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  • From: "Neil Elliott" <elliott AT igc.org>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: Re: Paul's intelligibility withing his Judaism...
  • Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 12:47:31


Thanks to Jeff Krantz for raising questions regarding my "Liberating Paul"
and interactions with E. P. Sanders' "Paul and Palestinian Judaism."

The question of Paul's "intelligibility" to Jewish contemporaries is not
my question first, but Sanders', and I think he's done an exemplary
job of demonstrating his case. I take that to be that (1) IF Paul means,
in Romans for example, to describe a universal human "plight" (no
means of satisfying God's righteousness: 1:18--3:20), then (2) most
Jewish contemporaries, dealing from a position of "covenantal nomism,"
would have considered Paul way off base. (3) Sanders concludes that
Paul DID mean to describe a universal human plight, but that this
analysis did not lead him TO his christological beliefs but flowed
FROM them. That is, if justification comes through Christ (new
major premise) then it cannot come from anywhere else (minor
premise) therefore Christ and the Torah are incompatible "patterns
of salvation."

I don't think it's accurate to suggest, as Jeff does, that I'm basing
my response to Sanders on Fredriksen's views re: Paul's conversion.
Fredriksen herself depends directly and explicitly on Sanders. Where
both she and I diverge from Sanders is his conclusion that Paul
is "incoherent" or "idiosyncratic" on Jewish terms.

Paula Fredriksen has convinced me that the issue between Paul and
the churches he persecuted pre-"conversion" was not narrowly halakhic
(and here, again, she depends explicitly on Sanders) but apocalyptic.
That is, Paul (on Fredriksen's view) came to believe that IF these
are indeed the messianic days spoken of by Isaiah, then holy
("morally converted") gentiles BELONG in the community as
"Exhibit A" -- NOT because the Torah has ceased to exist or to
function.

To address Jeff's questions more directly: No, I don't think Paul
ever addresses, in a sustained way, what role the Torah has in the
Jew's life "now." Some people read 1 Cor. 9 as evidence that Paul
himself abandoned Torah observance except for appearance's sake;
I don't. I further think the two letters where a polemic against
the Torah appears are CLEARLY and EXPLICITLY addressed
to gentile Christians. In Galatians the issue is NOT an intention
to convert or become "more Jewish" but an attempt to avoid
"persecution" by adopting "more" Torah observance--precisely,
I would say, "for appearance's sake."

Hope some of this is helpful!

Neil Elliott




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