Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 1998 by Cook, Bill

Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? By David Wenham. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995, xvi 452 pp., $21.99 paper.

David Wenham has made an important contribution to contemporary scholarship in this book. In this work he examines the complex question of the relationship between Jesus and Paul. Traditional Christianity has assumed that Paul was a faithful follower of Jesus. However, this assumption has not gone unchallenged. Some liberal scholarship has sought to drive a wedge between Jesus and Paul. Some believe Paul distorted the simple message of a Galilean carpenter and that he was uninterested in the historical Jesus. As evidence they point to this apparent lack of interest in Jesus' life and teaching. Wenham's desire is to examine the evidence and determine the truth of the matter.

Wenham believes the issue has far-reaching implications. First, if it can be proven that traditional Christianity has been built on Paul's misinterpretation of Jesus, the results would be ruinous to the Christian faith. Second, if Paul was not interested in the historical Jesus and knew little about him, then the historical foundation of the Christian faith is in danger. Historic Christianity believes that God's salvation came to humanity through historical events. Wenham's work is the first substantial work on the subject in some time. His thesis is that Paul is best characterized as a follower of Jesus rather than the founder of Christianity. Wenham narrows the issue down to two key questions: (1) How much did Paul know of Jesus' teaching and ministry? (2) How far did Paul agree or disagree with him theologically?

Wenham carefully sets out his approach and presuppositions in the first chapter. The author's approach to three multifarious problems reveals something of his perspective. The scholarly world is currently debating again how much we can know of the historical Jesus. Wenham approaches the problem from the perspective of a selfproclaimed moderately conservative critic. He focuses his attention on the synoptics (without assuming a particular solution to the synoptic problem), leaving John aside. A second area is the contents of the Pauline corpus. Wenham uses Romans, 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians most frequently and refers to the pastorals only in passing. The third problem is the methodological concern of recognizing Pauline allusions to Jesus' teachings. Here Wenham goes to great effort to clarify how he will avoid "parallelomania" on the one hand, and complete pessimism on the other. He builds on the work of Michael Thompson's Clothed with Christ: The Example and Teaching of Jesus in Romans 12.1-15.13.

Wenham suggests three distinctives about the book. First, the book is distinctive in its approach to the problem. Much of the recent work done on the Jesus-Paul relationship has been narrow and specific in focus. Wenham takes a broader approach to the subject. This approach enables a fuller look at the issue, while at the same time providing less detail as to the specifics. Another distinctive is that it takes into account the recent scholarly debate concerning Jesus and Paul. The most distinctive quality of the book, however, is the attention focused on the question of the Jesus traditions in Paul's letters. This may be the author's most significant contribution to the subject. Here the discussion is more technical and interactive with other views. Wenham challenges scholarship's pessimism about the possibility of locating echoes of Jesus' teaching in Paul.

The book consists of nine chapters. In chap. 1 Wenham introduces the question, states what is at stake, and carefully delineates his methodological approach. Chapters 2-7 are devoted to the examination of the teaching of Jesus and Paul. In these chapters Wenham compares Jesus and Paul's teachings on the kingdom of God, the person and death of Jesus, the Church, Jesus' return and his life and ministry. The first part of each chapter examines Jesus' teaching on the subject and then an examination of Paul's teaching on the same subject, comparing the two. The second part of the chapter is more technical and the material is examined to see if there is any evidence to show that Paul knew or was influenced by the traditions of Jesus. In the ninth chapter Wenham reviews, analyzes and draws conclusions concerning the evidence. His bibliography of works cited runs 17 pages long. These include a few non-English language works and a significant number of journal articles. The author's own expertise on the subject is seen by his fourteen entries.

Wenham has made a pivotal contribution to this very important area of study. He has produced a work that is scholarly in its use of modern Biblical criticism, evenhanded in its presentation of differing views, judicious in its evaluation of the data, and persuasive in its defense of his thesis. One need not agree with Wenham's assessment at every point to be convinced of his argument. For example, is the phraseology used in 1 Thess 1:6 reminiscent of the parable of the sower as Wenham seems to suggest (pp. 86-87)? It is the cumulative weight of the evidence that is crucial. Here the author's case is convincing. Wenham is successful in defending Paul from charges that he made Christianity into a different religion than the one intended by Jesus. Paul was a faithful follower of Jesus rather than the founder of Christianity. Wenham will receive justifiable criticism at two points. The first is his failure to clearly define his terms "founder" and "follower." This distinction leads to the second point: that in stating his case, he fails to do justice to Paul's unique contributions to Christianity. Many differences in their approaches and wording can be explained by different settings and issues. But Paul's unique contributions are downplayed or ignored. This volume will have to be consulted by any who attempt to write on the Jesus-Paul question in the future.