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  • From: "Given, Mark Douglas" <MarkGiven AT MissouriState.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-Paul" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] The Apostle to the Greek Israelites
  • Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 16:36:11 -0600

What, pray tell, do they do with this?
Galatians 2:7-9 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted
with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with
the gospel for the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter making him
an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me in sending me to the
Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who were acknowledged
pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to
Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to
the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

Mark D. Given
Associate Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Missouri State University
901 S. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65804

________________________________

From: corpus-paul-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Loren Rosson
Sent: Thu 2/2/2006 8:51 AM
To: Corpus-Paul
Subject: [Corpus-Paul] The Apostle to the Greek Israelites



List members --

I want to recommend a book I've been long waiting for:
Bruce Malina and John Pilch's _Social Science
Commentary on the Letters of Paul_, ISBN
0-8006-3640-6, hot off the press. It follows the style
and pattern of Malina/Rohrbaugh's updated synoptic
commentary, in an analysis of the seven (secure)
letters of Paul.

There are many things to say about this book, and
perhaps I will review fully later. But its chief
premise deserves immediate attention: that Paul wasn't
an apostle to the Gentiles. (Yes, that's right.) The
authors claim Paul was concerned with evangelizing
Israelites exclusively, as befitting a typically
Mediterranean ethnocentric outlook. Pagans were beyond
the pale, as far as he was concerned. From the
introduction:

"When Paul, a Pharisaic Israelite, writes that he was
sent to 'the other peoples" (usual English
translation: 'Gentiles')... Any Israelite 'going to
the other peoples' would be presumed to be going to
Israelites resident among those other peoples. To take
a modern example, when Israelis speak of 'going to
Americans' to sell U.S. tax-exempt Israeli bonds, they
are presumed to be going to Jews resident in the U.S.,
not to non-Jewish Americans. Most American non-Jews
are totally unaware of Israeli bonds. So too most
first-century Mediterraneans were totally unaware of
the Jesus-group gospel spread among Israelites living
in non-Israelite regions... Paul was, in fact, an
apostle to Israelite minorities living among
non-Israelite majority populations." (6-7)

Building on what Context Group members have been
telling us for some time -- that the term "Jew" is a
mistranslation in the New Testament -- Malina and
Pilch extend precision of translation to terminology
used to refer to Paul's converts. Just as IOUDAIOS
means "Judean", referring to the people who practiced
the customs of Judea, Paul's converts were "Greeks"
who practiced Hellenic customs -- "a broad
configuration of 'civilized' Mediterranean peoples
characterized by their use of the common Greek
language. Taking the phrase 'Judean and Greek' to mean
Jews and Greeks, or worse, Jews and Gentiles, is
simply erroneous." (p 4) In other words, Paul was
really an apostle to Greek Israelites (not Gentiles)
who in turn looked upon Judean Israelites as primitive
and barbaric.

This gives a pay-off in interpretating various texts,
such as Gal 2:15, where the Galatian Christians are
described as "Judeans by nature" and not sinners of
Gentile origin -- a clear "indication that Paul is not
concerned about Gentiles" (p 200). Or in the argument
of Gal 3:10-14:

"Further indication that Paul's argument looks to
Israelites is indicated by the 'us' in [Gal 3:13] who
are redeemed from the curse of the law...[Christ] was
raised for 'us', thus restoring Israel's honor... The
blessing of Abraham has come to 'us', TA ETHNE. Once
more, notice how throughout this passage the word
translated 'Gentiles' refers to the group Paul calls
'us'...'Gentiles' is simply a faulty translation."
(205)

And for a text like Gal 3:8, where Abraham is promised
that "all the ETHNE will bless themselves in you",
Malina and Pilch suggest the meaning of TA ETHNE,
usually translated "Gentiles", is better translated
"peoples" -- especially since Israel didn't even exist
at the time of Abraham. "The 'peoples' Paul has in
mind [in Galatians] are Hellenistic Israelites and
Judean Israelites." (p 204)

As with all Context Group publications, the commentary
doesn't fail to stimulate, as it tackles sacred and
ethnocentric assumptions left and right. But to tell
biblical specialists that Paul had no use for Gentiles
is like telling mathematicians that there are at least
two lines through a point that run parallel to another
line. (I wonder what Mark Nanos will make of this?)

Loren Rosson III
Nashua NH
http://lorenrosson.blogspot.com/

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