Paulus: Der Werdegang eines Apostels

Abstract

Paulus: Der Werdegang eines Apostels, by Klaus Haacker. SBS 171. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1997. Pp.140. N.P. (paper). One method recently well established in Pauline scholarship is to draw Paul's biographical data and missionary experiences into an interpretation of his theology. The works of J. Becker, M. Hengel, and R. Riesner are some of the more recent examples. Haacker's Paulus belongs to this category. Unlike them, it covers only a part of Paul's life, the period up to (and including) his Damascus conversion/call. But instead of following the usual practice of appreciating Paul's biographical material only in connection with a couple of his important theological themes, such as the doctrine of justification and Gentile mission, Haacker tries to use many details of Paul's background to shed light on additional aspects of his theology and self-understanding. Paul's Benjaminite origin and his Jewish name, Saul, are seen to have influenced his self-understanding and his theology much more than hitherto suspected. His Roman citizenship is used not only to explain his positive attitude to the Roman rule and his missionary vision and strategy, but also to interpret Romans as a form of the gospel contextualized (in terms of peace) to the milieu of Rome. Haacker believes that Paul grew up in a Hellenistic-Jewish home in Jerusalem. But against W. C. van Unnik, Haacker argues for taking the phrase at the feet of Gamaliel in Acts 22:3 along with the second participle anatethrammenos rather than the third pepaideumenos and interprets the verse to mean that Paul grew up in the home of Gamaliel, receiving a general education (not a rabbinic training) from the great teacher until he reached the schooling age. Paul the Pharisee stood closer to the school of Shammai, but the post-70 rabbinic Judaism followed the tradition of the school of Hillel. Haacker suggests that this explains the problem, raised particularly strongly since E. P. Sanders's works, that the Jewish positions on the law criticized by Paul cannot be verified as the typical rabbinic teachings. Paul was a zealot for the law in the tradition of Phinehas, the Maccabean, his namesake Saul, etc. But he persecuted Christians not because the Hellenists criticized the law or started a Gentile mission nor because he perceived the Christian message of the crucified messiah Jesus to be a blasphemy on the basis of Deut 21:23. Rather, to him the crucifixion of Jesus was a sign against his messiahship while the Christians' charismatic healing practice in the name of the dead person Jesus appeared to be magic. Thus he perceived the Christian message of the crucified Christ as a skandalon (1 Cor 1:23) and therefore he became a zealot who persecuted Christians after the example of Saul (1 Sam 28:9). But his conversion led to a complete reversal of his zealotic position. This is visible in his argument for justification by grace of the ungodly in Romans 4 and in various other themes in Romans, in his argument for justification and freedom and against circumcision in Galatians, etc. …