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{en} Michael Bird, Ruben A. Bühner, Jörg Frey, and Brian Rosner, eds. Paul within Judaism: Perspectives on Paul and Jewish Identity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, 507. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.

"This conference volume features cutting edge research from an international cohort of scholars on the still-controversial debates regarding Paul's relationship with Judaism. Taken together, the contributions represent a sympathetic but critical assessment of the Paul within Judaism approach to Pauline interpretation. They take up many of the key questions germane to the debate, including different perspectives on Jewish identity, ethnicity, Torah-observance, halakha, the relationship between Jewish and non-Jewish followers of Christ, and the contested character of Jewish identity in antiquity. By combining a broad swath of both German- and English-language scholarship, the volume attempts to bring different perspectives into conversation with each other."

"Paul within Judaism ... is a collection of scholars committed to the project of studying Paul in his Jew-ish context. So rather than speak merely of Paul and Judaism, they are inclined to speak of Paul’s Judaism."

Quotes

Michael Bird:

"It is incontestably true that the study of Paul is determined very much by context, the context that Paul is placed in, and the context that interpreters find themselves within." (p.2)

"One could generalize that recent study of the apostle Paul and his letters breaks down into roughly five camps: Roman Catholic approaches, traditional Protestant interpretation, the New Perspective on Paul, the Apocalyptic Paul, and Paul within Judaism. <Note2: Cf. Michael F. Bird, ed., Four Views on the Apostle Paul (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012); N. T. Wright, Paul and His Recent Interpreters (London: SPCK, 2015); Scot McKnight and B. J. Oropeza, eds., Perspectives on Paul: Five Views (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020); Ben Witherington and Jason A. Myers, Voices and Views on Paul: Exploring Scholarly Trends (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2020).> (p.3)

"One can see important pioneers in the studies of William D. Davies and Johannes Munck who were among the first scholars in the post Shoah era to reconsider Paul as a consistently Jewish figure. <Note5: William D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism: Some Rabbinic Elements in Pauline The-ology (London: SPCK, 1948) and Johannes Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind (Lon-don: SCM, 1959); idem, Christ and Israel: An Interpretation of Romans 9–11 (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress, 1967).> In addition, a very underappreciated figure is Markus Barth, son of the great Swiss Theologian Karl Barth. Barth the younger argued for rethinking Paul’s Jewishness and re-framing Jewish-Christian inter-faith relations in such a way that was decades ahead of its time. For Barth, Paul’s account of “justification by faith” was not a polemical doctrine, but an ecumenical one, Paul’s attempt to unite rather than divide Jewish and Gentile Christians.6 In addition, Barth believed that it was possible to envisage Paul, even saint Paul, as a “good Jew.” What was required to do that was for Christian theologians to forfeit their superiority complex and supersessionist impulses as well as reject condescending and caricatured views of Jewish legalism.7" (p.4)

" the NPP had replaced Jewish “legalism” with Jewish “nationalism.” (p.7)

"[Gal 1:13–14] Does Paul contrast his former way of life in Judaism with his current way of life as a Christ-follower that is post-Judaism? Or, does Paul contrast his former way in Judaism with his cur-rent way of life in Judaism as a Christ-follower? Given Paul’s commitment to Torah, monotheism, avoiding idolatry, affirming Israel’s eschatological hopes, messianic devotion, and immersing Gentile in such things, it makes no sense to speak of his abandonment of Judaism.25 " (p.9).

"PwJ remain critical of any reading of Paul that has a whiff of super-sessionism about it. The tradition of Christian superiority over Judaism, stereo-typical accounts of Judaism, and the Church replacement of Israel as God’s peo/ple can still be detected in some strands of Pauline scholarship. The PwJ conglomerate is vigilant in critiquing anything that seeks to rehabilitate old prejudices and give currency to any position that veers close to supersessionism. In some ways, PwJ is an anti-supersessionist project" (p.11-12)

"To affirm that Paul is a Jew is to simultaneously say something and to say nothing. It is “something” in the sense that Paul should be identified as and among the Jews of Judea and the Diaspora. His own testimony and that of Luke tell us as much (Gal 2:15; Phil 3:5; 2 Cor 11:22; Rom 9:3–4; Acts 21:39; 22:3). Even so, to say that Paul is Jewish is to say “nothing” precisely because of the diversities among Jews about their Judaism. We are required to ask about Paul, “What sort of Jew?”" (p.12)

"Paul does not displace Jews as possessors of their inherited privileges (Rom 9:1–5), but he announces an eschatological distribution of them through faith in Christ in the new covenant. " (p.17)

"No matter how affronting it might be to modern pluralistic sensibilities, especially after the Catholic Church’s ground-breaking Nostra Aetate declaration, there was a Petrine and Pauline mission to Jews.50 ... Paul says as much point blank (Rom 1:16; 3:30; 4:11–12; 10:9–13; 1 Cor 1:23)" (p.18)

"Paul’s own lan-guage about Jews and Christ-followers should not be identified as a contest be-tween two separate religions but as part of intra-Jewish sectarian discourse." (p/20)

Contents

Michael Bird: An Introduction to the Paul within Judaism Debate – Karl-Wilhelm Niebuhr: Agencies of Grace in Paul and James: Two Jewish Voices – Jörg Frey: The Relativization of Ethnicity and Circumcision in Paul and His Communities – Josh Garroway: Messy Metaphors: Ethnic Transformation in Philo, Romans, and Ephesians – Brian Rosner: Apostle to the Gentiles from Israel: The Jewish Roots of Paul's Identity and Mission – Chris Porter: Which Paul? Whose Judaism? – A Socio-Cognitive Approach to Paul within Judaism – David Starling: »Those who were not my people«: Paul's Gentile Churches and the Story of Israel- J. Brian Tucker and Wally V. Cirafesi: Paul's Segmentary Grammar of Identity: Ex-Pagan Gentiles within Synagogues and the Importance of the Eschatological Pilgrimage Tradition – Ryan D. Collman: For who has known the mind of the Apostle? Paul, the Law, and His Syngeneis in the Messiah – Kathy Ehrensperger: Abraham our Forefather and Herakles our Cousin: Paul's Genealogical Reasoning and Jewish Narratives of Belonging – Janelle Peters: Paul and Synagogues – Ruben A. Bühner: The Torah in Ethnically Mixed Assemblies- Joshua W. Jipp: The Lukan Paul as Prophet of God's Resurrected Messiah: Prophecy and Messianism in the Lukan Depiction of Paul – Murray Smith: The Theophany of the Resurrected Messiah: The »Jewish« Christology of Paul's Speeches in Acts – Lyn Kidson: Remembering Paul in Asia Minor: A Contested Jewish Identity in the First Four Centuries of Christianity – Michael Kok: The Heresiological Portrayals of the Ebionites and the Nazoraeans and Their Reception of Paul

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