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{en} The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought (1900) is a book by Henry St. John Thackeray.

Abstract

An essay to which was awarded the Kaye prize for 1899, Thackeray is here not concerned with exploring the entirety of Paul’s theological system but only those aspects where Paul’s dependence on contemporary Judaism is most conspicuous. As opposed to those scholars who see Paul as completely removed from primitive Christianity and his contemporary Jewish peers (e.g., Baur and the Tübingen school) and those who want to place Paul entirely within the realm of the earliest Christian movement and contemporary Judaism (e.g., Pfleiderer), Thackeray ends up taking a middle ground where Paul, aloof from the primitive Christian community, independently developed his system based partially on his prior “Rabbinical” training and directed by his direct revelation. For his comparative study, he looks at three main sources of contemporary Jewish material – (in order of importance) “popular Jewish theology” (i.e., second temple Palestinian writings), Rabbinic materials, and Alexandrian traditions. Taking these as the bases for his comparisons, Thackeray then gives detailed analyses related to various aspects of Paul’s system and shows the points of contact, always, however, keeping in mind Paul’s unique creativity due to his own personal experience. The conclusion is that Paul's religion is antithetical to (rabbinic) Judaism, even though it depends on it in many significant aspects. Thackeray's work is valuable in its laying out in a straightforward manner the parallels, especially to contemporary second temple literature. – Jason Zurawski, University of Michigan

Editions

Published in London and New York: Macmillan & Co., 1900.

Contents

• Chapter I. Introduction

• Chapter II. Sin and Adam

• Chapter III. The Law

• Chapter IV. Justification by Faith or Works

• Chapter V. Eschatology

• Chapter VI. The World of Spirits

• Chapter VII. Use of the Old Testament

• Chapter VIII. St. Paul the Haggadist

• Chapter IX. Literary Connexions

External links

• Google Books