Israel's God and Rebecca's Children: Christology and Community in Early Judaism and Christianity

Chapter 9: Christophany as a Sign of “the End”

155 Chapter 9 Christophany as a Sign of “the End” The apostle Paul is often considered the second most important figure in the history of Christianity, and in some quarters his popularity begins to rival and even obscure the portrait of Jesus, the “founder” of Christianity. Such an appraisal of Paul is not without justification. Born in Tarsus, a free Roman city, during the first century C.E., Paul was trained in Jerusalem as a Jewish Pharisee. After converting from Judaism to Christianity, he undertook an ambitious mission to spread his new found faith throughout the known world—from Palestine in the east to Spain in the west. Paul’s missionary strategy was quite simple. He and his trained coworkers would travel to the capital city of a Roman province and preach in the local synagogue. He would remain in the area until a congregation (comprised of both Jews and Greeks) was established. After moving on to another mission opportunity, Paul would continue communication with his fledgling churches through letters. Paul’s letters— literary substitutes for his apostolic presence—are the primary source material for his life and thought but also for the character and shape of earliest Christianity. Because of the influence of his life and letters, Paul has earned the title the “second founder” of Christianity.1 Paul’s celebrated life as a Christian apostle and his literary deposit enshrined in the New Testament depend directly upon Christ’s dramatic appearance to him on the road to Damascus. Though it forever changed his life—and thus the history of Christianity—the Christophany remains shrouded in mystery. Viewing the conversion against the proper linguistic, formal, and religious matrix helps resolve some of the questions . Paul’s conversion draws upon three tributaries—theophanies, Carey C. Newman prophetic calls, and apocalyptic throne visions. Akin to the mighty arrivals of Yahweh to or from his holy mountain, Christ came from heaven to convert Paul. Just as the prophets of old were confronted by Yahweh and sent to preach, Paul was confronted by the risen Jesus and commissioned to evangelize the nations. Similar to the throne visions contained in Jewish apocalypses, his mystical experience of the crucified Christ disclosed to him eschatological information about God’s purpose for the world.2 Despite some agreement as to the historical background, scholars have come to very different conclusions about how to understand the Christophany. The approaches to the Christophany are almost as numerous as those who write on the great apostle. The options include denying that Paul’s letters contain numerous and/or significant references to the Christophany;3 ignoring the Christophany in lieu of Hellenistic4 or Rabbinic backgrounds;5 transforming the Christophany into a decision for authentic existence;6 reducing the Christophany to a commission to extend Judaism to the gentiles;7 revaluing the Christophany for psychological and/or sociological insights into Paul’s life in his community;8 and plundering the Christophany as a content-filled religious experience which serves as a catalyst for Paul’s theology.9 The diversity of approaches embraced by scholars not only reflects different ways of reading Paul’s epistles, but graphically highlights the enigmatic character of the Christophany itself. In this essay, by appropriating literary theories developed by Jacques Lacan, Peter Brooks, and Marianna Torgovnick, I want to investigate how the Christophany functions as a pure signifier within the Pauline corpus.10 As a pure signifier, the Christophany does not refer “to individual signifieds but rather to other signifiers.”11 Approaching the Christophany as a signifier with metonymic and metaphoric potential enables us to move away from a concern with the historical event (subjective hallucination and/or objective appearance) and toward unearthing the paradigmatic relationships between the Christophany and other signs in the Pauline letters. Through such a semiotic reading of the Christophany, the normal black holes and cul-de-sacs of misunderstanding associated with this area of Pauline study can be avoided and, it is hoped, the significance of a powerful sign can be uncovered. Three necessary caveats need to be noted, though. First, the focus here is solely upon references in the Pauline letters; Acts is not employed as a source, for all too often Luke’s three-fold telling of Paul’s conversion overshadows the true significance of the Christophany in Paul’s writings. 156 Carey C. Newman The shape of the Christophany in Paul should not be blurred by looking through...