File:2009 * Eisenbaum.jpg

{en} Paul Was Not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle (2009) is a book by Pamela Michelle Eisenbaum.

Abstract

<Working within the framework established by scholars such as Stendahl, Gager, Gaston, Stowers, and Nanos, Pamela Eisenbaum (a practicing Jew teaching in within a Protestant seminary) writes in a non-scholarly tone, providing an accessible, radical re-reading of the Apostle Paul appropriate for both the scholar and interested lay reader alike. She, like others associated with the radical New Perspective, argues the following: Paul did not “convert” from Judaism to Christianity, but remained a Torah observant Hellenistic Jew. On the Damascus Road, Paul received a particular “call” to preach to the Gentiles, and thus, his audience is made up of Gentiles, not Jews. Furthermore, Paul does not speak against Jewish observance of the Torah, but rather sees Torah as God’s gift to the Jews, enabling them to be in the covenant. Since Gentiles were not given a special covenant with God via the Torah, they needed another means by which to become right before God. This is where Jesus comes in. Jesus’ faithfulness (not faith in Jesus) enables the Gentiles to be incorporated into the family of God. To put it boldly, “What the Torah does for the Jews, Jesus does for Gentiles,” both were an act of grace on God’s part (244). Finally, in response to the accusation that this position raises the question of a “two-covenant” theory, Eisenbaum says that this is the wrong question to ask. The starting assumption for her, and this new paradigm, is not “How can I be saved,” but rather, “How will the world be redeemed, and how do I faithfully participate in that redemption” (252). This final point, to me, is Eisenbaum’s most innovative and helpful contribution to Pauline scholarship, because she addresses a difficult question in a straight-forward and unapologetic manner. Sure to create discussion in both scholarly and popular audiences, Eisenbaum has made recent Pauline scholarship accessible to a broad audience.>–-Deborah Forger, University of Michigan

<Paul Was Not a Christian is a groundbreaking work that systematically overturns both scholarly and popular conceptions held by Christians and Jews, liberals and conservatives alike. As Eisenbaum reveals, Paul is not the true founder of Christianity as is often claimed, nor does Paul understand Jesus Christ as having superseded the Torah and thereby replacing Judaism with Christianity. Although Paul unabashedly proclaimed his faith in Jesus, such proclamations were not inherently "Christian," since no such religious category existed in Paul's time. Jesus, rather, represented the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that he would be a blessing to the nations. Eisenbaum's work reverses the image we have of Paul as a model for Christian conversion and greatly increases our understanding of both Judaism and Christianity. Provocatively argued and far-reaching in its implications, Paul Was Not a Christian is a much-needed corrective to the traditional portrait of Paul and his divisive legacy.>--Publisher description.

Editions and translations

Published in New York, NY: HarperOne, 2009.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. Was Paul Really Jewish?
• 2. Paul the Problem
• 3. How Paul Became a Christian
• 4. Reading Paul as a Jew—Almost
• 5. Paul’s Jewish Inheritance
• 6. Who Is and Who Isn’t a Jew?
• 7. The Flexible Pharisees
• 8. Paul the (Ex?)- Pharisee
• 9. A Typical Jew
• 10. A Radical Jewish Monotheist
• 11. On a Mission from God
• 12. “On the Contrary, We Uphold the Law!”
• 13. Justification Through Jesus Christ
• 14. It’s the End of the World as We Know it

External links

• Google Books