Corpus-Paul

["moon-ryul jung" <moon AT saint.soongsil.ac.kr>]

On 05/19/99, ""Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>" wrote:
> 
> > Your summary here of the new perspective is somewhat confusing.
> > It's basic
> > tennet is:
> >  Judaism (as found in the literature) did not teach that one needed
> >  to observe the law to "get in"  the covenant; rather, observing the law
> >   was a requirement for "staying in"  the covenant  which they entered
> >  by the grace of God.
> 
> It is my understanding that the Palestinian Judaism of -200 to +200 did not
> require Jews to observe the law to "stay in" the covenant. Nor does Sanders
> say that it did.  According to Sanders, and according to everything I know,
> you are in because you are born in. There is punishment for sin for those in
> the covenant, but this punishment does not include excommunication nor is
> the punishment eternal.
> 
>

Dear Liz, thanks for your comments. Maybe we understand the phrase 
"observe the law to stay in the covenant" differently. To show what I 
mean,
let me quote Sanders (Paul, the law, and the Jewish People, p.46):

The argument is that one need not be Jewish to be "righteous" and is thus
against the standard Jewish view that ACCEPTING AND LIVING BY THE LAW
is a sign and condition of favored status. This is both the position
which, independently of Paul, we can know to have characterized Judaism
and the position which Paul attacks.  ..... The case is made above all by
Abraham, who was chosen without accepting the law. This is, in effect, an
attack on the traditional understanding of the covenant and election, 
according to which ACCEPTING THE LAW signified acceptance of the covenant.

So, I used "observing the law to stay in the covenant" to mean "
accepting and living by the law is a sign and condition of favored 
status".
If living by the law is a sign and condition of favored status, not living
by the law would mean  being outside of the covenant. 

Cheers!

Moon-Ryul Jung
Assistant Professor
Dept of Computer Science
Soongsil University
Seoul, Korea