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.
persecutions21. The zeal of Paul is not, according to Haacker, to be understood as a psychological category, but as "eine klare theologische Kategorie." Being a Pharisee, the Law was his ruling measure; as a persecutor, the zeal was his "verplichtende Norm, das bestimmende Leitbild"22. ‘Zeal’ is here understood as a term for a violent religious intolerance, having its roots in the times of the Maccabees. It was not primarily directed against foreigners, but towards renegade co-fellows. Hence Paul is not to be understood as a member of a militant zealotic organization; Haacker finds it highly doubtful if such ever existed. The term designates Paul as belonging to the radical wing of the Pharisees; perhaps one should think of the Schammaitic school among the Pharisees23.
T.L. Donaldson too emphasizes that the ideal of zeal was by no means restricted to opposition to foreign oppression. Furthermore, when Paul described himself as a zealot the term did not designate him as a member of an identifiable party. As the term was derived from the OT prototypes Phinehas (Num 25); Elija (1 Kgs 18–19), and Simeon and Levi (Gen 34), and the later Maccabees (1 Macc), "zeal denoted a willingness to use violence against any - Jew, Gentiles, or the wicked in general- who were contravening, opposing, or subverting the Torah. Further, a zealot was willing to suffer and die for the sake of the Torah, even to die at one’s own hand"24.
J. Taylor is perhaps the scholar who, in recent times, has argued most firmly that the zeal of Paul should be understood on the basis of his membership among the zealots. Drawing upon the work of M. Hengel, he reads zhlwth/j as clearly denoting a follower of what Josephus represents as the ‘fourth philosophy’. He thus argues that these "appear to be good reasons to think of Paul — at least at an early stage of his career — as a Jewish religious nationalist"25. J. Taylor