Paul and Jesus

For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another . . . being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful: who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death. (Romans 1:26–32)

According to Paul, God’s general principle of judgment will be to hold Jews, who are “under the Law,” responsible for what the Law demands, while holding Gentiles, who are “without the Law,” responsible for the law “written in their hearts,” with their conscience either accusing or excusing them accordingly (Romans 2:12–16).

There is nothing in Paul’s position as expressed here in the opening chapters of Romans that is antithetical to Judaism. The rabbis of Paul’s day would have agreed with his essential points regarding the sinfulness of both Jews and Gentiles and God’s righteous judgment of all humanity.

In his letters Paul frequently offers a basic moral catalogue of prohibited activities, insisting quite adamantly that his followers live up to such minimal standards of moral behavior:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those receiving sodomy, nor those committing sodomy, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–11)

That is why Paul is so outraged when he receives the report that one of the brothers at Corinth is living with his father’s wife, apparently his stepmother—a kind of sexual immorality, he says, that is “not even found among the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 5:1–5). Paul demands that the man be expelled immediately from the congregation in a formal ceremony that would deliver him back to Satan—a kind of reverse baptism, so that he is no longer considered in Christ.

Sexual immorality (Greek porneia), along with idolatry, and eating blood, seemed to be the three points of the Noahide laws that presented the most difficulties for Gentile God-fearers—whether Christian or not. Prohibitions against murder, stealing, and injustice, as well as honor of parents, would be upheld in Greco-Roman culture as much as among the Jews, so they were not matters of dispute. But what did it mean to “turn from idols”? It was understood that one would no longer worship at a temple of one of the dozens of Greco-Roman gods, but what about ancillary activities such as eating meat sold in the marketplace that had been sacrificed to a pagan god, or attending a festival connected to one of the gods as part of a civic celebration? Sexual immorality was defined much more broadly within Judaism as well. Prostitution, homosexuality, and sex of any kind before or outside marriage were considered sinful and broadly categorized as porneia. Eating blood was almost inevitable, since the techniques of butchering animals used in Greco-Roman society did not include the elaborate Jewish measures to remove all blood from the flesh. In fact, animals were often strangled and hung up in the meat market with all the blood and organs intact. Those living a strict Jewish life would consider all such behavior as unrighteous and they would expect God-fearers to do so as well.