Twisting the scriptures

Paul played a leading part in distorting the interpretation of the earlier scriptures to legitimize the teaching he devised. He abandoned the law of the Torah, and he also used it, cunningly, as a tool to mislead. Verses of the Torah are often quoted, but their meaning is changed to support a doctrine contrary to the original intent of revelation.

In one of his letters Paul quotes the passage on the ease of keeping God’s commandment¹ but interprets it in Romans 10:6–8 as a call to faith without law, and so cancels the obligation of the law.² He likewise manipulates the context of the punishment of a hanged criminal³ in Galatians 3:13, supposedly to prove that ʿĪsā ibn Maryam ʿalayhi al-salām, peace be upon him bore a curse on behalf of humanity.⁴

Tested and found liars

In the message of Revelation, delivered through the writing of John of Patmos, the church at Ephesus is praised for having tested those who claimed to be apostles and found them liars, a testimony weighed in “Them which say they are apostles, and are not”.

The statement reflects the caution and firmness of the early communities of Asia Minor in rejecting figures who brought teaching that departed from the true teaching of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.⁵ What is striking is Paul’s own admission in one of his last letters:

15Οἶδας τοῦτο ὅτι ἀπεστράφησάν με πάντες οἱ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ, ὧν ἐστιν Φύγελος καὶ Ἑρμογένης.

15This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.⁶

The region meant includes the chief cities of Ephesus, Smyrna and Pergamum, all named in Revelation. The Revelation narrative about the rejection of “false apostles” takes place in the same region where Paul admits he was abandoned. The connection cannot be brushed aside, above all when we consider how few figures in early Christian history claimed to be an apostle to the Gentiles besides Paul himself.

Some will object that the verse in Revelation does not refer to Paul explicitly. The absence of a name leaves room for interpretation from context, and Paul’s own testimony to rejection in Asia Minor strengthens the reading that he was the one rejected by the community praised for rejecting false apostles.

Workers of lawlessness

Paul’s teaching also bears closely on the picture Jesus himself gave when he warned those who claim to know him yet live in violation of the law:

21Οὐ πᾶς ὁ λέγων μοι· Κύριε κύριε εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἀλλʼ ὁ ποιῶν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός μου τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. 22πολλοὶ ἐροῦσίν μοι ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ· Κύριε κύριε, οὐ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι ἐπροφητεύσαμεν, καὶ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι δαιμόνια ἐξεβάλομεν, καὶ τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι δυνάμεις πολλὰς ἐποιήσαμεν; 23καὶ τότε ὁμολογήσω αὐτοῖς ὅτι Οὐδέποτε ἔγνων ὑμᾶς· ἀποχωρεῖτε ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν.

21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.⁷

The Greek anomía (ἀνομία, Strong’s G458) here means “without law” or “rejection of law” in the Greek lexicons.⁸ In this context, those who abolish the obligation of the Torah fall among the “workers of iniquity” refused entry to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In his letters Paul goes beyond denying the need for the law and gives it a negative connotation, as a burden and a curse. He states: “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.”⁹

And again: “Christ is the end of the law.”¹⁰ Such teaching plainly contradicts the command of Jesus Christ that not one jot of the law shall pass until heaven and earth pass away.¹¹

Some will defend Paul by pointing to statements such as “we establish the law”¹² as proof that he upheld it. That is rhetoric only.

Set beside statements such as “ye are not under the law, but under grace,”¹³ Paul’s real meaning becomes plain: the Torah ceases to bind. The argument that Paul brought the gospel to Gentiles and that the law therefore ceased to apply is weak too, because Jesus Christ said all his teaching must be taught to “all nations,”¹⁴ without exception.

More troubling, Paul positions himself as more than a teacher. He says “I have begotten you through the gospel”¹⁵ and tells his followers to imitate him.

That contradicts the prohibition of Jesus Christ himself against calling anyone “father” in a spiritual sense on earth.¹⁶ The Revelation narrative that praises the rejection of false apostles, Paul’s admission that all in Asia had abandoned him, and the testimony that violators of the law will be rejected by Jesus himself together form a firm textual conclusion: Paul belongs among those whose teaching the early church, and Jesus, rejected.

1. Deuteronomy 30:12–14. ↩
2. See Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2020), on Paul’s quotation of Deuteronomy 30:12–14 in Romans 10:6–8. ↩
3. Deuteronomy 21:23. ↩
4. Levine and Brettler, op. cit., analysis of Paul’s use of Deuteronomy 21:23 in Galatians 3:13. ↩
5. Revelation 2:2. epeirasas (ἐπείρασας, Strong’s G3985); apostoloi (ἀπόστολοι, G652); pseudeis (ψευδεῖς, G5571). ↩
6. 2 Timothy 1:15 (SBLGNT; KJV). ↩
7. Matthew 7:21–23 (SBLGNT; KJV). ↩
8. See Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, entry ἀνομία: “the condition of being without law; contempt and violation of law; iniquity.” ↩
9. Galatians 3:10. ↩
10. Romans 10:4. ↩
11. Matthew 5:17–18. ↩
12. Romans 3:31. ↩
13. Romans 6:14. ↩
14. Matthew 28:20. ↩
15. 1 Corinthians 4:15–16. ↩
16. Matthew 23:9. ↩