Torrey Seland, «Saul of Tarsus and Early Zealotism. Reading Gal 1,13-14 in Light of Philo’s Writings», Vol. 83 (2002) 449-471
One of the most consistent features in the portraits of Saul of Tarsus in the Acts of the Apostles and in the letters accredited to Paul, is the fervent zeal of his youth. The zeal of the young Saul has been dealt with in several studies, drawing on the issue of zealotry in Palestine, but the conclusions reached are rather diverse. The present study suggests that the often overlooked phenomenon of zealotry in the writings of Philo of Alexandria should also be considered. The material from Philo does not support the view that the early zealots formed any consistent movement or party, but that they were vigilant individuals who took the Law in their own hands when observing cases of gross Torah transgressions.
any consistent party or movement, but were vigilant individuals who took the Law in their own hands when observing cases of gross Torah transgressions. This view should be considered important when trying to understand the role of zeal in the early life of Paul. As most studies of the zeal of Paul also deal with the issue of zealotry in Palestine, we will start by reviewing the positions in recent research concerning the nature of this zealotry, including the various positions taken in recent studies on the zeal of Paul. Our main part, however, deals with the issue of Paul’s zeal in Gal 1,13-14, working out some corollaries from the works of Philo for understanding the statements of Paul about his own zealotry.
I. Dominating Paradigms in Recent Research on the Zealots
The dominant paradigms today on the nature of the early zealotry are primarily three; that the zealots represented a specific party, spanning half of the first century C.E.; that the zealots were primarily violent individuals, not forming any specific form of group before the time of the Great War, and that the zealots were a kind of bandit movement, emerging during the years of the Great War 66-60 C.E. Furthermore, there are several views in vogue on the nature of the zeal of Paul3.
1. The Zealot-Party theory; the Hengel paradigm
One of the most prolific and influential writers on the
zealots has been Martin Hengel. He argues that ‘Zealots’ is a pertinent name
and characterization of the Palestinian freedom movement that originated with
Judas the Galilean in 6 C.E. This movement reached its peak in the Jewish War:
"the ‘Zealots’ formed a relatively exclusive and unified movement with
its own distinctive religious view and