Chapter Twenty Seven PETER AND PAUL Soon after Peter's escape from his Jerusalem prison, he was forced to depart and go to "another place". The author of Acts does not tell the reader where that other place might be and there has been much speculation as to the possible place of refuge chosen by the chief apostle. Caesarea has been suggested as well as Antioch or possibly Alexandria. It is possible that Peter spent some time in all three cities. Brandon ties in the beginnings of Christianity in Alexandria to the possibility of Peter's having planted it there but there is no Christian tradition that confirms this as there is the tradition that Peter was the first "bishop" of Rome, and hence the first "Pope". Be that as it may, where ever he did go to initially, very shortly afterwards, sometime during the reign of the emperor Claudius, he came to Rome. That he intended to remain there permanently or at least for many years is indicated by the fact that he brought along his wife and his brother (First Corinthians 9:5). We can give credence to the tradition that Peter DID indeed establish the Nazarene community in Rome. Paul, at a later time, wrote to that community but he was not the one who established it. It appears that the Roman community was made up of diaspora Jews and former G-d Fearers newly converted to Judaism, and it is the latter that Paul addresses in his Epistle to the Romans. It is apparent however that when Paul came to Rome in fetters that this Nazarene community did not help him at all, and in fact shunned him. In his Second Epistle to Timothy, chpater 4, he lays out a litany of complaints about those who forsook him, and the two years that he spent under house arrest were years in which only the gentile Christian converts that he was able to make in Rome came to minister to him. By the spring of the year 64, it was evident that no one from Judea was going to come to Rome to press any charge against Paul, and that being the case, he was set free by order of the emperor Nero. He was now free to go about the City and spread his teachings about the "other Jesus" that were in contradiction to the Nazarene understanding of the historical Jesus, and it appears that he was successful in this endeavor. Unfortuneately for Paul, he was entirely TOO successful. Knowingly or unknowingly he courted disaster when his preachings resulted in the conversions of members of the imperial household itself (Philippians 1:13; 4:22). The Caesars had long been antipathetic to Jewish messianism, especially in its more militant and proselytizing aspects. It was bad enough that the Jews of the Empire preached about the immanent arrival of a Jewish king to unseat Caesar and establish his own Empire whose seat would be at Jerusalem. It was even more disquieting to Rome when Jews actively attempted to involve the Empire's non-Jews in seditious enterprises, especially when it appeared that they were dangerously succeeding in the attempt. The distinction between the ordinary messianist's belief in a Jewishly nationalistic human worldly king and Paul's belief in a spiritual king whose kingdom was not of this world was lost on Roman Imperial sensibilities. During his reign, Claudius had already expelled a large body of Jews from the City because of what he conceived as messianic agitation. Had it not been for his friendship with king Agrippa, he might have put an end to Jewish presence in Rome. As it was, he later relented and allowed those Jews whom he had expelled to return. But the situation now at the time of Nero was more serious. The number of known adherents to the various messianic movements in the City had grown alarmingly, AND included those in "Ceasar's household" (Philip 4:22). By this time, the Roman attitude toward the followers of Jesus, both Jewish Nazarene and gentile Christian (both groups were lumped together as far as Rome was concerned) is expressed in three places in Acts of the Apostles: "These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither observe, being Romans" (16:20-21) "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also ... and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus" (17:6-7) "For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (24:5) In July of the year 64 CE, the great fire of Rome broke out and consumed most of the City. Nero immediately suspected the messianists of arson, and this was both the cause and excuse for him to round up all known messianists and their leaders in retaliation for what he considered a viscious strike against the Empire. Both Peter and Paul were arrested along with other messianists who were made to be scapegoats in the arenas of Rome. Peter was crucified as an insurgent against the Empire. Paul, because of his Roman citizenship, was beheaded. There is no reason to believe that the animosity between the two men, based upon their complete opposite views of Jesus, the status of the Jewish people, and the place of Torah in the world, ever achieved resolution. The Nazarene community at Rome probably began to dominate the smaller, newer Christian community founded by Paul. By virtue of the fact that their leader had been the "Rock" upon which the messianic community had been built, and had been one of the three pillars of the Mother Church, the Nazarenes could advance their understanding of who and what Jesus was to the extent of influencing the gentile Christians to join them. But there undoubtedly was a small core of Christians who continued to remain loyal to the memory of Paul and to his teachings of a more universal and spiritual, and less historical and nationalistic, Jesus. This core continued to emphazise the saving grace of Jesus at the expense of Torah observance, and in doing so, they had to endure the continued hostility of the Nazarenes. Feeling the anipathy of both Jews and gentiles, they resolutely suffered in silence, believing that Jesus would return immanently in the great Rapture, put an end to human society, and gather them in as the remnant of the New True Israel. At this juncture in history it could only appear to an impartial observer that Nazarenism would triumph as the only legitimate form of the Jesus movement. Jesus' favorite disciple, John the priest, yet lived, and stood as one of the heads of the Mother Church, and Paul the sole exponent of antinomian Christianity was no longer alive to oppose him or the Judaizers who went throughout the Empire creating an ever growing army of Torah observant messianists preparing to meet the king of the Jews when he returned to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven. History knows that this is not what happened. History has recorded that against all odds, the Pauline view of Jesus eventually became the dominant view and laid the basis of historical classical Christianity. In view of this, what can be said about the apostle to the gentiles vis-a-vis his own people whom he grew apart form? The Nazarenes never considered Paul a real apostle becaue he never knew the real historical Jesus. He therefore found it necessary to de-emphasize the historical Jesus and emphasize the more universal spiritual one. As has been pointed out by Klausner, Paul the apostle of the gentiles has been compared by his fellow Jews to Balaam the prophet of the gentiles. Both men have been known as those who fell down and saw visions. Regarding Balaam, Jews have always said that his visions were polluted. What could be deduced from this about the visions of Paul? The authentic world view of Judaism is that, in order to avoid confusion, and to have an orderly universe, there must always be separation. This separation, called HAVDALOT in Hebrew, presuppose a clear distinction between Israel and the gentile nations. Paul on the other hand put forth a world view that in Jesus these distinctions disappear. The erasure of these distinctions, the breaking down of the "middle wall of partition", according to Paul, was one of the reasons that Jesus came into the world: "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly: neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter." Romans 2:28-29 "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:27-28 It is obvious that Paul tried to do away, not only with the Torah of Israel, but with the people of Israel. By his theological philosophy he wished to eradicate Jewish nationalism. Yet, at the same time, he did NOTHING to detract from the nationalism of the gentiles he taught about a denationalized Jesus Christ. But it is even more than this that Paul expressed. This was a man who claimed to be a Jew among Jews, yet in the final analysis, he declared his own Jewishness, and by extension, the Jewishness of all, to be offal, and in a like connection, sarcasticly noted that those who were overly concerned with ritual observance such as KASHRUT worshipped their stomachs as G-d. "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and DO COUNT THEM BUT DUNG, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:" "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)" Philippians 3:1-9;17-17 Because of what Paul attempted to do vis-a-vis Jews, and what he actually suceeded in doing vis-a-vis Christianity, he is anathema to the Jewish people. As Klausner correctly points out, Jesus is mentioned many times in the Talmud and the Midrash, and sometimes, surprisingly, in a positive light. Paul is NEVER mentioned in these important Jewish sources. But sometimes the Talmud alludes to him, usually to pass the Jewish condemnation upon him. Of all the Jewish followers of Jesus the Nazarene, words such as the following are reserved only for the apostle to the gentiles: "If an individual profanes that which is holy, such as the Sabbath, and despises the Festivals, and puts his fellow to shame publicly, and annuls the circumcision covenant of Abraham our father, and interprets the Torah in ways that are not in consonance with the Halachah, even though he knows the Torah, and had good works to his credit, that individual has no share in the world to come." Pirke Avot 3:15
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