salvation of God to Jews and Gentiles was well suited to Paul’s understanding of his own ministry. Paul recognized the unique fulfillment of God’s saving plans in the person of Christ, and through his own calling entered into association with Christ in the challenge of bearing hardship for the sake of God’s mission and with the hope of God’s approbation.
Paul and the Other Apostles
Next is the topic of apostolic authority and Paul’s relationship to other apostles and tradition. Key passages include Gal 1:1, 17; 2:1–10; 1 Thess 2:6–7; 1 Cor 1:1; 9:1–6; 15:1–11; 2 Cor 1:1; 11:5; 12:11–12; Rom 1:1; 11:13. Paul speaks with a combination of authority and humility when discussing his apostolic calling. He recognizes the legacy of the original apostles and other apostles while defending the validity of his own apostleship.203 This balance between independence and common ground in his standing with other apostles sets the standard for later presentations of this dynamic in the letters examined in chapters three, four, and five of the book.
In several of his letters, Paul identifies himself as an apostle from the outset (Gal 1:1; 1 Cor 1:1; 2 Cor 1:1; Rom 1:1). The opening in Gal 1:1 is the most forceful assertion of Paul’s apostleship. The divine authorization behind Paul’s apostleship is the intended message, and the antithetical construction (οὐκ ἀπ’ ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲ δι’ ἀνθρώπου ἀλλὰ διὰ ’Ιησοῦ καὶ θεοῦ πατρός) drives home the contention more powerfully. This wording is consistent with the argument Paul makes throughout the rest of Gal 1. The opening statements in 1 Cor 1:1 and 2 Cor 1:1 are similar to one another. In both cases, Paul’s apostleship is placed in a genitive relationship with Jesus Christ (or Christ Jesus) and is qualified as being dependent upon the will of God. This qualification represents a different way of stressing the divine origins of Paul’s apostleship, and the emphasis is reinforced in 1 Cor 1:1 by the possible inclusion of κλητός before ἀπόστολος.204 In Rom 1:1, Paul submits that he is called as an apostle (κλητὸς ἀπόστολος), which communicates the fact that God is the source of Paul’s ministry and authority. Paul’s apostleship is followed immediately by his perception of being set apart for the gospel, demonstrating the close association between his apostleship and the gospel.
Taking the greetings from the four letters as a group, it is likely that Paul mentions his apostleship at the beginning of the letters for three main reasons. First, Paul saw his apostleship as central to his identity. Second, the divine bestowal of his apostleship serves as his basis for addressing the churches in an authoritative manner. Third, Paul’s apostleship supports the validity of his gospel, which is always a chief concern in his letters.205 Beyond these three shared characteristics, questions about Paul’s apostleship and his gospel continue to surface in Galatians, so the initial identification of Paul as an apostle foreshadows a primary theme in the letter.
After offering his gospel as the standard against any corrupt imitation (Gal 1:6–9) and as part of a sustained defense of the divine origin of his gospel in Gal 1:6—2:10, Paul provides a brief glimpse of his standing relative to the other apostles in Gal 1:17 when he mentions visiting the “apostles who were before me” (τοὺς πρὸ ἐμοῦ ἀποστόλους). Bruce is correct in observing that the phrase “is temporal; it does not denote precedence in status.”206 Instead, the phrase groups Paul with the other apostles, stressing the common standing among them.207 Thus Paul is neither detached from nor inferior to the other apostles. For Paul, independence entails possessing an apostolic legitimacy that does not rest on the authorization of other Christian leaders but does keep him aligned with their mission and message.
As Paul proceeds to develop his argument of independence from, yet association with, the other apostles, he recounts in Gal 2:1–10 a meeting in Jerusalem with leaders of the early church, including James, Cephas, and John (Gal 2:2, 6, 9). Paul’s purpose was to present his gospel to them in order to garner their backing of his ministry to the Gentiles. Paul makes a fine distinction between the respected leaders and those who had been opposing Paul’s ministry, insisting that his gospel did not need approval from the latter group (2:2–5). But even with the recognized leaders, Paul takes pains to point out that though they affirmed Paul in his mission, they did not modify or supplement his message (2:6–9). The ultimate authorization for Paul’s ministry and gospel rests with God alone. Even the leaders themselves are reported to have acknowledged the divine design of Paul’s ministry, since they identified both that God had entrusted Paul with the gospel to the uncircumcised and that this commission was evidence of God’s grace to Paul (Gal 2:7–9). All parties involved had affirmed that Paul’s gospel ministry to the Gentiles was on par with Peter’s ministry to the Jews (note the use of the comparative adverb καθώς in 2:7), with Paul using the term apostleship to describe both (2:8). The contribution of this passage to the focus of this book is that it attests to a balance between Paul’s cooperation with the other apostles and his determination to defend his calling as being unconnected to their blessing or the initiative of any human source. While Paul gives the greater emphasis to his independence from the early church’s hierarchy in Gal 1–2, he still associates himself with the other apostles, with the common bond of the gospel tying them together.208
A relatively brief contribution to the topic of Paul’s apostleship occurs in 1 Thess 2:6–7. There, in the middle of his recollection of his ministry to the Thessalonians, Paul connects apostleship with authority.209 Paul’s standing as an apostle carries the potential of acclaim arising from the possession of apostolic authority.210 But out of sincerity of motive and a desire to please God, Paul has bypassed an authoritative approach even though he could have rightfully resorted to this stance. Paul’s language implies that his identity as a minister conformed to the contours of the other apostles of Christ, even though Paul did not always choose to exercise the full rights of his apostleship.
In the next passage of note, 1 Cor 9:1–6, Paul again places his apostleship alongside the ministry of the other apostles. Paul’s broader concern is to present his attitude towards service as a model for the Corinthians to imitate (1 Cor 11:1), so that they will learn to give preference to the needs of others over their own needs (1 Cor 8:1b, 13; 10:24, 33).211 To drive home this principle, Paul describes the way he puts aside his own rights as an apostle for the sake of the people he is serving. The line of thought is an expanded form of what was seen in 1 Thess 2:6–7. First, Paul draws upon his apostleship and his revelation from Christ as potential reasons for exercising his rights in ministry (1 Cor 9:1). Both of these items carry connotations of authority and distinction and help supply Paul a standing equal to that of the other apostles, at least according to a picture of apostleship that is flexible enough to encompass more than just the original twelve apostles. To this list he adds his specific apostolic ministry to the Corinthian church and suggests that the fruitfulness of this ministry confirms Paul’s apostolic calling (9:2). The next step in his argument is to show that he sets aside rights that would be expected to accompany the ministry of apostleship (see 9:12, 15, 19–27). These rights include eating and drinking whatever he desires (with reference to his statements about idolatry in 8:13), getting married, and relying on the financial support of others instead of working (9:4–6). Paul even refers specifically to the marriages of other apostles in order to demonstrate that other apostles exercise these rights (9:5). From the structure and wording of Paul’s argument, it is clear that he considers himself an apostle on par with others designated with that title, and that there is both common ground and independence in Paul’s leadership relationship with the other apostles.
A similar pattern surfaces in 1 Cor 15:1–11. In order to build the doctrine of the believer’s resurrection upon truth already accepted by the Corinthian church, Paul draws upon early Christian tradition (15:3). In 15:1 Paul identifies this tradition as being consistent with his gospel. Paul sees no divergence between his gospel and the core teaching of the church as a whole.
Part of this central teaching Paul had received and proclaimed is a recounting of the resurrection appearances of Christ. The first witnesses listed are Cephas and the other original apostles (15:5), followed by a larger group of disciples, James, and “all of the apostles” (15:6–7).212 Paul then adds himself to this list, placing his own encounter with the risen Christ at the same level as those of the people mentioned previously.213