1
D. Ruiz, Paul the Apostle and the offering of the Gentiles
Paul the Apostle and the offering of the Gentiles
By Delio Ruiz, scj
Introduction
The present work intends to be not only a contribution in the theology of mission but also a reflection on St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who represents one of the best referent for the Church on mission ad gentes. “Although Paul’s writings have been studied closely by missiologist, surprisingly the missionary dimension of his theology has not always been recognized.”[1]
In this study, I investigate two subjects of Paul’s thought: first, his message, then his understanding of his apostolic authority and mission. The analysis of the text that is offered here does not aim to be a detailed exegesis.[2] However, it points to the axis of an interpretation of the New Testament from the angle of Paul’s vocation and his commitment to the Gospel; as G. Barbaglio asserts: “the gospel abides in the centre of the theological points of apostle’s epistles, however every time with particular and specific feature.”[3]
This study has restricted aims. Firstly, it is limited to three passages (Gal 1:11-17; Rom 1:1-17 and 15:14-21). The preference here is just to focus on Paul as missionary ad gentes, and, thus, it will direct to some related topics. Secondly, it explores the distinctiveness of Paul’s missionary apostleship and how he understood his own mission among the Gentiles.
Certainly, the apostle expected his readers to follow him in his goals, attitudes and dedication for the mission to the peoples. It is hoped that some conclusion, and especially the living word of the apostle, will shed light on our topic and will encourage all of us to emulate him at the present times.
“Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:9).[4]
1. “I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” (Gal 1:11-17)
11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; 12 for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14 I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
15 But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me, but I went away at once into Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus (Gal 1:11-17).
These verses in Galatians are the most explicit reference to Paul’s conversion found in his letters. Paul provides some insight into the way he understood his conversion. He emphasizes that both the gospel he preaches and his call to preach are rooted in and originated from God. When he talks about himself he describes himself as having been called from the womb to serve and fulfill this mission among the Gentiles.[5]
1.1. “The gospel that was proclaimed by me” (1:11-12)
“For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11-12). The overflowing of phrases in the negative emphasizes the final clause, “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (di’apokalypseôs Iêsou Christou), which is a genitive objective: the revelation that Paul received regards Jesus Christ. That is confirmed by 1:16, “But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me…” (See 1:15-16). Putting together both verses 11 and 16 it is understood that the content of the gospel is Christ himself (cf. v. 7).
So far what Paul asserts in vv. 11-12 follows the statement of v. 1: “Paul an apostle, sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” His preceding life as a convinced persecutor (vv. 13ss) even the event of his vocation (vv. 15-16ab) exclude that all these were originated in himself (cf. 1Cor 15:8-10; 2Cor 3:5; 4:7): God had revealed his Son to him (v. 16; cf. 2Cor 4:6) so that he might proclaim Christ among the Gentiles (v. 16b). Therefore (vv. 16c-17) it was clear that the gospel he preaches does not have the character of a human composition (oude adversative as in vv. 1, 12) nobody even taught it to him (v. 16c) nor did he go to see the apostles (v. 17, cf. 1Cor 15:9). He only went to Arabia looking for work (cf. 1Cor 15:10) and then the subsequent persecutions (cf. 2Cor 11:32f).
“Not that there is another gospel” (v. 7) means, according to the following verses, that Paul corresponds with the gospel that is preached by the others (1Cor 15:10), even if he received it directly “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (v. 12). Paul boldly asserts this (v. 20) by portraying his first visit to Jerusalem (vv. 18ff). When Paul describes the encounter with the “leaders” (2:1-10), he expounds that he went to present the gospel that was being preached to the Gentiles (v.2b; cf. vv.5.7.14; 1:6-9.11.16.23), to the notables (v.2c; cf. vv.6ad.9c); that is excluding the others: in order to make sure that he was not running, or had not run, in vain (v. 4).
1.2. God had set me apart before I was born (v. 15)
The first paragraph refers to the divine activity of keeping Paul apart and singles him out to be a missionary. The apostle affirms that this revelation was the means by which God implemented a prior divine decision, for, he says, God “had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace.” The Greek of the phrase “set me apart before I was born” (ho aphorisas me ek metros mou) can be read to express the idea that the setting apart is to be reckoned from the time when Paul was conceived in his mother womb.
The verb aphorizô, ‘to separate,’ ‘set apart,’ was employed in the LXX mostly in a levitical or cultic sense referring to the separation as part of a sacrifice (Ex 29:24, 26), the first born (Ex 13:12), the leper (Lev 13:4. 5) or even Israel as a ‘holy people’ (Lev 20:26). At the stage of the New Testament notion of separation, for which the Old Testament precedents and models, we find the principle of God separating or marking off for his service.[6]
The prose of being called from the womb and the notion of being set apart or appointed for a task appear as echoes of the calling of the Old Testament prophets (cf. Is 49:1; Jer 1:5). The echo of Jer 1 and Is 49 appears to be deliberate, for both texts also mention a mission of God’s chosen one of the nations/Gentiles (ethnê in LXX Is 49:6; Jer 1:5, 10). The functions of a prophet are transferred to the apostle. Thus, it is clear that Paul came to understand his experience as a commissioning by God of the prophetic type:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5).
“The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me … I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:1, 6).
1.3. He called me through his grace (v. 15)
The second clause speaks of God’s sovereign action in calling (kalesas) Paul. We should observe that this second work of God is neither the same as the separation from the womb nor coincident with it. Instead, it describes Paul’s great experience on the road to Damascus. What the apostle says of himself here, where kalesas, ‘called’, is followed by dia tês charitos autoû, ‘through his grace’, he says of the Galatian believers in v. 6:
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.”[7]
The verb kaleô, ‘to call’, is part of Paul’s vocabulary in describing God’s initiative in salvation (cf. 4:17; Rom 8:30; 9:12, 24; 1Cor 1:9; 7:15, 17; Gal 1:6; 5:13; 1Thess 2:12; 4:7; 5:24). At the same time, the term charis, ‘grace’, appears to be in parallel with kaleo. Both are used in the salvation event in Christ and both terms have a particular reference to Paul’s calling as an apostle to the Gentiles.
This gracious aspect of God’s call, dia tês charitos autoû, ‘through his grace’, is also mentioned by Paul in 1Cor 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.” The term ‘grace’ in connection with the calling to be an apostle occurs also in the letter to the Romans:
“Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name” (Rom 1:5).[8]
Paul knows that he is unworthy to be either a Christian or an apostle: “For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1Cor 15:9). Grace indicates this. But it also suggests that his calling to be an apostle to Gentiles is tied up with the salvation event itself.[9]
Paul consciously expresses the gratuitous nature of his vocation, which is undeserved. How can a persecutor claim to deserve to be called to apostleship? He only recognizes to be the one who was benefited by the generous love of God.[10]
1.4. So that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles (v. 16)
God revealed his Son to Paul[11] and the God’s gracious purpose (Greek preposition hina, “in order to”) was specific; Paul is to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (hina euaggelizômai auton en tois ethnesin). He seems to regard himself as the latter-day successor of Jeremiah and the prophetic “servant of the Lord”[12], like them who was called and appointed to be God’s herald among the Gentiles (the Greek en tois ethnesin, “among the nation”). Paul’s designation as God’s envoy to the nations occurs primarily in Galatians (here and in Gal 2:2, 8-9) and Romans. Both letters include a reference to the story of Abraham (e.g., Gal 3:6-14; 4:22-23; Rom 4:1-25). Hence, despite the issue of whether Paul refers to Abraham in Galatians because his opponents had introduced the patriarch into the discussion, Paul was able to find a very useful complex of ideas in the account of Abraham, as Jervis affirms:
“Particularly helpful are the notions that Abraham’s call was to be a great nation (Gen 12:2), that God promised Abraham he would be the ‘father of many nations’ (Gen 17:4), and that “through [Abraham’s] offspring all on earth will be blessed” (Gen 22:18). Paul makes the connection between these offspring of Abraham and those of Christ (3:16) and understands his missionary sphere as being among those whom God promised God would eventually bless through the offspring of Abraham. Paul’s description of himself as one sent to preach among the Gentiles/nations is rich with meaning for so steeped the traditions of his ancestors.”[13]
According to recent investigations it is widely recognized that in Gal 1:15-16 Paul alludes primarily to Is 49:1, 6, and secondarily also to Jer 1:5, and so the scholarly consensus is that Paul interprets his Damascus call in the light of the calling of the Servant of the Lord, Ebed Yahweh, and the prophet Jeremiah.[14] Seyoon Kim concludes that “Is 42 was one of the chief Old Testament texts in the light of which Paul interpreted god’s revelation and call that he had receive in Damascus Christophany (…) However, the most significant result of following Paul in his interpretation of his Damascus experience in the light of Isa 42 is the discovery that he was conscious of having been commissioned as an apostle with the endowment of the Holy Spirit.”[15]
“God revealed his Son in order that Paul might preach the gospel to the Gentiles. Paul learned that the final age had begun, and that the time had come to incorporate the Gentiles into the community of Israel.”[16] Definitively, Paul understood, by God’s grace and through his own experience that the knowledge of the Son entails necessarily to be sent to his brothers.
Furthermore, it is very important to note that the phrase “among the Gentiles” is not a superficial topic in this epistle. As Barbaglio affirm, “the phrase points out whom is the Pauline mission for; but also it expresses the specific quality of his work of evangelization, namely, an announcement of freedom from the Moses’ Law.” Actually, the exegesis cannot avoid this concern looking at the segment 2:1-10 and at the argumentation on the chapters 3-4 (see also 2:16-21) where “this ‘ethnic’ qualification will emerge as an essential point.” Paul is a missionary “among the Gentiles” because he was called by God to be so. “The gospel of the freedom of the Gentiles that was already proclaimed in Galatia is now proclaimed again in the letter and it is from God; it is not a gospel of human origin” (see 1:11-12).[17]
2. “I am not ashamed of the Gospel” (Rom 1:1-17)
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, 10 asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you-- 12 or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish 15 -- hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the uprightness[18] of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is upright will live by faith.”
In this particular segment of the epistle to the Romans, the apostle provides the elements to analyze the theology of his mission, namely his own involvement in the gospel, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (v. 16). And he introduces the gospel in God’s saving purpose: “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith” (v. 16b-17).
The ‘gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ’ lies at the heart of all that Paul did. It was already proclaimed in Rome (cf. Rom 1:6). It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ within God’s purpose, which serves as “the bridge between Paul’s own missionary activity and that of others.”[19] By another side, certainly, “the gospel abides in the centre of the theological points of apostle’s epistles, however every time with particular and specific feature.”[20]
This section (Rom 1:1-17) serves as an introduction to the epistle and fall into three parts.[21] The first part, verses 1-7, is Paul’s salutation. Firstly, Paul describes, and defines both himself (vv. 1-6) and those whom he is addressing (v. 7a) by reference to the gospel. The really important thing about himself and about them is, in Paul’s view, the truth which the gospel declares. Secondly, the apostle’s desires for the Christians in Rome for grace and peace (v. 7b).
In the second part, verses 8-15, Paul makes a preliminary statement of his hopes to visit the Christians in Rome. Paul regards himself as indebted to the Gentiles, not as having received some benefit from them, but as having been appointed by God to do something for them (v. 14).
The third and final part are verses 16-17, in which Paul introduces the main theme of his gospel, justification by faith for both Jew and Gentiles.
2.1. Called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God (vv. 1-7)
The apostle introduces himself by portraying his role characterized by the words servant, apostle, and set apart. Each term is filled with meaning. As an apostle, as one who is sent, Paul has been entrusted with the “good news,” the best imaginable, the euangelion (“gospel”) of God. Paul’s apostleship is directed to the Gentiles (vv. 1, 5).