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  • From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: C-P: Liz on Sanders - a clarification
  • Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 12:27:16 -0400


Dear Moon, et.al.
I do have Dunn's commentary on Romans here. In the quote you gave me from
p. 46 Dunn refers to p. 544 of Sanders PPJ. This is the second page of his
conclusion to the entire book. There Sanders says "to be righteous in Jewish
literature means to obey the Torah and to repent of transgression, but in
Paul it means to be saved by Christ. Most succinctly, righteousness in
Judaism is a term which implies the *maintenance of status among the group
of the elect;* in Paul it is a transfer term. In Judaism, that is,
commitment to the covenant puts on 'in', while obedience (righteousness)
subsequently keeps one in."

The difficulty here is that Sanders is now talking about all of Palestinian
Judaism and is lumping together what before he had kept separate. According
to Sanders' index, the term "elect" is found among the DSS and in Enoch. It
is not found in Rabbinic literature. Both in Enoch and in the DSS you have
a contrast between the elect, those *Jews* who are righteous and "saved" vs
those Jews who are sinners and who will suffer along with the gentiles at
the end. For the DSS and Enochian communities being righteous is a way of
maintaining status as part of the elect of *Israel*.

Rabbinic Judaism does not use this term and does not have this concept. In
Rabbinic Judaism all Jews have a share in the world to come.

Liz

Lisbeth S. Fried
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
51 Washington Sq. S.
New York, NY 10012
lqf9256 AT is3.nyu.edu
lizfried AT umich.edu





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