Corpus-Paul

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

On 05/25/99, ""Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT gvi.net>" wrote:
> Moon finished a useful comment with this point:
> >In sum, even if "the works of the law" is interpreted to refer to the
> >hallakic interpretations of the law, as Roy claims, it seems to function
> >in Paul as the identity marks of being Jew, the membership conditions of
> >the covenant people. To this Paul opposed. At least, so  far, this makes
> >sense to me.
> 
> Mark Nanos responds:
> This first sentence is helpful. The phrase does seem to me to be about
> identity yet with clear reference to things Jewish, and the very word ERGWN
> suggesting "actions" or "works" of a Jewish person. They are linked when a
> gentile person wants to become Jewish in this phrase works of law, that is,
> they want to become part of a group of people so identified. And they are
> linked for a Jewish person maintaining that this is necessary to be of the
> same standing before God and within the group.
> 
> But I think the next statement Moon makes might muddy the point in another
> direction, as it stands anyway: "To this Paul [was] opposed." I am not sure
> what this means. To what?: Jewish people in-Christ being identified as
> Jewish or behaving Jewishly? or to this identity being the grounds of
> status discrimination among Christ-believing Jews and non-Jews? I take it
> to be the latter only; but the traditional view is the former, which seems
> to me to lead to discrimination as well, in reverse, against Jewish
> identity and practice in favor of gentile identity and practice. Paul seems
> to argue for the equality of both in these groups.
> 

Mark, I am sorry for being ambiguous. Of course, Paul's opposition was to 
that identity being the grounds of  status discrimination among 
Christ-believing Jews
and non-Jews. It also seems that Paul was against "covenantal nomism" 
itself,
the system that claims one is "saved" by being a true Jew, which is 
recognizable
by ERGWN NOMOU. It is indicated by the following statement:
"We Jews also believed in Christ Jesus, in order to
be justified by faith in Christ and not by the "works of the law".
So, it seems to me that Paul's criticism of the "works of the law" was
more than "fight within family". I think Paul opposed Judaism, 
not because it taught salvation based one's works or merits, 
but because, as Sanders showed, 
  (a) it taught salvation based on being Jew, which is
      defined by ERGWN NOMOU, 
   and (b) this system had deviated from the way of faith 
          which was supposed to be the proper response of the people
          from the time of Abraham (as indicated by 9:31-32).   

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