Paul and the Law: A Contextual Approach (1994 Thielman), book
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Paul and the Law: A Contextual Approach (1994) is a book by Frank Thielman.
Abstract
"No issue in contemporary Pauline studies is more contested than Paul's view of the law. Headline proponents of the "new perspective" on Paul, such as E.P. Sanders and J.D.G. Dunn, have maintained that the Reformational readings of Paul have led to distorted understandings of first-century Judaism, of Paul and particularly of Paul's diagnosis of the Jewish situation under the law. Others have responded by arguing that while our understanding of Paul needs to be tuned to the clearer sounds now emanating from Jewish texts of the apostle's day, the basic Reformational insight into Paul's analysis of the human plight remains true to the apostle. Paul was opposing works righteousness. Paul & The Law is a careful attempt to assault this crucial interpretive problem with a new strategy. Rather than taking a systematic, topical approach, Frank Thielman examines Paul's view of the law in context: the context of each letter's language and argument. While many studies have focused on Paul's explicit statements about the law, Thielman goes further in investigating those contexts where Paul's language is allusive and his view implied. The result is an illuminating and significant contribution to Pauline studies. Paul & the Law clarifies our understanding of Paul's perspective on the law in the light of his gospel of Jesus Christ, and it reaffirms the coherence and integrity of Pauline theology as it relates to this pivotal axis of his thought."--Publisher description.
"In this study of Paul’s views of the Mosaic Law, Thielman stresses the importance both of reading each letter (all 13) on its own terms and in its own particular context and of giving as much attention to those letters where the Law is not a major focus and to Paul’s allusions to the law as to the explicit references. In so doing, Thielman sees a consistent, coherent theological pattern which runs throughout the Pauline corpus. This consistency is seen in the tension between continuity and discontinuity with the Law. The “new covenant” has absorbed many elements of the Mosaic Law and the Law is often used by Paul as the basis of his argumentation, but the era of the Mosaic Law and the Sinaitic covenant has come to an end. The “people of God,” a third entity neither Jewish nor Gentile, is the realized eschatological community that is sanctified and governed by a new (or reinterpreted) law, the law of Christ. This law serves to separate the community from those outside, not by national boundary markers, but by belief and faith. Within the Pauline debate, Thielman here follows Sanders in his interpretation of Judaism contemporary to Paul, but insists that Paul had much closer ties and continuity to this Judaism than Sanders allows for. Paul’s arguments concerning the Law would have been familiar to and understood by many of his contemporary Jews."-–Jason Zurawski, University of Michigan
Editions
Published in Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994.
Table of contents
- 1. Paul, the Law & Judaism: The Creation & Collapse of a Theological Consensus
- 2. Oppression, Election & Salvation: The Law of Moses & the Hope of Israel in the Time of Paul
- 3. Sanctified Gentiles in Thessalonica: A Paradox in the Thessalonian Letters
- 4. Sanctified Gentiles in Corinth: The Paradox Intensifies
- 5. Old Covenant & New in the Corinthian Letters: The Paradox Explained
- 6. The Law of Moses & the Law of Christ in Galatians
- 7. Rubbish & Resource: The Law of Moses in Philippians
- 8. The Law of Moses, the Human Plight & the Law of Faith in Romans 1-4
- 9. Old Covenant Sin & New Covenant Sanctity in Romans 5-15
- 10. Old Convictions in New Settings: The Law of Moses in Paul’s Later Letters
- 11. Paul & the Law in Context