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  • From: "Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT mail.gvi.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Paul and the Law
  • Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 11:00:30 -0600


Dear Bob,
Sorry about the delayed response. Some comments below yours.

Some time ago you responded to my request in Corpus Paulinum for
recommendations of books to read in connection with my proposed dissertation
on Paul and the Law in Philippians with the following list and some good
advice:

> Peter Tomson, Paul and the Jewish Law, Fortress or Van Gorcum.
>
> Lloyd Gaston, Paul and the Torah, Univ. of British Columbia Press.
>
> Neil Elliott, Liberating Paul, Orbis or Sheffield.
>
> Hendrikus Boers, The Justification of the Gentiles, Hendrickson.
>
> Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew, U. of Cal. Press.
>
> W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, 1948 (try Sigler Press for
> reprint).
>
> William Campbell, Paul's Gospel in an Intercultural Context, (Lang).
>
> E. P. Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, Fortress.
>
> Krister Stendahl, Paul among Jews and Gentiles, Fortress.
>
> Alan Segal, Paul the Convert, Yale.
>
> Terence Donaldson, Paul and the Gentiles, Fortress.
>
> There are many "articles" on the subject, and I would recommend looking
> also for the topic of works of law in titles (a new one is Kent Yinger,
> Paul, Judaism, and Judgment according to Deeds, Cambridge).

I already had W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, and E. P. Sanders,
Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People.

I've found and started reading Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew, online.

I've included William Campbell, Paul's Gospel in an Intercultural Context;
Krister Stendahl, Paul among Jews and Gentiles; Terence Donaldson, Paul and
the Gentiles; and your The Mystery of Romans (the books that were listed or
written by you and recommended by at least one other member of the
Corpus-Paul list) in a short wishlist to help my wife and daughter decide
what to get for my forthcoming birthday. The only other book in my wishlist
is Karl P. Donfried and I. Howard Marshall (editors), The Theology of the
Shorter Pauline Letters, it's including a theology of Philippians.

I'll be keeping your list for future reference. However, if there are any
works in it that you think should receive preference over any of those in my
wishlist, I'd appreciate your advising me so.

I think all of these are important to your stated task; there are many more, of course, that you will find discussed, who should be added, and no doubt some as or more important that have just been overlooked in this informal process. Perhaps in the order of their publication might be a good approach, so you can follow the lines of the conversation as it develops. Along this line it would be good to include the collection of essays by Dunn in Jesus, Paul, and the Law, Westminster/JKP, with his article on the New Perspective, and Raisenen's article as well (see my opening comments and footnotes in Mystery for some of this kind of bibliography, which will help with putting this in some order; actually several of the above books do this in their introductions or elsewhere in development of their view). Witherington has a book called The Paul Quest, Intervarsity, 1998, and I think I had mentioned Gager's BR article a year or so ago, which had a nice way of tracing the positions on Paul.

A major line is drawn by Sanders in the Paul and Palestinian Judaism, the problems introduced become apparent, in my view, in his attempt to then read Paul in his Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People, dragging along an old portrait of Paul into a new portrait of Judaism. Davies was earlier, and listening to some Jewish writers calling for this for quite a while before Sanders was so successful at getting the point across. But he was working with a view of Judaism that was not as nuanced as now realized, along the lines drawn by J. F. Moore and others earlier in the 20th century.

On the earlier Jewish authors Sanders lists some of this, as do some of the others. For example, see the case made by C. G. Montefiore, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion..., 1887 (the Hibbert Lectures of 1882), chapter 9: "From Nehemiah to the Maccabees: The Law and Its Influence," to get some idea of how long Jewish scholars have been trying to get this message across. Susannah Heschel, Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, U. of Chicago, 1998, traces these kinds of insights in the 19th century German Jewish scholarship, although dealing with Jesus rather than Paul (and note, the view of Paul, when noted, is not based on re-reading, but accepting Reformation portrait of him!); and if you are able to read German, see Stefan Meissner, Die Heimholung des Ketzers, Mohr Siebeck, 1996, who traces the portrait of Paul in Jewish scholarship. This too will show that while a different understanding of Law and Judaism is present, Paul is measured by the portrait constructed by Christian (especially Reformation) interpreters, and not really (entirely) re-read from engaging the texts anew, at least that is my view. The Jewish interpreters on the list I proposed included Segal and Boyarin, and myself, all to different conclusions about Paul, although sympathetic on many points where analysis of Jewish thought and life are concerned.

I bring this up because, as mentioned in my earlier post, while a new paradigm for understanding the Jewish views of the first-century has now become accepted by many interpreters of Paul (not all, and several examples are on your list, as noted then), they are trying to fit the old portrait of Paul on this new map with all kinds of results. Is it not time to re-configure Paul based upon a new understanding of his world? To ask new questions, propose new hypotheses, and expect some new answers?

Regards,
Mark Nanos
Kansas City




  • Re: Paul and the Law, Mark D. Nanos, 03/01/2000

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