Chapter Twenty Seven

                             PETER AND PAUL

       Soon after Peter's escape from his Jerusalem prison, he was forced
to depart and go to "another place". The author of Acts does not tell the
reader where that other place might be and there has been much speculation
as to the possible place of refuge chosen by the chief apostle. Caesarea
has been suggested as well as Antioch or possibly Alexandria. It is
possible that Peter spent some time in all three cities. Brandon ties in
the beginnings of Christianity in Alexandria to the possibility of Peter's
having planted it there but there is no Christian tradition that confirms
this as there is the tradition that Peter was the first "bishop" of Rome,
and hence the first "Pope". Be that as it may, where ever he did go to
initially, very shortly afterwards, sometime during the reign of the
emperor Claudius, he came to Rome. That he intended to remain there
permanently or at least for many years is indicated by the fact that he
brought along his wife and his brother (First Corinthians 9:5). We can give
credence to the tradition that Peter DID indeed establish the Nazarene
community in Rome. Paul, at a later time, wrote to that community but he
was not the one who established it. It appears that the Roman community was
made up of diaspora Jews and former G-d Fearers newly converted to Judaism,
and it is the latter that Paul addresses in his Epistle to the Romans.

       It is apparent however that when Paul came to Rome in fetters that
this Nazarene community did not help him at all, and in fact shunned him.
In his Second Epistle to Timothy, chpater 4, he lays out a litany of
complaints about those who forsook him, and the two years that he spent
under house arrest were years in which only the gentile Christian converts
that he was able to make in Rome came to minister to him.

       By the spring of the year 64, it was evident that no one from Judea
was going to come to Rome to press any charge against Paul, and that being
the case, he was set free by order of the emperor Nero.

       He was now free to go about the City and spread his teachings about
the "other Jesus" that were in contradiction to the Nazarene understanding
of the historical Jesus, and it appears that he was successful in this
endeavor. Unfortuneately for Paul, he was entirely TOO successful.
Knowingly or unknowingly he courted disaster when his preachings resulted
in the conversions of members of the imperial household itself (Philippians
1:13; 4:22). The Caesars had long been antipathetic to Jewish messianism,
especially in its more militant and proselytizing aspects. It was bad
enough that the Jews of the Empire preached about the immanent arrival of a
Jewish king to unseat Caesar and establish his own Empire whose seat would
be at Jerusalem. It was even more disquieting to Rome when Jews actively
attempted to involve the Empire's non-Jews in seditious enterprises,
especially when it appeared that they were dangerously succeeding in the
attempt. The distinction between the ordinary messianist's belief in a
Jewishly nationalistic human worldly king and Paul's belief in a spiritual
king whose kingdom was not of this world was lost on Roman Imperial
sensibilities. During his reign, Claudius had already expelled a large body
of Jews from the City because of what he conceived as messianic agitation.
Had it not been for his friendship with king Agrippa, he might have put an
end to Jewish presence in Rome. As it was, he later relented and allowed
those Jews whom he had expelled to return.

       But the situation now at the time of Nero was more serious. The
number of known adherents to the various messianic movements in the City
had grown alarmingly, AND included those in "Ceasar's household" (Philip
4:22). By this time, the Roman attitude toward the followers of Jesus, both
Jewish Nazarene and gentile Christian (both groups were lumped together as
far as Rome was concerned) is expressed in three places in Acts of the
Apostles:

     "These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, and
      teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither
      observe, being Romans" (16:20-21)

     "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also
      ... and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying
      that there is another king, one Jesus" (17:6-7)

      "For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of
       sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a
       ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (24:5)

       In July of the year 64 CE, the great fire of Rome broke out and
consumed most of the City. Nero immediately suspected the messianists of
arson, and this was both the cause and excuse for him to round up all known
messianists and their leaders in retaliation for what he considered a
viscious strike against the Empire. Both Peter and Paul were arrested along
with other messianists who were made to be scapegoats in the arenas of
Rome. Peter was crucified as an insurgent against the Empire. Paul, because
of his Roman citizenship, was beheaded. There is no reason to believe that
the animosity between the two men, based upon their complete opposite views
of Jesus, the status of the Jewish people, and the place of Torah in the
world, ever achieved resolution. The Nazarene community at Rome probably
began to dominate the smaller, newer Christian community founded by Paul.
By virtue of the fact that their leader had been the "Rock" upon which the
messianic community had been built, and had been one of the three pillars
of the Mother Church, the Nazarenes could advance their understanding of
who and what Jesus was to the extent of influencing the gentile Christians
to join them. But there undoubtedly was a small core of Christians who
continued to remain loyal to the memory of Paul and to his teachings of a
more universal and spiritual, and less historical and nationalistic, Jesus.
This core continued to emphazise the saving grace of Jesus at the expense
of Torah observance, and in doing so, they had to endure the continued
hostility of the Nazarenes. Feeling the anipathy of both Jews and gentiles,
they resolutely suffered in silence, believing that Jesus would return
immanently in the great Rapture, put an end to human society, and gather
them in as the remnant of the New True Israel.

       At this juncture in history it could only appear to an impartial
observer that Nazarenism would triumph as the only legitimate form of the
Jesus movement. Jesus' favorite disciple, John the priest, yet lived, and
stood as one of the heads of the Mother Church, and Paul the sole exponent
of antinomian Christianity was no longer alive to oppose him or the
Judaizers who went throughout the Empire creating an ever growing army of
Torah observant messianists preparing to meet the king of the Jews when he
returned to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven.

       History knows that this is not what happened. History has
recorded that against all odds, the Pauline view of Jesus eventually
became the dominant view and laid the basis of historical classical
Christianity. In view of this, what can be said about the apostle to the
gentiles vis-a-vis his own people whom he grew apart form?

      The Nazarenes never considered Paul a real apostle becaue he never
knew the real historical Jesus. He therefore found it necessary to
de-emphasize the historical Jesus and emphasize the more universal
spiritual one. As has been pointed out by Klausner, Paul the apostle of the
gentiles has been compared by his fellow Jews to Balaam the prophet of the
gentiles. Both men have been known as those who fell down and saw visions.
Regarding Balaam, Jews have always said that his visions were polluted.
What could be deduced from this about the visions of Paul? The authentic
world view of Judaism is that, in order to avoid confusion, and to have an
orderly universe, there must always be separation. This separation, called
HAVDALOT in Hebrew, presuppose a clear distinction between Israel and the
gentile nations. Paul on the other hand put forth a world view that in
Jesus these distinctions disappear. The erasure of these distinctions, the
breaking down of the "middle wall of partition", according to Paul, was one
of the reasons that Jesus came into the world:

     "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly: neither is that
      circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew
      which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart,
      in the spirit, and not in the letter."
                         Romans 2:28-29

     "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
      Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
      free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
      Christ Jesus."
                         Galatians 3:27-28

       It is obvious that Paul tried to do away, not only with the Torah of
Israel, but with the people of Israel. By his theological philosophy he
wished to eradicate Jewish nationalism. Yet, at the same time, he did
NOTHING to detract from the nationalism of the gentiles he taught about a
denationalized Jesus Christ.

       But it is even more than this that Paul expressed. This was a man
who claimed to be a Jew among Jews, yet in the final analysis, he declared
his own Jewishness, and by extension, the Jewishness of all, to be offal,
and in a like connection, sarcasticly noted that those who were overly
concerned with ritual observance such as KASHRUT worshipped their stomachs
as G-d.

     "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same
     things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is
     safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the
     concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the
     spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
     flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any
     other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the
     flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel,
     of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the
     law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching
     the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things
     were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless,
     and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
     of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
     things, and DO COUNT THEM BUT DUNG, that I may win Christ, And be
     found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the
     law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the
     righteousness which is of God by faith:"

     "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so
     as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told
     you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies
     of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is
     their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
     things.)"
                         Philippians 3:1-9;17-17

       Because of what Paul attempted to do vis-a-vis Jews, and what he
actually suceeded in doing vis-a-vis Christianity, he is anathema to the
Jewish people. As Klausner correctly points out, Jesus is mentioned many
times in the Talmud and the Midrash, and sometimes, surprisingly, in a
positive light. Paul is NEVER mentioned in these important Jewish sources.
But sometimes the Talmud alludes to him, usually to pass the Jewish
condemnation upon him. Of all the Jewish followers of Jesus the Nazarene,
words such as the following are reserved only for the apostle to the
gentiles:

     "If an individual profanes that which is holy, such as the Sabbath,
      and despises the Festivals, and puts his fellow to shame publicly,
      and annuls the circumcision covenant of Abraham our father, and
      interprets the Torah in ways that are not in consonance with the
      Halachah, even though he knows the Torah, and had good works to
      his credit, that individual has no share in the world to come."
                           Pirke Avot 3:15