Part 6—Paul and the God-fearers
Paul began as a Jewish Pharisee erethismic to end the heresy being proffered by Jesus’ disciples. He underwent a conversion and began to fervently preach that which once he sought to extirpate. As a pious Jew he worked to enlighten his fellow Jews, and when he failed to gain traction in that effort, turned to the “God-fearers” and the gentiles in general. In his epistle to the Romans, written in the late 50s, he recounts his frustrations, observations, beliefs and hopes regarding Judaism and its rejection of Jesus as Messiah. While dolefully not discounting the freedom of the individual, he surveys the situation from heaven’s view, and sees in it God’s plan. By allowing Judaism in general to reject faith in Jesus, to find him and his cross a “stumbling block” and “scandal”, God has given impetus to the preaching of the gospel to the nations. Paul will not derogate Judaism, for it is the root from which Jesus springs, and while Christianity may need to be, for the moment, grafted onto another stock, God will not abandon his covenant with Israel, and ultimately, God’s indefectible way will provide for the inclusion of all into the fold of Christ. In the consideration of his gentile audience, Paul was forced to revisit the role of the Law in Judaism and its relationship with Jesus. He comes to see the Law as an accusatory mechanism given to school the Jews in the ways of righteous living. Its per se validity expires with the grace, the maturity of having it spiritualized, inscribed in the heart. Religion ceases to be a life by the rule book and is now, through faith in Jesus, a life lived in the spirit of Christ. Thus, he ejects as necessities all the external trappings of his former way. They who would find in Paul any support for anti-Semitic action or attitude have not read him well. Paul understands himself to his dying day to be a faithful Jew following after the Messiah of the Jews, the Christ of all the world.
Regarding the God-fearers, it needs be noted that in the early history of Judaism there was not a specific need or occasion to enunciate the distinctiveness of the people of Yahweh (aka: Jehovah) from other peoples. The Mediterranean was a world of different peoples each with their own distinctive god or gods. When Israel became the captive of Babylon this equipoise of cults began to change. Suddenly, the people and their faith were without a ground, a state, a place to define them. They begin to speak of themselves as “the people” of God, and of others as “the peoples” (or from the Latin gens, the gentiles). As the conquests of Alexander the Great spread Greek religion across the Middle East, antagonism reveals itself, and foreign cults are scorned and denounced. The gods of “the peoples” are derided as mere idols, as falsehoods, as demonic, and “the peoples” are denigrated for their lack of moral values and the ability to rise to true moral understanding and action.
Two major theological views regarding this division emerge. The first is universalistic (ecumenical or catholic in the most comprehensive meaning of the terms). It is found beautifully envisioned in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah wherein God selects Israel to be the beacon showing forth to the world the truth about God and moral living that someday all “the peoples” will be drawn to it for life and light. The second is isolationistic, claiming Israel to be the Chosen and all others the reprobate. The first view is inherently given to missionary activity, the second to given to exclusivist insularity.
In the times between the Babylonian exile and Jesus, many Jews settled in lands throughout the Middle East. Many of these Jews, as would be expected of ex-patriots, were inclined to the more liberal and inclusive interpretation of their faith. A number of their gentile neighbours were attracted by Judaism’s strict monotheism, and the moral standards it demanded. Many rabbis in such places allowed for conversions. However, since this change of religion was often contingent upon one willingly abandoning all that was past—including family, friends, nationality, and even in some cases, work—few were willing to take the final step and become Jews; rather they orbited around the Jewish community, worshipping the God of Israel, following the moral and ritual directives as best they could. They were called the “God-fearers”, gentiles still, but occupying an ecotone between “the people” and “the peoples”.
In early Christian times they were the most likely group outside “the people” to be attracted to the gospel. Yet, we find in the earliest Christian writings no record of an immediate outreach to the gentiles or even these God-fearers. Indeed, often the Jewish isolationist attitude is co-opted by and applied to Christians in contrast to gentiles. Christianity is the true, the orthodox, the right way of being Jewish, of being “the people” of God. Often, the term gentile is used more negatively, with more pejorative force, than is the term Jew. It is Paul, styling himself the Apostle to the Gentiles, who brings this attitude to the light of scrutiny and definitively vanquishes it. He argues against them that would impose Judaic practices upon converts from outside Judaism. He contends that circumcision, the dietary laws, the ritual purifications, etc., are not required of anyone who wishes to follow after Christ. He may not always be consistent in his application of this, but with him the groundwork is set, and it is accepted that no Christian is bound by the laws of Moses, but is free to face the both God and the world in the freedom accorded by the spirit of Christ.