This article is the second in a seven-part series exploring the historical, literary, and theological reality of the Apostle Paul. Relying on modern historical-critical scholarship, this series unpacks who Paul was, what his core ideas were, and provides a synopsis of every letter attributed to him in the New Testament. Part 2 focuses on Paul’s radical apocalyptic theology and his controversial stance on the Jewish Law.

When modern readers open the letters of Paul, they often read them as if they were written by a systematic theologian—someone sitting peacefully in a study, carefully mapping out a timeless, abstract philosophy of religion.

Historical-critical scholars emphasize that this is the wrong way to read Paul. Paul was not a systematic theologian; he was an apocalyptic missionary operating in a state of absolute emergency. He believed he was living in the final days of human history. To understand Paul’s complex ideas about the Law, salvation, and the inclusion of non-Jews, one must view everything through the lens of first-century Jewish apocalypticism.

Here are the three core pillars of Paul’s theology that fundamentally reshaped the ancient world.

1. The Imminent Eschaton (The End of the Age)

Paul’s entire worldview was built on the belief that the current age was ending and the eschaton (the end times) had already begun.

In Jewish apocalyptic thought, history was divided into two ages: the current evil age (ruled by corrupt earthly empires and cosmic forces) and the Age to Come (where God would intervene, resurrect the dead, and establish a kingdom of perfect justice). Paul believed that the resurrection of Jesus was the definitive proof that the Age to Come had spectacularly broken into the present.

Crucially, Paul believed that the final consummation of this event would happen in his own lifetime. He taught that Jesus would return at any moment to defeat the cosmic powers of Sin and Death.

This absolute urgency drives all of Paul’s practical ethics. For example, in 1 Corinthians, Paul famously advises unmarried people to stay single rather than get married. He does not say this because he thinks marriage or sex are inherently sinful, but because “the appointed time has grown very short” (1 Cor 7:29). For Paul, tying oneself down to the long-term earthly commitments of marriage and property made no sense when the world as they knew it was about to end.

2. Gentile Inclusion Without the Law

This was Paul’s most radical, controversial, and historically consequential idea.

It is vital to remember that the early Jesus movement was entirely Jewish. Jesus was Jewish, his disciples were Jewish, and their earliest followers worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem. When non-Jews (Gentiles) began wanting to join the movement, a massive crisis erupted. Prominent early leaders, including Peter and James (the brother of Jesus), largely assumed that if a Gentile wanted to follow the Jewish Messiah, they first needed to fully convert to Judaism. This meant adult male circumcision, observing the Sabbath, and keeping strict kosher dietary laws.

Paul vehemently disagreed. He fought a bitter, agonizing battle arguing that Gentiles did not need to become Jewish.

Why did Paul, a former strict Pharisee, argue against keeping the Law? It was not because he hated Judaism. It all went back to his apocalyptic timeline. In ancient Jewish prophecy (like in the Book of Isaiah), it was predicted that at the end of the world, all the pagan nations would abandon their idols and flock to worship the God of Israel. Because Paul believed the end of the world had arrived through Jesus, he believed this prophecy was actively being fulfilled.

To force Gentiles to become Jews, Paul argued, was to fundamentally misunderstand what time it was on God’s clock. The Gentiles were supposed to be saved as Gentiles, proving that the God of Israel was now rescuing the entire world.

3. Justification by Faith (Pistis Christou)

If Gentiles did not need the Jewish Law (the Torah) to be in a right relationship with God, how were they saved?

Paul argued that all of humanity—both Jew and Gentile—was held hostage by alien, cosmic forces that he capitalized as Sin and Death. While Paul believed the Jewish Torah was holy, good, and given by God, he argued it was fundamentally incapable of breaking the cosmic bondage of Sin. The Law could tell you what was right, but it could not supply the power to defeat Death.

Instead, people are “justified” (made right with God and freed from these cosmic powers) through a concept known in Greek as pistis Christou.

In biblical scholarship, the translation of this three-word phrase is the subject of massive debate:

• Traditional Translation (“Faith in Christ”): This view argues that humans are saved by their own active belief and trust in Jesus.
• Modern Scholarly Translation (“The Faithfulness of Christ”): Many modern scholars argue the Greek grammar actually means that humans are saved by the faithful action of Jesus (his obedience unto death on the cross), regardless of human effort.

Whichever translation one favors, Paul’s ultimate conclusion was the same: liberation comes through the historical, apocalyptic action of Jesus, not through human adherence to the boundary markers of the Jewish Law. By uncoupling the worship of the God of Israel from the physical requirements of the Torah, Paul inadvertently created a portable, universal theology that could successfully spread across the entire Roman Empire.

This concludes Part 2/7 of this series. In Part 3 of “The Historical Paul: Life, Letters, and Legacy,” we will explore the literary nature of Paul’s writings and provide a historical-critical synopsis of his earliest undisputed letters.