Paul’s letters
are born of the Gospel

by Fabrizio Rossi

His relationship with the historical Jesus and the echo of the synoptic Gospels (stressed also by the Pope) are the reasons why those who claim that Paul “invented” Christianity are wrong

“All that Paul wrote is born from a close relationship with the Gospel tradition, that is, with Jesus.” This is the answer of José Miguel García, biblical scholar at Madrid’s San Damaso Theological Faculty, to those who claim that St. Paul “invented” Christianity, transforming it, by means of his travels, into a universal religion. From the 19th century, many researchers have tried to set the figure of St. Paul in opposition to that of Jesus. They claim that Paul, belonging to the Hellenistic world, incorporated an image of Jesus that differed from the historical one, transforming Him into a divine being. This current therefore sees Paul as the true founder of Christianity.

In your new book (Il protagonista della storia [The Protagonist of History]), you attack this thesis…
I try to answer the question, “Who was Jesus of Nazareth?” by documenting His earthly claim as a man. The affirmations of faith contained in the apostolic preaching correspond to the claim of the historical Jesus of the Gospels.

In a recent catechesis, the Pope tackled the question, “What did St. Paul know of the earthly Jesus?” by pointing out the continuity between the synoptics and the Pauline Letters. For example, he affirmed, “The words of the first Letter to the Thessalonians, according to which: ‘The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night’ (5:2), cannot be explained by reference to the Old Testament prophets, because reference to the thief in the night is found only in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels.” What value has this example?
It is important because there are some who continue to maintain that Paul had no interest in the historical Jesus. A professor in Jerusalem told me recently that he believes that Paul had no interest in the earthly Jesus; what counts for him is only the exalted Jesus–a creation of the community.

Could Paul have already had access to a Gospel? How can these allusions to the synoptic tradition be explained?
Today scholars maintain that the Gospel tradition began to be set down in writing during the years 40–50 AD, that is, slightly earlier than the letters of St. Paul, which began in 50 AD. So Paul could have read something and made use of it. Not a few scholars claim this to be the case. In my view–though we are still few who believe this–one Gospel (Mark’s) was written even before 40 AD.

So Paul could not have “invented” anything.
It’s evident. All that he wrote about Jesus was acknowledged and affirmed in the Palestine communities. For example, in St. Peter’s speeches, reported in the Acts (written in Palestine in Aramaic), can be found all the characteristics of Jesus present in the letters of St. Paul: His divinity, His pre-existence… If he had preached something different, the relationship with Peter and the other Apostles would have been broken at once. But Paul and Peter shared an identical faith.