Split of Early Christianity and Judaism - Conversion of Paul

Conversion of Paul

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul of Tarsus (c.5-c.67) was taught by the famous Pharisee Gamaliel in Jerusalem, but modern historians still debate the relationship between Paul of Tarsus and Judaism and the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles. Before his conversion, Paul persecuted the Jewish Christians as a heretical sect, such as the Martyrdom of Stephen. After his conversion, he assumed the title of "Apostle to the Gentiles" and actively converted gentiles to his beliefs, known as Pauline Christianity. Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author. Augustine (354-430) developed Paul's idea that salvation is based on faith and not "works of the law". Luther (1483–1546) and his doctrine of sola fide were heavily influenced by Paul. Evangelical Christians refer to the Roman's road, an explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ taken solely from the book of Romans.

Recently, Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyarin has argued that Paul's theology of the spirit is more deeply rooted in Hellenistic Judaism than generally believed. In A Radical Jew, Boyarin argues that Paul of Tarsus combined the life of Jesus with Greek philosophy to reinterpret the Hebrew Bible in terms of the Platonic opposition between the ideal (which is real) and the material (which is false).