Note from me – This response was the original response (now with updates) to the prompt below that asked for a list of beliefs that Paul taught as well as Jesus; i.e. where Paul agreed with Jesus. Claude cited seven, but three did not “fit” with what I heard taught. When I separately asked Claude about those, the responses were corrective and good. Those corrected responses are in separate posts, and the links to those posts have been added to the response below. Those posts were all dated 3/31/2026.
Original Prompt — What teachings did Critical Bible Scholars cite that Jesus taught that were later taught by Paul? Cite all sources.
This is a rich and nuanced topic in critical biblical scholarship. Here is a comprehensive overview of the teachings scholars identify as shared between Jesus and Paul, with citations throughout.
What Critical Bible Scholars Say Jesus Taught That Was Also Taught by Paul
The Scholarly Landscape
Since the 18th century, a number of scholars have proposed that Paul’s writings contain teachings that are different from the original teachings of Jesus as documented in the canonical gospels, early Acts, and the rest of the New Testament. However, there has been increasing acceptance of Paul as a fundamentally Jewish figure in line with the original disciples in Jerusalem, manifested through movements like “Paul Within Judaism.”
Many biblical scholars and lay Christians have noted that Jesus preached almost exclusively about the kingdom of heaven, while Paul highlighted justification by faith. Some conclude that they preached two different gospels, while others argue that both ultimately preached the same core message.
1. Eschatology: The Coming End of the Age
One of the most broadly acknowledged areas of continuity is apocalyptic eschatology. Bart Ehrman summarizes Jesus’ teaching as being about “the coming Son of Man and the need to prepare by keeping the Law of God, as revealed in the Torah, as summarized in the commandments to love.”
Paul carried forward this eschatological urgency. Ehrman points out that Paul regularly refers to Jesus’ resurrection as the “first fruits” of the imminent mass resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20) — that is, just as with the first fruits of the growing season, Jesus was the first flesh-and-blood person to be raised from the dead, as a sign that the End Times harvest season is at hand. Ehrman further notes that Paul used the concept of the coming Son of Man even if not the title, as for example in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–18, though he avoided the title itself likely because it would have made little sense to his Gentile audiences.
Scholar Larry Kreitzer, in Jesus and God in Paul’s Eschatology, argues that in Paul’s eschatological thinking there is a conceptual overlap between Jesus and God, and that especially in Paul’s doctrines of the parousia and the final judgment, the Old Testament idea of the Day of the Lord Yahweh becomes transposed into the Day of the Lord Christ.
2. The Love Command: Love of God and Neighbor – WRONG, no continuity.
How Does Paul Differ from Jesus related to the Love Command?
3. Forgiveness – WRONG, no continuity.
How Does Paul Differ from Jesus related to Salvation/Forgiveness?
4. The Lord’s Supper / Eucharist – WRONG, no continuity.
How Does Paul Differ from Jesus related to the Last Supper?
Paul writes: “For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread…” (1 Corinthians 11:23, NRSV).
5. The Resurrection of the Dead
For over a century, scholarship on the origins of Christianity has wrestled with the fact that the Jesus in the earliest Christian texts is presented as preaching an eschatological message about an imminent apocalypse, including the resurrection of the dead. Paul shared this teaching centrally. Scholar James Ware notes, as cited by Ehrman, that “there is almost universal scholarly consensus that 1 Corinthians 15:3–5 contains a carefully preserved tradition pre-dating Paul’s apostolic activity,” suggesting Paul was transmitting early resurrection teaching rooted in what Jesus’ followers had proclaimed from the beginning.
6. Care for the Poor and Marginalized
Ehrman writes that “Jesus’ insistence on the love for others was particularly manifest in his concern for the destitute of society, those who were impoverished, terminally ill, mentally diseased, and socially outcast.” Paul’s letters echo this in his repeated appeals for collections for the poor in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26; Galatians 2:10) and his ethical instructions about communal sharing.
7. The Kingdom of God [The same but different?]
Scot McKnight, writing in Christianity Today, argues that if you begin with the concept of “gospel” as Paul understands it in 1 Corinthians 15:1–11, you will find what unifies Jesus and Paul — that both witness to Jesus as the center of God’s story. Both preached a message about divine rule breaking into human history, though they framed it differently: Jesus in terms of present and coming Kingdom, Paul in terms of the cross and resurrection inaugurating that new age.
NOTE — OK, close to the same but not.
Where Scholars Draw Lines of Difference
It is worth noting that the question is contested. Ehrman’s course Paul and Jesus: The Great Divide poses the question directly: if Jesus was right that a person could enter the Kingdom by behaving as God demanded, why would he have to die? And if Paul was right that only belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection could bring salvation, why wasn’t that the focus of Jesus’ own teachings?
Scholar David Wenham (Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity?, Eerdmans, 1995), along with F.F. Bruce (Paul and Jesus, Baker, 1974) and Herman Ridderbos (Paul and Jesus, Baker, 1958), are cited together as confirming the continuity and coherence between the teaching of Paul and Jesus. These scholars represent a strong tradition arguing that despite surface differences in emphasis, Paul’s core ethical and eschatological teachings were drawn from and continuous with those of Jesus.
