Scholarly Smackdown:
Did Paul Distort Christianity?

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From: Elaine Pagels
To: Ben Witherington III
Date: April 5, 2004

Dear Ben,

Receiving your e-mail, I see that we have much to discuss, especially Paul's views of marriage and slavery, on which we have different viewpoints.

First, however, let's get the ground rules clear. Since I completely agree with you that we should do away with "old stereotypes," I was surprised-and, frankly, disappointed----that you immediately introduced three such stereotypes-beginning with "liberal" (surrounded by rather nasty characterizations) vs. "conservative."

Actually, I think of historians of Christianity, like myself, as people who think there is much worth conserving. Yet it is true that I am one of those who does not hear "liberal" (or "conservative," for that matter) as a dirty word. I often associate the term with liberal democracy-with the vision of a free society, in which diverse points of view are discussed with mutual respect-as, for example, in this open conversation.

What makes this point so important is not just that you then distorted what I said-or, rather, what I did not say--but that the whole point of my opening statement was to show that as the author of 2 Peter 3:15 wrote early in the second century. The letters of "our beloved brother Paul" contain some things that are "hard to understand"-and so have been interpreted in widely different ways.

Since you and I have some substantive disagreements on what Paul said, it's important for those participating in this conversation who are not scholars to know that this discussion is not just a matter of "liberal" vs. "conservative,"-much less "he said, she said"-- but that serious scholars, the great majority of them Christians, like you and me, can honestly interpret these letters differently. Those who want to read more about the various viewpoints will find here suggestions of a few places to start, so that they may come to their own decisions.

But first, just a comment on the other two stereotypes you brought in with the first one-and then proceeded to attack--as if attributing them to me: first, the view of Paul as "the great corrupter of the simple Gospel of Jesus."

What set you off in this direction, apparently, was that I started by pointing out the obvious fact that strikes--and often puzzles--anyone who compares the Gospel of Mark with, say, the opening of Galatians, or of I Corinthians 15: that what Paul preaches as gospel is quite different from what Jesus proclaims, according to Mark (1:15). Noting this, of course, is an essential starting point for understanding our topic-Jesus and Paul.

Second, you brought in the stereotype of a "non-eschatological, non-Jewish, non-messianic Jesus." Whomever you are addressing here (and no one, so far as I know, suggests that Jesus was not Jewish; the rest, I would guess, belong to your recent discussion with our colleague Dom Crossan), your polemic certainly was not relevant to this conversation. Since you obviously don't know my views on this, I'll simply state that my own views follow the basic line of Schweitzer's argument-articulated better, in terms of contemporary scholarship, by such scholars as E.P. Sanders in The Historical Figure of Jesus and others like you, who see Jesus primarily as an apocalyptic preacher, whom Mark and the other gospel writes place clearly in Jewish tradition, both prophetic and messianic.

So please throw away the straw men, and address what I actually do say. And, of course, you can expect the same collegial courtesy from me. What interested me when invited to do this conversation with you is that, having used your writings in my courses at Princeton University, I believed that we could have a serious and substantive discussion of the complex issues of how we read Paul, and what it means for the ways we understand Christianity today.

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