Paul the Jew (2019 Boccaccini), graduate course

Paul the Jew is a course offered by Gabriele Boccaccini at the University of Michigan in the Fall 2019.

Description

Paul the Apostle weighs the cumbersome reputation that indicates him as the first great systematic theologian of nascent Christianity, but also weighs the suspicion - if not the accusation - of having contributed decisively to the separation between Christianity and Judaism and to have thrown the basis of a poisonous polemic against the Torah and the people of Israel, a harbinger of prejudice, intolerance and discrimination, up to the Holocaust tragedy. And yet there's something not quite right about this view of Paul. Among the leaders of early Jesus movement, Paul was the one who most strongly claimed his Jewishness, defended the irrevocability of the divine promises withIsrael, and with more readiness reiterated the "privileges" of the Jews in the face of the zeal of the new converts among the Gentiles. The course explores the complex relation between Paul and Judaism as seen by scholars and Christian and Jewish authors.

Syllabus

<1> Wed Sept 4 -- Introduction:

<2-3> Mon Sept 9 and Wed Sept 11 -- History of interpretation

<4-5> Mon Sept 16 and Wed Sept 18 <6-7> Mon Sept 23 and Wed Sept 25

The Christian Paul: Thackeray

Henry St. John Thackeray, The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought (1900)

• 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

<8-9>

• (+) Judaism and St. Paul: Two Essays (1914 Montefiore), book
• Paul among the Jews = Paulus unter den Juden (1928 Werfel / Levertoff), play (English ed.)
• (++) From Jesus to Paul (1942 Klausner / Stinespring), book (English ed.)
• (++) The Apostle (1943 Asch / Samuel), novel
• The Jew of Tarsus: An Unorthodox Portrait of Paul (1946 Schonfield), book
• Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (1948 Davies), book
• The Genius of Paul (1958 Sandmel), book
• (+) My Brother Paul (1972 Rubenstein), book

• Paulus, Rabbi und Apostel (1981 Lapide/Stuhlmacher), book

E.P. Sanders

Gager, Paula Fredriksen,

Contemporary research on Paul

First Group

• 1. A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (1994 Boyarin), book

• 2. Judgment & Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul (2006 VanLandingham), book

Second Group

• 3. Paul Was Not a Christian (2009 Eisenbaum), book

• 4. Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship (2009 Zetterholm), book

• 5. Reading Paul within Judaism (2017 Nanos), book

Third Group:

• 6. Reinventing Paul (2000 Gager), book

• 7. Paul: The Pagans' Apostle (2017 Fredriksen), book

You may also consider articles from:

• 7. Paul within Judaism: Restoring the First-Century Context to the Apostle (2015 Nanos, Zetterholm), edited volume

• 8. Paul the Jew: Rereading the Apostle as a Figure of Second Temple Judaism (2016 Boccaccini, Segovia), edited volume

<< WORK IN PROGRESS >>

Pre-requisites: Reading of the seven authentic letters of Paul, with special emphasis on Romans and Galatians.

New Perspective on Paul

Stendhal Sanders N.T. Wright

Radical New Perspective on Paul

• Paul and the Torah (1987 Gaston), book
• Paul and the Jewish Law (1990 Tomson), book
• A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (1994 Stowers), book
• The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul’s Letter (1996 Nanos), book
• Paul the Jewish Theologian (1997 Young), book
• The Irony of Galatians: Paul’s Letter in First-Century Context (2002 Nanos), book
• If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul (2007 Hodge), book
• Paul Was Not a Christian (2009 Eisenbaum), book
• Approaches to Paul: A Student's Guide to Recent Scholarship (2009 Zetterholm), book
• A Jew to the Jews: Jewish Contours of Pauline Flexibility in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (2011 Rudolph), book

Paul and Second Temple Judaism

• Paul the Convert (1990 Segal), book
• The Messiah: A Comparative Study of the Enochic Son of Man and the Pauline Kyrios (2011 Waddell), book

• Paul and Qumran (1968 Murphy-O'Connor), edited volume
• The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pauline Literature (2013 Rey), edited volume
• Paul & Judaism Revisited (2013 Sprinkle), book
• Jews and Gentiles in the Early Jesus Movement (2013 Bibliowicz), book

Video-Conferences in preparation

with Segovia

(1) General Introduction Paul the Jew Views of Paul in Judaism and Christianity before the 20th century - Schweitzer, Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History (1911 [ET 1912])

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.1 (pt.1)

(2) The Rediscovery of the Jewishness of Paul (1900-1924)

- Thackeray (1900) - *Levertoff (1905) - Deissmann (1911 [ET 1926]) - *Montefiore (1914) - Phillimore (1920)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.1 (p.2)

(3) The Age of Anti-Semitism 1925-1949

- Knox (1925) - *Werfel, Paul among the Jews (1926 [ET 1928]) - *Levertoff, St. Paul in Jewish Thought (1928) - Windish (1935) - Parkes (1936) - *Klausner (1939 [ET 1942]) - *Asch 1943

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.2 (pt.1)

(4) After WW2 1950-1960

- *Schonfield, The Jew of Tarsus: An Unorthodox Portrait of Paul (1946) - Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (1948) - *Sandmel, The Genius of Paul (1958) - *Schoeps, Paulus: Die Theologie des Apostels im Lichte der jüdischen Religionsgeschichte (1959 [ET 1961]) - *Cornfeld, Daniel to Paul (1962)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.2 (pt.2)

(5) - Murphy-O'Connor, Paul and Qumran (1968) The Dead Sea Scrolls and Pauline Literature (2013 Rey), edited volume

- Bornkamm (1969 [ET 1971])

• Ben-Chorin (1970 [ET 1999])
• Rubenstein, My Brother Paul (1972)

Gunther (1973)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.3 (pt.1)

Meeting 3: The Beginning of the New Perspective

(6) Sanders Stendahl, Paul among Jews and Gentiles (1976) Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977) Lapide (1981 [ET 1984]), Paul, Rabbi and Apostle Sanders, Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People (1983) Raisanen (1983)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.3 (pt.2)

(7) Lüdemann, Opposition to Paul (1983 [ET 1989)] Newton, The Concept of Purity at Qumran and in the Letters of Paul (1985) Watson (1986

• Maccoby (1986)

Richardson Anti’Judaism and Early Christianity

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.4 (pt.1)

(8)

Video-conference with ??

Gaston, Paul and the Torah (1987) Dunn, Jesus, Paul, and the Law (1990)

• Segal, Paul the Convert (1990)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.4 (pt.2)

(9 ) Meeting 4: The New Perspective II (the 1990s) Vido-Conference with ??

• Boyarin A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity (1994)

Stowers, A Rereading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles (1994)

• Nanos The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul’s Letter (1994)

- Lim, Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters (1997) Kuula The Law, The Covenant and God’s Plan (2 vols)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.5 (pt.1)

(10) Meeting 5: The Newest Perspective (the 2000s)

Video-conference with ???

Gager, Reinventing Paul (2000) Das (2001) Justification and Variegated Nomism (2001-2004),

• Nanos, The Irony of Galatians: Paul?s Letter in First-Century Context (2002)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.5 (pt.2)

(11)

Video-conference with ??

• Chilton (2004

Divine and Human Agency in Paul and His Cultural Environment (2006 Barclay/Gathercole), edited volume Watson (2007)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.6 (pt.1)

(12) Contemporary developments (2009-2010)

Video-conference with ??

• Eisenbaum (2009)

Borg/Crossan (2009) Wright Zetterholm (2009) Langton (2010)

Reading (Greek text): Galatians ch.6 (pt.2)

(13) Meeting 6: Paul in Acts Jervell, The Theology of the Acts of the Apostles (1996)

Reading (Greek text): Selected passage from Acts

(14) Meeting 7: Paulinism and Matthew Sim, The Gospel of Matthew and Christian Judaism (1998)

Reading (Greek text): Selected passages from Matthew

(15) Wrap-Up Meeting