Paul Without Judaism: Historical Method over Perspective

In this essay I have tried to examine with readers a different and simpler question, which is susceptible to at least partial (dis)confirmation: “How did Paul present himself to the groups of Christ-followers he established, in relation to Judaean law, custom, and culture?” Paul was a Judaean by ethnos , and that he could not change. He was indelibly circumcised, and he continued to follow at least some key moments in the Judaean calendar. The degree to which he “remained in the ancestral customs” of the Judaeans, as Josephus might have put it, is a different matter. Since most of what we all do comes from custom or habit, not rational analysis before each action, even if we could watch Paul acting in certain contexts we might not know what he was thinking or how he reconciled his thought with his actions. Where we can make some progress is with Paul’s self-representation to his “in Christ” groups in letters.