Saul's Faith and Hopes

But to which of the first-century Pharisees did Saul of Tarsus belong? In one of his speeches (Acts 22:3) he calls himself a pupil of Gamaliel. This recognition, coupled with the testimony of the Epistles, has led some scholars to suggest that Paul was a follower of Hillel before his conversion. But this simply cannot be, otherwise we would have to recognize all the texts where he is called a persecutor of Christians as later inventions, which is impossible. Gamaliel, as he appears in the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, would hardly approve of the stoning of Stephen. It would not have occurred to him to go to Damascus to catch Christians and lead them to prisons and deaths. Saul undoubtedly learned a lot from Gamaliel, but he never shared his beliefs. If, later, when he became a Christian, he defended certain ideas close to the Hillelites (for example, about divorce), this should be attributed to his conversion rather than to the influence of the ideas that he adopted in the pre-Christian period of his life.

Thus, all that we have said about Shammai's followers at that time can be applied to a large extent to Saul of Tarsus himself. First, he believed wholeheartedly that the prophetic promises had not yet been fulfilled. The sacred texts, in particular, the second, seventh and ninth chapters of the Book of the Prophet Daniel, promised the imminent approach of the Kingdom. In their historical context (no matter how real), these fragments undoubtedly spoke of an escape from the Babylonian captivity. However, as far as we know from other reminiscences of the Book of Daniel that appeared in the first century, in particular from the pseudepigrapha known as the Fourth Book of Ezra, it was easy for the reader of this era to mentally replace "Babylon" with "Rome".

Thus, the predictions of the great prophets had yet to come true. The story still remained unfinished. The kingdom of Israel was not restored. The "ten men" of the prophet Zechariah had not yet taken hold of the "hem" of the Jew and said: "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you" (Zechariah 8:23). THE LORD had not yet "marched" on Mount Zion and "taken up arms" against all the rebellious nations (Zech 14:1-5). The new Temple of which Ezekiel proclaimed has not yet been built, nor have the life-giving streams flowed to heal the Dead Sea, Ezekiel 47. Most importantly, it was still a long way from fulfilling Isaiah's comforting prophecies of forgiveness, peace, and prosperity to Israel (Isaiah 40-55). The Pharisees and the great multitude of Jews who did not belong to any party still lived in anticipation of the great events that were to happen "according to the Scriptures." The people continued to languish in captivity. And, as the Qumran texts eloquently testify, the Jews secretly believed that they were about to be delivered, or perhaps they were already being delivered invisibly.

In their theological constructions, the "zealots" relied on the Scriptures, which clearly told them that they were instruments of God's plan and were called upon to bring its realization closer. Like most Jews of his day, Saul read the Tanakh not only to find out how it would end, but he was deeply convinced that it was his duty to hasten the denouement. The situation was something like this. Israel was called to make a covenant with the Creator, to become His chosen one, a light that shone in the darkness, a nation in which Adam's sin would be atoned for. But Israel sinned and, as a result, was taken out of their land into captivity. Although geographically he has returned, the captivity continues. The temple has not yet been restored. The Messiah has not yet come. The Gentiles had not yet recognized His authority and had not "flowed" to Zion to receive the Torah. Israel is still in sin and vice.

And yet the Scriptures spoke clearly and convincingly of better times. These were not just scattered prophecies taken at random, the authors of which talk nonsense from a safe distance, passing it off as predictions of the future. The whole Scripture was read as a single story. Its hero was Israel, and now the plot was approaching a pre-established denouement. Very soon the day will come when the LORD will sit on the throne. Evil will be defeated once and for all. Israel, or at least its faithful sons, will once again become the true elect of the one true God.

These ideas, which fueled the "jealousy" of the Shammaites, can be summarized as follows. In the Jewish theology of that period, three main dimensions can be distinguished: monotheism, God's chosenness, and eschatology. There is only one God, the one true God who rules over the world; the one true God has only one people – Israel; a world ruled by one God has only one future, and it will come very soon: the days are approaching when the true God will reveal Himself, conquer evil, and liberate His people. Motivated by this faith, Saul made a sincere effort to act "according to the Scriptures." For him, the sacred texts were not a set of truisms, but a story with a good ending, which he had to bring closer.

"Zeal for the Torah" pushed the Shammites and their associates to the most decisive actions for the sake of fulfilling the prophecies. They did not want to sit idly by, they were impatient to rush into battle. This was the "zeal for God" for them, which Paul mentions in the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 10:2). What is happening around offends the one true God, the LORD. His glory demands that all pagans, idolaters, whoever they may be, receive what they deserve. THE LORD must again become the King of all the earth, and for this Israel must follow the Torah. Only faithfulness to it can hasten the fulfillment of prophecies. If God invades history right now, and Israel continues to depart from the Law, they will face the fate of the Gentiles. This means that reminders of the importance of the Torah are not enough: the stiff-necked people must be forced. Here again we have reason to reflect on the dangers of "repeating what has been passed"—is it not the same as the Jewish Orthodox of today, who not only call for the observance of the Sabbath, but, in order to back up the word with deeds, throw stones at the cars passing through their neighborhood on Shabbat, all for a holy purpose? Such is "zeal in action" – zeal for God, zeal for the Torah, zeal for the Kingdom.

One observation should be made in this regard. The portrait I have drawn is strikingly different from the ideas about the Jew Saul that I have been instilled with since childhood. I was taught, and accordingly I believed for quite a long time, that Saul thought in exactly the same way as many of my contemporaries: that the meaning of life is in the bliss of death in heaven, and that in order to get to heaven after death, it is enough to recognize and observe the universal moral law. I imagined Saul as a kind of "proto-Pelagian" who thought he could be "saved" by his own merits. He seemed to me to be a consistent supporter of what might be called "legalism" or "moralism"—the belief in the existence of timeless rules of good manners, the observance of which guarantees promised blessings, particularly "salvation" and "eternal life," in the sense of paradisiacal bliss after death.

Now I understand that I was equally unfair to the era (in the time of Saul no one thought this way) and to culture (the Jews do not think this way at all). Ed Sanders is quite right: if we regard first-century Judaism, and Phariseeism in particular, as an early form of the Pelagian heresy, we are making false accusations against it. It should be noted, by the way, that Sanders himself could not avoid anachronisms. He reduces Judaism to a pure "religion" and stubbornly refuses to see in it the political dimension to which I feel it necessary to point out.

Sanders follows the Mishnah and views first-century Judaism as a purely religious movement. In other words, he accepts Hillel's position.