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corpus-paul - RE: Gal 2:16 and Covenantal Nomism (To Mark Nanos)

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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Gal 2:16 and Covenantal Nomism (To Mark Nanos)
  • Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 09:48:00 -0500 (CDT)


Moon,
You have identified another area to clear up. This I will try to do.

>[Moon]
>But if Jewish people were ALREADY righteous because God has called them so
>in covenant, why did they have to believe in Christ to become righteous,
>as Paul's autobiographical statement in in Gal 2:16 and his deep grief
>(Rom ) over his kinsmen's failture to believe in Christ indicated?

I think I can answer your later questions in discussion of this one.

I do not think that Jewish people had to believe in Christ to become
righteous, but not believing in what God has now done in covenant with his
righteous ones of Israel would be an act of unrighteousness. That is the
premise of Paul's confrontation of Peter's actions as masking his true
beliefs as an Israelite and believer in Christ, and thus in the truth of
the gospel which maintains that gentiles are coming into the people of God
without becoming Israelites, yet as equals. Peter's actions had masked this
shared conviction, but the gentiles who were believing on this basis were
thereby exposed as grounding their faith on a false premise; that is, if
the basis of discrimination among themselves on Jewish or gentile grounds
was still operative. They thus would conclude that if they want equality
they need to follow the "normative" "traditional" view and become
proselytes; otherwise they would always be marginalized within this
coalition (whether the gentiles in Antioch had actually deducted this at
the time, or whether Paul rather projected this logical conclusion is an
open question). Paul's rhetorical undermining of Peter's misstep appealed
to a premise of righteousness among Israelites in making the case against
discrimination: has accepting gentiles as equals on the basis of faith
in/of Christ made us into gentiles/sinners? The implied conclusion: No,
faith in/of Christ has raised them to equal status with ourselves as
Israelites. The implied superiority of Israelite status (as righteous ones)
for Peter and Paul after faith in Christ remains, but must be resisted
where gentiles in Christ are concerned, they too are now righteous ones.
Upon this shared premise Paul's point turns.

This decision about Christ is multidimensional, involving both a decision
about the role of Jesus as Messiah of Israel or not, and about his role as
savior of the nations as expected at the end of times or not. One can
arrive at this by starting on either side of the question. On one side, the
end of the ages has dawned because of Israel's Messiah restoring her to
bring light to all the nations (Rom 10), or on the other side, the end of
the ages has dawned in Christ is demonstrated by the nations turning to
Israel's Messiah as their Savior (Rom 11), thus Israel must be in the
process of being restored in Christ.

This is the premise of Paul's point with Peter about the truth of the
gospel for both Israelites (Jews by nature) like Peter and himself, and
non-Israelites (gentiles/sinners). The emphasis moves, but these two
aspects are inextricably intertwined in Paul's understanding of what Christ
means for humanity. Moving to Romans to clarify this point in other words,
thus Paul speaks of how Christ is the goal for those with Torah, but that
he is also the goal for those without it (Rom. 3; 10). For Paul, he is
God's gift to "all" humankind: not just Israel (the historical issue of
these texts), but also not just the other nations (the perspective that
characterizes later Christian interpretation negating/replacing Israel);
the later being the inverted logical emphasis I am trying to bring to light
as failing to reflect Paul's thought anyway, and which I believe is
partially clarified by proper emphasis upon the rhetorical emphasis of the
former point for the historical Paul.

The question of gaining righteousness from outside of this position
previously is the situation of gentiles/other nations, not Jews/Israelites.
So his grief is over the present failure to see the right thing to do now,
in view of God's revelation in Christ, among some of his Israelite brothers
and sisters. But note that he comes to understand this is but a temporary
state, a vicarious service of Israel on behalf of the nations not
understood beforehand in this way (Rom 11). And one that God has a hand in:
so who is at fault? Paul represents Israel too, in the role of servant of
Israel in the present anomalous situation of suffering so that
non-Israelites may become part of the process of Israel's restoration, an
unforeseen and still even for Paul somewhat inscrutable way to go about
things, but one he accepts in view of God's superior vantage point.

Regards,
Mark Nanos






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