{"id":1079,"date":"2011-03-18T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T18:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2011-08-10T23:44:43","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T05:44:43","slug":"an-argument-for-trusting-paul-over-the-gospels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/archives\/1079","title":{"rendered":"An Argument for Trusting Paul Over the Gospels"},"content":{"rendered":"

I believe there is a movement today that emphasizes the Gospels found in the Bible to the point that it minimizes the writings of the Apostles in the NT (which is mostly Paul) and the rest of Scripture (i.e. Old Testament). I think this movement has been around for awhile now in the “liberal” mainstream church, and is also in the emergent church. If you look at these movements, however, you will find that they really emphasize only certain portions of the Gospels (and completely avoid much of Jesus’ teachings in the synoptics and almost all of John). In my previous church, I definitely saw this. The attitude was, “Yeah, Paul did say that, but how does that line up with what Jesus said here about not judging, etc.?”<\/p>\n

While I find it silly to pit one against the other, I’d like to lay out a reasonable argument for trusting Paul more than the Gospels, rather than the other way around. Again, let me repeat, I don’t think we should trust one more than the other–I think they are equally trustworthy, but I am doing this to make a point. So here are the reasons for trusting Paul over the Gospels:<\/p>\n

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  1. The letters of Paul were written earlier than the Gospels. We should be aware that as time goes by, the possibility of something losing its truth becomes greater. The earliest views of Jesus should be trusted over the later views, which have more possibility of being invented ideas, rather than truths.<\/li>\n
  2. Paul’s words are his own words. Jesus’ words in the Gospels were written down by other people, not by Jesus himself. How can we trust that they are what Jesus really said or what He was trying to say? With Paul’s words, we have first-hand teachings.<\/li>\n
  3. The Gospels sometimes frame Jesus’ teachings, so that in one gospel, Jesus’ teaching seems to mean one thing, and then in another, the same teaching has a different meaning. Even if Jesus did say these things, can we trust that the writers of the Gospels are framing Jesus’ words as He intended them? Are we sure they are being used in context?<\/li>\n
  4. Luke wasn’t even a disciple of Jesus, so he didn’t even hear Jesus’ words first-hand. We don’t know who wrote Matthew. And we are petty sure that Mark was a student of Peter, so he wasn’t a follower of Jesus either. So Luke and Mark aren’t even second-hand accounts. At best, they are third-hand. There is debate as to who wrote John. It may have been written by one of Jesus’ disciples. But even so, it was written very late–probably 90 AD or so.<\/li>\n
  5. Paul’s teachings are much more systematical and well-argued. It’s pretty clear what he’s trying to say as he goes into long explanations so as to not be misunderstood. With Jesus’ words in the Gospels, He’s constantly throwing out one-liners that can be interpreted in many different ways. Or He’s telling stories without explanations. Paul’s words are more concrete, and can be better trusted for matters of theology and doctrine.<\/li>\n
  6. Paul was constantly warning the church that others were telling a Gospel different than his (based on works, not grace) after he left them. If there’s anything that contradicts Paul in the Gospels, shouldn’t we consider Paul’s warnings? Especially if those parts of the Gospels seem to make salvation based on works (how you live your life).<\/li>\n
  7. Jesus didn’t speak Greek (the language of the NT), but Paul did. So the Gospel writers are taking Jesus’ words originally spoken in Aramaic and translating them into Greek. There’s always the risk of a loss of meaning or misinterpretation of meaning when you translate.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Like I said, I don’t agree that we can trust Paul’s words more than Jesus’ in the Gospels, but my point is to cast doubt on people who seem to minimize Paul over Jesus’ words. Is that justifiable? I think from a textual criticism point of view, absolutely not. I think it’s more logical\/sensible to cast doubt on the Gospels.<\/p>\n

    It definitely feels uncomfortable to dismiss the Gospels like this. Shouldn’t we feel equally uncomfortable with those who would do the reverse by minimizing other parts of Scripture?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I believe there is a movement today that emphasizes the Gospels found in the Bible to the point that it minimizes the writings of the Apostles in the NT (which is mostly Paul) and the rest of Scripture (i.e. Old Testament). I think this movement has been around for awhile now in the “liberal” mainstream […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,7,4,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-god","category-our-culture","category-the-church-world","category-the-scriptures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1091,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timfalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}