Tag Archives: Pauline Theology

Forthcoming Books

02 Saturday Jun 2018

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Biblical Studies

Conformed to the Image of His Son: Reconsidering Paul’s Theology of Glory in Romans (Haley Grandson Jacob, w/ a foreword by NT Wright, IVP Academic)

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New Testament Christological Hymns: Exploring Texts, Contexts, and Significance (Matthew E. Gordley, IVP Academic)

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Jesus in Jerusalem: The Last Days (Eckhard Schnabel, w/ a foreword by Craig Evans, Eerdmans)

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Second Temple Judaism

T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls (Ed. by George Brooke and Charlotte Hempel, T&T Clark)

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Commentaries

Galatians: A Commentary (Craig S. Keener, Baker Academic)

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The Letter to the Galatians NICNT (David A. deSilva, Eerdmans)

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Textual History of the New Testament

Can We Trust the Gospels? (Peter J. Williams, Crossway)

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Recent Books on Paul

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

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There is a bundle of new books out recently (or coming out soon) on the apostle Paul, and by some pretty big hitters too.

Paul_Wright

In case anyone was wondering if N.T. Wright had anything else left to say about Paul after he published his magnum opus several years ago (1,500 pages of text!), he does. And this time it is a biography. I am looking forward to reading this one; I already put in a pre-order.

Paul_Fee

Gordon Fee may be getting old but you couldn’t tell from his writing (incidentally, I imagine folks said the same thing about Paul too). At a brief +/-200 pages this book will make a great read for folks who aren’t looking to exhaust the subject. If you have read Fee’s Pauline Christology I suspect there will be some overlap (or condensing?) but with a gifted writer as Fee is, you will never be bored. Buy this book. It may be his last.

Paul_Campbell

Douglas Cambell is another big hitter in Pauline studies, particularly of the ‘apocalyptic Paul’. I am guessing this book is an attempt to aim some of his scholarly thought (e.g., The Deliverance of God) at more popular audience. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how Campbell teases out his ideas about how Paul’s thought develops and changes from his conversion to his death.

Paul_Barclay

John Barclay has also recently published a major work on Paul (Paul & The Gift), so why another book? Well, this one is part of the ‘Very Brief Histories’ series, so I imagine its genesis has more to do with the publishers wanting Barclay’s authorship than any new developments in Barclay’s thought on Paul. But, at just over 100 pages it would make a nice winter read with a cup of hot chocolate.

Paul_SusanEastman

Finally (for this list anyway), there is the more narrowly focused book by Susan Eastman of Duke Divinity, Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul’s Anthropology. With a foreword (and endorsement) by John Barclay it promises to be rewarding. Although it will probably be most appealing to academics and scholars, it will also probably be relevant for Christians interested in psychology and counseling (due to the focus on personhood).

 

Paul and Second Temple Judaism

09 Saturday Apr 2016

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Second Temple Jewish Star

James H. Charlesworth has crafted 12 questions to guide his review of N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God. The stated goal of the questions is to allow him “to classify the best approach to the very complex world of Second Temple Judaism in ancient Palestine and in the Diaspora, Paul’s relation to it, and Wright’s presentation of each.”¹

So here is my idea for how someone could use Charlesworth’s questions to write a book (publishers take note). The questions (or some modification of them) would serve as a great tool for comparing various contemporary presentations of Paul. Charlesworth himself should contribute the Foreword or Introduction so as to give him the proper credit for the questions. I propose that the following works on Paul could profitably be analyzed on the basis of Charlesworth’s questions:

  • F.F. Bruce. Paul Apostle of the Heart Set Free. Paternoster Press, 1977.
  • James D. G. Dunn. The Theology of the Apostle Paul. Eerdmans, 1998.
  • Thomas R. Schreiner. Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ: A Pauline Theology. InterVarsity Press, 2001.
  • Michael J. Gorman. Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters. Eerdmans, 2004.
  • Anthony C. Thiselton. The Living Paul: An Introduction to the Apostle’s Life and Thought. InterVarsity Press, 2009.
  • N.T. Wright. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013.
  • John M.G. Barclay. Paul and the Gift. Eerdmans, 2015.
  • E.P. Sanders. Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought. Fortress Press, 2015.

So what are Charlesworth’s questions? (below I have replaced “Wright” with “our author” to make them applicable to other works)

  1. I am certain that [our author] would assiduously avoid any semblance of Anti-Judaism (Anti-Semitism), but would he agree with the stellar group of Pauline specialists who convened in Rome in 2014 to demonstrate how Paul now must be understood within Second Temple Judaism?
  2. Paul states that he is proud to be a Jew and a Pharisee, so does [our author] err and cast Paul as a “Christian,” sociological and theological category which is anachronistic to many experts for the period before 70 CE?
  3. Does [our author] avoid such misleading dichotomies as “Hellenistic Judaism” versus “Palestinian Judaism” and “Orthodox Judaism” versus “Sectarian Judaism”?
  4. In examining pre-70 CE sociological and theological contexts, does [our author] choose to use terms that are now relegated to the dust bin, according to most scholars, such as “canonical,” “canon,” “extra-canonical,” as well as “church,” “orthodoxy,” and “heresy”?
  5. Does [our author] appreciate how significantly the concepts and terms in the Dead Sea Scrolls have revolutionized scholars’ approach to Second Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, and Paul? And specifically, how dies he use the evidence of “works of law” now found in Second Temple  Judaism to clarify the same term in Galatians?
  6. If [our author] sees a unity within Second Temple Judaism, what is it and how does he obtain that insight; and if he sees only diversity, how does he explain the colossal change in 66 CE?
  7. Does [our author] appreciate the many groups and sects within Second Temple Judaism and does he do justice to the Samaritans?
  8. How does [our author] treat the “sacred writings” in the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (that is, does he find God’s Word in any of them, as did the early Jews and “Christians”?); and does he engage the authors who have claimed Paul quoted from or at least knew one or more these documents?
  9. Does [our author] perceive that Paul’s main inheritance from Judaism is apocalyptic eschatology?
  10. Would [our author] agree with those that conclude Paul broke from Jesus by rejecting the purity laws, dietary restrictions, circumcision, and taking the “good news” to Gentiles?
  11. Has [our author] found “the heart of Paul’s theology” or has he allowed Paul to be as contradictory as he seems to be in his authentic letters?
  12. Where do we find Paul’s genius and creativity and how do we know that when so many ideas we all once concluded had originated with Paul are now being discovered in early Jewish texts?

Some of the questions may need to be reformulated. Charlesworth’s own presuppositions are apparent in more than one. Nevertheless, they do serve as launch point for further discussion of how different authors handle the issues concerned. I think it would be quite revealing to consider how each of the above mentioned works on Paul deals with each of these topics. It will go a long way toward demonstrating the relative strengths and weaknesses of each work. Further, it would potentially uncover additional areas where more work is needed.

So…will someone please take this idea and run with it?

¹ See “Wright’s Paradigm of Early Jewish Thought: Avoidance of Anachronisms?” in God and the Faithfulness of Paul (Mohr Siebeck 2016) edited by Christoph Heilig, J. Thomas Hewitt, and Michael F. Bird, 207-234, 207.

Recent Articles in JSNT

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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Journal for the Study of the New Testament has some good articles just out last month. Two in particular are worth mentioning:

What to Expect when you’re Expecting: Maternity, Salvation History, and the “Apocalyptic Paul” by J.P. Davies, JSNT 38:3 (2016) 301-315.

Here is the abstract:

This article argues, on the basis of Jewish and Christian apocalypses, that ‘apocalyptic’ in Paul should not be understood as antithetical to ‘salvation history’. It focuses on one of Paul’s key metaphors, childbirth, which has been identified as an image intrinsically connected to Paul’s apocalyptic eschatology. It will first offer a brief survey of the way the image of childbirth has been deployed in recent ‘apocalyptic’ interpretations of Paul (notably the work of Beverly Gaventa) in support of a ‘punctiliar-invasive’ theology of history over against a ‘linear-progressive’ view. It will then examine some of the evidence from the apocalyptic literature where childbirth is used as an eschatological metaphor, particularly in the book of Revelation. It will argue that an understanding of the logic of this metaphor in Second Temple Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic thought raises questions about the eschatological dichotomy at the heart of the contemporary ‘apocalyptic Paul’ movement.

 

‘Christ-Faith’ as an Eschatological Event (Galatians 3.23-26): A ‘Third View’ on Πιστις Χριστου by Benjamin Schliesser, JSNT 38:3 (2016) 277-300.

Here is the abstract:

The meaning of πιστις Χριστου in Paul (Gal. 2.16, 20; 3.22; Rom. 3.22, 26; Phil. 3.9) continues to be the subject of controversial debate in Pauline scholarship. Should the genitive construction be understood objectively as ‘faith in Christ’ or subjectively as ‘the faith(fulness) of Christ’? The prevalent either/or character of the discussion is increasingly proving to be an impediment to finding a solution to this issue. A minority view, the so-called ‘third view’, seeks to move beyond the subjective-objective dichotomy by accounting for the intrinsic complexity of the Greek genitive and pointing to the event-character of in πιστις Paul. The primary reference text for this ‘third-view’ is Gal. 3. 23–26, which exhibits an altogether remarkable language of faith and envisages πιστις as ‘coming’ (ερχεσθαι) and as ‘being revealed’ (αποκαλυπτεσθαι). This article reviews the exegetical status quaestionis and argues that Paul does not regard πιστις Χριστου as an individual disposition or character (either Christ’s or that of the believer), but rather as an eschatological event. The aim is not to offer a comprehensive analysis of the verses in question, but to advance exegetical and theological support for the ‘third view’ and to point to its considerable explanatory power in our effort for a more nuanced appreciation of Paul’s language of faith.

(click here for JSNT webpage)

God and the Faithfulness of Paul

25 Friday Mar 2016

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I just received my copy of God and the Faithfulness of Paul: A Critical Examination of the Pauline Theology of N.T. Wright, just released this month.

God and Faithfulness of Paul

Last summer I read N.T. Wright’s magnum opus, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. I can safely say that it was the longest book I have ever read, cover to cover, by far: a whopping 1,519 pages of text. It was a big deal. And I am glad that I did. Since the purpose of this post is not to review Wright’s PFG suffice it to say that it has changed the way I read Paul’s letters; indeed, I have learned an enormous amount about the significance of the entire story line of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, creation to new creation. Wright’s work is stimulating and thought-provoking in a way that increases my love for Holy Scripture and continually forces me to return to the text.

Paul and the Faithfulness of God

Wright’s work on Paul was monumental. Now I am super excited to begin reading this examination of his work from a group of international scholars. As stated in the introduction (page 6):

[T]his volume is neither a Festschrift nor a refutation, but something entirely different. It is perhaps best described as a conversation among those involved in biblical and theological scholarship as to the positive achievements, potential failings, matters requiring clarification, and future questions that Wright’s PFG elicits for his scholarly peers.

Click the following link to see the table of contents: God-and-the-Faithfulness-of-Paul.

Three Recent Articles

05 Saturday Mar 2016

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Here are three recently published articles that are pretty good reading:

  • “Another look at πιστις Χριστου” by Morna D. Hooker, Scottish Journal of Theology 69 (1): 46-62 (2016).
  • “The Number of Variants in the Greek New Testament: A Proposed Estimate” by Peter J. Gurry, New Testament Studies 62: 97-121 (2016).
  • “‘O Taste and See’: Septuagint Psalm 33 in 1 Peter” by Karen H. Jobes, Stone-Campbell Journal 18: 241-251 (Fall, 2015).

Let’s go in reverse order.

First, “O Taste and See” is classic Karen Jobes. She is an accomplished evangelical scholar on 1 Peter, with a top rated commentary on this epistle (see here). The article here is an exercise in intertextual interpretation looking at Peter’s exhortation to “crave pure, spiritual milk” (το λογικον αδολον γαλα επιποθησατε). Although sometimes understood as a reference to the word of God, Jobes rejects this reading. Instead by looking carefully at how Peter uses LXX Psalm 33 it makes better sense to see a reference to Christ himself as the pure, spiritual milk “which nurtures growth of spiritual life after rebirth into the new reality that Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension has created…To crave the pure spiritual milk means to crave Christ himself, for only he can sustain the new life he created” (pgs. 249-250).

Second, Peter J. Gurry’s article on the number of textual variants in the GNT is a solidly researched article with an important find. Despite my hunch that there are probably only a small number of people interested in this type of research, it is nevertheless hugely important to get this kind of information correct. After a lengthy section discussing previous historical estimates, their problems, and his own methodology, Gurry proposes an estimate of about 500,000 variants (not including spelling differences). He only analyzes variants found in Greek manuscripts; that is, papyri, majuscules, minuscules and lectionaries, NOT versions, patristic citations, inscriptions, etc. (pg. 104). He defines a variant as “a word or concatenation of words in any manuscript that differs from any other manuscript within a comparable segment of text, excluding only spelling differences and different ways of abbreviating nomina sacra” (pg. 106). I will just add one more concluding thought on the value of the estimate:

“[O]ur estimate allows scholars to avoid passing the responsibility for their estimates to silent and invisible sources. The present estimate is based on a clear foundation in the available data and a clear method, both of which are open to public scrutiny. One hopes that these two qualities alone will be enough to discourage all of us from the continued rehashing of unverified and unverifiable information about the transmission of the Greek New Testament.” (pg. 118)

Third, “Another look at πιστις Χριστου” by Morna Hooker. The sheer amount of scholarly attention given to this phrase indicates the importance of it. Subjective genitive or objective genitive? Christ’s faith/faithfulness or our faith in Christ? In this paper, Hooker builds on her earlier work (‘Πιστις Χριστου’, New Testament Studies 35, 1989) by zeroing in on what exactly is meant by πιστις (pistis), particularly in some key texts in Romans. In doing so, she explores the relationship of human behavior and divine grace in the apostle Paul’s thought. She concludes by asking the question,

“So were Luther and his followers wrong? They were certainly not wrong to emphasize the role of faith. And as with the answers to our questions about other phrases we have briefly considered, it may well be that the answer to the question ‘Does this phrase refer to Christ’s faith or ours’? may be ‘Both’. Nevertheless, the faith/faithfulness is primarily that of Christ, and we share in it only because we are in him…In Christ, and through him, we are able to share his trust and obedience, and so become what God called his people to be.” (pg. 62)

The “Glory of God” in Romans

15 Friday Jan 2016

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Interpretation and the Claims of the TextI recently read a fascinating chapter by Beverly Gaventa on “The ‘Glory of God’ in Paul’s Letter to the Romans”. Gaventa contributed this chapter in the book Interpretation & the Claims of the Text: Resourcing New Testament Theology (Baylor University Press, 2014), a collection of essays in honor of Charles Talbert.

On the premise that relatively little scholarly work has been done on the phrase “the glory of God” (δοξα του θεου) in Paul’s letters Gaventa sets out to demonstrate three things (pg.29):

  1. That “glory of God” is an important motif in Romans
  2.  That it draws on earlier Jewish associations connecting God’s glory with God’s salvific presence
  3. That it plays a role in Paul’s apocalyptic interpretation of the gospel

In her survey of glory of God language in Romans, Gaventa highlights two particularly disputed passages: Romans 3.23 and 5.2.

With regard to Romans 3.23 Gaventa makes two moves. Firstly, she suggests that it should be translated (following Leander Keck and also The New American Bible) as follows: “all are deprived of the glory of God”. This brings our the passive voice of the verb (contra. the more common renderings “lack” or “fall short of”). Secondly, she draws attention to what exactly is meant by “glory of God” in the claim that humanity is deprived of it. She concludes that Paul “refers not to humanity’s own original state of glory but to the loss of its proper, worshipful relationship to God” (pg.31). As a side note, the Good News Translation of the Bible supports Gaventa’s reading of the glory-of-God language in this verse: “everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence” (Rom 3.23 GNB).

In regard to Romans 5.2, the phrase is usually read as hope for humanity’s own eschatological glory. Gaventa suggests rather that to hope in the glory of God means to expect God’s triumphant presence.

This leads into her discussion of how the Old Testament and other Jewish literature uses glory-of-God language to refer to God’s own presence (e.g. inter alia Ex 24.16; 40.34; Lev 9.23; Ps 56.6; Ezek 11.23). But she points out that in many places it is not just a general presence that is signified by the phrase “it is God’s presence as that presence powerfully triumphs over God’s intractable enemies” (pg.33, emphasis added). In other words, “God’s δοξα is not just God’s presence, but God’s presence for the purpose of an eschatological establishment of God’s saving kingdom” (pg.34).

This claim is supported by a survey of the ubiquitous, but little noticed, conflict language throughout Romans. Again, she concludes that “the ‘glory of God’ signals not only God’s own presence but something more — God’s presence as it triumphs over God’s own enemies, most especially the enemies named Sin and Death” (pg.36).

Among other ramifications of this reading for understanding Paul is that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not primarily a proof of his divinity or his identity as the messiah (although it is that, to be sure), but instead the “beginning of God’s triumph. That is why Paul can go on to say in Romans 6.9-10 that Death and Sin no longer rule over Christ; they have been defeated by the “glory of the father” (pg.36).

More could be said but I will stop here. Gaventa has certainly given us something to consider which has profound implications for how we understand a concept as important as the glory of God. As always her work is thought provoking and well worth the reading.

Soli Deo gloria.

‘Christ’: a Name, a Title or an Honorific? [New Book Notices]

06 Sunday Sep 2015

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So what do you think? Is ‘Christ’ a name (i.e., a surname)? Perhaps a title (e.g., ‘King of Spain’)? Or what about an honorific (cf. ‘Augustus,’ which was given to the first century emperor Julius Caesar, who later became known simply as ‘Caesar Augustus’)?

For most of us the difference between these are not immediately obvious. However, there is a difference in meaning. And it is important that we try to understand the exact nuance that the word ‘Christ’ had for the writers of the New Testament.

Matthew Novenson

Matthew V. Novenson, Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, has recently written an excellent book on this question. His thesis is surprisingly simple, yet with profound implications: Χριστος (Christos) in Paul’s letters means ‘Messiah.’ In other words, it is neither a name nor merely a title. It carries with it the nuances involved with “messiah language in ancient Judaism” (Novenson, pg. 3).

Here is a link to his book: Christ among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism

Christ among messiahs

Here is what N. T. Wright has said about it: “Novenson’s work now sets a new standard for discussion of Christos in particular, demonstrating that the way it functions linguistically, within the larger world of Greek usage in late antiquity, fits extremely well with royal ‘honorifics’ and not at all with proper names” (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, pg. 824).

On another front, Joshua W. Jipp, over at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, is coming out with a new book on this topic soon. His position will bolster that of Novenson. “In the process, Jipp offers new and noteworthy solutions to outstanding questions concerning Christ and the law, the pistis Christou debate, and Paul’s participatory language” (from the blurb on the Fortress Press website)

Here is a link to his book: Christ is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology

Joshua Jipp_Christ is King

Here is a sample from the table of contents:

  1. Paul’s Christ-Discourse as Ancient Kingship Discourse
  2. King and Law: Christ the King as Living Law
  3. King and Praise: Hymns as Royal Encomia to Christ the King
  4. King and Kingdom: Sharing in the Rule of Christ the King
  5. King and Justice: God’s Righteousness and the Righteous King in Romans
  6. Conclusion

Two Important Books Under $1

05 Thursday Feb 2015

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Right now Logos Bible Software is a great deal for two important books on the topic of Justification: 

Get this book for free: Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme by Stephen Westerholm (on Amazon it is currently $11.94) Justification reconsidered

Then get this book for just 99¢: The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul by Douglas A. Campbell (on Amazon it is currently $49.50)

Deliverance of God

If you want to be up to date on the status of ‘Justification’ in the last decade or two, these books will go a long way! Get a survey and critique of some of the key players in Pauline scholarship with Westerholm’s book. And dig deep down to have some of your closest held presuppositions on Paul’s theology challenged with Campbell’s tome on ‘Justification’ (also the longer of the two books by over a thousand pages!).