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  • From: Terence Donaldson <terry.donaldson AT utoronto.ca>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul and the Law
  • Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 09:23:57 -0500


Mark,

I have been following your discussion with Antonio Jerez (and others)
with some interest, and since my work has come into view I thought I
should toss in a comment. What I have found curious -- and ultimately
revealing -- about the Gentiles in Pauline perspective is the way he
wants to square the circle. That is, on the one hand they are to be
accorded full and equal membership "in Christ" without the usual Jewish
badges of membership (circumcision, food laws, etc.); yet on the other
hand, as members "of Christ" they are full and equal members of the
family of Abraham. What makes the circle even more circular -- and
harder to square -- is the fact that at the same time he sees continuing
theological significance for Jews as defined according to the usual
boundary markers -- both within the church (e.g., Rom 15: 27) and
without (Rom 11:26).

The phenomenon is perhaps most marked in Romans 4. Here, in making the
case that Gentiles are part of Abraham's family, Paul asserts that they
are part of his "sperma" (v. 16; cf. v. 13, 18). The backdrop to the
language here is Genesis 17, where -- problematic for Paul's argument --
sperma are defined very precisely in terms of circumcision; one who is
uncircumcised is "cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant"
(Gen 17:14). What makes this argument revealing, in my view, is that the
Abraham narrative provided Paul with a much "softer" option for bringing
Gentiles into relationship with Abraham: they could simply be seen as
part of the multitude of nations (Gen 17:5) of which Abraham was father.
These "nations" are evidently differentiated from the circumcised
"seed". Thus the passage could easily have been read in a "righteous
Gentile" kind of way (cf. t. Sanh. 13.2), leading to an argument in
which the Gentiles are members of Abraham's extended "family of
nations," without having to become part of the covenantal "seed." Paul's
citation of this verse from Genesis (Rom 4:17) indicates that he was
aware of this option. But instead, he wants to use the language of full
covenant membership to describe "members" who at the same time do not
bear - and are categorically prohibited from accepting -- the
scriptural marks of covenant membership.

It is this desire to square the covenantal circle, even in the face of
the plain sense of his scriptural warrants, that makes Paul's language
about Gentiles so perplexing. At the same time, as I have tried to argue
in my book it provides us with the most reliable indications of the
convictional interplay that is going on beneath the rhetorical surface
of his argument.

Best wishes,
Terry Donaldson
Wycliffe College
Toronto





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