Corpus-Paul

[Loren Rosson <rossoiii AT yahoo.com>]

Jeff Krantz wrote:

> I regret that it's taken me so long to finish Mark's
> most recent book, The
> Irony of Galatians, but having done so I was even
> more troubled by the
> academy's apparent reluctance to engage his work.
> 
> I can see that "Irony" hasn't really been out long
> enough to have impacted
> the study of many, but "Romans" has been out for
> ages, and the insights
> present in that book, whether agreed with or not,
> are so compelling that
> it's disturbing to see so little reaction to it.

I agree. Mystery of Romans is one of those books you
read and say, "It's so obvious. Why we didn't we ever
see this before?" (I refer to the book's main point
that the "weak in faith" of chs 14:1-15:6 are
non-Christian Jews rather than Christian Jews; that
they were "weak" because they were non-Christian
rather than because they were Jewish; and how this
impacts understanding Rom 9-11). Irony of Galatians is
one of those studies best illustrating the principle,
"People don't always mean what they say." Mystery of
Romans points to what's been under our noses for a
long time. Irony of Galatians digs up what's been
under Paul's rhetoric for a long time. 

> I wonder if the listers have any insight into this
> phenomenon...The image of Paul as a
> Torah-observant Jew who, believing in
> Christ, finds no inherent contradiction between that
> and his Jewish
> identity, while seeing any Gentile movement toward
> claiming a Jewish identity as a negation of the
> very gospel he preaches, solves so many of the
> inconsistencies inherent in most models of Paul, and
> yet this model seems slow to catch on. 

The two major problems seem to be thus: (1) Many
simply cannot let go of the Lutheran/ Augustinian/
existentialist paradigm; that "true religion"
transcends external observances. (2) More
specifically, there appears to be an ongoing need not
only for Judaism as a foil, but for Jewish
Christianity as a foil. A Paul who opposes both at the
same time makes for an exceptional champion and puts a
comfortable distance between Christianity and its
parent faith. 

Point (1) has been recognized for some time, but
unfortunately point (2) remains a problem even within
the camp of the New Perspective. Perhaps the reason
why Nanos' work has not been given due consideration
is because (2) has yet to be fully recognized.

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
rossoiii AT yahoo.com



        
                
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