Many Bible readers will have wondered why Paul, in his letters, makes so few references to the Jesus of the Gospels.

Does this mean that Paul was the ‘real’ founder of Christianity, with his teaching having very little in common with that of Jesus?

Craig Blomberg writes:

‘An interesting dimension of a number of Paul’s letters, penned in the 50s, especially Romans, 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians are the quotations of and allusions to Jesus’ teachings that Paul could not have gotten simply by consulting a Gospel, since none had yet been written. These references thus show that a reliable oral tradition of Jesus’ teachings was circulating.

‘Topics ranged from

• divorce and remarriage (1 Cor. 7:10; cf. Matt. 19:9),
• to receiving money for ministry (1 Cor. 9:14; cf. Luke 10:7),
• to the “words of institution at the Last Supper” (1 Cor. 11:23-25; cf. Luke 22:19-20),
• to the return of Christ (1 Thess. 5:2-4; cf. Matt. 24:42-44)
• to non-retaliation and enemy love (Rom. 12:17-20; cf. Luke 6:27b-28a),

for starters.

‘In other cases, parallels between Paul and Jesus are conceptual rather than verbal, but still close enough to give the lie to the notion that Paul was the true founder of Christianity, substantially distorting the message of Jesus.

‘Examples include

• Paul’s emphasis on justification by faith (Rom. 3:21-25, Gal. 2:15-21) compared with Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:9-14),
• love as the fulfillment of the Law (Gal. 5:14, Matt. 22:37-40),
• and countercultural affirmation of women in various roles typically reserved for men (Luke 10:38-42, Rom. 16:1, 7).’

(Reformatted)