Corpus-Paul

["Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net>]

Dear List Compatriots,
>From time to time I have noticed statements made before the works of the
so-called New Perspective voices (which note that Judaism is not
work-righteousness based, but grace based, with covenant obligations of
Torah that follow from entering that grace/faith-based covenant), esp. of
Stendahl (60's and 70's) and Sanders (late 70's and early 80's), that argue
along the lines they later developed. These voices did not succeed where
Stendahl and Sanders did succeed, and so I do not mean to take anything away
from the importance of their work (Sanders acknowledges others had made the
case before him). But at the same time, it is interesting to note those who
had said similar things previously. (Perhaps for me because I had come to
this view independent of reading Stendahl or Sanders, when in a Judaic
Studies program in the 1970's, but I have never been sure if I was exposed
to an argument precisely, or just the sources from which such an observation
can be considered quite natural.) Often the ones I have noticed have been
Jewish scholars, or alternatively, Christian scholars specializing in
Judaism. That also brings up the interesting observation that it took folks
from the inside to convince (i.e., Christian Pauline scholars) rather than
from the outside (Jewish scholars, or specialists in Judaism), although
representing the religion that was the topic, and thus one would suppose,
voices that should be trusted to know what Judaism represented. Of course,
ideology is always at work on both sides, and rhetoric is always interested.

It is interesting to observe that if these voices prior to the New
Perspective are given their due, the moniker "new perspective" is at least
slightly misleading, since it was an older rival perspective representing at
least a small group of voices about Judaism where the topic of Paul was
concerned. But that is not really what animates my post. Rather, I am
curious if any of you have examples at hand. It would be nice to pull
together some of them. (in the early pages, Sanders, Paul and Palestinian
Judaism, included some from Montefiore, Moore, and Sandmel, so I have those
handy.)

Here is one I just came across this weekend, in a book I got at the Strand
in NY this past week, which was a real gem: Hans J. Schoeps, The
Jewish-Christian Argument: A History of Theologies in Conflict. Transl. by
David E. Green. London: Faber and Faber, 1965. Original German; München and
Frankfurt on Main: Ner-Tamid-Verlag, 1961 (revised version of 1949 and even
earlier 1933 original--I intend to get these and figure out if the statement
below was made in them, but from the preface, it seems likely at least for
the 1949 version).

Schoeps writes on p. 41: ³What is the actual point of the Pauline view, the
Christian evaluation of the law? Seen from a vantage point within Judaism,
it is a misconception of monstrous proportions; for all Christian
polemic‹and especially modern Protestant polemic against the
law‹misconstrues the law of the Jews as a means of attaining justification
in the sight of God (so-called Œjustification by works¹). Wherever
Protestant theologians today seek to use Luther¹s language, they take over
his point of view, which often simplifies far too much. The righteous
demands of God¹s law, which in reality is intended to confirm the covenant,
are unintentionally put on the same footing as the actual Œjustification by
works¹ of the medieval Catholic Church, at least in its degenerate form. And
all this because, after his experience on the road to Damascus, Paul was no
longer able to understand what he, as a scholar, had surely known
previously: that the law of the Torah was given, not to make the Jews
righteous and acceptable before their Father in Heaven, but precisely
because it proclaims the holy will of their Father in HeavenŠ. The rabbinic
praises of the law can be understood only in this sense of fulfilling God¹s
will, and never in the sense of some ethics of merit, no matter how
fashioned.²

Regards,
Mark

-- 
Mark D. Nanos, Ph.D.
Rockhurst University
Co-Moderator
http://home.comcast.net/~nanosmd/