İsa-Mesih ve Pavlus Ekseninde Hıristiyan Geleneğinde Kurtuluş
Authors: Sayar Serkan 
Published: September 2023

Salvation expresses the endpoint aimed at religious traditions. However, the meaning that religious beliefs and traditions give to salvation and the prescriptions of salvation they offer to their followers differ from each other. In these prescriptions, sometimes creed acceptances and sometimes rituals come to the fore. In this context, salvation in Christian theology is generally explained by accepting the redeemer role of Jesus Christ. However, there are some differences between the message of Jesus Christ and the message of Paul's Christianity, which was shaped after Jesus Christ, on how to achieve the promised salvation. This situation raised the question of whether salvation will be achieved by faith, rituals, or both. The answers given to this question in the historical process indicate that the ratio of faith-rituals differs on the way to salvation. Because when Jesus Christ began his teaching, he wanted to explain that his message was compatible with the prophets sent before him by stating that he was sent to the lost sheep of the people of Israel, and he saw the Israelites as the addressee in accordance with the Jewish tradition and directed his message to them. Thus, Jesus Christ, who determined the Jewish nation as the target audience of his message with an exclusionary attitude, also emphasized the fulfillment of religious orders and prohibitions based on the law of Moses. According to the Gospels, there was a significant change in the message of Jesus Christ after the crucifixion, and Jesus Christ, who appeared to his apostles, wanted his message to be delivered to all nations, stating that he had been given authority in the heavens and on earth. Warning his apostles about this issue, Jesus Christ willed that everything that was taught to them should also be taught to other nations. The first Christian community, which included people from different nations with this command, continued to live according to the law and tried to convey the message of Jesus Christ all over the world. As a result, the fact that many gentiles, as well as diaspora Jews, accepted Christianity brought up the problem of how to apply the law of Moses. Because while Jesus-Messiah ordered all nations to be invited, he did not specify which practices the gentiles would be responsible for, and this situation led to different interpretations. In this context, this study discusses the importance of faith in Jesus Christ and the Law of Moses in terms of salvation in the period of Jesus Christ and the first Christian community. The study is important in that it points out that the salvation doctrine put forward by Paul and generally accepted today does not coincide with the message conveyed by the Historical Jesus or the Jesus-Christ, according to Christian theology, when he lived in the human body. The subject has been discussed by focusing on the Bible passages. In this direction, it is tried to explain how the main figure in Christianity, Jesus Christ, was historically revealed by the theology of salvation and how the conception of Jesus Christ, who became the subject of salvation and was personally considered the savior, was put forward. In addition, the change in the faith-rituals ratio was emphasized by laying the groundwork for comparing the salvation theologies of the historical Jesus-Christ and Paul, who shaped the Christian tradition. The change in salvation theology was explained by Paul's reinterpretation of the creation story in the Torah.