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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT home.com>
  • To: Corpus-paul <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Sanders and the "New" Perspective
  • Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:08:49 -0500


Dear Karl,
Thanks for the clarification. I will respond below.

> Now what is particularly striking is not so much
> that the phrase is used some seven times but that it is used in a
> context that speaks of the law in its relation to righteousness. In
> 4QMMT C 30-31 we read “in your deed you may be reckoned as righteous.”

I do not have at hand the C section to which you refer, but the part you
list does not suggest to me works-righteousness. I would think it relates to
doing the deeds to be expected of "a righteous one," not making one who is
not a righteous one into a righteous one. But for the sake of discussion,
let's say it meant works-righteousness.

> This would suggest to m:
>
> 1. Paul seems to know whereof he was speaking when he took issue with
> some form of contemporary Judaism (probably Qumran) over
> works-righteousness.

But why would he do so in a letter to faraway Galatia, or Rome, to where the
texts with such language were sent, and moreover, to non-Jews who could
hardly be expected to know about these rare sectarian documents? Would
Jewish people in those locations either have those kinds of views, or would
they have any idea what Paul was writing about?

The historical critic who is now aware of these texts may, ironically, have
the disadvantage of not recognizing that not every detail was as widely
available to the text-writers (and readers) own contemporaries! I have been
finding this kind of interesting result at several places in recent
exegetical works on Galatians.
>
> 2. That Dunn is wrong when he understands this Qumran language as simply
> “defining a boundary which marks out those of faith/faithfulness from
> others” [NTS 43 (1997) 151].
>
> 3. That Paul rejects one way of being reckoned as righteous for another.

I don't see the parallel in the contexts, so I don't see how this follows.
>
> 4. While there are a remarkable set of parallels between Paul and the
> DSS, suggesting that in some way he was influenced by this world of
> thought, often positively, Paul excludes from HIS idea of justification
> (i.e., being rightwised), all need to observe the Mosaic law: “No human
> being will be justified before him through deeds prescribed by the law”
> (Rom 3:20).

Really. I don't see how the latter citation leads to "excludes... all need
to observe the Mosaic Law." The only ones who need to observe the Mosaic Law
are ones who are counted among the righteous ones--i.e., Israelites by God's
gracious covenant--and thus, since God is righteous, these ones should do
the deeds of righteousness.

But the context Paul is addressing includes a new anomaly; non-Israelites
are being pronounced righteous ones without becoming Israelites, and thus
without becoming obliged to observed the covenant people's deeds of
righteousness, i.e., Mosaic Law. In this environment the question arises
about the legitimacy (justification) of this claim for non-Israelites, and
to this Paul responds with the kinds of language you bring to bear. Paul
poses the challenge that, since even Israelites are righteous ones by the
act of God, it should not seem unacceptable to some Israelites that God has
now acted toward non-Israelites in the same gracious way, so that apart from
becoming Israelite righteous ones they can nevertheless becoming righteous
ones of the Nations. But he does not write this to these Israelites, but to
the non-Israelites who are being constrained by them, in order to clarify
who they are according to the truth of the gospel in which they have come to
believe.

In other words, the issue that Paul confronts did not arise in Qumran, but
as a result of the proclamation of the legitimacy of gentile inclusion on
terms to be expected in the end of the ages, rather than according to the
prevailing conventions. And that claim, as well as the reaction of other
Jews to it, created the need to reason out the kinds of things of which we
read in these letters. It is Paul's perception of this exigence to which his
letters to Rome and Galatia respond.

> Paul’s bold addition to Ps 142:2, “deeds prescribed by the
> law,” is a rejection of the works righteousness found in Qumran.

I just don't see the connection. Based on what I have written above, does
that make any sense? Can you explain it another way that I might be able to
see the connection you are making?

Take care,
Mark
--
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
313 NE Landings Dr.
Lee's Summit, MO 64064
USA
nanosmd AT home.com






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