Reading Paul within Judaism

Collected Essays of Mark D. Nanos, vol. 1

Nanos

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781498242301
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The dominant portrayals of the apostle Paul are of a figure who no longer valued Jewish identity and behavior, opposing them for both Jew and non-Jew in his assemblies. This prevailing version of Paul depends heavily upon certain interpretations of key "flashpoint" passages. In this book and the subsequent volumes in this series, Mark Nanos undertakes to test a "Paul within Judaism" (re)reading of the apostle, especially of these "flashpoint" texts.Nanos demonstrates how traditional conclusions about Paul and the meaning of his letters are dramatically altered by testing the hypothesis that the historical Paul practiced a Jewish, Torah-observant way of life, and that he expected those whom he addressed to know that he did so. Nanos also tests the hypothesis that the non-Jews addressed were expected to know that his guidance was based on promoting a Jewish way of life for themselves, at the same time insisting that they remain non-Jews and thus not technically under Torah on the same terms as himself and the other Jews in this new (Jewish) movement.In conversation with the prevailing views, Nanos argues that the "Paul within Judaism" perspective offers not only more historically probable interpretations of Paul's texts, but also more promise for better relations between Christians and Jews, because these texts have informed Christian concepts of, ways of talking about, and behavior toward Jews based on the premise that Paul considered Jews and Judaism the mirror opposites of what Christians should be and become.

Part I

A New Approach to the Apostle

Paul as a Torah-observant Jew

1

Paul and Judaism

Why Not Paul’s Judaism?1

[117] When New Testament scholars address the topic of Paul and Judaism, the conjunction generally signals an adversative: Paul or Judaism; Paul against Judaism; Paul outside of Judaism; or Paul, not Judaism. Traditionally, the emphasis is on the distance between Paul’s new religion based upon Jesus Christ and Judaism, his former religion.2 The level of continuity or discontinuity assessed differs from interpreter to interpreter, but a shared perception remains assumed, if not argued: the religious life of Paul’s communities, Paulinism, and the religious life of Jewish communities, Judaism, including Jewish Christianity, represent two fundamentally different religious systems.3 One does not hear or read [118] about Paul’s Judaism,4 or Pauline Judaism, of Judaism or Jewishness as the propositional basis of Paul’s way of life, or of the communities he establishes and addresses.

Most interpreters today pronounce that Paul had been a Jew, and also that he remained one (albeit not without equivocation, discussed below). At the same time, very few have or would argue that Paul continued to practice and promote Judaism as an expression of covenant faithfulness after his experience of Jesus Christ. When Paul is upheld to be a Jew it thus signifies a kind of ethnic identity independent of the religious elements [119] of ethnicity related to covenant standing; Paul is treated as a Jew or Judean who does not behave Jewishly. He is the leader if not the founder of a new religious movement, one functioning outside the boundaries of Judaism. Although some other Christ-followers, like James and Peter, may be considered to remain within the circle of Judaism, so-called Jewish Christianity, Paul’s “churches” gathered not in “synagogues,” but in house-churches of believers in Jesus Christ that were clearly distinguishable from Jewish gathering places or meetings. That they are usually simply called “gentile churches” demonstrates what remains presupposed.5 These new communities are portrayed to consist primarily of non-Jews, with perhaps a few former Jews. They are understood to represent a new religious movement that was distinguished from Judaism, namely, Christianity, even when it is acknowledged that the name Christian had not yet been coined.6

Furthermore, Paul has been traditionally understood to be antagonistic toward Torah-identity and practice. Some propose that he was instead simply “indifferent” (ἀδιάφορος; although Paul’s letters do not contain the term).7 Others grant that he observed Torah to various degrees, but not as an expression of faith, certainly not as covenant fidelity. Either way, Paul believed that the era of [120] Torah had ended, being made obsolete, or fulfilled, or superseded in the work of Christ. He did not regard Jewish covenant identity or behavior to have any “soteriological” significance.8 To the degree that he observed Torah occasionally, it simply reflected cultural conditioning from which he had not yet been liberated, having been born and raised a Jew.9 Or it demonstrated the chameleon-like behavioral extremes to which he would go to win other Jews to his convictions. The latter view relies largely upon the prevailing interpretations of 1 Cor 9:19–23, wherein Paul describes becoming all things to all people in order to win them to the gospel of Christ, and specifically, of becoming to Jews and to those under law, like a Jew and like one under law, and alternatively, of becoming lawless or without law as well as weak, to those who are lawless or without law, or weak.

The role of 1 Cor 9:19–23 in Pauline studies provides a useful place to define the topics that generally arise in discussion of Paul and Judaism. Donald Hagner speaks for many when he writes: “Paul regards himself as no longer under the law,” since he “obeys it now and then. Paul thus feels free to identify with the Gentiles and not to remain an observant Jew. Incidentally, how remarkable it is that the Jew Paul can speak of himself as an outsider: ‘To the Jews I became as a Jew’!” This implies a “break with Judaism,” and “it is clear, furthermore, that observing or not observing the law is an unimportant issue before God. The position taken by Paul is one of complete expedience: he will or will not observe the law only in relation to its usefulness in the proclamation of the gospel. Before God the issue of obeying the commandments is in the category of adiaphora.”10 Heikki Räisänen declares the implications for the traditional consensus [121] view quite clearly: “1 Cor 9.20 f. is absolutely incompatible with the theory of an observant Paul.”11 This view continues to guide interpreters representing the New Perspective on Paul; for example, N. T. Wright insists, in view of this passage, that the idea Paul remained a Torah-observant Jew is not only anachronistic and ignorant, but also that a reasonable person would naturally recognize that “[b]eing a ‘Jew’ was no longer Paul’s basic identity.”12

This interpretive tradition overwhelmingly upholds the view that Paul subscribed to a policy of mimicking the behavior of non-Jews, on the one hand, and of Jews, including fully Torah-observant Jews, or proselytes, on the other. I write “mimicking” because, while the negative aspect of this behavior that such a term conveys is not generally highlighted, it nevertheless represents what is signified for “becoming like” in the arguments made. Becoming like is not interpreted to mean Paul actually becomes the same as or like each, for he is not portrayed to subscribe to the propositional bases of the behavior he appears to adopt. Those whom he mimics presumably behave as they do to express their worldview and convictions. But he is understood to merely imitate the outward behavioral trappings when in the company of each of these different people or groups: it is not internalized, not of the heart. He does not “become” in the true sense, the sense that he wishes for them to “become” Christ-followers by conviction, and to live that way thereafter inwardly as well as outwardly, like himself. Paul merely adjusts his conduct to fit the lifestyle of different people and groups in order to gain the trust of each of them in a gospel that intends for them to believe in something other than what Paul’s outward bait and switch behavior has made it seem.13

What is also not often discussed is that such a policy, supposedly calculated to persuade people with entirely different behavioral patterns and cultural premises, would instead over time almost certainly alienate all of them. Surely some Jews would hear rumors of his non-Jewish eating behavior, for example, when with non-Jews, and others would no doubt witness this behavior. The same is true about non-Jews witnessing Jewish behavior when he was amo...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Permissions
• Part I: A New Approach to the Apostle
• Part II: Exploring the Implications for Exegesis and Christian-Jewish Relations
• Part III: A Jewish Contribution to Pope Benedict XVI's Celebration of the Year of St. Paul