Jesus and the Pauline Betrayal

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52912413020249030.post-7940052128403994682008-04-12T12:19:00.008+12:002008-04-12T14:15:46.708+12:00Jesus and the Pauline Betrayal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_NcyL9pc2ruA/SAAAIXawAlI/AAAAAAAAACg/6JvuwNq7tC4/s1600-h/bwilson.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_NcyL9pc2ruA/SAAAIXawAlI/AAAAAAAAACg/6JvuwNq7tC4/s320/bwilson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5188146914455978578" border="0" /></a>Dr. Barrie Wilson is a scholar with an interesting background, raised Anglican, converted to Judaism, professor of humanities and religious studies at York University, Toronto, and a specialist in early Christian origins. Dr. James Tabor drew attention to Wilson's (then) forthcoming book in a comment <a href="https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28426681&postID=114818087358728136">on the AW blog</a> in 2006: There is another professor at York University in Toronto, Barrie Wilson, who has a book coming out with St. Martin's Press called How Jesus Became Christian, that will absolutely blow things out of the water in terms of the Jesus Movement and Paul. On the strength of that I ordered a copy, finally released this year, through Amazon. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0312362781?ie=UTF8&tag=themissingdim-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0312362781">How Jesus Became Christian</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=themissingdim-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312362781" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /> is a remarkable book, though I doubt it'll blow anything out of the water. Which isn't to say that it shouldn't. Wilson's perspective is well worth listening to. All too often Christians are far too busy listening to echoes of their own cleverness to "hear" the important testimonies of those beyond the gates. Some of the most perceptive scholars commenting on Christianity are Jews: Geza Vermes and Amy-Jill Levine to name just two. Jewish academics are not blinded by an apologetic imperative when it comes to recognizing the obvious. How Jesus Became Christian, however, is a popular account aimed at the non-specialist reader. Wilson argues for something he dubs "the Jesus Cover-Up Thesis." This didn't do much to endear the book to me. Nor did the contents of his bibliography which includes some real garbage-can stuffers: Baigent & Leigh's Dead Sea Scrolls Deception, Brown's Da Vinci Code (!), and even the highly readable but flawed Jesus Mysteries (Freke & Gandy). But what do I know, just another undergraduate student with pretensions of competence? So I set myself, adamant as flint, to read the whole thing through. I'm glad I did. Trudging through the first few chapters was a chore as Wilson sets the backdrop of Hellenism's interplay with Judaism. I did raise an eyebrow at his sidelining of Enochic writings (1 Enoch and other apocalyptic material) as marginal. There's no sign in the bibliography that he's read Margaret Barker or even Gabriele Boccaccini, and I think he'd buy an argument with William Dever when he writes: "For Judaism, God did not have a wife or consort and wasn't conceived of in those terms at all." (p.8) Then Wilson hits his stride. Put simply, what we call Christianity is a quite distinct religion from that taught by Jesus. The followers of Jesus became the Ebionites. The villain of the piece is Paul who crafted a new substitute faith by appropriating bits of the Jesus movement and welding them onto a Hellenistic mystery religion framework. In the process he kick-started the tragedy of anti-Semitism, beginning with his viciously anti-Judaic letter to the Galatians. "Simply put," writes Wilson, "the teachings of Jesus himself were smothered by the religion of Paul." (p.255) If this sounds far fetched, Wilson brings out the book of Acts as exhibit A. Luke cooked the books (or more properly, the book) to create the impression that the church under James and Paul's Gentile mission were variations on a single theme. Not so. Acts is a creative fiction with an agenda to appropriate the history of Jewish Christianity in the cause of Paul's quite separate religion. The "Jerusalem Conference"? Never happened. Given Wilson's thesis, I was on tenterhooks to see how he dealt with one of my favorite characters from the second century, the brilliant "heretic" and proto-Lutheran Marcion. In fact Wilson is appreciative, in the same sense that Snoopy admires the Red Baron. I'm a fan of anyone who's prepared to deliver a swift kick in the teeth to the smug apologists who saturate Christian bookshops with banal, self-congratulatory drivel. And there's a lot here that can be defended. Historical reconstructions depend on the view afforded to the person doing the reconstruction, and this one has all the force of a bucket of ice-cold water thrown in the face of comfortably arrogant Christian supercessionism. Reservations? Plenty. But it's a great read, and it's always worth applauding both a fine performance and some straight talking.Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17965552923012880262noreply@blogger.com