The First Creeds of Christianity
This was posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 3:01 pm by Mitch
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:3 – 5
Paul quotes this creed to his readers among other creeds, confessions of faith, and hymns that were used in the early Christian church. Okay, so, what’s the big deal you may ask? I think there are a couple points of significance. First of all this is a great passage to point to when the story of Jesus’ resurrection and life are said to be puffed up myths and legends that got embellished as time went on. Because the earliest manuscripts of the gospels that we have date about 30 years after Jesus’ death, this attribute is sometimes put on them. As Craig Blomberg puts it when being interviewed by Lee Strobel for his book, The Case for Christ:
If the Crucifixion was as early as A.D. 30, Paul’s conversion was about 32. Immediately Paul was ushered into Damascus, where he met with a Christian named Ananias and some other disciples. His first meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem would have been about A.D. 35. At some point along there, Paul was given this creed which had already been formulated and was being used in the early church. Now, here you have the key facts about Jesus’ death for our sins, plus a detailed list of those to whom he appeared in resurrected form (1 Cor. 15:5-8) – all dating back to within two to five years of the events themselves! (35)
Blomberg goes on to say that the beliefs and traditions revolving around Jesus’ death for our sins and his resurrection could be argued to date within two years of his crucifixion.
Moving away from looking at these early creeds as a way to prove something or give evidence for the reality of Jesus’ incredible life, they definitely strike an emotional and awe inspiring chord inside of me. When I read my Bible, I am reading the very words that reflect the faith Jesus produced in the men and women that physically walked beside him. The men and women that listened to him preach on mounts, broke bread with him during the Last Supper (there’s a creed for that too: 1 Cor. 11:23-25), watched him turn over money changer’s tables in the temple, and ultimately watched him die on a cross. Their words of faith were preserved for me to read 2000 years later. To me that is amazing and I feel just that much closer to Jesus because of it.
Filed under: Historical Christianity
at 8:51 am
It’s interesting that Paul recited this creed within 2 to 5 years of the glorification of Christ.
One could argue however that Paul’s words are even more powerful than you are giving them credit for. The words of Christ’s death and resurrection could be argued not to come to Paul from Ananias or the other disciples, but from Jesus Christ himself.
Take a look at Galatians 1:11-12. Paul says specifically that he didn’t receive his message from a human source, but he received it from Christ. In Greek, “to receive,” literally means, “handed on.” Which leads me to believe that Christ may in fact have met personally with Paul. If that is true, then Paul’s message is far more inspiring and should definitely not be taken for granted.
at 10:48 am
Congratulations on being the first commenter!
I do agree that Paul received his message from Christ as he himself claims. However, I do believe there is a difference between Paul’s “message” and the passage I quoted above. As I understand it, when Paul speaks of his message he is talking about the gospel aka the message of salvation. In Ephesians 3:2-6, a passage similar to the one you quoted, Paul talks about “the mystery made known to him by revelation”. The question that this revelation answers is: how do Gentiles get saved? It was a mystery. Through revelation though, Paul sees that Gentiles are heirs with Israel of the promise found in Jesus.
The good old footnotes of my Bible for 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 tell me that the manner in which Paul wrote this particular passage is how one would dictate the receiving and transmitting of tradition. Although the passage is of course essentially the gospel that Paul preaches, the literary form he uses indicates that he is reciting a tradition that wasn’t revealed to him by God but by other followers of Jesus.