Why Prefer Acts?

The apostle Paul who is described in the Acts of the Apostles can be seen as very different from the Paul of the epistles. The Paul of Acts is very Torah-positive. His mentor in the faith, Ananias, was described as “a devout observer of the law”. (Acts 22:12) He had Timothy circumcised to affirm that he was Jewish through his mother. (16:3) He preached in Jewish synagogues everywhere he went. When he was in Jerusalem, he cooperated in a demonstration to show that he encouraged believing Jews to follow the law, and that he observed it himself, (21:24) contrary to false rumors that were going around about Paul’s teaching. (21:21) He spent the bulk of his trip to Rome repeatedly emphasizing to one audience after another that the charges against him were false, that he teaches only what the law and the scriptures say, and that his faith is the same as those opposing him. (24:14-16; 25:8; 26:6, 20-22; 28:17-20) In all this he seemed to echo Jesus, who insisted that “until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law.” (Matthew 5:18)

In some of Paul’s epistles, on the other hand, there are statements that have led some interpreters to think that Paul opposed the idea of believers, either Jew or Gentile, observing God’s law. That has become the default position of most of Christianity since the second century. This is in spite of the fact that Paul’s epistles say things like “For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.” (Romans 2:13) “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans 3:31) “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.” (I Corinthians 7:19)

It is true that Paul’s epistles, taken as a whole, make statements that seem both positive and negative toward Torah in approximately equal amounts, while the impression given of Paul in Acts is overwhelmingly Torah-positive. Which of these is the true representation of Paul and his attitude toward the law?

Many Christian interpreters have expressed a preference for the epistles of Paul as presenting his genuine viewpoints. The reasons they give are that the epistles are from Paul’s own hand. They also mention that the epistles were probably written earlier than the book of Acts. These reasons seem plausible on first examination.

On the other hand, I’m convinced that the book of Acts is a much more objective portrayal of Paul’s attitudes than his epistles. Acts was written to be an objective account of what happened, without any particular agenda. It was written as history.

The epistles, in contrast, were each written to individual congregations in response to specific issues. Paul’s discussion is in the context of those issues. Unless we understand accurately what problems Paul is writing to correct, reading his epistles is like hearing one side of a telephone conversation. For example, Galatians is often taken as teaching that obedience to the law is not necessary. In reality, the Gentile believers in Galatia are being tempted to think that they need to officially convert to Judaism, to be circumcised, in order to be pleasing to God. Paul warns them not to do this because it was prophesied that in the end times people from the nations will come to worship the God of Israel. If they convert to Judaism, they will no longer be people from the nations. That would defeat the purpose of the prophecies.

What we need to do is to understand Paul and his teaching based on the book of Acts. He repeatedly identifies his faith as Judaism, the faith of Israel. (23:6; 24:14; 26:5) Every passage in the epistles that seems to teach that the law has become obsolete in Christ can be accounted for by taking into account things in the context that clarify the issue, or by translation changes that are needed for accuracy. You can count on the book of Acts for a valid description of Paul. Take that as a starting place and work to harmonize the epistles with it.