If you look at the four Gospels, written slightly after the time of Isa (Jesus) “pbuh” and compare them with the teachings of Paul you will notice some interesting issues.
We will be looking at some of the statements from Professor Bart D. Ehrman a New Testament scholar and expert in the New Testament Texts. One of the books we will be looking at is called “Jesus Interrupted” which focuses on the main issues.
There are what we see as two gospels, the Gospel of Paul which focuses on Jesus and Faith and the Death and Resurrection. But when we look at the earlier Gospels we see a different view and focus.
Pauls teachings focus on how a person can have a right, relationship, standing before God. We are sinners God is Holy, how can we stand before him, is it possible to be justified, and how is the given to us. This is found in his letters to the Galatians and the Romans where he explains how this has happened. the famous expression is Justified by Faith, and not by Observing the works of the Jewish Law. Bart Ehrman states in his book that Paul no doubt had ideas already of what the messiah would be like even before Christianity appeared. Jews did not believe and do not currently believe that the Messiah would suffer and die. However on the contrary they all agree that the messiah would be a figure of grandeur and power, who would implement gods purposes in a forceful way.
Bart Ehrman is thinking of Isiah 53 and Psalm 22, neither of which actually mentions the messiah. In his book he goes on to ask, if Isa (Jesus) “pbuh” was the messiah and had to die, why did he have to die? and this is where we start thinking with Paul. Going backwards we see that Isa (Jesus) “pbuh” did not die for anything wrong that he did but for the wrong of others. But why would God have Isa (Jesus) “pbuh” die for others? the only answer for this according to Paul is because a human sacrifice was the only way for a perfect sacrifice could be made.
In turn, this means that the Jewish sacrificial system was not enough to deal with sins. This leads to the thought that God must have changed his mind about how people are to be right with him. This is where I must state that the idea of human sacrifice is condemned repeatedly by God in the Jewish scriptures as an abomination. The Jewish temple never made an room or space for human sacrifice and was explicitly condemned. So it begs to differ as to God making something that was an abomination into something that could bring something good.
So, what is this “Human Problem”? Everyone not just Gentiles, but Jews as well, have violated Gods laws. In turn this means that everyone MUST accept this “human sacrifice” to be covered or atoned for before God. Bart Ehrman in his book states that “Cant people be right with God by doing what God instructed in the Law Evidently not, if they could be there would be no reason for the messiah to be crucified. By being crucified Jesus shed his blood for others and bought about an atoning sacrifice for sin. Those who believe in the death and resurrection will be right with God, those who don’t wont be justified, all this means is that the keeping of the Jewish law has no place in salvation.”
There are verses in Deuteronomy where God says it is easy to obey the Jewish law / commandments and if you obey them you will be blessed in the land and be pleasing to God. Bart Ehrman continues to state “the only way to be justified is by having faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus and he quotes Galatians 2:15 we have come to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by doing the works of the law because no one will be justified by the works of the law, this is Paul’s teaching in romans and Galatians and followers of Jesus are not to try and keep the law except insofar as loving your neighbour as yourself and living a good ethical life is something that god still expects of people but following the precepts and commandments of the law getting circumcised, keeping kosher, observing shabbat sabbath, and other Jewish festivals none of this was necessary for salvation and if you thought or acted otherwise you were in danger of losing your salvation according to Galatians 5:4”
Bart Ehrman then goes on to look at what would happen if Paul & Matthew, the author of the first gospel were locked together in a room and were not able to leave unless they came to a consensus on how followers of Jesus were to deal with the Jewish law.
Bart Ehrman continues in his book “if Matthew the author of the gospel of Matthew who wrote some 25 to 30 years after Paul ever read any of Paul’s letters he certainly did not find them inspiring let alone inspired. Matthew had a different view of the law from Paul, Matthew thinks that the followers of Jesus need to keep the law in fact they need to keep it better than most religious jews the scribes and the pharisees in Matthew Jesus is recorded as saying and just remember what we just discussed about Paul and how we are made right with God and what our duties before God are to have faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus is recorded as saying ‘do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets I have not come to abolish but to fulfil truly I tell you until heaven and earth pass away not one letter not one stroke of a letter will pass on the law until all is accomplished therefore whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments of the law and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’ Matthew 5:17> Onwards.
Paul as we’ve seen thought and taught that followers of Jesus who tried to keep the law were in danger of losing their salvation Matthew thought that followers of Jesus who did not keep the law would never attain salvation. Theologians have tried over the centuries to reconcile these two views and which is perfectly understandable since both of them are in the new testament canon but anyone who reads the gospel of Matthew and then reads the letter to the Galatians would never suspect that there was a reason or a way to reconcile these two statements for Matthew to be great in the kingdom requires keeping the very least of the commandments and that obviously includes kosher, circumcision and all the other things which Paul clearly taught were not necessary and should not be obeyed on pain of losing one’s salvation so just getting into the kingdom requires keeping them better than the scribes and the pharisees it could be ultra scrupulous for Paul getting into the kingdom which is a different way of saying being justified is made possible only only by the death and resurrection of Jesus of course Matthew also knows all about the death and resurrection of Jesus he spends a good part of his gospel narrating it and he too thinks that apart from Jesus death there could be no salvation but salvation also requires keeping God’s laws. He did give these laws after all presumably he meant them the first time and didn’t change his mind later. One passage in Matthew suggests in fact that salvation is not just a matter of belief but also of action, an idea completely alien to the thinking of Paul.
In one of the great discourses of Jesus found only in Matthew he describes the day of judgment that will come at the end of time and this is where the son of man comes in his glory with his angels and all the people from all the nations of the earth are gathered before him Matthew 25. He separates them into the sheep and the goats”
How Does this all stack up between Paul & Matthew?
The crossover between Matthew and Paul is quite a stark contrast, as we see Paul believed eternal life comes to those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus however in Matthew’s account of the sheep and the goats, salvation comes to those who have never even heard of Jesus who treat others in a humane and caring way in their time of deepest need and this is a completely different view of salvation, just look at Matthew 19.
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