Corpus-Paul

[George F Somsel <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 10:53:47 -0600 "Mark D. Nanos" <nanosmd AT comcast.net> writes:
> 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.)

<SNIP>

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/
> _______________________________________________

I wonder if this might be more a misunderstanding by the church than by Paul.  Is it really possible that he could write

Οὐ γὰρ διὰ νόμου ἡ ἐπαγγελία τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἢ τῷ σπέρματι αὐτοῦ, τὸ κληρονόμον αὐτὸν εἶναι κόσμου, ἀλλὰ διὰ δικαιοσύνης πίστεως.

and not be convinced that his historic religion was not at bottom based upon faith?  I'm sure that he thought that it had been perverted in his own day, but that is another matter from its fundamental nature.

 

george
gfsomsel
___________