Paul is a prophet. This is the foundational
for grasping Paul’s agenda. He precisely speaks what God leads him to speak,
unaltered. Because he carries what he believes is the unadulterated good news
of the arrival of the Messiah and the return of the glory of God’s kingdom to
his people, he carries a message not of his own but from God. It is news now
unveiled that once was veiled . . . There is a sense that Paul places himself
in partnership with God in these passages and elsewhere in his letters. Paul is
the vehicle through whom God calls his people to himself through the gospel
message: ο [και] εκαλεσεν υμας δια του ευαγγελιου ημων (2 Thess 2:14). Equally so, Paul himself in these passages consistently
reps himself as one called for a specific purpose . . . Quoting Isaiah 61:1,
Jesus declares to those at the synagogue that he was the fulfillment and the
long-awaited one who is carried on and anointed by the Spirit to bring good
news. The prophet himself says that the Spirit anoints him to bring the ευαγγελιον (Isa 61:1). In each
case, the Spirit is upon these men, and God sends them (cf. Isa 61:1a, Πνευμα κυριου επ’ εμε, ου εινεκεν εχρισεν με). For Paul, the
unveiled and Spirit-empowered gospel he preaches confirms its authenticity and
divine origin, when set alongside the other gospels preached that are veiled
and centered on the λογος or γραμμα of men (cf. 2 Cor 3:6 and 1 Thess 1:5). (Aaron W. White, “Whose
Gospel is it Anyway? The Glory of Christ in the Prophetic Ministry of Paul
According to his ‘My Gospel’ and ‘Our Gospel’ Statements,” in Craig A. Evans
and Aaron W. White, Who Created Christianity? Fresh Approaches to the
Relationship Between Paul and Jesus [Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2020], 149-66,
here, pp. 152, 158)
