Paul's Identity Research Articles

Invitation to the New Testament: First Things by Witherington III, Ben

Reviewed by: Invitation to the New Testament: First Things by Witherington III, Ben Christoph Stenschke Witherington III, Ben. 2017. Invitation to the New Testament: First Things. 2d ed. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0190491949. Pp. 498. $50. The list of available elementary introductions to the NT is long and varied, and instructors searching for just the right text book for their Introduction to the New Testament course are hard pressed to make the right selection. What speaks in favour of the present volume? It offers an easy to read, comprehensive and inspiring example of this genre. Witherington, a senior North American NT scholar with an impressive array of publications to his name, provides a balanced overview of the current discussion. The positions that he argues fall in the evangelical half of NT scholarship and reflect the emphases of his previous contributions to the field, for instance, his socio- rhetorical commentaries on several books of the NT. The book is divided into five parts. Part one, "Background and Foreground," starts with the "texture and text" of the NT (1–9). The author surveys the materials used and explains the use of scriptio continua in early Christian manuscripts as well as the significance of literate readers who knew the documents and were able to read them out to the whole congregation. A brief description of the oral and rhetorical world of the NT is also offered. Witherington goes on to present a survey of the literature of the NT (13–21). After emphasising that the NT constitutes a compendium, Witherington discusses the genre of the Gospels and Acts—"the Gospel writers were following the ancient biographical and historical conventions and genre of their day in writing about Jesus" (14)—and of the letters of the NT, suggesting that "the so-called letters of the New Testament owe far more to oral speech conventions than to letter-writing conventions. What 19 of the 21 so-called letters are NOT is like ordinary ancient letters" (15). Witherington also briefly discusses the genre of the Apocalypse, and suggests that, one could make the case that this final book of the New Testament sums up all the different kinds of literature that came earlier in the New Testament: It is one part story, one part history, one part visionary prophecy, one part letter, and one part exhortation or sermon—all of which are presented with the use of amazing apocalyptic images and symbolic numbers. (16) [End Page 585] He further describes the foundational story that the NT seeks to convey and explains what kind of story this is ("theological history telling," 19). For Witherington, "[t]he writers of the New Testament were saints standing on tiptoe eagerly waiting for the author of the human drama to come on stage once more and conclude the story, for they believed that the future was as bright as the promises of God" (19). Witherington goes on briefly to present Jesus in his early Jewish setting (23–39; biblical and extra-biblical evidence for the existence of Jesus, "What Manner of Man was he?"—one of the answers being that Jesus was not a peasant—and the definition and nature of miracles). The author closes with an astute discussion of the question of whether there were "lost Christianities," and of the implications of this quest. Witherington explains: "The idea that earliest Christianity was like duelling banjos when it came to basic theology and ethics is largely a myth. The arguments within the Christian movement had to do mainly with 'how shall we all live together as Jews and Gentiles united in Christ?'" (38). A separate chapter is devoted to first-century family values (41–53; the legacy of Greece and Rome and its significance for understanding the NT, and issues of social history and ordinary life, with an emphasis on dyadic or collectivist personality). Part two deals with the Gospels and Acts (57–156), while part three presents the Corpus Paulinum (157–268). This part opens with an introductory chapter on the life and letters of the apostle (173–191), where Witherington discusses Pauline chronology and the "trinity" of Paul's identity as a Roman citizen, a...

Perceptions of Compatibility Between Christianity and Judaism in Pauline Interpretation

AbstractContemporary interpretation of Paul is heir to a tradition of Paulinism in which Paul's gospel is almost universally viewed as being in opposition to Judaism. Even the advent of the New Perspective on Paul has not yet succeeded in convincing the majority of scholars that there is no basic incompatibility between Paul and Judaism. One reason for a negative response to the New Perspective is that the acceptance of this viewpoint seems (necessarily) to imply that the great Reformers were somewhat deficient in their understanding of Paul. Their own basic principle of 'reformed and always being reformed' demands, however, a critique of all traditions, including this one. Moreover, inasmuch as modern Pauline scholarship is dependent upon the 19th century invention of the theory of legalism as a pejorative description of Jewish religion, there is a resultant failure to view the Judaism that nurtured Paul, and in which he was continuously in dialogue, other than apologetically or polemically. This is because Christian Pauline interpretation tends to involve a concern for self-understanding and identity that necessarily differentiates the modern agenda from that of Paul, since this concern springs from Enlightenment categories and is therefore foreign to the Apostle. It is the contention of this essay that Paul's letters demonstrate that he was no sectarian, vilifying Judaism for the promotion of a new religion. Since Paul's identity, even after his vision of Christ, remained distinctly Jewish, scholars cannot justifiably use Judaism as a negative foil for Christian self-understanding. Christian faith as such demands neither the denigration of Judaism nor the subversion of Pauline theology into a subjective search for identity.

Apostle to the Gentiles: Constructions of Paul's Identity

AbstractIn Galatians 2:7–9, Paul lays out the parameters for the spread of the gospel for himself and his Judiean colleagues: all agreed that ?We should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised? (Gal 2:9). This division of labor is crucial for understanding Paul: his task involves an intentional crossing of ethnic boundaries. Ethnicity determined the organization of the mission and Paul was responsible for the ethnic and religious "other."Here I explore Paul's construction of his identity as a Judean teacher of gentiles. Drawing on recent work in anthropology and critical race theory, I propose an approach which understands identity as flexible and multiplicative. Two principles operate within this dynamic model: 1) people shift identities according to specific circumstances and 2) people prioritize their various identities, ranking some higher than others.This model helps us understand Paul, who describes himself in a variety of ways: Judean by birth, born of the tribe of Benjamin, seed of Abraham, apostle to the gentiles, in Christ. These multiple identities as Paul shifts among them and sometimes ranks one over others serve his argument in strategic ways. He is willing, for example, to forego certain practices of the law (an important part of his Judean identity) in order to interact with gentiles (and he rebukes his colleagues for refusing to do so [Gal 2:11–14]). Yet other aspects of his identity are more important and also less flexible: his "in-Christness" (which he shares with gentiles) and his birth as a Judean (which he does not share with gentiles). In closing, I consider the implications this reading has for the identities of the members of his audience, who are simultaneously gentiles, in Christ, and adopted sons of God.

WHO DID PAUL THINK HE WAS? A STUDY OF JEWISH–CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

The question of Paul's identity is raised by his history as a diaspora Jew, then Pharisee, who became a believer in Messiah Jesus and apostle to the gentiles. How did he think of himself? The essay focuses on the categories ‘Jew’, ‘(in) Judaism’, ‘Hebrew’ and ‘Israel(ite)’, with particular reference to Rom 2.28–9, 1 Cor 9.20–1, Gal 1.13–14, 2 Cor 11.22, Phil 3.4–7 and Rom 11.1. It also contrasts Paul's devaluation of circumcision and food laws with his continued and characteristically Jewish hostility to idolatry and sexual licence. Paul's identity was evidently in transition, both rooted in his Jewish heritage and responding to fresh revelation, thus reflecting the emerging identity of Christianity.