Paul and Jesus

JAMES D. TABOR is chair of the department of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from the University of Chicago and is an expert on Christian origins. He is the author of The Jesus Dynasty and author or co-author of several other books, among them The Jesus Discovery. In addition to his work as a historian, he has conducted field work in archeology at a number of sites in Israel and Jordan.

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ALSO BY JAMES D. TABOR

The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find

That Reveals the Birth of Christianity

(with Simcha Jacobovici)

The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus,

His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity

Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for

Religious Freedom in America

(with Eugene V. Gallagher)

A Noble Death: Suicide and Martyrdom Among

Christians and Jews in Antiquity

(with Arthur J. Droge)

Things Unutterable: Paul’s Ascent to Paradise in Its Greco-Roman,

Judaic, and Early Christian Contexts

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NOTES

PREFACE: DISCOVERING PAUL

1. Some phrases of this confession of faith appear as early as Ignatius, an early-second-century Christian bishop (Ignatius, Trallians 9). Versions of the full “Apostles’ Creed” are found in the late second century in the writings of Irenaeus (A.D. 130–202); see Joseph C. Ayer, A Sourcebook for Ancient Church History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), pp. 123–26. The standard version in English:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell and on the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

2. My Greek professor was the late Dr. Paul Southern, who had learned his Greek from the incomparable A. T. Robertson. We were required to translate the original Greek text aloud without using any notes, and to parse any verb or explain any grammatical construction or vocabulary word on cue. Southern would often take the entire class period to probe the details of a sentence, phrase, or line.

3. Things Unutterable: Paul’s Ascent to Paradise in Its Greco-Roman, Judaic, and Early Christian Contexts (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986).

4. See my discussion on recovering this lost legacy in The Jesus Dynasty (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), pp. 305–17.

5. In The Jesus Dynasty, I investigate the historical Jesus and his original message and teachings.

6. The three other papal basilicas are St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, and St. Mary Major.