By Marc Rastoin, SJ
The Christian message is summed up in one word, “Gospel,” the Good News. This one Gospel is recounted at length in four texts, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Is this not more than enough for Christians? Yet in the New Testament, that is in that part of the Christian Bible relating to the Gospel message, there are numerous letters. In addition to the 13 letters under Paul’s name, there are three attributed to John, two to Peter, one to James and one to Jude. There is also a difficult-to-classify letter to the Hebrews, which is not a letter and is not addressed specifically to Jews, but which closed the Pauline cycle in the second century.
The Gospels, in the view of some, should suffice. Yet there are letters, a way of communicating in which a writer appears in the foreground. This is clearly someone inhabited by the Spirit, no doubt a believer, with a specific temperament, concerns and friends. The first fact to note is that some letters were undoubtedly written before the Gospels and constitute the earliest Christian writings. These are seven Pauline letters, believed by tradition to be by Paul of Tarsus, namely, Romans, Galatians, Philippians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. We note here a striking parallel with the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible: there the texts found first in that collection were not the first to be written. Even then, one might expect to find only the Law of Moses, but instead one encounters, among other genres, stories, songs and proverbs. Evidently, although the Gospel was pre-eminent, the early Christian communities recognized very early on that God’s word was also manifested when some of their leaders wrote.
One Gospel, Many Interpreters
In fact, what comes first is the Gospel, in the sense of news, a proclamation that cannot be reduced to a book. Both the letters and the four Gospels are meant to refer to the one Gospel, the one proclamation of the Good News that in Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified Messiah, God’s plan for Israel and the world is manifested. Therefore, in the New Testament we do not find the life of Jesus told by his followers, but that told by the disciples of the third generation, while we have a large number of letters from a certain Paul, a man who had not known Jesus “according to the flesh” (2 Cor 5:16). Paul of Tarsus, he who was not one of the Twelve, one of Jesus’ chosen apostles, had the audacity to write first. A fierce persecutor of the Christian movement in its origins, he was somewhat reluctantly accepted by many of the early Christians.
To understand the difference in the aims of his letters, and the titles assigned to them, it must be remembered that the early Christians were spread over a wide range of different communities. To simplify – and it is a distinction that could be debated – it is possible to identify at least four major “families” of early followers: the Jacobites (who claimed connection with James, “the brother of the Lord”); the Petrines (connected with Simon Peter); the Paulines (with Paul); and the Johannites (with a certain John, whom we tend to distinguish today from the Galilean John, son of Zebedee). History would recognize the unique status of Paul, who was the first to write a message based on a free word, light as the wind. In what capacity was he writing? He believed he was called directly by the risen Jesus and goes so far as to say, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor 9:1). He also claims to have no less charisms than others: “And I think that I too have the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 7:40b).
In this surprising paradox – which Joseph Ratzinger reflected on in his second volume on Jesus – the strange message of those Messianic Jews who were the first Christians found its first Greek expression through a Christian who had not known Jesus according to the flesh and had not been one of the Twelve. All agree that Paul was the first to write letters. After him, other members of other Christian “families” also began to imitate him. By setting out to write himself, Paul implicitly allowed others to write in turn, thus opening the period of Christian revelation not only to the apostles but also to those who would come after them. In fact, no apostle of Jesus wrote personally, but their companions and co-workers did. Paul is thus representative of the group that enabled the transmission of the faith of this group of ardent Jews.
Men from the second Christian generation wrote between 49 (the date usually fixed for the first instance of Christian writing, the first letter to the Thessalonians) and 115 (the date when Peter’s second letter is thought to have been written). Paul is thus like a link between today’s Christians and the apostles. Like the latter, in fact, he is an apostle, and he will never surrender on this point: “Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor 15:8). However, like the Christians of later centuries to the present, Paul did not know Christ personally and must rely on the oral transmission of the early disciples, for example, regarding the Eucharist or the resurrection of Jesus: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received” (1 Cor 15:3).
It is the case that the great questions of Christian theology in later centuries found in Paul’s language their major expressions of belief and controversy. A sentence from the author of the second letter of Peter shows us that heated debates were unleashed over the meaning of some Pauline formulas long before the Reformation: “So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Pet 3:15-16).
It is impossible to understand the historical development of Christianity without taking into account Paul’s thought as expressed, on the one hand, in the letters ascribed to him, and, on the other hand, in those of his collaborators who have taken up his legacy. These include Ephesians, Colossians, the two letters to Timothy, the letter to Titus, and the second letter to the Thessalonians. According to many church historians, the thinkers who have had the greatest influence on Christian theological thought are two interpreters of Paul: Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther. Ephesians and Colossians were the most frequently cited Pauline letters in the patristic era and generally during the first millennium of the Christian era. Romans and Galatians have been at the center of theological debates between Protestants and Catholics in the last five centuries.
Discussing the Problems Communities Faced
Beside bearing witness to the Gospel, what are these letters about? Almost never about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, they reflect the concerns of first-century Christian teachers. How were they to distinguish themselves from the Jewish communities and their cultic rules so deeply rooted and so attractive to pagan converts, who often came from similar religious circles and had long frequented synagogues? How were they to continue to participate in the ordinary life of Greek cities characterized by paganism? Can sacrificial meat sold in butcher shops attached to pagan temples be bought and consumed? What rules should they follow for repudiation if one spouse refuses the other’s conversion (cf. 1 Cor 7:12-16)? How were they to remunerate itinerant preachers? All the differing issues agitating the communities are addressed in these letters, which then allow us a glimpse into the life of early Christianity.
Of course, depending on the letters, that is, depending on the Christian “family” one encounters, the emphases are different, the responses not always harmonious with each other. Reading these letters allows one to touch upon the differences not only in style but also in theology among different Christian communities. It is also possible, and even likely, that some circles are underrepresented, since not all wrote to the same extent. It is clear, for example, that the Pauline movement, which most likely was in the minority until the year 70 and was violently challenged (as evidenced by some passages in the letter to the Galatians or the letter to the Romans), eventually turned out to be over represented in the New Testament. In fact, the writings of this current make up about half of the entire New Testament. To the letters of the Pauline corpus, in fact, must be added the work of Luke (the Gospel and Acts, i.e., a quarter of the New Testament), which was written from a Pauline perspective. One might also conclude that one of Luke’s main goals was to defend the memory of Paul, who was placed in strong continuity with Peter.
Paul and the Mystery of the Letter to the Romans
It is undoubtedly in the challenge made to Paul during his lifetime that we can find a clue to clarify the mystery of the letter to the Romans. In fact, Paul wrote to communities he had personally founded in Asia Minor and elsewhere in the Greek-speaking world. Exceptionally, there is a note addressed to an individual from this same region, Philemon. In the letter to the Romans Paul explains that he did not want to interfere in the regions evangelized by other apostles, “Thus I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news, not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on someone else’s foundation” (Rom 15:20). The question then necessarily arises: why then is Paul writing to the Christians in Rome, even though he did not found such a community?
In the letter, Paul explains that he would like to stop for a few days in Rome before continuing his journey to Spain, in some sense the Western fringe of the Empire. But writing 16 chapters – the longest exposition of his theological convictions – only to benefit from a foothold during a brief passage seems disproportionate. The surprise is heightened when Paul states that he intends to travel to Jerusalem to deliver the collection for the Christians there, a collection that he has been organizing for several years (cf. 1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8; Rom 15:25-28). Some exegetes have therefore advanced the theory that the letter to the Romans is in some sense Paul’s theological testament, in which he puts his principal ideas in writing. Before risking his life in Jerusalem, he wants to be judged not by rumor but by substance. This letter would then in some sense be the written testimony that Paul sends ahead of himself, so that it would be read in Jerusalem as well, so that some of his critics would revise their judgment of him.
The community of Rome was distinctive in that it was apparently not founded by any apostle, although it was an early foundation. Historians speculate that some Christians arrived there very early, after Jesus’ resurrection, as slaves, freedmen or merchants, and that there were Christians there before the apostles. In any case, in Rom 16:7 Paul greets Andronicus and Junia, who were Christians before him. Obviously, they may have been baptized in Asia Minor before going to Rome, but in any case some first-generation Christians are found in Rome. The capital of the Empire, Rome was the ideal destination from which a letter could circulate very quickly and widely, especially if Paul is writing before the traditional “closing of the Mediterranean” to ordinary commercial shipping because of the weather, and when only imperial mail ships and convoys would sail between Rome and Alexandria. Thus his letter could have arrived in Jerusalem by the spring. This hypothesis would explain why the letter to the Romans is in some sense Paul’s theological and spiritual testament. In it, in fact, the most complete exposition of his gospel, of his teaching, can be found.
Paul knows that he is subject to much criticism and that many voices accuse him. He is judged to be lax on a moral level, and Rom 3:8 clearly alludes to this: “And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), ‘Let us do evil so that good may come’? Their condemnation is deserved!” The main reason is to declare his love for his people and to communicate that a divine revelation has made him anticipate the salvation of “all Israel” (cf. Rom 9-11). Paul does not want rumors to determine his reception in Jerusalem, or rather he wants to go out of his way to confute what he considers slanders.
Another fact explains and justifies Paul’s writing to the Romans; he knows many of that community. When, in 49, the emperor Claudius had expelled from Rome some Jewish leaders who had become Christians and some of their Jewish opponents in the synagogues as well, some of those expelled Christians found themselves in Greece, particularly in Corinth, where Paul would meet them, as Luke reports in Acts 18. He therefore became friends with a missionary couple, Prisca and Aquila. At the death of Claudius and after the advent of Nero, some of those expelled had certainly returned to Rome; and it is these Christians known in Asia whom Paul can greet at the end of his letter to the Romans.
Although they were troubled by different currents and theologies, the Christian communities were also animated by a strong desire for mutual communion and amicable solidarity with one another, not forgetting the powerful movement toward union based on the fundamental sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist that they had in common. The letters testify to both their diversity and shared beliefs. Paul’s last trip to Jerusalem and the letter he writes to the Romans testify to his ardent desire that his Hellenistic communities, of pagan-Christian majority, be in true communion with the “mother churches” of Judea, which for the most part were of Jewish origin.
Paul hesitated for a long time before making this trip to Jerusalem. He knew the risks involved. After all, at first he did not plan to do it personally, but planned to send messengers: “And when I arrive, I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me” (1 Cor 16:3-4). But what was at stake was of paramount importance. For some years Paul had been having money collected for “the saints who are in Jerusalem.” He had told the Galatians that it was a promise made during his passage to Jerusalem: “They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do” (Gal 2:10).
For Paul, the collection will be a sign of the deep communion between the churches of Asia Minor and Greece, converts from paganism, with that of Jerusalem. For him, spiritual fellowship cannot be separated from material fellowship, and financial support is part of the nature of the Church. The universality of the Church translates into the sharing of goods – Jesus died for all. It is not possible to remember Christ without remembering the poor, the saints who are in Jerusalem, the Christians who live in communities less wealthy than those in Corinth or Thessalonica. No matter how poor one is, one must be generous. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come” (1 Cor 16:1-2).
Paul bases this collection on the fact that the Pauline communities have benefited by the preaching of the faith and their share in the promises of Israel; for this they must be grateful. Thus, all the theology Paul expounds in his letter to the Romans has a reference to the exchange of material goods. It will be this mission that will show, with a handsome sum of money, that Christians of pagan origin are in full fellowship with those of Jewish origin. Paul is proud of this initiative. The collection is the financial guarantee of his religious and communal ambition: pagans who are converts are Christians in their own right, and not second-class Christians. All share in the same Christ in whom they were baptized. All are associated with the same promises, having received the same Spirit.
From the end of the first century, Paul’s letters, like those of Peter and James, were read in all churches. We do not know if historically Paul’s collection reached its goal, but certainly the message it conveyed was successful. Luke chose not to mention it in order to emphasize that it was really the Spirit who prompted Paul to go to Jerusalem. Luke goes directly to the spiritual reason for that journey and emphasizes the correspondence between Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem, to lay down his life for Israel and the multitude, and that of Paul, who also goes to lay down his life for the fellowship of all Christians.
Letters: a theological fact
The fact that some Christians were able to speak on their own behalf to discuss practical issues in their communities and that what they said was very soon considered inspired by God is obviously not insignificant: it is a fact of paramount theological importance. Some wrote spontaneously and rigorously to share their convictions, and these very expressions were judged worthy to belong to the New Testament, to God’s revelation. Thus, this fact is in some way a kind of extension of the founding logic of Christianity, the Incarnation. God can communicate himself through a man and through human words. The varied nature of the New Testament texts is a kind of literary counterpart to a theological conviction, namely, that God speaks through humans, and the Holy Spirit continues to act in the words of the early apostles and their successors. One exegete has pointed out that, on closer inspection, it is the whole Bible that reflects a dialogical structure, a continuous exchange between God and humans. God acts, he utters the word in some way, and then we respond. We in turn begin to speak, and this word is recognized as also coming from God. One of the criteria of the canonicity of the writings was that they were read in the liturgy.
Conclusion
When God becomes incarnate, he becomes flesh in a man who has written nothing and causes other men to take the word: thus, human words and divine words are inseparable. The letters of the New Testament are an irreplaceable testimony to the freedom given by the Spirit of God: they are a precious echo of the joys and hopes, sufferings and dramas of a group of first-century believers, without whom our world would not be what it is. To read these letters is to enter into the intimacy of those very small communities that were sometimes housed in the dwelling of some notable person (such as Phoebe and Erastus), were exposed to the hostility of their surroundings, and often of their own families, celebrated sober domestic worship, and experienced strong solidarity.
Of course, there were many slaves and uneducated people among them. But there was also a Pharisee from Tarsus (information about his origins is provided by Luke in Acts 9:11), a man trained in the best of Greek rhetoric and the hermeneutical wisdom of the Jews, a son of the tribe of Benjamin, a Roman citizen. It was with this “chosen instrument,” with this “vessel of election” (Acts 9:15), that the word of the gospel came alive with full force. Paul was the first to write Christian letters, and this initiative was imitated by some Christians in other churches. Thanks to them, the way Jesus’ message could be understood and put into practice by the first Christian generations becomes, so to speak, tangible. It is now impossible to separate the Gospels from the letters that proclaim them, a lesson to be meditated on always. – La Civilta Cattolica
