Did Jesus and Paul Preach Different Gospels?

Did Jesus and Paul Preach Different Gospels?

Source video: Zondervan (@zondervan), "Jesus and Paul: Different Gospels? (N. T. Wright Q&A)" (uploaded December 17, 2019, 4:53): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUWtgVan3MM
Speaker: N. T. Wright (on screen: Chair of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of St. Andrews).

What is said (source timestamps)

• 0:01.3–0:08.9: "When Christians read the New Testament, they can easily get the impression that Jesus and Paul taught significantly different things."
• 1:14.2–2:21.9: "What Jesus is saying throughout his public career, in both his teaching and his deeds, is that this is the time for the Scriptures to be fulfilled, and that Israel's God, the world's creator, is doing the new thing which he'd always promised. And somehow it's focused on Jesus himself, and his actions and his words, and what is going to happen to him at the end of his public career in his forthcoming death and the resurrection, which he was trying to explain to the disciples, but they usually didn't get it at all. And so then, when we look at Paul, we see that actually he is taking the whole story of Jesus as a whole. And when he says that the Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that he is now at the right hand of the Father, and that he is now the Lord of the world, this is substantially the same message: about the fulfillment of the ancient Scriptures, about that fulfillment bringing about the kingdom of God, and about it doing so through the death and resurrection of Jesus."
• 4:14.4–4:19.2: "But it is the same message. Jesus announced it and did it."

(The full answer also covers a composer/teacher illustration, Jesus "embodying" his message, and Paul taking that message to the wider Roman world. Those parts are left out for length; the clip keeps his question, his main argument, and his conclusion in his own words.)

Scripture

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NKJV (end card): "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." This is the passage Wright is paraphrasing, and he names 1 Corinthians 15 later in the same answer.
• Galatians 1:8 NKJV: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Paul himself insists there is only one gospel.

Sources

• Source video above.
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 and Galatians 1:6-9, BibleGateway NKJV: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+1%3A6-9%3B1+Corinthians+15%3A1-4&version=NKJV

Did Jesus and Paul preach different gospels?

Jesus talks about the kingdom of God. Paul talks about justification by faith. So some people say they taught different things. N. T. Wright says no: Jesus announced and lived out the fulfillment of the Scriptures, and Paul looks back at the whole story of His death and resurrection. "It is the same message. Jesus announced it and did it."

Paul's gospel came straight from that story: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NKJV

Clip: N. T. Wright Q&A (Zondervan, @zondervan). Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUWtgVan3MM

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