The Wolf Who Divided the Spoil:

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An Apologetic Defense of St. Paul Against the Neo-Ebionite Heresy


By: Apostolic Fidelity

There is a disturbance in the digital world. Voices on social media (such as Abke and others) are reviving a 2,000-year-old heresy, claiming that Saint Paul was a false apostle, a liar, or even the Anti-Christ. This article serves as a definitive Catholic Apologetic defense, exposing the roots of this error and vindicating the "Vessel of Election."


I. Unmasking the Enemy: What is Ebionism?

To understand the attack, we must identify the attacker. These modern influencers are not discovering "hidden truth"; they are resurrecting Ebionism.

The Ancient Heresy

The Ebionites (from the Hebrew ebyon, meaning "poor") were a 1st and 2nd-century sect of Jewish-Christians who:

  1. Denied Christ’s Divinity: They believed Jesus was the Messiah but merely a natural man, not God Incarnate.

  2. Enforced the Mosaic Law: They insisted salvation required circumcision and strict adherence to the 613 laws of the Torah.

  3. Hated St. Paul: Because Paul taught that Gentiles were justified by Faith and not by the ritual "Works of the Law," the Ebionites declared him an apostate and a false prophet.


What the Church Fathers Said:

  • St. Irenaeus (c. 180 AD): In Against Heresies, he explicitly identifies them: "Those who are called Ebionites... reject the apostle Paul, calling him an apostate from the Law."

  • Eusebius (c. 325 AD): Described them as having "poor and mean opinions" concerning Christ, viewing Him as a mere man.


The Modern Revival

Today's "Neo-Ebionites" mirror this error. By rejecting Paul, they seek to place the yoke of the Old Covenant back onto the necks of Christians - a burden the Apostles themselves removed at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).


II. The Typological Defense: The Wolf of Benjamin

Scripture defends Paul long before he was born. St. Paul was of the Tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5). In the Old Testament, the Patriarch Jacob gave a deathbed prophecy regarding this tribe:

"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil."

— Genesis 49:27

The Catholic Exegesis:

Church Fathers, such as Tertullian and St. Augustine, saw this as a divine prefigurement of Paul’s life:

  • "In the Morning" (Saul of Tarsus): In the "morning" of his life, he was the ravenous wolf. He "devoured" the early Christians, breathing murderous threats and consenting to the death of St. Stephen (Acts 8:1).

  • "In the Evening" (St. Paul the Apostle): After the light of Christ blinded him (marking the change of his day), he became the provider. He "divided the spoil" of the Gospel - taking the spiritual riches of Israel and distributing them to the Gentile nations.

If Paul were the Anti-Christ, he would have remained the wolf. Christ tamed the wolf and made him the Shepherd of the Nations.


III. The Shield of St. Peter: The Argument from Authority

The anti-Pauline movement claims to follow the "true" Apostles (Peter, James, and John) against Paul. This argument self-destructs when we read the writings of St. Peter himself.

In his final letter, the First Pope explicitly validates Paul’s authority and canonizes his letters as Scripture:

"And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him... There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures."

— 2 Peter 3:15-16

The Apologetic Logic:

  1. Endorsement: Peter calls Paul "our beloved brother."

  2. Inspiration: Peter says Paul wrote with "wisdom given him" (Divine Inspiration).

  3. Canonization: Peter equates Paul’s letters with "the other scriptures" (graphas—a term reserved for the Old Testament).

  4. Conclusion: If you call Paul a liar, you must call St. Peter a liar. You cannot have Peter without Paul.



IV. Theological Harmony: Faith vs. Works

The primary accusation is that Paul teaches "lawlessness" while Jesus and James teach "works." This is a failure to distinguish between Ritual Law and Moral Law.

  • St. Paul opposes "Works of the Law" (Mosaic ceremonial observances: circumcision, kosher diet, Sabbaths). He rightly teaches these do not save us; they were shadows pointing to Christ (Col. 2:16-17, Gal. 2:16).

  • St. James opposes "Dead Faith" (intellectual belief without charity). He rightly teaches that faith without "Good Works" (acts of love, obedience to the Ten Commandments) is dead (James 2:24).


The Synthesis:

Paul is not against obedience. He is against Jewish Legalism. In fact, Paul’s moral standard is incredibly high. He lists the "works of the flesh" (adultery, idolatry, hatred) and warns that "those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Gal. 5:19-21). Paul and James are in perfect harmony: We are saved by Grace, through Faith, working in Love (Gal. 5:6).


V. The Historical Consequence

If we accept the premise that Paul is a false apostle, the New Testament disintegrates:

  1. Luke is compromised: St. Luke was Paul's traveling companion and disciple. If Paul is a liar, Luke (who wrote the Gospel of Luke and Acts) is an accomplice.

  2. Mark is compromised: St. Mark was also a companion of Paul (2 Tim. 4:11).

  3. The Church Failed: It implies the Holy Spirit allowed a "false apostle" to write 50% of the New Testament and deceive the Church for 2,000 years until a YouTuber "figured it out." This is Gnosticism, not Christianity.


If Paul is false, then Luke and Mark are compromised. We are left with only Matthew and John, and even they contradict the "Anti-Paul" narrative (e.g., Jesus' command to teach all nations in Matt 28 matches Paul's mission, not the insular view of the Judaizers).

We must pray for those like Abke who are blinded by a "Judaizing" spirit - a heresy the Church dealt with in the 1st Century. They seek to place the yoke of the Old Law back on the necks of Christians, ignoring the finished work of Christ.

Paul is the Vessel of Election. His teachings on love (1 Cor. 13), the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15), and Justification are the bedrock of Christian theology, harmonizing perfectly with the Gospels.

To attack Paul is to attack the very method God chose to universalize the Gospel. Without Paul, Christianity remains a local sect of Judaism. With Paul, it becomes the Catholic (Universal) Church.

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