Paul brings up a very interesting interpretation of the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar in which he claims that the followers of Christ are the true descendants of Sarah and Abraham and that those “of the flesh” (Non-believing Jews) are descendants of Hagar. Galatians 3:12 talks about how simply maintaining the law does not grant the life that the law claims to give, this seems to be something Paul would write to Gentiles due to the fact that a lot of what Paul teaches the Gentiles is that to be a follower of Christ, Gentiles do …show more content…
In 1st Corinthians 12:2 Paul explicitly says that the people he was writing to were former pagans that had been worshiping idols. Paul similarly describes his visit in Thessalonica by saying that the followers of Christ that he converted were former pagans who he had stopped from worshiping idols. This shows that his converts were neither Jews nor pagans worshiping the Jewish God (Ehrman 325). Although there is plenty evidence to support the idea that Paul 's assemblies were not Jews, I do recognize that some passages hold vague or possibly conflicting messages, for example in 2nd Corinthians 11:12 he mentions that some people wanted to be “their” equals. Knowing that Paul is a former pharisee this could mean that “their” refers to the Jewish people. In Galatians 2:15 Paul says that “we” have been Jews since birth and not Gentiles (Gentile sinners) which clearly says that the people he is writing to were Jews since