Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God– Part Four

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:55 pm by Ben Witherington

Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God– Part Four 2015-03-13T22:55:16-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Not many scholars or lay persons have swallowed the ouevre of Tom Wright whole. By this I do not mean that not many have bought his arguments, but rather that not many have read even all the seminal scholarly books he has written. I have read all the big ones (all the way back to the Climax of the Covenant and even before) and many of the littler more popular level books as well. Here I have to warn you that if you are planning to read Paul and the Faithfulness of God (2 volumes, 1700 and some pages), then to really get the most out of it, you will have needed to read the previous volumes in the NTPG series (The New Testament and the People of God volumes)– NTPG Vol. One, Jesus and the Victory of God, Resurrection and the Son of God, and now these Paul volumes. I say this because not only does Tom build on what he has said before, he presupposes it and counts on it at various points in these Paul volumes. Thus for example on p. 77 he says “In my minds eye I see the whole of NTPG Part III as though they were physically part of this book…and I encourage readers to do the same”, even though there is a twenty year hiatus between his discussion of the Pharisees in that first volume in the series, and the discussion here in the Paul volumes. Tom is not merely a global thinker, he is a longitudinal thinker and in most major things he has not changed his mind much in the last two decades and so he can say things like this and mean them. Not many persons, including not many scholars, have that degree of orderly sequential mental processes and convictions over such a long stretch of time.

Chapter Two also begins a series of chapters with birds in the title, first the birds of Isaiah 31.5, then the owl of Athena, then the eagle of Rome, and then some interesting bird poems by a poet he admires. At this point Tom is clearly playing with the house’s money in his scholarly career, as we Americans would say, and he is giving free reign to his fertile and creative imagination in his titles and turns of phrase. Let’s hope no one makes the crack that in the end these chapters are indeed for the birds, because in fact they are important and serious contributions to the discussion and the argument he is trying to make.
One more reminder. Tom has read a voluminous amount of material on the Biblical period and the Jewish, Greek, and Roman contexts, but he too stands on some shoulders of scholars who have gone before him. His ideas do not spring from his fertile imagination alone like Athena from the head of Zeus. Thus he relies on he epitomizers and says “Standing on the shoulders of text-reading giants, even if the giants were sometimes looking the wrong way, is better than crawling around on the floor.” (p. 78 n.5). Point taken, and I agree. Scholarship should not be seen as an exercise in creating a novum, something entirely new, when what truly matters is saying something true rather than merely saying something new. Only God is really capable of creatio ex nihilo. Doctoral students take note: It is difficult if not impossible to soar with the eagles if you only read and hang out with the turkeys!

Those who have read NTPG Vol. One will find the discussion of Saul the Pharisee in Chapter Two of the present volume familiar. Saul is characterized as a Shammai-ite Pharisee given to zeal of the sort we find with Phineas and the Maccabees, to wit he is prepared to persecute people when they violate Torah. Pharisees however were, as Tom admits, a divided lot– some following what more nearly could be called the peace party, namely the Hillel and Gamaliel line, but Saul seems to differ from his teacher on this score.

It is not however clear to me that Paul and the Maccabees could both be labeled Zealots in the later sense of the term applied to folk like Judas the Galilean and his descendents who fomented the Jewish war in due course. He is not a Zealot (with a capital Z) if by that one means those prepared to go to war against pagans when they violated Torah, Temple, or Territory, the three Ts of Judaism. I see no evidence that Saul the Pharisee was an advocate of the violent overthrow of the pagan overlords, but every evidence that he wanted to punish Jews who, in his view, violated their own laws, covenants, monotheism.

Zeal for Jews maintaining the Law is one thing, revolt against the pagans who were not, after all, obligated to keep the Jewish law, another, especially if they were leaving the Temple and its cultus alone (the triggering mistake Antiochus Epiphanes made).

And if indeed it is true Paul was a Roman citizen both before and after his conversion, there is no evidence he repudiated it. Indeed, there is evidence in a text like Rom. 13 that we would have opposed the violent overthrow of authorities he believed were only in power due to the God of the Bible. Here Chris Bryan’s book Render unto Caesar is helpful on this point. Long story short, I don’t think you can actually connect the dots between Saul the zealous defender of the Law, and Paul’s critique of the imperial cult, though it seems reasonably clear that he does critique that cult in his letters. He does so however not by advocating or practicing violence against said cult. He’s prepared to leave it to God to deal with those folk.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 15, 2014

Boston stays Classy--- Emerson College names Journalism School after Ron Burgundy

Next Post

January 17, 2014 Wright's Paul and the Faithfulness of God--- Part Five

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz