Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanos AT mail.gvi.net>]

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