say that there is really just no getting around Paul! We have to study Him and understand Him. No he is not easy reading. Why should he be? He had incredible anointing and saw some things he was not even allowed to speak about.

He found himself wedged between his own people, Pharisees who did not understand Jesus and then also between Gentiles who were boasting because of the revelation they were getting by the Spirit. Paul had a very difficult life in ministry but that is part of what fuels the power of his words.

We are only getting started here, come back for more in future blogs!

This blog is part of a Covenant Publishing initiative to introduce future book titles.