The Doctor and the Apostle. Jeffrey A. Nelson
to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. (Galatians 1:13–17)
At the beginning of this passage, Paul couches his experience in his life in Judaism. Having had his transformative moment that has led to his newfound sense of purpose, he doesn’t divorce himself from what came before so much as describe it as a new direction within it. The “earlier life in Judaism” that he references is his opposition to and persecution of the church; he describes it as a sign of his dedication and devotion to his faith, which he does more than once in his letters.
When he mentions the revelation from God that he has received, he makes no differentiation between the God he previously knew as part of his Jewish faith and some new separate God who sent Jesus. Rather, it is the same God who has given a new understanding of how Jesus is related to what he knew before. In the same sense, he states that God has given him a new purpose: to advance the church’s mission rather than try to stop it.
Krister Stendahl points out that when Paul describes his new direction, it is never as from one faith to another, what we typically might call a conversion. Rather, Paul presents it as a new calling within the same faith. As illustrated in this passage from Galatians, he believes that God has given him a new assignment: to preach to non-Jewish believers and fully welcome them as part of the church without requiring them to pass through the standard points that his faith would usually require.1
Unfortunately for Paul, not everyone was immediately onboard with his calling. As he mentions in Galatians 1, he did not confer with other apostles of the early church, but instead immediately set about his mission. Eventually, however, he did travel to meet with them, and it could have gone better:
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up in response to a revelation. Then I laid before them (though only in a private meeting with the acknowledged leaders) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running, or had not run, in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us—we did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. And from those who were supposed to be acknowledged leaders (what they actually were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those leaders contributed nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel for the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do. (Galatians 2:1–10)
Jerusalem was a headquarters of sorts for the Jesus Movement, with notable leaders such as Peter, James, and John among those who would have been there for this meeting. Paul says that he finally acquiesced to such a meeting after having a revelation of his own to do so. This, along with what he says later about the other apostles’ authority (“what they actually were makes no difference . . . God shows no partiality”), suggests that he may have been content to continue with his own sense of calling and ministry, but wanted to achieve some semblance of endorsement and unity with the larger movement.
Contrast this with those whom he calls “false believers,” who were also present, likely a group arguing for the full conversion of Gentiles via circumcision, who were bringing accusations against him. Paul had no interest in their approval, although they were making trouble for him nonetheless. Any challenges or complications to his being seen as an authority among the other apostles necessitated this meeting. Whatever he could do to eliminate some of the questions about his apostleship to the Gentiles, he was glad to do it.
In Galatians as a whole, a large issue for his writing is again to push back against what was contrary to his proclamation. Recounting this meeting was one way of easing any concerns about this, and to show that his message is fully in line with and accepted by the apostles in Jerusalem. They could have limited or prevented this, insisting instead on a more unified or regulated approach according to what they’d already established, but instead recognized the movement of God in Paul’s life and the importance of his work to their larger mission.
And so near the end of this passage he notes that Peter, James, and John—whom he is sure to name-drop as “acknowledged pillars”—recognized the grace of God at work in his ministry and agreed to his extension of what they were already doing in other pockets of people around the larger region. Hopefully this would help shore up any doubts that the Galatians had, given the potential influence of other competing messages trying to discredit Paul’s standing among them.
The book of Acts mentions that Paul’s trade was tentmaking. In Acts 18, he meets two fellow members of his trade, named Priscilla (sometimes Prisca) and Aquila, and the three of them work alongside each other both in their business and in their proclaiming of the gospel. Paul also mentions this couple as beloved friends and coworkers in his letter to the Romans, an important byproduct first established by his plying his trade.
This would also have allowed Paul to move around from city to city to set up shop during working hours, and then proclaim and debate his message about Jesus in the public square when he was finished for the day. At least at the beginning of his ministry, Paul’s business provided an entry point for his larger calling.
Paul also alludes to his trade in 1 Thessalonians 2:9, where he reminds them of the labor he undertook while he was with them: “we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.” Paul’s making of tents provided a context for his ministry, but also very much his livelihood. In 1 Thessalonians, he was very concerned with not wanting to burden this community with an extra stretching of their resources, so he earned his own way instead.
The other part of the strategy of Paul and others toward proclaiming their message about Jesus would have been the conversion of entire households. In numerous places in his letters, Paul refers to the heads of households or to the church within a person’s house, showing that the home was an early core building block for the Jesus Movement. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul mentions Chloe’s “people,” who would have been members of her house, as well as baptizing the household of Stephanas. In Romans 16, he sends greetings to the households of Aristobulus and Narcissus, among other believers. In Philippians 4:22, he mentions the household of Caesar. The letter to Philemon includes a greeting to the church in his house in verse 2.
The house would not just have been the basic family unit, as we are accustomed to thinking of it today. It also would have included extended family, slaves, hired workers, and sometimes fellow tradespeople who were staying with them.2 As the head of the house went, so too would everyone else staying under the roof.
This had numerous implications for the early church. First, it gave its evangelistic mission a certain character and focus, as proclaiming to the head of the house would have an effect on everyone else for whom they were responsible. Second, it helped the early church organize itself and care for one another just by giving an extra dimension and reason for the people already looking after each other to continue doing so in a new way. And finally, it would entail these house churches becoming networked with one another for purposes such as occasional larger gatherings of worship, teaching, and fellowship, and supporting one another as others had need. This was not the only strategy employed by Paul and others, but it was an essential one.
Paul’s sense of call to proclaim Jesus to the Gentiles involved quite a bit of travel to different and diverse communities around a large region of the world. It pushed and expanded boundaries that had been set by the establishment. It had a certain renegade aspect to it in the eyes of those who preferred a narrower and more rigid approach and focus. Its organization was more portable, structured by a network of houses and individuals rather than a larger regulatory meeting