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František Ábel, ed. Israel and the Nations: Paul's Gospel in the Context of Jewish Expectation (Lanham: Lexington Books / Fortress Academic, 2021).

Abstract

"Israel and the Nations: Paul's Gospel in the Context of Jewish Expectation provides various perspectives of leading contemporary scholars concerning Paul’s message, particularly his expressed expectation of the end-time redemption of Israel and its relation to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, in the context of Jewish eschatological expectation. The contributors engage the increasingly contentious enigmas relating to Paul’s Jewishness: had his perception of living in a new era in Christ and anticipating an imminent final consummation moved him beyond the bounds of what his contemporaries would have considered Judaism, or did Paul continue to think and act “within Judaism”?"--Publisher description.

The great merit of this volume is the range and diversity of the Jewish material it brings into conversation with Paul. This kind of engagement between New Testament and Second Temple Studies is long overdue.-- John J. Collins, Holmes Professor of Old Testament, Yale University

This fine collection of essays, the second to emerge from an international collaboration of scholars that took place in Bratislava, both broadens the geographical scope of the discussion concerning “Paul within Judaism” and serves to move it forward in significant ways. This volume will be particularly significant for the ongoing discussion of the relationship between Paul’s conception of a mission to the gentiles and Jewish expectations about the place of the nations in the end-time redemption of Israel.-- Terence L. Donaldson, Lord and Lady Coggan Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies, Wycliffe College, Toronto

The book is to be welcomed for its energetic engagement with the questions raised by the recent ambition to view Paul “within Judaism,” in particular as it regards the central theme of the relationship of Jews and non-Jews. Scrutinizing anew main Pauline texts and comparing them with early Jewish documents, the various papers confront Paul’s ideas on this relationship with the variety of ancient views. Pauline theology and Jewish history are brought into dialogue, and it is fascinating to see this happening at a conference in Bratislava.-- Peter J. Tomson, Joint General Editor of Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum

This extraordinary rich collection of essays deals with an issue that is at the heart of Paul’s theological thinking. It gathers an international group of scholars who are well renowned for their historical and exegetical expertise. The variety of the contributions demonstrates convincingly that it is only a multi-perspective approach like this one that can be regarded as a suitable way to properly treat the issue that is in the focus of this volume. No one who wants to deal with this book’s subject can do without this book.-- Michael Wolter, University of Bonn

Contents

Part I: Paul the Apostle in the context of Jewish eschatological apocalyptical notions. The making and unmaking of Jews in second century BCE narratives and the implication for interpreting Paul / Genevive Dibley -- Paul and the joining of the ways : ordering the eschaton, preparing for judgment / Anders Runesson -- From Aristeas to the apocalypse of Abraham : a survey of some Hellenistic Jewish texts relating to the issue of Israel and its relationship to the other nations / Eric Noffke -- What eschatological pilgrimage of the gentiles? / Matthew V. Novenson -- Eschatological universalism, the nations, and the Jewish apocalyptic Paul / Loren T. Stuckenbruck -- Did the LXX of the twelve prophets contribute to the eschatological opening to the nations? / Patrick Pouchelle -- Paul between Judaism and Hellenism / Imre Peres -- Part II: The specifics of Paul's message concerning the end-time redemption of Israel and its role towards the nations (ethnē). Israēl (and Israēlitēs) in Paul, particularly in Galatians / Michael Bachmann -- Bending knees and acknowledging tongues (Phil 2:9-11) : the nations' loyalty to the God of Israel in the shadow of the empire / Kathy Ehrensperger -- 'But it is not as though the word of God had failed' : Israel as a sub-text in Romans? / William S. Campbell -- The ins and outs of Paul's Israelite remnant / Joshua Garroway -- The Gentile as insider and outsider in Paul's letter to the Romans / Kenneth Atkinson -- "If you are called a Judean ..." (Rom 2:17) : Paul and his interlocutor / Markus Öhler -- "All Israel will be saved or "kept safe"? (Rom 11:26) : Israel's conversion or irrevocable calling to gospel the nations? / Mark D. Nanos -- Paul, the Israelite, on Israel and the gentiles at the end of time : reflections on Rom 9-11 / Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr -- Pesher concerning righteousness (Romans 10:5-13) in relation to the response of Jews and gentiles to the gospel / František Ábel