Abstract
Paul allowed pagans to become members of the newly founded communities of Christ-believers and thus members of God’s covenant people, Israel, without becoming circumcised. However, even if many of the ‘pagan Christians’ who became members of the new messianic movement had a background as God-Fearers in the frame of diaspora synagogues, the radicalism of their ‘step in faith’ can hardly be overestimated. With their turn from different pagan cults and their gods to the mysterious God of Israel and his crucified and risen Son, Jesus Christ, a whole coordinate system of human relationships, expectations, hopes and norms must have changed. This paper explores the construction of Christian identity and its relationship with ethics according to Paul. It is illustrated how Paul himself describes the system of changed relationships: turning away from the idols towards the living God, being in Christ or – together with others – part of the ‘body of Christ’. Moreover, these three dimensions of new relations – to God, to Christ and to the fellow believers in Christ – correspond to three reference points for ethical decisions in Pauline communities: the command to love one another, the idea of human conscience (as a voice coming from God) and the idea of the ‘ethos of Christ’.
Highlights
As is well-known, contrary to most other Christian missionaries, Paul allowed pagans to become members of the newly founded communities of Christ-believers without being circumcised
We have not spoken about the idea of the πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ as we find it in Galatians 5:13–26 and have only touched on the important fact that believers are not just seen as being ‘in Christ’ but as awaiting Christ as the coming one
I am concerned with the way in which Paul sought to exercise leadership in relation to the Roman congregations by reinforcing the fundamental common identity his addressees shared in relation to God and Christ, especially to the extent that his success in such a strategy would mean creating a particular form of unity between Judean and Greek ethnic subgroups previously accustomed to mutual hostility and conflict
Summary
As is well-known, contrary to most other Christian missionaries, Paul allowed pagans to become members of the newly founded communities of Christ-believers without being circumcised. How was it possible to express a relationship with this God if one was obviously not part of God’s Covenant with Israel but member of a Pauline community of pagan Christians?
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