Paul’s former life in “Judaism”—whatever that was

Matthew Thiessen is keen to demonstrate that “Paul did not convert from an established religion called Judaism to a new religion called Christianity” (A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles, 57). We can agree on that.

His conversion was to a radical allegiance to the one whom he believed had been appointed by the living God to be Israel’s Messiah, the future judge and ruler of the nations. We somewhat disagree on that, I think—Thiessen’s account of Paul’s eschatology seems to me incoherent, but I’ll come back to that another day.

My former conduct in Judaism

In the meantime, it is worth asking what Paul understood by “Judaism.” He says that his gospel came “through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:12)—meaning either that Jesus revealed the message to him or that Jesus was the object of the revelation. He then notes that the Galatians had heard about his

former conduct in Judaism, that exceedingly I was persecuting the church of God and was destroying it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, being even more zealous for my ancestral traditions. (1:13-14*)

According to Thiessen, this is often misunderstood to mean that Paul abandoned Judaism as a religion and became a Christian. Thiessen thinks that the noun Ioudaïsmos gets its meaning from the verb ioudaïzein.

A better translation would reflect that Paul is speaking about his former manner or way within something he calls Ioudaismos, a noun related to the verb ioudaizein (to Judaize), which has to do with non-Jews adopting Jewish customs (Gal. 2:14). Jews can’t Judaize, but gentiles can. (55)

So Paul is claiming that “formerly he used to promote Jewish practices among gentiles, a claim that he makes more fully in Galatians 5:11, where he states that he used to proclaim circumcision” (55). Most likely, before his encounter with the risen Messiah, Paul was one of a small number of Jews involved in actively proselytising non-Jews, and perhaps this practice carried over into his early years as an apostle of Jesus Christ (56).

To Judaize is to behave as a Jew

The verb ioudaïzein means to become or, more exactly, to behave as a Jew or Judean. It’s an intransitive verb: I Judaize, I don’t Judaize someone else. For example:

• Following the public exoneration of the Jews in Susa, “many of the gentiles were circumcised and were Judaizing (ioudaizon) out of fear of the Judeans” (Esth. 8:17).
• A Roman called Metilius promised to “Judaize” in order to escape death at the hands of the Jews (Jos. War 2:254). In a time of war, the Syrians were highly suspicious of those in their midst who had “Judaized” (tous ioudaïzontas) (Jos. War 2:463).
• Jacob required the inhabitants of Shechem to “Judaize” (Ioudaïsai) by being circumcised (Theod. 4:0).
• Paul says to Cephas, “If you being a Jew live Gentile-like and not Jew-like, how do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize (ioudaïzein)?” (2:14*). The distinction remains, however, between those who are “by nature” Jews or Judeans and those who are “sinners from the nations.”
• Finally, Plutarch makes reference to a “freedman named Caecilius, suspected of Judaizing (ioudaïzein)” (Plut. Cic. 7.5*).

But if ioudaïzein means to “become a Jew” or “adopt Jewish practices,” the noun Ioudaïsmos must logically precede the verb, otherwise “Judaism” would denote the act of becoming or acting as a Jew.

On Thiessen’s understanding, to Judaize is what gentiles do, but Judaism would refer to what Paul used to do in promoting Jewish practices among gentiles. I’m not sure this makes sense. It seems much more straightforward to say that Judaism is what gentiles entered into or adopted by Judaizing.

However….

Militant Judaism and the gentiles

The noun Ioudaïsmos occurs a few times in the Maccabean literature, and this may explain how Paul could speak of a violent and intensely zealous progress in Judaism (Gal. 1:13-14).

• By taking up arms against Antiochus Epiphanes, Judas Maccabeus and his brothers “acted with manly ambition for Judaism” (2 Macc. 2:21*).
• They “enlisted those who persevered in Judaism” (8:1*).
• A man called Razis was known as “father of the Judeans.” It is said that in the period before the revolt, a “charge of Judaism” was brought against him, and he “risked body and soul for Judaism with all earnestness.” To demonstrate his enmity towards the Jews, the Seleucid general Nicanor sent five hundred soldiers to arrest him (14:37-40).
• Antiochus Epiphanes sought “through tortures to compel everyone in the nation to renounce Judaism by tasting defiling foods” (4 Macc. 4:26).

Even if we think that “Judaism” is in principle a more or less neutral term for the religious thought and practices of the Jews, adopted by Judaizing gentiles, it seems to have come into vogue in the context of the fierce resistance of the Jews to an aggressive Hellenism. “Judaism” names a militant form of Jewish faith that is prepared to resort to violence and self-sacrifice in order to safeguard the “ancestral traditions” against pagan suppression.

For Paul, “Judaism” was not merely his ethno-religious domain as a Jew of the diaspora. It entailed an extreme ideological commitment to defend that domain against the forces of disintegration, whether external or internal. Therefore, he had persecuted the gathered people of God, with zeal and violence, in order to destroy it—and no doubt had taken great pride in his achievements (Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:4-7).

So perhaps we need to distinguish between the Judaism that came with being “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5), and the militant Judaism of that “present evil age” (Gal. 1:4), which had driven Paul to eradicate faith in a crucified messiah.

Paul left behind the latter, which is what he calls “Judaism,” but not the former, which he does not call “Judaism.”