WI Paul had decided to keep kosher and demand the same from the pagan christs?

At the beginning, Christianity was a Jewish reform movement. Jesus was a circumcized Jew. There was conflict in the post-Jesus Christian community. Counting in pagans, cooking with them unkosher and sleeping with them.

Peter yet obeyed the demand to keep kosher and to not get intimate with pagans. Still the old inner-Jewish reform thought in mind.

But Paul thought otherwise. Expand it, count in non-Jewish guys in and make counting in easier, drop all those rules with blood, meat-diary, circumcision etc. This was well received in hellenized Jewish communities, a reason why the New Testament is written in Greek.


But what if Paul had obeyed like Peter?

 
At the beginning, Christianity was a Jewish reform movement. Jesus was a circumcized Jew. There was conflict in the post-Jesus Christian community. Counting in pagans, cooking with them unkosher and sleeping with them.

Peter yet obeyed the demand to keep kosher and to not get intimate with pagans. Still the old inner-Jewish reform thought in mind.

But Paul thought otherwise. Expand it, count in non-Jewish guys in and make counting in easier, drop all those rules with blood, meat-diary, circumcision etc. This was well received in hellenized Jewish communities, a reason why the New Testament is written in Greek.


But what if Paul had obeyed like Peter?


1) if he did that he wouldn't be Paul, those are some of the things which make him, and show his character. His writing such as Romans would look different as well, because they wouldn't fit with this new character.

2) Christianity would remain a sect of Judaism, and even if by some strange circumstance it still grew to be the main religion of Europe, which is much more unlikely. Then you also have a different reformation, because Paul is different, and Romans is different or not there, and this is base for Luther, and his views.
 
I suspect that the isssue of circumsission of adult male converts would be a bigger barrier to converting people who were not Jews than the dietry laws.
 
While it is certainly true that Paul was the spearhead of making Christianity more Gentile friendly, don't forget Peter's vision in Acts telling him that all foods were clean and that he should eat with Gentiles.

Even without Paul, the dietary restrictions would have been eased. Whether circumcision would have been dropped is another question, and circumcision would have been a significant problem in attracting converts, obviously.

OT3H, if Paul wasn't there, God might just have had to send more visions to Peter :) (I REALLY don't want to know what the vision involving circumcision would have been like. I might like to see how Luke (or equivalent) would deal with describing it!!)
 
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