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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: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 08:48:51 -0500


Dear Karl,
This has been an interesting thread; thanks for initiating it and the
follow-through. I would like to pose the problem in a slightly different way
to see if this might help communicate why I don't follow the force of a
point you seem to be trying to make from 4QMMT. I will do so below your
comment.

[You wrote:
> Yes, with regard to Qumran there are references to doing the Law beyond
> the two that you sight. I have them in my office if you wish them (I
> return Aug 6 after the SNTS meetings). However, a critical one is in
> 4QMMT. In 4QMMT C 30-31 the emphasis falls on the correct practice of
> these deeds (“in your deed you may be reckoned as righteous”). What does
> that mean? Is that not exactly the same connection that Paul makes
> between work/deed and being reckoned as righteous, say in Rom 4:3ff.?

You define the issue here as "the correct practice of these deeds." Now when
I read Paul I see him calling also in many places for the correct practice
of certain deeds, which he articulates variously in different contexts, and
sometimes in distinction from how others practice certain deeds. So, for
example, in Rom. 13:11ff., written to those whom Paul affirms in the letter
opening to be "holy ones," he writes: Besides... it is full time now for you
to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first
believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off
the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct
ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in..." Or in 14:17: "he who thus
serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men." Or in 1 Cor. 7:19,
where what counts is "keeping the commandments of God." The list goes on,
but I hope these have clarified the point.

Do these phrases, when isolated, not make Paul a proponent of
"works-righteousness" on the same terms as the author of 4QMMT? If not, then
why not consider that the author of 4QMMT is likewise writing this kind of
language for those who are already in covenant by grace, yet thereby obliged
to behave appropriate to that standing? (in other words, that we are not
dealing with works-righteousness, but with works appropriate for those who
understand themselves to be the righteous ones by God's covenant, initiated
by God's grace, the very thing that you will hear from pulpits of rabbis and
ministers to this day).

[snip]

> Also, the fact that Qumran uses Gen 15:6 in a diametrically opposed way
> that Paul does in Romans and Galatians suggests that the issue is far
> more pronounced than boundaries between Jews and Gentiles and the issue
> of circumcision alone. Circumcision may have triggered the issue in
> Galatians but that discussion has a far more profound deep structure as
> can also be seen in the classically different interpretation that Paul
> and Qumran give to Habakkuk 2:4b. The relationship of Jew and Gentile
> to Jesus Christ is through faith in him and that simply changes
> dramatically the role of the law in the life of the believer in Christ.

The last line involves logic I do not understand, nor apparently did the
early believers in Jesus. I do not think Paul would understand it either; at
least I do not know where he ever addressed it except in the life of the
"gentile" believer in Christ, which changes the force of the point
significantly.

[snip]

> By the way, is there a text where Paul completely rejects circumcision,
> or is he merely rejecting a misunderstood and misapplied circumcision?

As far as I can see it is not precisely either. He rejects proselyte
conversion (which circumcision symbolizes) for gentile Christ-believers,
because it undermines for them that they are already rendered righteous ones
of God while remaining representatives of the Nations. He does not reject
circumcision for Jewish people "by birth."

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






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