Category:Paul & Torah (subject)

BACK TO THE TOPICS--INDEX

Paul & Torah

Overview

Traditionally, the relation of Paul with the Law has been presented in Christian theology in terms of radical opposition. Paul "rejected" the Mosaic Torah.

What is wrong with the Law is that it fosters an attitude of self-righteousness, as is salvation were a human accomplishment and not a gracious gift from God. The opposition between Christianity as a religion based on grace and Judaism based on works goes back to Martin Luther. It was articulated by modern scholars and theologians such William Wrede, Karl Barth, Wilhelm Michaelis, and Gerhard Friedrich. Early critics of this approach maintained that Paul did not have a clear knowledge or misunderstood the true nature of Judaism.

The major challenge to the tradition view came in the 1970s with the rise of the New Perspective of Paul. E.P. Sanders and others argued that in Paul there is no negative view of Judaism. Christianity and Judaism are both religions based on grace, and Paul had nothing to say against the Torah except that "the Law was not Christ." Paul had a strong experience of, and an unshakeable belief in, the salvific power of Christ; in Paul the solution came before the plight. The grace of Christ then superseded the grace of the Jewish covenant.

The Radical New Perspective describes Paul as a Torah-observant Jew and understands all references to the Torah in the context of his preaching to Gentiles, to whom Christ is offered as the way to salvation.