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Italian ed. (2021)

Gabriele Boccaccini, Paul's Three Paths to Salvation (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020).

Italian ed. -- Gabriele Boccaccini, Le tre vie di salvezza di Paolo l'ebreo. L'apostolo dei gentili nel giudaismo del I secolo (Torino: Claudiana, 2021).

Korean ed. -- Gabriele Boccaccini (2022).

English ed. (2020)

<“We no longer need to separate Paul from Judaism in order to claim his Christianness,” writes Gabriele Boccaccini, adding, “nor do we need to separate him from the early Jesus movement in order to state his Jewishness.” With this guiding principle Boccaccini unpacks the implications of Paul’s “belonging” simultaneously to Judaism and Christianity to arrive at the surprising and provocative conclusion that there are in fact three means of salvation:

• For Jews, adherence to Torah.
• For gentiles, good works according to conscience and natural law.
• For all sinners, forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Three Paths to Salvation is an attempt to reconcile the many facets of Paul’s complex identity while reclaiming him from accusations of intolerance, and Boccaccini’s work in reestablishing the figure of Paul as a messenger of God’s Mercy to the sinners is an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about Paul’s place in the contemporary pluralistic world.>--Publisher description.

Reviews

• Matthew V. Novenson, University of Edinburgh

“Thanks in large part to the efforts of Gabriele Boccaccini, New Testament scholarship today is busy interpreting Paul within Second Temple Judaism. The interesting work now is in the details: sorting out which features of traditional interpretations can stand and which need to be revised or jettisoned. In this fascinating book, Boccaccini threads this needle in his own inimitable way: Augustine and Luther rightly perceived Paul’s preoccupation with divine grace, but they did not comprehend the apostle’s taxonomy of Jews, gentiles, and sinners, a taxonomy at home in the ancient Jewish apocalypses. Anyone interested in the Paul-within-Judaism debates really must read this book.”

• Mark D. Nanos, University of Kansas

“Gabriele Boccaccini’s focus on the topic of ‘salvation’ in Paul’s texts arguably plays to a traditional Christian theological preoccupation, but one considered less relevant in traditional Jewish studies. However, Boccaccini’s expertise in Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism, Enochic traditions in particular, combined with a commitment to read Paul within Judaism, warrants reconsideration of the potential relevance for both Christian and Jewish research. The investigation undertaken helpfully demonstrates the wisdom of his introductory assertion: ‘The recognition [from a Paul-within-Judaism perspective] that Paul was and remained all his life a Jew and a Torah-observant Jew cannot be taken as the conclusion of our inquiry; it is only the starting point.’”

• Jörg Frey, University of Zurich

“In this very accessible book, Boccaccini opens up a fresh look on the debates on Paul. His wide knowledge of Second Temple Judaism and his focus on Enochic traditions helps to overcome the impasses of the current debate on “Paul Within Judaism.” With his provoking view that for Paul, Christ is not the only path of salvation, nor one of two different paths (for Jews and gentiles), but a third path, for sinners, Jew and gentiles alike, Boccaccini opens up a fresh angle for the discussion. He wisely avoids any ideological one-sidedness and helps to perceive the tensions in Paul’s thought.”

• Donald Senior, CP, Catholic Theological Union (in The Bible Today)

Gabriele Boccaccini, professor at the University of Michigan, is a remarkable scholar, thoroughly acquainted with Second Temple Judaism as well as with the Jesus movement reflected in the New Testament. In this brilliant and exceptionally clear work he places Paul as both a Jew within the diversity of first-century Judaism and a Christian and ardent follower of Jesus. Paul’s gospel proclaimed that salvation was accessible through fidelity to the Torah for righteous Jews, through their own conscience and the signs of God’s presence in creation for righteous Gentiles. For the unrighteous, whether Jew or Gentile, God’s forgiveness comes through Christ. When all is said and done Paul was a proclaimer of God’s mercy and forgiveness, not a herald of judgment and condemnation as some later traditions would misrepresent him.

• Isaac Oliver, Bradley University, Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 16.1 (2021): 1-3

"As his many other insightful contributions to the study of Second Temple Judaism, Boccaccini’s treatment of Paul does not disappoint. His original interpretation of Paul’s thought in light of Enochic texts is especially welcome, as Pauline scholarship has neglected this literary corpus. By widening the spectrum of Second Temple Jewish texts, Boccaccini effectively elucidates Paul’s Jewish identity without divorcing him from his original Jewish milieu or reducing him into a Jew of “common Judaism” (to quote E. P. Sanders) who agreed with other Jews on every key point, save for the belief that Jesus had come to save the Gentiles. The most original idea of this book though may elicit controversy. Some readers might wonder to what degree, if any, Paul would have divided humanity into the three categories (i.e., righteous Jews, righteous Gentiles, and sinful Jews and Gentiles) that Boccaccini discerns in the Book of Parables and the Synoptics. This proposal, however, requires the most serious consideration, seeing how Paul’s letters—along with the rest of the New Testament—have been interpreted to condemn, indeed eternally damn, Jews (and non-Jews) who do not confess Jesus. It is hoped therefore that Boccaccini’s book will reach the widest readership possible. It will challenge convictions that are assertively exclusivistic while empowering those seeking to construct a more considerate hermeneutic that is historically grounded.

Italian edition (2021)

Gabriele Boccaccini, Le tre vie di salvezza di Paolo l'ebreo. L'apostolo dei gentili nel giudaismo del I secolo (Torino: Claudiana, 2021).

Revised and enlarged edition of the English text, by the Author.

"Paolo nacque, visse e morì da ebreo. Non fu un apostata ma un figlio d’Israele che facendosi seguace di Gesù aderì a un movimento messianico e apocalittico di riforma all’interno del giudaismo. Senza sminuire alcuno dei suoi aspetti più originali e creativi, l’indagine restituisce il contesto ebraico della predicazione paolina incentrata non su un messaggio di esclusione ma sull’annuncio della misericordia di Dio per i peccatori ... Secondo una certa tradizionale interpretazione cristiana, Paolo avrebbe presentato il battesimo e la fede in Cristo come unica ed esclusiva via di salvezza. Ma quando si rileggano gli scritti di Paolo all’interno del giudaismo del I secolo, le sorprese non mancano. Per Paolo la giustificazione offerta ai peccatori attraverso la morte del Cristo non sostituisce la Torah e la legge naturale, che restano le vie primarie di salvezza, ma a loro si aggiunge: i giusti ebrei hanno la Torah; i giusti tra le genti hanno la loro coscienza; e i peccatori, le pecore perdute della casa d’Israele e tra le nazioni che siano cadute senza speranza sotto il dominio del male, hanno il Cristo al cui perdono potersi fiduciosamente affidare."--Publisher description (Italian).

Contents

1. Introduzione. Il Paolo ebreo e il Paolo cristiano -- 2. Paolo: il converso che non si è mai convertito --- 3. Paolo, un ebreo apocalittico -- 4. Paolo, l’ebreo messianico -- 5. Il dono escatologico del perdono -- 6. La cristologia divina di Paolo l’ebreo -- 7. Giustificati per fede, giudicati secondo le opere -- 8. Paolo l’apostolo delle pecore perdute tra le nazioni -- 9. Epilogo: Paolo l’araldo della misericordia di Dio verso i peccatori

External links

• [ Google Books]

Review (The Catholic Biblical Quarterly)

In this beautifully written, erudite, and challenging work, Gabrielle Boccacini, a world authority on Second Temple Judaism, situates Paul’s understanding of salvation not within Judaism but from within Judaism (p. 103). Bypassing the standoff on the New Perspective (E. P. Sanders, James D. G. Dunn) and the “Fresh Perspective” on Paul (N. T. Wright) and proceeding to the “two covenant” approach of Pamela Eisenbaum and Mark D. Nanos, B. presents a non-supersessionist portrait of the apostle. According to B., Paul proclaims not two independent paths of salvation—one for Jews and the other for gentiles—but rather three paths to salvation (p. 162): “righteous Jews have the torah, righteous Gentiles have their own conscience, and sinners, the lost sheep of the house of Israel and among the nations who have fallen without hope under the power of evil, have Christ the forgiver” (my emphasis). The springboard for B.’s approach derives from the Parable of 1 Enoch 50:1–5 on eschatological justification. At the final judgment, three groups are differentiated: the vindicated righteous, punished sinners, and sinners (the “others”) who, upon their repentance and disavowal of their “works,” are divinely forgiven. Before and after his “conversion,” Paul remained a Jew, not viewing the Jesus movement as a replacement of Judaism but rather as “the summit and true form of Judaism” (p. 37). Paul transferred his loyalty from the Pharisaic party, upon his “(apocalyptic) revelation (Gal 1:12),” to a new apocalyptically oriented Jewish sect (pp. 35, 38). Paul’s openness to the Enochic apocalypticism derived from his attachment to the cosmology and dualism of Jewish apocalypticism: the origin of evil and the Enochic “end of the days, Enochic notions about human responsibility and victimization, and the superhuman origin of evil” (pp. 40–54). These represented “the premise and center of Paul’s thought” (p. 54) in his engagement of the apocalypticism and messianism of the early Jesus movement. In a Roman context charged with Jewish prophetic and messianic expectations 322  THE CATHOLIC BIBLICAL QUARTERLY | 84, 2022 (Josephus, Vita 4:5; 5:6; A.J. 10.11.7 §207 [cf. Dan 2:31–35]; pp. 55–59), early believers understood Jesus within diverse Second Temple messianism, not only prophetically as the messianic “Son of David,” but also apocalyptically in Enochian terms as the messianic “Son of Man” (Mark 12:35–37; 14:61–62; pp. 59–67). However, the vocation of Christ, the “Son of Man” and eschatological Enochian judge (1 Enoch 48), was to forgive sins (Mark 2:10), exculpating those “other” sinners in the Enochian parable tradition by offering them the opportunity of repentance and justification. Thus, “righteous Jews” do not need saving or justifying by the Enochian Son of Man, but only the “many,” the third group of “other” Enochian sinners (pp. 77–82). B. overcomes the objection that Jesus’s parables mention only two groups at the eschatological judgment (Matt 25: 31–46) by highlighting the cross scene of the “righteous” Jesus, the unrepentant thief, and the repentant thief (Luke 23:34– 46). Justification does not equate to salvation because the eschatological judgment according to works was impending (Luke 12:41–48). In the interim, believers live a transformed lifestyle of forgiveness. Regarding divine christology, B. argues that Paul follows the Synoptic tradition in not attributing to Jesus divinity (Bart Erhman), divine devotion (Larry Hurtado), or consciousness of preexistence (pace the Gospel of John). Faithful to Jewish and Enochian monotheism, Paul subordinates Jesus to the Father (1 Cor 15:28), accommodating himself to apocalyptic and Enochian paradigms. B. concludes that Augustine and Luther have misinterpreted Paul. The apostle subscribed to a tripartite salvific paradigm of justified nomos-obeying Jews, conscience-obedient gentiles, and the Enochian “other” group of Christ-forgiven Jew and gentile sinners, who were obedient until the eschatological judgment by works. Questions nonetheless remain. Does B. overlook the impact of alternative nonEnochian messianic traditions upon the historical Jesus (e.g., 4Q521 [4QPrayer C]; cf. QMatt 11:5 [= Luke 7:22])? Do the Synoptics hint at Jesus’s preexistence in the authentic elthon logia (Matt 10:34b; 11:19; Mark 2:17b; Luke 12:49), and in the famous “thunderbolt from the Johannine sky” (Matt 11:25–27)? Does not the reign of justifying grace (Rom 5:17b, 20b, 21b), sinful Adamic humanity, also demand a life of grace and Spirit-driven obedience until the eschaton (Rom 6:14–15; 8:4–5)? Are there not continuities and discontinuities with Second Temple Judaism in 2 Cor 3:7–18 and in Paul’s language of pneumatological (Rom 7:6), covenantal (1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6), and creational (2 Cor 5:17) “newness”? Scholars will be indebted to B. for this fascinating exposition of Second Temple Judaism and its incisive intersection with Paul’s salvific thought.

James Harrison, Sydney College of Divinity, Macquarie Park, Australia miriam decock, Interpreting the Gospel of John in Antioch and Alexandria (SBLWGRW