History in the Bible

Of all the apostles, the New Testament only describes the fate of James the Just. For all the others, we have only stories written decades or even centuries after the deaths. I also discuss the letters 1st Peter, James, and Jude.

The final chapters of Acts are a rollicking adventure where Paul endures storms and shipwreck on his way to trial in Rome. Paul spends two years in Rome, insulting the local Jews to their faces. So abruptly ends the Book of Acts. In his letter to the Phillipians, Paul changes his mind about the afterlife. According to the 2nd letter to Timothy, Paul spends his last days embittered and abandoned. The Acts of Paul fabricates an account of Paul's life after Italy.

After decades preaching to the gentiles in Asia Minor and Greece, Paul returns to Jerusalem for a final time. James the Just humiliates Paul by demanding Paul demonstrate his adherence to the Jewish law. The story is unlikely. James suddenly vanishes from the narrative when the Romans save Paul from a Jewish lynching. They place Paul into protective custody. Paul surprises the Romans when he declares his Roman citizenship. In a confusing series of trials, Paul is dragged before the Jewish council, defends himself against charges that no one has laid against him, is rescued by his nephew, and is tried twice by Judean procurators. He is dispatched to Rome for trial on vague charges.

In 1st Corinthians, Paul struggles to impose his authority on his foundation. He denounces other preachers. He attacks the Corinthians for tolerating sexual immorality, and for favouring the rich members.He has to explain the resurrection. 2nd Corinthians is believed to be a composite of at least two other letters. In the first part of the letter, Paul buries the hatchet, and makes nice with the previously rebellious Corinthians. In the second part, Paul turns into Mr Hyde, and lashes into the Corinthians for listening to others, others who say that Paul is no apostle. In his letter to the Romans, Paul introduces himself, sets out some theology, and ass for help for his Spanish mission.

Paul has been on the road for 20 years. In his third and final mission, Paul travels from his base in Antioch in Syria through his earlier foundations in Turkey and Greece. He re-unites with Priscilla and Aquila. He spends a few years in the great city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. We meet Apollos, who is spreading the word of John the Baptist. As usual, Paul is violently ejected from Ephesus. This time, the pagans are to blame. Paul tells all and sundry that he has the monopoly on religious trinkets. That really upsets all those making a fortune selling relics of the great goddess Artemis. Paul barely makes it out town with his skin intact. He travels through Macedonia and Greece, then back to Asia Minor. He delivers a melancholy speech at Miletus, and reluctantly turns toward Jerusalem. I finish the episode with a letter Paul wrote during the mission, his angry letter to the Galatians, where he denounces the circumcision party of James and Peter.

The three synoptic gospels are markedly different from John. It is clear that both Matthew and Luke used Mark. But Matthew and Luke have much material in common. Most scholars think they have a common source, the mysterious "Q". Others think one evangelist copied the other. Steve Guerra of the History of the Papacy podcast and I tackle the issue.

This is an addendum to episode 2.54, Paul's Second Mission: To The Greeks. It is a repeat of part of an earlier episode. I imagine a curious pagan's reaction to hearing Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians.

Paul’s 2nd mission is much more extensive than his first. He starts from his base in Antioch. Before he even begins, Paul has a face-off with Peter in Antioch, and Paul’s first backer and friend Barnabas. Paul acquires Timothy as a companion. He then gallivants across the province of Asia. Paul takes ship to Thrace in Europe, where he establishes a church at Philippi. After an unfortunate misunderstanding with the local authorities, he treks down through Macedonia, where he establishes a church at the capital of the province, Thessalonica. Paul travels south into Achaia, modern Greece. A grand speech fails to impress the Athenian philosophers. He has better luck at Corinth, settling there for eighteen months. Again he falls afoul of the Jews, who bring him before the Roman governor. Thankfully, the governor has no interest in petty squabbles and dismisses the case. Paul arrives back at his base in Antioch, after a whirlwind three years.

Paul's letters say that he spent 17 years in Arabia Nabatea, in Damascus, and in what is now southern Turkey. In all those long years, he met the disciples precisely once, and then only Peter and James the brother of Jesus. I call this Paul's lost mission. The Book Acts ignores it. The chronology of Acts is impossible to reconcile with Paul's letters.

Paul's letters are puzzles. Why do we have so few? Paul loved to write. We should have 90 or more letters, not the scant dozen we have. And why don't we have letters from Paul's contemporary missionaries? How do we reconcile the vast differences between the three Pauls shown in his letters?