Paul Was Not a Christian (2009 Eisenbaum), book

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 with this work has made recent Pauline scholarship accessible to a broad audience. – Deborah Forger, University of Michigan

Editions and translations

Published in New York, NY: HarperOne, 2009.

Table of contents

• Introduction

• I. Was Paul Really Jewish?

• II. Paul the Problem

• III. How Paul Became a Christian

• IV. Reading Paul as a Jew—Almost

• V. Paul’s Jewish Inheritance

• VI. Who Is and Who Isn’t a Jew?

• VII. The Flexible Pharisees

• VIII. Paul the (Ex?)- Pharisee

• IX. A Typical Jew

• X. A Radical Jewish Monotheist

• XI. On a Mission from God

• XII. “On the Contrary, We Uphold the Law!”

• XIII. Justification Through Jesus Christ

• XIV. It’s the End of the World as We Know it

• Glossary

• Notes

• Bibliography

• Index

External links

• Google Books